What's in a name? is a question asked by philosophers and poets for hundreds if not thousands of years. So I ask, what is in the term "fascism?" How important is it to know the answer?
In his book Anatomy of Fascism, Robert Paxton does a fine job of charting the origins of the movement back to late nineteenth century Italy among the farmers who were getting a raw deal on their produce. As is so often the case with political movements, fascism began with a grievance. In this case the grievance was justified. And early fascism did not carry the same pejorative meaning it carries today.
Nevertheless, by the time Mussolini and then Hitler came along, fascism had gone through many stages and phases. Hitler and his followers eventually jettisoned almost all of the socialist aspects of National Socialism, leaving a bare-bones and brutal metallic skeleton which came to be called Nazism.
Does fascism survive today? When we look at recent times, we know about Spain under Franco, Chile under Pinochet, and Uganda under Amin. All these regimes could be considered fascist, in spite of the differences between countries.
But surely, we do not have fascism in the United States, right? This is the question I want to spend time with this summer. I want to do it as carefully as possible, even if the material is spread out over several entries in blog form. Other writers such as Thom Hartmann have written convincingly of a type of fascism which is present in America, if not rampant. I cannot duplicate his research here. But perhaps through several posts I can present certain facts pointing to the truth about our economy. For the truth is this is an economy run primarily for the benefit of the few, with the assistance of the government. This is the elemental definition of fascism. Thus, even if we don't have storm troopers in the streets and gas chambers in the Rocky Mountain states, there is still a basic system supported by elites (including very much media elites) which dominates economic activity. It is this system which is proving so harmful. But this assertion needs facts to back it up. In a way, ever so many posts on this blog offer support. (Some are found under "Popular Blog Posts" to the right.)
So the story will continue. More events to come will show the meaning of my thesis. Please "stay tuned."
In his book Anatomy of Fascism, Robert Paxton does a fine job of charting the origins of the movement back to late nineteenth century Italy among the farmers who were getting a raw deal on their produce. As is so often the case with political movements, fascism began with a grievance. In this case the grievance was justified. And early fascism did not carry the same pejorative meaning it carries today.
Nevertheless, by the time Mussolini and then Hitler came along, fascism had gone through many stages and phases. Hitler and his followers eventually jettisoned almost all of the socialist aspects of National Socialism, leaving a bare-bones and brutal metallic skeleton which came to be called Nazism.
Does fascism survive today? When we look at recent times, we know about Spain under Franco, Chile under Pinochet, and Uganda under Amin. All these regimes could be considered fascist, in spite of the differences between countries.
But surely, we do not have fascism in the United States, right? This is the question I want to spend time with this summer. I want to do it as carefully as possible, even if the material is spread out over several entries in blog form. Other writers such as Thom Hartmann have written convincingly of a type of fascism which is present in America, if not rampant. I cannot duplicate his research here. But perhaps through several posts I can present certain facts pointing to the truth about our economy. For the truth is this is an economy run primarily for the benefit of the few, with the assistance of the government. This is the elemental definition of fascism. Thus, even if we don't have storm troopers in the streets and gas chambers in the Rocky Mountain states, there is still a basic system supported by elites (including very much media elites) which dominates economic activity. It is this system which is proving so harmful. But this assertion needs facts to back it up. In a way, ever so many posts on this blog offer support. (Some are found under "Popular Blog Posts" to the right.)
So the story will continue. More events to come will show the meaning of my thesis. Please "stay tuned."
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