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Is America ‘Yearning For Fascism?’
The language of violence always presages violence. I watched it in war after war from Latin America to the Balkans. The impoverishment of a working class and the snuffing out of hope and opportunity always produce angry mobs ready to kill and be killed. A bankrupt, liberal elite, which proves ineffectual against the rich and the criminal, always gets swept aside, in times of economic collapse, before thugs and demagogues emerge to play to the passions of the crowd. I have seen this drama. I know each act. I know how it ends. I have heard it in other tongues in other lands. I recognize the same stock characters, the buffoons, charlatans and fools, the same confused crowds and the same impotent and despised liberal class that deserves the hatred it engenders.
"We are ruled not by two parties but one party," Cynthia McKinney, who ran for president on the Green Party ticket, told me. "It is the party of money and war. Our country has been hijacked. And we have to take the country away from those who have hijacked it. The only question now is whose revolution gets funded."
The Democrats and their liberal apologists are so oblivious to the profound personal and economic despair sweeping through this country that they think offering unemployed people the right to keep their unemployed children on their nonexistent health care policies is a step forward. They think that passing a jobs bill that will give tax credits to corporations is a rational response to an unemployment rate that is, in real terms, close to 20 percent. They think that making ordinary Americans, one in eight of whom depends on food stamps to eat, fork over trillions in taxpayer dollars to pay for the crimes of Wall Street and war is acceptable. They think that the refusal to save the estimated 2.4 million people who will be forced out of their homes by foreclosure this year is justified by the bloodless language of fiscal austerity. The message is clear. Laws do not apply to the power elite. Our government does not work. And the longer we stand by and do nothing, the longer we refuse to embrace and recognize the legitimate rage of the working class, the faster we will see our anemic democracy die.
The unraveling of America mirrors the unraveling of Yugoslavia. The Balkan war was not caused by ancient ethnic hatreds. It was caused by the economic collapse of Yugoslavia. The petty criminals and goons who took power harnessed the anger and despair of the unemployed and the desperate. They singled out convenient scapegoats from ethnic Croats to Muslims to Albanians to Gypsies. They set in motion movements that unleashed a feeding frenzy leading to war and self-immolation. There is little difference between the ludicrous would-be poet Radovan Karadzic, who was a figure of ridicule in Sarajevo before the war, and the moronic Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. There is little difference between the Oath Keepers and the Serbian militias. We can laugh at these people, but they are not the fools. We are.
The longer we appeal to the Democrats, who are servants of corporate interests, the more stupid and ineffectual we become. Sixty-one percent of Americans believe the country is in decline, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, and they are right. Only 25 percent of those polled said the government can be trusted to protect the interests of the American people. If we do not embrace this outrage and distrust as our own it will be expressed through a terrifying right-wing backlash.
"It is time for us to stop talking about right and left," McKinney told me. "The old political paradigm that serves the interests of the people who put us in this predicament will not be the paradigm that gets us out of this. I am a child of the South. Janet Napolitano tells me I need to be afraid of people who are labeled white supremacists but I was raised around white supremacists. I am not afraid of white supremacists. I am concerned about my own government. The Patriot Act did not come from the white supremacists, it came from the White House and Congress. Citizens United did not come from white supremacists, it came from the Supreme Court. Our problem is a problem of governance. I am willing to reach across traditional barriers that have been skillfully constructed by people who benefit from the way the system is organized."
We are bound to a party that has betrayed every principle we claim to espouse, from universal health care to an end to our permanent war economy, to a demand for quality and affordable public education, to a concern for the jobs of the working class. And the hatred expressed within right-wing movements for the college-educated elite, who created or at least did nothing to halt the financial debacle, is not misplaced. Our educated elite, wallowing in self-righteousness, wasted its time in the boutique activism of political correctness as tens of millions of workers lost their jobs. The shouting of racist and bigoted words at black and gay members of Congress, the spitting on a black member of the House, the tossing of bricks through the windows of legislators' offices, are part of the language of rebellion. It is as much a revolt against the educated elite as it is against the government. The blame lies with us. We created the monster.
When someone like Palin posts a map with cross hairs on the districts of Democrats, when she says "Don't Retreat, Instead-RELOAD!" there are desperate people cleaning their weapons who listen. When Christian fascists stand in the pulpits of megachurches and denounce Barack Obama as the Antichrist, there are messianic believers who listen. When a Republican lawmaker shouts "baby killer" at Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak, there are violent extremists who see the mission of saving the unborn as a sacred duty. They have little left to lose. We made sure of that. And the violence they inflict is an expression of the violence they endure.
These movements are not yet full-blown fascist movements. They do not openly call for the extermination of ethnic or religious groups. They do not openly advocate violence. But, as I was told by Fritz Stern, a scholar of fascism who has written about the origins of Nazism, "In Germany there was a yearning for fascism before fascism was invented." It is the yearning that we now see, and it is dangerous. If we do not immediately reincorporate the unemployed and the poor back into the economy, giving them jobs and relief from crippling debt, then the nascent racism and violence that are leaping up around the edges of American society will become a full-blown conflagration.
Left unchecked, the hatred for radical Islam will transform itself into a hatred for Muslims. The hatred for undocumented workers will become a hatred for Mexicans and Central Americans. The hatred for those not defined by this largely white movement as American patriots will become a hatred for African-Americans. The hatred for liberals will morph into a hatred for all democratic institutions, from universities to government agencies to the press. Our continued impotence and cowardice, our refusal to articulate this anger and stand up in open defiance to the Democrats and the Republicans, will see us swept aside for an age of terror and blood.
365 Comments so far
Show AllIn article after article, Hedges is one commentator who speaks truth to power without making excuses for the inside the beltway elites like Obama and his 'yes' men and woman and 'yes' pundits like Katrina, Krugman, Nichols, Kucinich, et al.
Yesterday I was sitting with an Obamabot watching a tea partier on TV holding a sign accusing Obama of being a fascist.
Sad thing was...when asked by a reporter, the tea partier could not define a fascist or explain why Obama is a fascist.
Sadder thing was...the Obamabot couldn't define fascism any more than the tea partier could.
No wonder both parties have become fascist.
Saddest thing is...many of our ancestors gave their lives fighting fascism in WWII only to have the US turn fascist.
Sadly, you are right.
http://steveosborn.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-is-fascism-really.html
"The Germans lost the war, but the fascists won."
- George Carlin
RE: Saddest thing is...many of our ancestors gave their lives fighting fascism in WWII only to have the US turn fascist.
True, but those were the enlisted men and women. They bought the propaganda of their governments. If WWII was really about fighting fascism, at the end of the war the allied powers would have headed south and took out fascist Franco in Spain. The Western powers were not against fascism. They let Hitler become more powerful in the hope that he'd go after the Soviets. WWII was a war between rival capitalist states. Fascism is just another form of capitalism.
After reading your comment, I had to double-check my own understanding of fascism! What I thought I understood was correct: the use of violence to obtain the desired end!
I also see that even experts are not able to clearly define fascism entirely, so that was some relief!
In some strange way, it would seem that fascism includes just about every country, depending upon how you look at it!
Isn't it true that when the corporations control the state you have by definition "fascism"?
I would think so..!
I agree this one hits closer to the mark and there may well be some dangerous elements about. I still question though what percentage of tea parties are actually bigoted and how much is MSM projection to push our buttons on the left? Are the tea partiers exactly like some of their most coopted leaders Beck and Palin or is that what he MSM wants us to think? Are there people among the disaffected and lets be honest white working class we can work with or are they all bigoted writeoffs? And even if it turns out many are bigots, what do *we do?* Do we turn on our own American citizens and support vicious militarized police raids on mainly rural poor people, or do we go after the people who brainwashed them in the oligarchy? I don't think anyone has a clear answer to this uncomfortable un p.c. question that I can see.
At least Hedges targets the right people and makes no excuses for the imperialist oligarchy unlike the Obamabots at the New York TImes. I do think his point is excellent that if we fall towards fascism a large part of the blame will lay with us on the left for failing to clearly articulate the alternative of what a just sustainable society looks like, and for failing to really fight for working people. His riff on boutique p.c. politics is most excellent, for that is exactly the trap many Obamabots are in, and sadly even a few activists who post on here and definitely quite a few in the peace movement. And this has afflicted the left for 30 years I remember it from the 80s in college when I bought into to a large extent, but I was 19 at the time, what is our excuse now?
" Are the tea partiers exactly like some of their most coopted leaders Beck and Palin or is that what he MSM wants us to think?"
Since the teabaggers (aka sac danglers) represent probably 20-20% of society, at best, I believe it would be fair to say that there is quite a bit of MSM manipulation taking place trying to make these groups appear to wield more power than they in reality truly do. The MSM like "action" in their headlines. Action sells more papers, and that is what increases their bottom line. Therefore, all the rabblerousing that they can kick up will make better headlines to sell papers. Of course they are making more of the teabagger phenomina than there really is!
And yes, the oligarches are involved in brainwashing these lowly, non-thinking people simply because of the non-critical means of though they employ. They are an easy lot for corporate to get to do their bidding. If you will notice, this group complains, but never offers solutions to anything.
It would seen, that since they are not critical thinkers, but nonetheless are hurting financially and losing their homes and businesses just as the rest of us who are excluded fromm the plutocrats, we should be able to be even more effect at brainwashing these same people since we share a common place in society. We are more like them than they are like the plutocrats. If we can get them to see that very simple point, it would seem to be an easy task to get them to fight in our court, no?
a large part of the blame will lay with us on the left for failing to clearly articulate the alternative of what a just sustainable society looks like, and for failing to really fight for working people.
--------------------------
Precisely. Until we behave like an opposition party, articulate a *believable* and *desirable* vision, and work the streets gathering support for it -- we're nothing but self-satisfied dilettantes.
"Until you plant a tree, water it, and make it grow, you haven't done anything - you're just talking". Dr Wangari Maathai, Kenyan Nobel peace laureate
Action is everything.
Hedges is a visionary. His vision is grounded in experience. He understands as well as anyone how we got here and where we are going. We need someone like Chris to spearhead a movement of nonviolent civil disobedience. Otherwise we are doomed.
Some us on commondreams have come to the same conclusions that Hedges so eloquently elaborates. My own experience in voicing these "paranoid" beliefs is having trolls mock my writing as "muddled" or worse.
The writing is on the shithouse walls and if you don't think we are headed into a neo fascist state that resembles Hitler's Germany, you better check out the history books in the library (before they are burned) and think again.
Tom Joad - your writing has never been muddled to me. I always enjoy and await your comments.
John Steinbeck would be proud of your having a name like one of his Characters in "Grapes of Wrath" .
Thank you, Teddy. I'm flattered and pleased. Imagine that--Mr. Steinbeck being proud of the name Tom Joad. A man of his intelligence and insight might have even thought it up himself, don't you think? ;-)
I should have voted for Cynthia McKinney. There are moments when you have it very clearly demonstrated that we have a one party, the party of money system. Seeing how very comfortable Democrats are with mandated Health Insurance, how even the "progressives" bow and call it a good thing convinces me. I remember a Senator Specter town meeting on Health Care where shouts were flying in the air, "Do you want to trust the government with your Health care?", they taunted. "Do you want to trust the for profit health Insurers?" I shot back. But on reflection how wrong both of us were, The private for profit insurers have control of the government--THEY ARE THE REAL GOVERNMENT, they get everything they want and Senator Specter's town Hall with all the partisans shouting at each other is just a distracting little side show. It's so clear to me now.
"The private for profit insurers have control of the government--THEY ARE THE REAL GOVERNMENT"
Another word for this is fascism.
An oft used technique of proto-fascists:
Racism rearing its ugly head. "We must protect Obama from racism! If you hate racism, you must support Obama. If you hate anti-Semitism, you must protect Israel!"
Healthcare: The teabaggers were meant to foment in our minds: "hmmm, if the right wing hates it, it must not be all that bad."
We will now see this escalating into a major media directed theater of the absurd. As the Obama-scam is seen ever more clearly, they need to re-direct our attention.
The only difference between "now" and "then."
The Oligarchy is coming out of the Shadows
http://steveosborn.blogspot.com/2010/03/kucinich-votes-yes-whats-new.html
Chris Hedges is sounding the countdown to rage, violence, insurrection, over-reaction and finally, the Collapse of the United States.
... Three... two... one.
As Jeff Goldblum put it in Independence Day: 'Time's up.'
But Hedges is not alone. Read Jim Kuntsler's excellent 'Long Emergency'. Read 'Power Down' and 'The Party's Over' by Richard Heinberg. Discover *why* this is all happening, why the wars in far off oil rich lands, why the lying, cheating, killing and collapse of your hard won rights and freedoms are taking place now.
It's not the Christian 'End Times', as much as they fervently pray it is. Because that let's them off the hook, gives them a divine 'Get Out of Jail Free' card from the big pink pixey in the sky. Have you noticed how many of the Tea Baggers and their mouth-breathing ilk are fanatic Christians? And how many of them are *PISSED* that a BLACK man is in the *White House*?
Sounds like America would be better off if it had elected McCain/Palin?
to that question: my simple answer is and for a long has been
YES.
this IS what americans want. i am sure of it.
every step of the way - americans have , one way or another, one degree or another, different PACE of arriving at it , shown that FASCISM is not only or already had BEEN percolating in their blood and culture, it is what americans SECRETLY believe is the "american way" .........
EXCEPT that - they still "call it a democracy" (huey long).
the ONLY difference between americans and the african warlords or others elsewhere - is in teh SOPHISTICATION of how americans HIDE the truth that they ARE incipient FASCISTS as a culture.
where warlords in africa NEVER pretended to be enamored of "democracy" ( as somalians would tell american soldiers in "black hawk dawn" : you with your uninteresting lives think that you can come here to make us swallow your democracy....we do not accept it. we have our way , our laws, our justice...and the fighting will not stop until you go away") ....
AMERICANS PRETEND a democracy even if underneath the fancy platitudes and noble pronouncements , institutions and organizations and "laws and rules" to give an APPEARANCE of it , is really a FASCIST culture.
it wouldn't BE the Capitalist corporatocratic war and money racketeering nation that it is if it wasn't fascistic by nature.
what it BEGAN with - against the native indians - was already FASCISM without the name.
and then they named it "freedom and liberty" and "democracy" - with a "constitution" to boot in order to make a pretense of "laws and rules of fairness".......
as a way to have a national consciousness that enables americans to believe that they are "good above all others" .........
for BEING Fascists at heart.
I believe Mr. Hedges is correct.
In NYC, all we need is a situation like a power outage this summer, and all hell may break-out, or something like it. We only need a spark. And the sparks are beginning to fly.
Sparks borne on the ill wind herald the coming conflagration...
Intelligent article Chris and a great quote from Cynthia McKinney. " We are ruled by one party and that party is the party of $ and war! If that is not fascism, I do not know what is!
Exceptional. Hedges, like Nader, can be trusted to call things by their right names. Now, come election time, the same site that runs an outstanding article like this will nudge us to vote for...guess? Too many people truly never learn, or at least until it's too late.
---------------------------------
I would rather vote for what I want and not get it, than vote for what I don't want and get that. -- Eugene V. Debs
The real question is - - what actions can we take to combine social justice with the well-founded fears and anger of a goodly percentage of American people?
We need to forget political parties and work together within broad coalitions on ISSUES of common concern. We need to come up with actions that would help we, the people, instead of further enriching corporations.
People act in self-interest, which we must always, always keep in mind. Guilt-mongering and lecturing, so common in liberal circles, do not work on hungry or about-to-be homeless people.
I suggest a national conference led by a coalition of regular people from both right and left. This long-running conference--several per year--could debate and decide upon actions that can be taken to get our country back from the corporations that now own our resources and wealth.
I like the example of the money-thrower (threw money in face of man with Parkinson's - see YouTube video if you haven't already) who, after the fact, apologized and said he got carried away in the moment, and that he'll never do anything like that again. He then gave money to a Parkinson's Disease charity.
Most people - of course there are lumpen who love violence, but they're the minority - do not want serious disturbances or violence in their lives.
We need a STABLE economy, not ridiculous, unsustainable growth. We cannot have, even if it were desirable, continuous "growth," since earth's resources are running out.
The most stable economy is one based on farming and barter. This doesn't mean going backwards; we know more about passive solar and other natural energies than people used to, so we can live well while growing our own food, or helping others grow our food and/or bartering labor/knowledge/stuff for our necessities.
I've put some ideas on my website which you might want to peruse - http://www.cleanearth.net - and I welcome others' concepts, as well.
Let's talk about having a national conference - all welcome - where we have free-for-all discussion and debate. Shouters will calm down if given space to vent, and then we can get down to what's in the people's real interests - - and then we can come up with actions which will get us there.
Right on the head. Thanks, Chris for your article.
If we could all just be cool cats and join hands, against the tyrants.
COFFEE, TEA, and ME/US.
Onward, just don't forget to duck.
Urgently needed: 435 local People's Movement groups (one in each Congressional District) organizing those of us who know that only social/economic justice (equality and fairness), starting with a massive jobs program, can begin to reverse our slide into fascism. Running such candidates against the Corporate-War Party candidates is also necessary.
The sooner more of us abandon the Democrats and Republicans, and boycott as many corporations as we possibly and sensibly can, the better.
I wouldn't boycott as many corporations as we can, but recommend boycotting Texaco, with the demand of ending, holding a conference on, the oil war(s). I picked Texaco because of course it's concerned with oil and gas, but also because the CEO of Texaco issued $5 million worth of gas to the Nazi's, according to the author of Picasso's War, Russell Martin, thus clearing the way for the bombing of Guernica. The single boycott target also follows the model used by the auto industry, which arguable brought worker standards to their highest level before the current collapse.
Mr. Hedges are you sure that you aren't describing LIBERAL DEMOCRACY rather than FASCISM?
Don't get me wrong, I use the term, too, but I wonder how accurate it really is. The criteria used is always so loose that it can't help but beg the question. The salient point seems to be that something has "changed" in American society and governance. It is easy to accept that, but, in which direction has that change occurred? To put it another way, what is really the "dream state" and what is the "waking state" of this culture? The further back one chooses to "focus", the less clear the answer becomes.
Without going into a litany of the wars, the hypocrisy, the continuous violation of "inviolate" principles", the promotion of democracy in name only, the instant reversion to police state methods at the slightest touch, etc.... is what I am asking really so far fetched?
I wonder if the "illusions" about the culture are not our own, certainly fueled by desegregation, and civil rights, and "cultural revolution", and Church Committees, and Watergate prosecutions and the promise of "reform" on a very broad scale. If, however, we honestly try to date the undeniable beginnings of "corporatism", it starts at the turn of the 20th century; not the 21st.
In a phrase, I'm not sure that what we see isn't the actual face of "liberal democracy", now returned to "normalcy"... just as the right-wing has claimed. And if the "march toward fascism" were to be suddenly reversed by the triumph of the Democrats, etc... how much would really change?
The inverse of the above is just as troubling: if "this" is not "Fascism", does it make it more or less palatable to "accept" the ever accelerating course that we see around us?
I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist but every time I think about "Fascism" in America, I start to feel manipulated. Is what we fight really a "degenerate" trend, to be countered by a return to "cherished traditions"? I have to admit that I have trouble telling the difference between the two.
===================
I'll re-post a poem I posted here a while back:
Welcome To The Homeland
Welcome to Germany
Welcome to the Hyper-White Techno-Evangelical Inquisition.
800 billion additional dollars to the Lockheed-Halliburton-Raytheon War Machine
Now up to over a trillion dollars for the Brown&Root- Dyncorp- Blackwater Killing Complex;
In addition to the regular 500 million or so a minute for the
Narcotics Trafficking- CIA- Military- Industrial- World's Greatest Polluter- Criminal Think Tank Complex
Small scale tactical nuclear weapons cocktails
served up to brown skinned children
with distended bellies
by well-manicured barbarians in Citadels and Mansions
by their servants in boardrooms
with distended bellies
With 725 military bases
With 350 outposts
In 132 countries
In Every jungle
In Every tree
All baby-faced tamarinds run for cover, hiding in their mother's breasts
America- A fundamentally sick society
America- A culture of conquest
Get out of Iraq Get out of Viet Nam
America get out of Colombia
America get off the Rez
America get out of Afghanistan
America get out of etcetera
America, a fundamentally sick society.
Welcome to Plastic Racist Nation
Welcome to McAmeriWal-Martika
Germany- The Fatherland
America- The Homeland
Welcome to Soft Fascism
General Reinhard Gehlen head of German military intelligence on the Eastern front and his network of spies and terrorists were brought over to the USA after World War 2 in the now well known Operation Paperclip. From these advisers and functionaries, Allen Dulles, copying many of the methods utilized by the likes of Herr Gehlen, shaped what we now know to be the CIA.
Instruments of Statecraft
Counterinsurgency Literature
Strangle Them- Starve Them
Hold an election
Call it Democracy
I pledge allegiance to the United Sports Utility Vehicle
of Der Father- der Home Land of the Fee
Home Land of Wage Slavery
Land of Tidy White Bestiality
A Land of Pre-Ordained Brutality
A Land of Hyper-Tense Entreprenurial Mentality
Overthrow Castro
Overthrow Arbenz
Overthrow Mossadegh
Overthrow Chavez
Overthrow National Sovereignty
Overthrow Dignity
It is time to stop living
The Lie that is America- I Secede
Thoughtful post, coyote. And great poem. I've read it before, and read it each time with admiration.
I think you're correct, like Kolko calling the "Progressive Era" a "Triumph of Conservatism." Just what was that "Return to Normalcy" supposed to mean in 1920? My thesis is that the Progressive Populists of the late 1800s were absolutely correct to call the enemy of most every US citizen the Money Power; it is an enemy that has yet to be defeated, indeed is stronger than ever.
There's an item by Sirota at AlterNet you'll find amusing, http://www.alternet.org/story/146207/the_key_differences_between_progressive_and
_liberal%2C_and_how_%22liberal%22_thinking_can_be_part_of_the_problem
"These movements are not yet full-blown fascist movements. They do not openly call for the extermination of ethnic or religious groups. They do not openly advocate violence."
Oh, Mr. Hedges? I'm with you on all points here except this one. I've heard more than one Christian leader call for the extermination of homosexuals, whom, I guess, are not included in ethnic or religious groups. That makes us that much better a target.
Keep up the great work of telling the truth. I'd like to hear a conversation between you and Robert Freeman.
"The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice." Dr. King
PeaceTruthBeauty!
Jack Chase
I don't think that 'America' is yearning for fascism, but that is what they'll get for the reasons that Hedges provides in this article. I'm not sure that a fascist takeover can be averted at this late stage either, the problems caused by thirty odd years of 'trickle down' economics and the crushing of labour unions has eliminated most of the things that could have held back a rise in the rage of the powerless. There is little Obama could do, and he's done little enough as it is, to prevent the totalization of politics in the usa.
One of the other posters above mentioned that it's not the christian version of the end times yet, I'd remind you of the concept of the 'self fulfilling prophecy'. Just because the elites are trying to scrounge the last thing of value and trying to prove that money can be eaten, doesn't mean that they won't bring about the xtian end time damning of us all by their own actions.
"We are ruled not by two parties but one party," Cynthia McKinney, who ran for president on the Green Party ticket, told me. "It is the party of money and war. Our country has been hijacked. And we have to take the country away from those who have hijacked it. The only question now is whose revolution gets funded."
Notice the word usage above. "We are ruled... Our Country has been hijacked."
This kind of peasant mentality is actually the problem, and believing one is being "ruled" in our country or framing the problem as one of rulership is endemic of this problem. It's a victim mentality and it is the problem. Those who know how to exercise their power and then fall into abusing that power are bad. But those who neglect their power and then claim it was taken from them might even be worse. Until we exercise our personal power, we don't really know what it is and once we do, we understand finally that we cannot be ruled unless the precondition of victimhood is what we already live by. This victimhood is not a condition that someone forces on us, it is a condition that allow others to do as they will, while we stand by hoping they will do what we think is the right thing to do, not because we do it, but because we don't do it.
Victims if the conditions are right will become the perpetrators of terrible crimes and it is their state of victimhood which opens that possibility. When one is free regardless of what others do, one keeps alive a hearty love for all that is good and kind and right. That love is all that stands between democracy and fascism. "Our country" is that love, and that is not something that can ever be taken from true citizens of that kind of a society. "Our country" is intact as long as one citizen knows this greater good and truth and claims allegiance to that above all else. We have many more than one, indeed I think most of us would stand in that truth and not be denied.
I think I see what you might be trying to mean but let's apply what you said to people who actually wield greater power, the politicians themselves. Let me also help you out some. There is love of money that stands between freedom and fascism. There is also confidence and depending upon how much confidence on which side, well it can either lead to democracy or fascism. If progressives in Washington including Kucinich and Sanders had each maintained their levels of progressive/liberal self-confidence and others in the team would keep the team confidence alive for fighting for progressive causes, conservatism would not be winning even today.
I'm not sure what "conservatism" is but there is only one thing in my book that ever "wins" and it is good.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply though, you are obviously working for good.
I was basing that on the conservative ideology but you're right. My niece once said that ideological labels aren't worth jack if nothing good comes out of them.
Yes and it feels good, so good to know one is winning. Winning not within the corrupt systems definition of a win, which is undoubtedly a loss following a long string of losses to us all. But winning within one's own sense of winning. I voted for Nader in the last presidential race and many said I would be the big looser. I am so glad I did not consent to an Obama presidency, I know I would feel like such a looser at this point, knowing again I voted against my own best interest, and against the interest of good. Good, the greatest thing on earth, the greatest leader, the only leader that humans can live with in peace, security, and happiness.
Sioux Rose
Like Hedges, I see the steps that have led to fascism in other lands "advancing" in our midst. I would not say that "America wants fascism," however. What does desire or self-determination mean when a population has become essentially hypnotized? Can a person "under the influence" effectively judge or determine their own direction?
The leaders/elite may want fascism, and that percentage of persons that naturally gravitates towards authoritarian figures would also prefer such a system. As for the rest, a good percentage of Americans has been massively seduced by a gigantic and effective (given it employs Ph.D psychologists to invent the buzz words and Pavlov-style cues that can be counted on to produce the desired collective responses) media machine to the extent that the very premise of autonomy has been squelched.
Then there are those who really see what's going on and genuinely care. Some write on C.D. We recognize that plans for meaningful action are now infiltrated thanks to 21st century surveillance tools, those that can break up a demonstration before it has a chance to begin. Our leaders are under-funded, their voices essentially blacklisted from mainstream media. Meanwhile, the right wing hate mongers OWN the pulpits through which to convince listeners where and how to vent their justifiable rage. Hint: at all the most inappropriate (i.e. the NEW scapegoats) targets.
Painting with a broad brush that presupposes a consensus where one does not exist is unfair. The U.S. is the most heavily armed nation in the world, and so many now answer to "authority." Police, sheriff departments, highway patrol, Homeland Security, DEA, Marine Patrol, FBI, CIA, and the private blackwater types. I wonder what the per capita count would be in comparing law enforcement/uniformed personnel to average citizens? With those armed odds, it's not surprising that citizens feel less willing to "stand up." The financial weapon of control is of course job loss, and with so many losing theirs... leading to a domino effect in the form of forfeited homes, health care access, and social acceptance, many fear the risks of dissent.
The liberties that made for the cornerstone of life in the U.S. (entitlements gradually won by persons of color and women) are now at risk. We can no longer stand on the presumption of innocence, Habeas Corpus, the right to a speedy, fair trial. In anything but name, a new breed of witchhunt-McCarthyism is enveloping the nation. No longer is the proven act the item that warrants punishment, instead a powerful right wing dirt-slinging campaign can ruin a person's reputation on mere supposition. Just as Enron-style "business" practices became the norm of Wall St, false accusation is the commerce through which the corporatists maintain adherence to their chosen purposes. The same professional liars who muddied the waters over the dangers of nicotine/tobacco products, now use similar tactics to ruin the reputations of those committed to directing humanity towards a more sane, sustainable approach to natural resources (as opposed to their speed-driven depletion), and the full understanding of climate change.
It takes a major dose of deception to turn a nation against itself. To suggest that most advocate for this path without articulating the influence of a redi-stream of 24/7 falsehoods, undermines the full measure of the analysis. Other than that, Chris Hedges has painted an ominous, yet likely accurate, picture.
I'd say too many Americans are in the tragic grip of a bad idea, thinking it to be good. I drank the libertarian koolaid in the past. What a horrible mistake.
Fine, thoughtful post, Sioux, and I'm glad to hear from you again. I agree with you that, while correct in his assessment of the power elite, Hedges may overgeneralize as to the actual wishes of the majority of Americans, especially considering that the groundswell that swept Obama into office was firmly and almost entirely against both wars, hardly a "fascist" sentiment. Perhaps a greater distinction between the "yearning" of those who actually hold the reins of power, and the minority of wackos who let themselves be manipulated by them, and that of common people, is in order here. All the same, the fact that Hedges quotes McKinney saying that it is no longer a question of "left or right," shows that he's aware that there's something subtler afoot than in 1920s Italy or 1930s Germany. Perhaps the vitriol tinging his lyricism tends sometimes to overshadow such nuance.
Sioux Rose
CLOVIS: Between today's important "Report Card" issued by Mr. Nader, added to yesterday's most excellent post by Mr. Freeman, along with the awful things (regarding the Internet) just chronicled by Glenn Greenwald, to the conclusions here offered by Mr. Hedges... what IS going on qualifies as Inverted Totalitarianism. (I am yet to read that book for a fuller understanding. Some on C.D. expressed grief over its findings, all of them documented.)
As you know I look at mundane events through the prism of spiritual thought. Watching the same redundant folly repeat, time after time, impresses upon those of us who care not only about our own lives, but about the well-being of larger societies to seek new ways to alter the paradigm. It's like searching for a way out of a very dim matrix.
A few in this forum have tried to say that Hedges is hysterical, and that he rings a false alarm. What would make a poster say such a thing when the best minds of our era all agree upon this fact? They may disagree as to the actual mechanics, but thinkers like Naomi Klein have made it impossibly clear that the Disaster Capitalism model tried on other lands has made it home to the applause of the likes of Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, and the rest of their bankrupt coterie. The Supreme Court decision further empowering corporations under the guise of free speech, added to the obscene and growing military budget, added to the heist of the public's money (to rescue bankers!), and so many continuous SINS... makes it apparent that any semblance of a government there to represent the people's interest is a naked FRAUD. Big money is applied to manufacturing the semblance of consent, which takes me back to my initial point: what does consent mean if the population is essentially somnambulant? When that status is not delivered by recreational drugs, alcohol, or anti-depressants, TV works its hypnotic wonders to hold minds (and consciences) hostage.
The health "care" debate is a symbolic a petri-dish of our political estate. The necessary thing (in terms of both humanity and costs-savings) was the item left missing from the discussions/decision-making tables. It's that way with foreign policy. Peace is the grand taboo. This is why I define our nation as under Mars rules, pro-war all the time. Because what passes for debate, what most hear from media's talking heads always remains within allowable parameters, many are UNABLE to think outside the boxes allotted. Their understanding is as warped as that of a creature that lived inside so tiny a box from a young age as to never have grown to its full dimensions. Those who DO think outside the box are consigned as the crazies, radicals, or modern American "untouchables."
I wish to applaud KITAJ for writing quite well on this topic (in this forum).
LEEA: Your ideas remind me of the idealized youth who participated in Woodstock and believed by the sheer measure of their idealism they could alter the world. One day that new world may come into being. However, by only focusing on this idea of the individual and his or her beliefs in love or justice, it seems that you miss (or grant short shrift) to the very POTENT happenings that currently threaten so many of the liberties that allow that measure of joy (along with love and liberty) into our lives. Something dark has taken over the U.S., and while some would argue that its seed was always in our midst (as seen in the nation's predatory history and its confiscation of others' lands through violent means), it was counter-balanced by the presence of principled persons in influential positions. Those persons, some of whom have died off, are being made invisible. Others have sold out. In sum, many elements have combined to empower "the dark side," and while I believe that the universe bends towards the arc of ultimate justice, the battles to attain that "promised land" have been long, redundant, and bloody. To not recognize what's at stake is to diminish the arguments you wish to make.
Leea's observation on McKinney's comment is crucial.
So long as you accept leaders you will be led.
And I am surprised at your scoffing at Woodstock.
"We are stardust . . ."
peace
Hey guys, I'm checking out for a while. The thought police at CD have just snuffed out my last post exposing leea for the anti-McKinney troll that she is (she even calls her a "peasant"). I'll be back when the disgust passes.
Comment deleted by author.
Leea might have had a disagreement or misunderstanding on what Mckinney said but that doesn't make her an anti-Mckinney troll.
Leea mischaracterized McKinney by saying that her (in my view) correct assessment of the brokenness of the US political system was merely an expression of a "victim complex," that this was a "peasant" mentality, and somehow left the door open to violence, as opposed to the bogus "love of country" that Leea herself was putting forth. I merely pointed out that McKinney, even while having been targeted by AIPAC and other rightwing political action groups, effectively ending her political career, has never espoused any such claims to "victimhood" nor has she encouraged it in others. McKinney's discourse is generally one of empowerment. Leea's critique of "victimhood," on the other hand, is standard boilerplate discourse of the "cultural conservatives," which made me suspicious of her discourse of "love," since it was coupled with "country"--more right-wing pablum. All I did was deconstruct Leea's argument--more eloquently than here, and I guess Leea tattled on me and the CD thought police thought I was getting too personal.
clovis, I think I see what you are getting at and looking at Leea's recent posts, I see that she is falling into the habit of blaming only the individual. I need to go correct her on that Feinstein reply in this thread.
You are right about Cynthia Mckinney and I wished I had paid attention to her instead of being an ass and falling for all that hope and change spin. Cynthia Mckinney is my favorite example of a progressive who has strong self-confidence and will run against any odds thrown at her. All she needs is a team of likewise thinkers and she'll be rocking and rolling. I hope she runs in 2012 and I wish her the best of luck. At least then, progressives and liberals who don't support Obama for his selling out can't be labeled racists for choosing Mckinney instead. Even better, we can turn the table on the Obama loyalists and call them misogynists technically speaking.
Stanley, it has been nice to have you join this exchange. You are very thoughtful and are putting a lot of your time into this. Thank you. I do not only blame the individual, I see the individual as the way forward. As all the me's collectively make up the big We. That we is what will take us to our goal. In regards to blaming the corporations, their mouth pieces and the government, why would I need to? Their responsibility in all of this is as clear as day. Non of us seem confused about that, we are generally in (70%) agreement on that. But how do we change this fact?
In my opinion, all the me's that make up that We (70%) realize that they, those who are to blame for our situation, don't give any showing of strong intention that they actually plan to change our direction, our reality. So it falls to us, the people to act in our interest. Each one of us, then chooses that if we see it. This will happen slowly I think, but will grow with each passing moment that the government or the corporate power structure continues to act in their interest, against ours.