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Fascism Is Creepy
For nearly eight years, I've tried without success to describe the radical shift that has taken place in our government.
Each time I've approached the task, I've had to throw up my hands in frustration because the only model that makes sense to me is the one called fascism.
But that word doesn't go over too well in polite conversation. It evokes horrors too horrible to imagine. The reality, however, is that fascism isn't just about jackbooted thugs and state-sponsored industry built on slavery and death to one's enemies.
The danger of fascism is its seemingly benign mechanisms of control - fear, conformity, the state's intermingling with religion and corporate enterprise - for keeping a populace in check, for making its people feel content with the way things are and never quick to protest occasional violations of human rights and infringements on their or another's liberties.
The danger of fascism is its seemingly magical ability - through brilliant propaganda outlets like Fox News - to keep a people resigned to whatever the government does in their name, making them feel secure through its adventures in endless wars and policing the globe and the homeland.
The other great thing about fascism is its capacity for supporting, even indulging, denial on the most massive scale: "We don't torture. ...You can trust us. ...If you're not doing anything wrong, you've got nothing to worry about...."
Our phones are tapped, elections rigged, bogus wars planned and executed, real and imagined enemies created, and police acquire more powers to intimidate and harass while more rights are taken away from citizens.
Churches pray for the end of the world and offer their children as sacrifices for the war machine, and collude with the government colluding with the corporations and financial institutions - promising blood, anything, for National Security.
Soon, we who protest have been silenced, or marginalized. The Supreme Leader has the right to put anyone he considers a threat - U.S. citizens included - into prison indefinitely, without access to an attorney, or the right to confront his accusers, merely by declaring that person an "enemy combatant."
The whole drama and theater of the fascist play draws its action from the government wedding itself to corporate interests - in the U.S., a nationalist religious fervor is thrown into the mix to make it all palatable.
Eventually, we all do what we are told - or suffer the consequences. The real danger of fascism is its creep factor. It creeps up on us, and before we know it, we've become model citizens in the state that runs secret prisons and gulags around the world. We accept, approve and justify state-sponsored kidnapping, torture and preemptive war. Fascism is creepy.
Historically, by the time citizens realize what's happened to the country they love, it's too late.
Like many others, I've known for a long time that America has changed. Its legacy of freedom has morphed into something grossly distorted, something the founders of this nation would not have recognized.
I believe they would have wanted us - those who came after them - to fight just as hard for this legacy, which they bestowed upon us, trusting that what they obtained through their own blood and sacrifice was worth the cost, the promise of freedom, to live free from the tyranny and fear of not just our enemies but our own government.
I used to nod with a smile at the pithy "I love my country but fear my government," but now it's not so funny. Under the Bush administration, the government has cynically debased rather than protected my rights as a citizen, and I've got good reason to fear.
My eyes are wide open.
Still, it's hard for some citizens to acknowledge the plain and simple fact that our liberties have diminished and not advanced under Bush's leadership. It's been hard for many of us to draw a clear picture of our predicament, to know just how much has actually been lost, and where that leaves us as citizens.
How does anyone make sense of something as horrible as the loss of liberty and the emergence of something darker and more sinister? What word or words can possibly describe it?
The United States hasn't always lived up to its promise as a haven of freedom, but it's come close, and has built an even greater legacy of expanding and protecting those freedoms handed down to us from the Revolution, giving people around the globe reason to hope.
Our government has at times acted criminally in the name of freedom, justifying acts of terror and war. But I'd like to believe that the swing has always been in the other direction, toward more human rights and freedom.
Yet, in the nearly eight years since Bush took office, U.S. foreign and domestic policy has tilted away from not closer to its responsibility of guaranteeing individual freedoms. Our government has done more during Bush's tenure to jeopardize and infringe upon those rights than to protect them.
The world distrusts American interests precisely because we've failed to honor and respect the codes of our own charters of freedom, let alone those of the international community, neglecting human rights at home and abroad.
Consequently, repressive nations like China have no reason to fear repercussions from the United States for abuse of citizens seeking democratic reforms. They can continue to oppress their own people without fear of reprisals because the United States is no longer the beacon or protector of freedom that it once was.
How does the United States, given its own recent history of sanctioning repressive tactics like waterboarding, hooding, and indefinite imprisonment, claim higher ground and demand an end to repression and terror?
As noted by historians of the fascist movements of the 20th century, repression and human rights abuses like those practiced by China, and recently the United States, can appear in waves, sweeping up state governments around the globe in a frenzy of abuse against their own people.
Once again, fascism appears to be on the rise, in the West as well as in fundamentalist Islamic nations that oppress women and nonbelievers.
I don't have any illusions regarding the threat of militant Islam, or its own fascist turns against liberty, subjecting its enemies and its own people to terror and inhumane treatment.
Sharia law, in which local Imams dictate morality, is no more appealing to me than the White House dictating my responsibilities as a citizen.
I like the old biblical injunction of "set your own house in order" before attempting to influence another's.
The time is ripe to turn the United States back to its original radical design of guaranteeing the individual liberties of all its citizens, including the right to speak out against the government and to turn tyranny on its head.
It's time to reaffirm the right of the accused to confront their accusers, to put teeth back into the force of law that protects our freedoms as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. It's time for a refreshingly honest discussion of our rights as U.S. citizens in a nation stifled by fear and ignorance.
If we can pool the talents and passions and resources of people whose vision embraces the human spirit's quest for freedom, we might just stop the frightening tilt toward fascism that has made the United States - a nation founded on democratic ideals - a stranger to the world and to itself. We might reawaken ourselves to the legacy of freedom that once served as a bulwark against fascism.
Stacey Warde is editor of The Rogue Voice (www.theroguevoice.blogspot.com). He can be reached at swarde@roguevoice.com.
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Show AllI think it's time to get this out there and start discussing fascism. Most of us on boards like this one already know that we are extremely close to the new type of fascism started in South America in the 50's & 60's. Hopefully if a Democrat is elected we can start to change back to the New Deal policies.
Fourteen Defining
Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Source Free Inquiry.co
5-28-3
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottoes, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
There is an old saying; "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, it is probably a duck. I rest my case.
Neocon is an euphemism for FASCISM!
Call them Republicans, Neocons, the American Taliban, Rove's Raiders, or whatever...they have refined fascism to be more successful fascists than Hitler and other predecessors.
From the birth of this republic, capitalism has been able to provide the American people with several powerful incentives to buy into the program. Five percent of the world's population is invited to consume 30% of the world's resources by way of imperialism. Then the white American majority is invited to enjoy a disproportionate share of that material wealth by way of racism. An especially comfortable place is provided to politicians, intellectuals, academics, bureaucrats, and entertainers in the narrow strata of society Marx called the petty bourgeois.
Nowadays though, the deal with the capitalist devil is becoming more and more difficult to keep! The U.S. is being integrated into a global economy as capitalism searches for the lowest possible wage and the greatest possible profit. The process is steadily reshaping ours into a subsistence-wage service economy. The jobs of elite industrial workers, from auto and steelworkers to airline pilots, are disappearing across the country along with their health benefits and pensions. Even white Americans have begun to feel the pain of a declining standard of living. It is a process that will not be reversed.
Now as capitalism enters its final stage, just as Mr. Warde describes, a nearly seamless political transition to fascism is well underway in the United States. The mass media, the electoral machinery, and both major political parties are under corporate control. The trappings of bourgeois democracy are a hindrance on profits and so they are being shredded. The Constitution and its Bill of Rights are being rendered meaningless by plans for perpetual war, by presidential signing statements and the theory of the unitary executive, extraordinary rendition, government surveillance programs and the like. Programs based on democratic principles like the public schools, Social Security, and Medicare are being starved to death. Separate and parallel Internet and military forces are being constructed along with internment camps and the legal construct for a martial law declaration. Blackwater is the growing private military force of the ruling class, protecting them in Baghdad and patrolling the streets of New Orleans for them now. Because there are too many sons and daughters of the working class in the US military it can not be trusted by the bourgeoisie when the order is given to attack the American people. Likely the two militaries will one day face each other in combat.
Hi. I'm Daniel David. In case most of you didn't know, I usually advocate politically for Democrats. There is a reason why I do this. libertas fugit above has wisely given us a list of fourteen characteristics of fascism. I've come to notice that Republicans tend to advocate all fourteen of them, and we've seen the manifestation of all of them to a larger degree since Republicans got the Congress in 1994 (to 2006) and Bush got the White House in 2000. Democrats are the only force in America that have the numbers to outvote Republicans. Perfect? No. Predictably better for citizens? Absolutely. OBAMA 08.
Scene from a near future American street-
Security officer: Show me your ID.
Citizen: I've done nothing wrong!
Security officer: Show me your ID!
Citizen: Why? I've done nothing wrong!
Security officer; Show me you ID or you are resisting arrest!
Citizen (now truly afraid): Here! (shows National Real ID card)
(Security officer scans ID card)
Security officer: TURN ARUND! HANDS BEHIND YOUR BACK!
(Security officer pushes Citizen to the ground, handcuffs her)
Citizen (screaming): I'VE DONE NOTHING WRONG!
Security officer: You are resisting arrest !
(Security officer Tasers helpless woman repeatedly.)
Security officer (to shoulder radio mic): Control? Yeah. I found her. Yeah. Another member of the ACLU. Bagged and tagged. Ready for transit to detention center.
(Citizen whimpers on ground)
Security officer: SHUT UP! (kicks Citizen) Pacifist terrorist scum like you make me want to puke! You're not a real American! If you were, your kid wouldn't have ratted you out!
The American People signed a contract. An agreement between the Governed and the Government. It is called the Constitution of the United States. The first ten amendments to that Constitution is known as the Bill of Rights. As Justice Hugo Black stated, "It is my belief that there are absolutes in our Bill of Rights, and that they were put there on purpose by men who knew what words meant and meant their prohibitions to be 'absolutes.'"
Think about it:
* Without the First Amendment, newspapers could only print the "party line" or be suppressed. Books and plays would be censored or banned. We might have to attend the State Authorized Religion, or be forbidden to attend any other form of worship, or any worship at all. We could even have a church telling us how to live, backed up with government force! We would have no right of public assembly or protest, nor could we petition the government for a redress of grievances.
* Without the Second Amendment, we would be a completely disarmed populace, at the mercy of government troops or security forces.
* Without the Third Amendment, the government could quarter troops in your home without your consent.
* Without the Fourth Amendment, the government's security force or military could search your home at will, without a warrant, confiscate your papers and property, monitor your communications and phone conversations without your ever knowing about it.
* Without the Fifth Amendment, you could be picked up, your property confiscated, you could be held incommunicado for an indefinite time without legal counsel and could be forced to testify against yourself.
* Without the Sixth Amendment, your could be held for an indefinite period, without charge, and without being told why you're being held. Your trial, if any, could be held in secret without your being able to confront your accusers or examining any evidence, nor would you have the right to legal counsel.
* Without the Seventh Amendment, in civil suits, you would not have the right of trial by jury.
* Without the Eighth Amendment, there would be no limit on the amount of bail set or fines imposed, and any cruel punishment could be meted out, even death by torture.
* Without the Ninth Amendment, any rights not spelled out would be forfeit to the government.
* Without the Tenth Amendment, the People of the United States would have no powers reserved to themselves, it would all lie with the State.
Isn't it tragic that the Congress gave to the Executive, through misguided PATRIOTism, an ACT that would unconstitutionally repeal those rights guaranteed by the Constitution and turn it all over to Homeland Security?
Read your Constitution and Bill of Rights, then read the text of the Patriot Act and the amended Patriot Act, then think about it. We the People of the United States have been virtually stripped of those freedoms that the founders of our nation fought so hard to secure from an earlier King George.
Everybody is heaving a great sigh of relief that the "Democrats" are now back in power, but already things are returning to business as usual.
We have got to impeach and remove the cancer that has infected our nation before it becomes inoperable. We are facing widened wars of desperation as Bush and his gang looks desperately for a way of regaining control. They are not beyond a "Black Op" against the United States (remember the Maine, Tonkin Gulf, the WMD lies and the jury is still out on 9/11) followed by a declaration of martial law. The groundwork has been carefully laid and is available to review on many sites.
We must hold Congress to the Contract that We the People made with them over two centuries ago, restore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, intact and functioning to the halls of government, and return to using them for the rule and guide of our actions.
Ask not what your country can do for you,
ask what your country has done to you.
PS. It's tax day, do you know where your dollars are going?
America has been a fascist country since its inception. Blacks in America have always been subject to the treatment that the author of this article describes. The America you now see is the result of its origins. The so-called founding fathers established this country as a oligarchy. It was the intent of this country's founders to allow none but white persons with land access to the voting booth. The United States has never been about freedom. If it were about freedom my ancestors would have never been enslaved. The United States is, and always will be (until its destruction), about money and power.
I cannot help but watch what is going on with amusement. The things which are going on in America have always been going on. Now the oppression, privacy violations, and unwarranted arrests are happening to white America. Welcome to my world!
But what is it about a population that makes it susceptible to fascism in the first place?
The Constitution was given to Americans to help develop a great country. But some time ago the Constitution was sold by our elected D.C. politicians to corporate America who now use it to try and prop up their rapidly declining empire.
Hoa binh
Here's a tip - stop voting for the two parties that are leading us to fascism: the democrats and republicans.
If you are voting for them, at least at the federal level, you are complicit.
If you want your vote to stand for freedom, then vote Green Party. Sure, their candidate may not win, but at least you didn't vote for fascism.
Didn't you?
No matter who you vote for, the government gets in...
Just to add: the hypocracy and insanity of the whole "they" have nuclear weapons and are a threat to the world! While we have more (almost 11,000!) nuclear warheads than any other nation!! Our hypocricy when we speak of the evil others do, when we have done the same things - this is fascistic; we are a terrorist nation!
This country always leaned a bit fascist. They have made end runs often times before but were stopped. What stopped them I believe was a free press. That does not exsist any longer. Here is a plea, which will go unnoticed I'm sure. Anybody out there in the news business want to become a hero? Blow the whistle on the ruling elite, neocons, corporations, any and all responsible for this mess.
My plea above will go unnoticed, here is why. The news industry as I had known no longer exists. Today it is all pretty people. TV, TV on the wall, who is the highest paid newsreader of all? Self absorbed celebrity rubbing elbows with the glitteratti. I think we have to look elsewhere.
KaneJeeves,
But what is it about a population that makes it susceptible to fascism in the first place?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=opera&rls=en&hs=maU&q=authoritarians+Altemeyer&btnG=Search
http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAuthoritarians.pdf
First it's necessary to acknowledge and face the indisputable fact that the American way of life is the problem and not the solution. Nothing can be done to salvage a system that was corrupt and deeply flawed from the start. No nation that is based on the libertarian concept of complete private ownership and the "every man for himself" paradigm can ever be expected to produce anything beyond the fundamental two class system of masters and slaves. It's a system with an irreversible, self contained autodestruct.
None of the "candidates" who stand any chance of being placed in the White House by the corporate "persons" in control of the pseudo election will do anything to significantly change the status quo. The continued descent into oblivion is assured.
The so called election system in America has been manipulated and controlled by moneyed interests from day one. Our "government" has grown ever more vile and corrupt with each election cycle. It has finally reached the only conclusion possible; complete self destruction. This cycle has been repeated over and over throughout human history. Archeological evidence shows this wheel has been turning since time immemorial. Apparently, as a race, we humans are incapable of learning from our mistakes. We keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Isn't that a definition of insanity?
Sadly, at this point in the story, the implosion of this particular empire could well bring about our extinction.
Here's the little bit of optimism that I can muster under these circumstances. A few small pockets of humanity will survive the extinction event that is currently underway. Through the process of natural selection, which so far has worked well for every species except Homosapiens, the genetic aberration that produces the evil need to enslave and oppress others will finally be weeded out. The resulting new and improved human species will gradually repopulate the Earth with something we have often talked about and always longed for but never achieved; civilization.
Respectfully,
R.W. Posner
coldwarbaby@hotmail.com
Talking about America as fascist is easy. Just bring up Japan and say that's where the US is headed. Hell, it was US liberals "reverse course" polcy that kept the WWII Japanese fascists in power. And the same party has been in power in Japan for 50 years!
Get used to that word. FASCISM. Use it. Defend your use of it. Explain it to people who question your use of it. Don't use it as a pejorative. Use it correctly and teach others to use it correctly.
Some of my happiest memories of the Bush years will be the look on the faces of those who tried to confront me on the use and definition of the word FASCISM.
One thing I have learned from reading Chomsky is that one should try to use the right words to describe the world. I am not sure if he said it, but an example is :"If the US does it its WAR, if THEY do it, its TERRORISM". People will resist such formulations, but that is just part of their programming. We need to help reprogram them, or at least to recognize how they have been programmed.
ps. Obama08, the lesser (by far) of three evils.
Globalised neoliberal capitalism is by definition, undemocratic, whereas, local economies supported by their communities are always based on democratic values. Is is any wonder that the countries of the Global North are losing their democratic tendencies? How many cobblers, dressmakers, farmers (family-type), dairies, member cooperatives, etc., are there in your communities? It is these diverse economies that keep a nation democratic.
Here are you liberal Democrats all discussing fascism like it is the real political situation here in the US! If Obama wins the presidency most of you will become mum at that point.
Last I heard, we still had Tweedle Dee-Tweedle Dumb well in place? Same as in the '50s, and same as in the '30s, same as way back then. You have fetishized the word 'fascism' like the Republican conservatives got stuck on the words 'blowjob' and 'character' just a few years back.
Do you see?
Do you see where this people go with this law "the military commissions act of 2006"?
Did we not cross the Rubicon when we went to Iraq and utterly destroy a nation and murder over 600,000 children, men and women that had nothing to do with what happened on 9/11?
A secrecy in a government "of the people, for the people and by the people"? To protect a corrupt cabal, to be sure, and a word, homeland, brought from an earlier time in Germany. Is this de javu?
To propose a law so diametrically opposed to the Constitution sent my heart into a tailspin and to see the congress breach their oath to defend the Constitution with a bevy of excuses that would stump a teen. It makes me sick.
Fear is a cancer, safety is not freedom and only freedom under the Constitution would guarantee what safety we would have. This is not politics to me, this is the most serious of attacks undermining this nation. The road to an oven.
Support the troops? So long as they are someone else's. Is not this a nation of 300 million and in war are not all to sacrifice? Show me where this is so. It is an abomination. The German said: They came for other different peoples but not him until finally they came for him. He did not speak up and there was none to speak for him. Will they come for you?
Read 'em and weep, Tony
Samuel Adams:
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom,-go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
Give me a break, this country was founded on the genocide of thousands of native born (citizens, inhabitatants, PEOPLE) whos land was stolen and placed on worthless waste land. Does the author ever wonder where all the native people went or why no one even mentions them...the only difference is the names have changed and the viable land that has not been trashed, polluted, over populated or paved over is now sold as improved. The 800,000 forclosures in my area are nothing to be concerned about...move along...nothing to see here.
WE WERE NEVER FREE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!
I'd like to chime in on one point that always gets made but hardly ever questioned: that we had good ol' days in the USA with freedom and goodness.
History is very much about perspective. In perspective, the US has drought, starvation, unemployment, violence, poverty etc etc, but maybe not on the scale of other places (I've never been there). The State and the Military/'Justice' System have always had power over the 'common man' and it is/was common for that power to take the sides of the monied, the finaciers. The WE of we the people had, IMO, 2 main factors in time that allowed them to be more 'free' then their European counterparts (remember for most of history we've had Tribalism and Feudalism):
1. 'We' got a lot of space - It was 'easy' to kill indians. Most of the 'unoccupied' land was 'property' of the elite/financeiers. But they needed actual people (serfs) there to CREATE money (go learn how wealth is actually created, and what money actually is). Remote was the key word. Many people benefited, but 'the state' was always soon on their heels. It did manage to create and spread wealth- but still much of it was concentrated with the elite.
2. 'We' got a middle class - again with the creation of wealth and wealth distribution a lot of people rose out of poverty- more than anypoint in history. but as the room ran out, so to is the middle class going. Where are our unions? How many people do you think have the wrong idea which class they are in? How many people do you know who are 1 month away from 'poverty'.
I like to take the word 'freedom' into perspective. Sure, I would consider my situation vastly superior that my 1000 b.c. counterpart, but if WE the people actually have the capability to affect our future for the better, but are prevented to do so... how free are we? (note: if you don't mention sides, most people in this world would go against Nafta, oil, pollution, concentration of wealth, war, facism, police states, etc etc. Yet we do not embrace that we- though now being used- are the wealth creators. That 'money' = labor, and we have been hoodwinked or threatened into being managed by the elites.)
Is a 10th generation trustfund baby my elite for the mere right of birth? Did we not believe the revolution was about (partially) we needing no kings?
You and your children, and your children's children are free to pay off the the 9 trillion dollar national debt, that is after you pay off the 2 trillion dollars in personal debt, and pay for your health care and drug bills, and basic energy charges, and your plasma tv warrenty, and your....
Excellent approach, Stacey. Thank you.
I've been reading David Neiwert's lengthy must-read analysis of fascism [1], lately, and it's helping me both cope, emotionally, as well as react and promote less fascistic acceptance (and even behavior) among my peers by addressing the defining elements rather than the whole picture... and thus avoiding evoking the patient "nutcase in our midst" blank stares.
[1] -http://www.cursor.org/stories/fascismintroduction.php
The word "fascism" has other problems aside from the historic horrors it evokes.
Since the 60s (at least,) this group and that have been accusing the United States government of being "fascist." As a result, two generations are so used to hearing that "accusation," it no longer registers as something scary, or even a scary possibility.
"Yea, whatever. My dad's been callin the Feds fascists since Nixon." And, since an overt Mussolini hasn't assumed overt dictatorial control over We The People, it's nearly impossible to even start a conversation at this point.
"The sky is falling." "Yea, right." "No, really, this time it's falling. The sky." "Okay. Whatever." "Seriously, look up - see that? That's the sky. See it falling?" "I see the sun, some puffy clouds, and a bird. No falling." "I'm telling ya, the sky is totally falling." "Yea, okay. Lemme know how that works out for ya."
Let me add: FREEDOM WITHOUT POWER is nothing.
Do not confuse personal power with civic power. Yes, you can open your mouth and dis the goverment, but the last few to do so with any chance of creating significant change were shut down (I mean the pres candidates who dropped out... not even going into the whole who-can-actually-get-to-be in the goverment issues). Our 'freedom to shop' is even an illusion. You can die you hair green, but can you actually secure your property- or even have property- against a threat?
We can clothe, feed, house, educate, protect and nurture ourselves. Again, our main power is our numbers. The elite control the banks and corporations which control the goverment which have the guns.
Right on Saffiyah.
There are those amongst us who continually whine bout the lack of respect that most CDers accord (or not) to the Dems.
Sometimes, they are so insistent in the face of overwhelming evidence that a difference exists between the Demuglicans and the Repocrats.
They are either deluded by the fascist 'spin' MSM or they are active 'spinners' for the fascists. I could be wrong but if it is not one it has to be the other.
Lest anyone think that fascism is new, need only look to the late 30's when the wealthy elite tried to bring the US into the European conflict on the side of the Axis. Check out the Bush family history (Especially the Walker banking side), the Ford dynasty, Lindbergh and the rest and their political discourse and open support of the Third Reich.
But the 'system' are comprised of actual people who need the will to use violence to keep the system going, and that will is based on a belief the system will preserve order, peace and protect us, maybe even benefit us in other ways. That belief system is what the elite have always used to control a large number of people to control the rest. It is based on Fear.
Will we learn to reason past our fear- that we can rely on ourselves? that people should be evaluated on their actions, and not their class or any other grouping?
jbroadwater April 15th, 2008 12:46 pm
Thanks for the link. I can see why Altemeyer was unable to get his book published as it is an outright attack on the Bush administration and few publishers would accept a scientific book that supposedly proves that Bush is a Hitler-wanna-be and that a huge percentage of the populations in the U.S. and Canada are storm trooper-wanna be types.
America better make a hard left at some point down the road. I understand the arguments against voting Democratic, that you are still playing the same game, but the other side's take on the game is just way too vicious. If you don't vote Democratic then there will be one more unmatched vote for this fascist, Republican mindset. Unfortunately, this is the state of our political arena today. Two players.
Let's put the oxygen mask on ourselves first and then help those around us. I believe we can be "Democrats" and Green. It is way too high a leap to the ground to just vote for the Green Party and bypass the Democratic party. First we step down from this ladder leading up to falsity and get our feet on the ground. We then apply a determination towards saving the world that the Republicans have towards destroying it by going all-out Green (and fast).
An honest Democratic president will give power to a much needed Green push in America. I think Obama is tuned in. That's where I'm going to insert my nickel. At least it's something I can do.
A key ingredient to this problem is the affliction referred to as "America Exceptionalism."
As I understand it, this is the commonly held belief that America is special, exceptional. America is exceptional because we were the first and most advanced democracy. We spread that principle to the world. We conquered the totalitarian political foes Fascism and later Communism. Finally, our favor in the eyes of God is confirmed by our tremendous success in acquisition.
The idea that the government of America today could accurately be described as "Fascist" is so repugnant to the prejudice of American Exceptionalism that there is no chance Americans could look at it objectively and have an honest moment in the mirror.
You can just hear the internal cognitive dissonance, "Wait a minute! We're the good guys! We defeated Fascism!"
The antidote is an education that leads to historical context and critical thinking.
Of course, there are some that would give the Cheney response -- so? I know some that admit that Nazi Germany was onto something and have no problem with it.
The point of fascism is that it was created to be a third way – all the "benefits" of capitalism plus all the "public interest" of communism. So we have "democratic" governments becoming "partners" with industry and all notion of "checks and balances" being circumvented in the process as the American version of the "third way" becomes the rhetoric of liberalism. As for conservatives, they were in bed with fascism in the days when it dominated Europe; American captains of industry having played a role more significant than instrumental in its emergence in Germany. Americans have deluded themselves about the span of choices available.
Fascism would never have gained a footing in this country if it truly had a free press.
WTF states it so succinctly !!!!!!!
And thanks, class act, for the right to the point classy description of fascism and how it came to pass.
Just another way for the haves to not share with the have-nots.
mirf59 April 15th, 2008 2:15 pm wrote:
"The idea that the government of America today could accurately be described as 'Fascist' is so repugnant to the prejudice of American Exceptionalism that there is no chance Americans could look at it objectively and have an honest moment in the mirror.
"You can just hear the internal cognitive dissonance, 'Wait a minute! We're the good guys! We defeated Fascism!'"
Sure, Americans think they're the good guys, but what really bothers them about fascism is that someone else beat them to it.
To Denial David:
The notion that Obama will bring bring us out of this new improved version of fascism, i.e. the neo-con one, is ludicrous. If he were able to, or for that matter even interested in doing so, then he wouldn't be where he is. Besides, you don't unelect a coups. It doesn't work like thet.
See Defining Characteristic 14: fraudulent elections.
Fascism is not only creepy, it's creeping right into our govt, thanks to the Rethuglicans. In fact, in many ways it's already here. How many people knew that Scalia's father was the leader of the American fascist party, or that Poppy Bush loved doing business with Nazi Germany. It all kinda fits doesn't it?
ColdWarBaby47: No nation that is based on the libertarian concept of complete private ownership and the "every man for himself" paradigm can ever be expected to produce anything beyond the fundamental two class system of masters and slaves.
It's true, we need to squish "every man for himself", and what more effective way than impeach the cannibals in the White House for their many high crimes?
A Voice Apart: Globalised neoliberal capitalism is by definition, undemocratic, whereas, local economies supported by their communities are always based on democratic values. Is is any wonder that the countries of the Global North are losing their democratic tendencies?
Dispersed economic/political power by way of dispersed industry is beautiful in the way it impacts the social structure. Small independent tribes are known to have developed the most egalitarian of rules driven by the need for cooperation to survive. This may be observed in rural communities everywhere. Ironically, in the US these communities tend to support the right wing, the hierarchical, zero-sum fascist wing, against their own better interests. This is because in the US to acknowledge cooperation is taboo, even while rural communities continue to practice it. It does appear that this cooperation within communities is slated for total destruction, to be replaced with total dependence on the hierarchical, zero-sum fascists.
A Voice Apart: How many cobblers, dressmakers, farmers (family-type), dairies, member cooperatives, etc., are there in your communities? It is these diverse economies that keep a nation democratic.
Diversity in industrial output is certainly a challenge in shifting the economic structure from global back to local. The global economy offers a lot of diversity and that has proven desirable for various reasons. A successful shift from global to local probably relies on an opening up of trade secrets and free information flows to all communities, so that the generalist craftsman is more able to produce a wider variety of wares and still maintain quality. The generalist can replace the specialist when we decide we want to make the change from global to local, to keep the political/economic power local and out of the hands of the fascists, and most generally, the elites.
I've been saying this for 8 years, since the day the Supreme Court gave the creatures the White House but no one wants to hear! Use the word FASCISM or FASCIST and people close their ears. They don't want to know. I'm tired and very very discouraged.
You have to start thinking and acting in a different way...it is difficult at first but you won't be so tired.
in a nation stifled by fear and ignorance.
You are jesting of course. I see none of this in any part of the country. And as far as the freedom to speak out against the government, I don't see anyone being constrained.
Maybe you should read this board sometimes or many others. Read some publications. Listen to Air America. PBS.....
Saying things like this that are not valid in support of a valid argument plays right into their hands.
And before ya'll start throwing things again, just remember whos been kicking our hindquarters all over the country for the last 35 or so years.
Better to use focus than shotgunning it.
The only terrorists we need to worry about are Osama bin Bush and Osama bin Cheney! They are evil! Impeachment is too good for them!
The response to my article has been engaging, and I'm busy reviewing and absorbing. Obviously, a nerve has been hit.
This article was inspired mostly through the artwork of a friend, Donald Archer, who himself attempted to articulate what has been occurring in our government through commentary. It made him ill. So he took up his brush and had a painting frenzy, creating 29 paintings he calls, "State of the Union," which can be viewed at his website: www.donaldarcher.com. I thank Don as much as anyone for clarifying the present state we're in.
He was kind enough to allow us the use of one of his paintings, "Puppets," for the April cover of The Rogue Voice, which can be viewed at our blog: www.theroguevoice.blogspot.com.
Thank you for this dialog. I hope it continues.
Thomas More, you said: "And before ya'll start throwing things again, just remember whos been kicking our hindquarters all over the country for the last 35 or so years."
Please remind me. Just who has been kicking our hindquarters for the last three decades?
If fascism provides jobs for the American people, it will be accepted and voted for under all kind of pretty names and reasonable assumptions. Sparlinx above has a reminder about the ongoing unequal application of the laws.
A well-respected US political scientist, Bertram Gross, authored a book in the '80s, "Friendly Fascism."
Because it was the first book in the US censored by its publisher, you have find the Southend reprint to get the uncensored version.
Many of you at CD have even lost your historical knowledge of those social scientists who radically ananlyzed the US and predicted its future path based on analysing its long-term tendencies.
Do any of you know who is considered one of our greatest social scientists?
In Europe many scholars consider Thorstein Veblen to be one of them? Did any of you know many of the critical concepts we use today were of his invention: conspicuous consumption, vested interests, etc.?
Of course, the work of C. W. Mills (The Power Elite) was built on Veblen's work. We have so many interesting past radical thinkers and very few of us are analitically guided by them.