Passionartism

Passionartism is the sociological philosophy of Velorenkan, , , and Pan-Velorenkan nationalist Bazhel K. Aldetir. While he never officially joined a political party, his theories for ethnos, ethnogenesis, and what he came to coin "passionarnost" made him a prominent speaker among both Pan-Velorenkan and even republican movements during the latter half of the 19th century. Writings he penned such as For Want of a New Beginning and The Steppe and the New Age also popularized the image and prevalence of Vadhariusan, Meryakh, and other minority steppe and mountain cultures within the Pan-Velorenkan movement. His ideas regarding the nature of cultures and passionarnost would later posthumously be known as passionaritism, and influence the basis of nationalist thought championed by Lazh Khosravi and the League of All-Velorenkan Revivalists.

The Superethnos
Aldetir saw national peoples as residing in several different categories: subethnos, ethnos, and superethnos. A culture's placement into these categories is subjective to the significant achievements it makes in regards to science and the humanities and the influence exerted upon or assimilation of surrounding cultures. Aldetir examined the Sedic Confederation and saw it as a prime example of the superethnos. While during its existence it exerted major ascendancy over the Alutran continent through conquest and submission, its influence would last long after its collapse. The common traits that were adopted or hybridized by the subordinate nations of the Ancient Ordish within the Sedic Confederation led to its creation as a superethnos. A uniquely Sedic identity that while heavily influenced by the Ancient Ordish, was altered by the inclusion and inter-mixing of the other ethnos led to the preeminence of the Sedic superethnos. Those traditions that remained organic to subordinate ethnos, including the Ordish, maintained those ethnos as unique and distinct but under the hegemony of the superethnos.

Aldetir believed that the cultural traits that fashion and influence an ethnic group are a combination of two factors: static and dynamic considerations. Static factors are the traditional ideas that social, political, technological, geographical modifications influence the interactions and traditions of a people. Being especially drawn to nature Aldetir would stress especially that geography constituted the major of the four in regards to it's influence on an ethnos. This being partially drawn from concepts to a degree that were especially prevalent during his time. As different nations inevitably migrate across land or climate alters the landscape, so too does a people's way of life change to better survive. Thus so does their culture alter in order to maintain compatibility with the surroundings.

Passionarnost
To describe the dynamic factors that influence an ethnos Aldetir introduced the term passionarnost. In his own words passionarnost is the "drive for great efforts". To Aldetir there were three different categorizations that an individual could fall into given their aptitude for passionarnost. Those being passionaries, harmonics, and sub-passionaries.

Passionaries are those whose drive and will for accomplishment supersede their own instincts of self-preservation. Their feats and goals can vary significantly, as can their physical prowess or intelligence. A passionary can be either morally upstanding, deplorable, or ambiguous. Aldetir classified both the virtuous saints of the Velorenkan religion and the greatest tyrants of the Imperial Period as passionaries. The only constant across history for passionaries is their unending pursuit of a higher goal and willingness to sacrifice. To Aldetir, "indifference and idle hands are the greatest foe to the passionary, who seeks to place themselves at the apex of history". To Aldetir passionaries are the major change of force for an ethnos and claimed that only was this a social concept, but a biological one. In biochemical terms passionarnost is a form of energy that directly affects human psychology and behavior. His theorization was then that passionarnost psychologically transforms impulses for action, overrides ideas of self-preservation, and spurs an individual's drive for accomplishing great feats. When passionaries reside then in sufficient number within an ethnos the capability for greatness, progress, and dynamic change is possible.

Harmonics are those people whose drive towards greater achievement is curtailed by their own sense of self-security and preservation. For all intents and purposes they are the "everyman". People whose major considerations are the upbringing of children and fulfilling the basic needs and pleasures of life. By no means are they dredges to society nor inferior to the passionary, being fully intelligent, articulate, and dutiful bound persons capable of agency. Yet harmonics lack the inherent courage and superior drive of the passionaries. Harmonics always constitute the majority in any ethnos and therefore may contribute to it's static state due to their predisposition towards self-preservation.

The last level of passionarnost an individual may reside in is the sub-passionary. Such persons are incapable of maintaining social bonds or contributing meaningfully to society. The sub-passionary cares only to fulfill their self desires, leading to either extreme excess or deficiencies at the consequence of others. To Aldetir the sub-passionary were those aristocrats of the empire who lacked a concept of labor due to their luxurious upbringing and vagabonds or criminals disinterested with the world. In Aldetir's own words "sub-passionaries neither strive to create their own path like passionaries, nor preserve their stake like a harmonic, but instead leach off of others". When an ethnos becomes either politically dominated or socially slides into a sub-passionary majority, it begins to stagnate and decline.