Fascism
If the unthinkable happens and the chimp refuses to give up the residency, we have to pound this word until it becomes a keyword in the media. Do not let up.
Personally, I've become increasingly concerned about the anti-intellectualism that is sweeping this country. Now, the CIA is being accused of "guessing" and of being "anti-Bush," never mind that they actually have the information to form their opinions of his handling of the war.
This site offers a rebuttal to those who back off from using it because it "trivializes the holocaust" (as if Nazi's were the only fascists...)
http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/000026.htmlI'm posting the list of qualities of a fascist society...I hope this doesn't violate the copyright rules of the site. If so, mods, let me know and I'll edit:
1. The cult of tradition (syncretistism).
Truth has been already spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message.
2. Rejection of modernism.
… even though Nazism was proud of its industrial achievements, its praise of modernism was only the surface of an ideology based upon Blood and Earth … The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.
3. Action for action's sake.
Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.
4. Anti-intellectualism (Rejection of "analytical criticism").
…disagreement is treason.
5. Fear of difference.
…Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.
6. Appeal to a frustrated middle class.
Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration.
7. Nationalism.
The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside…
8. Mythologizing the enemies.
The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. … Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.
9. Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy.
… life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world. But such a "final solution" implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war.
10. Popular elitism.
… Since the group is hierarchically organized (according to a military model), every subordinate leader despises his own underlings, and each of them despises his inferiors. This reinforces the sense of mass elitism.
11. Everybody is educated to become a hero.
This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.
12. Machismo.
…which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits…
13. Qualitative populism.
Individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will. Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter. Having lost their power of delegation, citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People. Thus the People is only a theatrical fiction.
14. Newspeak
Newspeak was invented by Orwell, in 1984, as the official language of Ingsoc, English Socialism. … But we must be ready to identify other kinds of Newspeak, even if they take the apparently innocent form of a popular talk show.
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