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Up Cape Cod Convened as a Committee of Correspondence to Reawaken Americans to the Cause of Liberty. |
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Background photo: Cape Cod Sunrise by Joan Ross
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Commentary on Fascism .......
The 14 Characteristics of Fascism
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. 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. 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. 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. Rampant Sexism The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy. 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. Obsession with National Security Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses. 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. 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. 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 . 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 is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts. 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. 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. 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. Copyright © 2003 Free Inquiry magazine Reprinted for Fair Use Only. Back to Top
FASCISM
& CORPORATE AUTHORITY TO GOVERN One-party
rule.... and that one party is the corporate party. This is the party that
wins no matter what happens November 7. The
overlapping and interwining of government, private enterprise and militarism
is the toxic brew that some call corporatism: corporations+government. The
giant multinational corporation, with its built-in quest for evermore
production, profit & power, has gained the authority to govern: making
foreign policy, military policy, trade policy, tax policy, transportation,
industrial & agricultural policy; health care & other human needs
& services policy; policy on investment, production and work. And
don’t forget the cultural impact of the overlapping and intertwining of
culture and the corporate media – with the privatization, profitization,
commodification, commercial- izing of just about everything.... including
our genes, ancient seeds & knowledge, water.... & even childhood.
So
how did democracy-loving folks like us get into this fix? As a reconstructed
U.S. history teacher doing penance, I’m going to focus on two issues:
corporate legal personhood; and the regulatory regime, not the whole answer
but key factors in perpetuating the age-old rule of the few over the many.
Corporate
legal personhood: In 1886, the Supreme Court succumbed to the lobbying and
scheming of corporate lawyers and other officials, and in Santa Clara Co. v.
S. Pacific Railroad found the corporate form to be a person for purposes of
the 14th Amendment. The 14th was passed in 1868 to recognize newly freed
slaves as persons entitled to due process and equal protection rights.
Equipped with due process and equal protection rights, the corporate form
has accumulated Bill of Rights protections, notably freedom of speech (read
campaign contributions) – and other tools to enable corporate lawyers and
executives to enhance their power and profits. Another
factor in the rise of corporatism – corporations+ government – is the
regulatory regime. The first regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce
Commission, was created in 1887 to co-opt the Populist Movement, which was
organizing against the abuses of railroad and banking corporations. Richard
Olney, President Cleveland’s Attorney General, reassured nervous railroad
barons not to worry, that the ICC was to be”a barrier between the railroad
corporations and the people.” [ And Charles F. Adams, who later became
president of the Union Pacific R.R., assured his fellow barons that “What
is desired is something having a good sound, but quite harmless, which will
impress the popular mind with the idea that a great deal is being done,
when, in reality, very little is intended to be done.” ] To
this day, the regulatory system has served more to shield the owning class
and their corporations than to protect the public. The SEC, EPA, FDA, FCC.
NLRB, ETC. – one of many ways that corporations+government collaborate to
rule. Since
Mary Kay is going to talk about militarism, I’ll close by quoting that
great seer, Jay Leno: “Not all the generals are against Donald Rumsfeld.
He still has the support of a lot of generals: General Electric, General
Dynamics, General Motors.”
Mary Zepernick administers the
Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy, and works with the Women's
International League for Peace & Freedom and Cape Care, the effort to
establish a single-payer community owned health insurance program for Cape
Cod. She is also a former
columnist for the Cape Cod Times. Four Essays On Freedom by Lawrence
Brown I’m not sure exactly when it was that
someone sent me my first reprint of an article comparing George Bush to
Hitler. It bothered me a lot, not because I’m a Republican but because it
simply wasn’t a fair attack. Read Mein Kampf for yourself, then ask
if you think George Bush is the next Hitler. Had Bill Clinton the wit to
get Bush named Commissioner of Baseball soon enough, the man would never
have entered politics – and wouldn’t have wanted to. No. George Bush is no
Hitler, and the Left does him a slander to suggest it, and squanders its
credibility by doing so. Having said all that, another question
remains – one worth asking: how safe is America from Fascism today? It
took a world war, a fortune in American blood and treasure and 70 million
lives around the world to wrestle fascism to the ground last time. It is
to honor our fathers and grandfathers – and the world’s teeming dead –
that we take a look around and inquire about the future of freedom in
America. A patriot should worry about fascism
like a religious devotee worries about sin… because both have to be
confronted every day. Both arise from perennial temptations. What is
fascism? Fascism is what happens when concentrations of wealth and power
join forces to consolidate their advantages and advance their interests.
“Modern fascism should properly be called ‘corporatism’, since it is a
merger of the state, military and corporate power.” said Benito
Mussolini, Italy’s tyrant in WW2. There may be neo-Nazis in America
today, but they’re not really going anywhere because they’re still in love
with German fascism, its heroes and symbols. We have to consider
something different. We have to watch for things as American as apple pie
– things that won’t feel foreign at all. Mussolini spoke of a “merger”. This
concept is the key to understanding fascism. Fascism is an unholy alliance
of potentially good things: our government in Washington, the people we
send there and those they appoint… the media who can reach us everywhere –
in our cars, living rooms, online… our most successful corporations and
the powerful men who run them… our military and the police… and our
dominant religions. Those are the main ingredients – and taken one by one,
they are good things. They are ours, and we’re proud of them. But what happens when they begin to
cooperate – not in meeting the needs of the American people – but in
consolidating their own advantages? Is it not the proper business of
enterprises to succeed… and do they not see their growing success as a
good thing? Indeed they do – and therein lies the temptation. Fortunately, we have lots of history
to look at now. The German people elected Hitler, for example. The Serbs
loved Milosovitch, the Italians loved Mussolini. But for all the patriotic
rhetoric, did their champions love them back? No. Their leaders were
elitist snobs, convinced they could hoodwink their people into
surrendering their liberties one by one. We have the advantage of
historical hindsight; we have their papers and communications. They wrote
the book on conquering their own nations from within. It should be
required reading in every school. What I’d like to do is review with you
what we know about fascism and then you can decide whether it’s anything
patriotic Americans should be worried about. We’ve made a start: we’ve
identified the key players. They are the ones who always stand to benefit
the most from fascism, however much of it they can get. And, however
difficult this might be in an election year, let’s proceed in the
understanding that both our political parties face the same
temptations here. Founding father James Madison gave us fair warning: “I
believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the
people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by
sudden and violent usurpations.”
Recognizing A Matrix Of Temptations There is a risk that we might keep our
eyes trained on the horizon for some foreign enemy while we are quietly
looted and disenfranchised from within. This is what Ben Franklin had in
mind as he left a session of the Constitutional Convention in
Philadelphia. A woman approached him on the street. “So, do we have a
king?” she asked. “No madam,” Franklin said. “You have a republic – if
you can keep it.” Fascism arises out of a matrix of
temptations. The corporation may wish to maximize profits by reducing
workers’ wages and benefits. At some point, they run afoul of
worker-protection laws and must secure the cooperation of elected
officials to remove the obstacles to further profits. They offer campaign
contributions and other amenities to those politicians most responsive to
their needs. Needless to say, the newspapers and
other media could raise the alarm. That problem is best solved by
purchasing as many of them as possible and gradually weaning them (and the
public) away from investigative reporting. Short attention-spans get even
shorter. What if striking workers need a little
physical instruction from police batons and, in extremis, army bayonets?
These things have been arranged in America’s past. Later on, as modern
history reminds us, inconvenient intellectuals can be silenced –along with
uncooperative media – until eventually we have more enforcement than law. History even illustrates how religious
institutions can be tempted with the chance to see their values made
compulsory… by the silencing of rival sects and faiths… or in harsher
conditions, protection in return for silence. “In short, we want to burn
out the poison of immorality which has entered our whole life and culture
as a result of liberal excess…” Adolf Hitler. How ironic: Hitler
offers to improve the morals of his countrymen and defend them from the
evil of liberal impulses. You don’t attack fascism by attacking
or demonizing any of its constituent parts. This is what the Left hasn’t
understood. Corporations are not villainous things, nor are cops on the
beat or our own kinsmen who make up the military. Our churches are clear
forces for good. But all institutions are subject to the temptations to
advance their wealth and influence at the expense of ordinary people, even
while declaring themselves to be the people’s protector and friend. We’ve
seen it all before, both here and abroad. So this is a good time to offer our
first weapon against fascism. We vigilantly protect the political and
economic interests of ordinary people against encroachment by any of the
concentrated power interests we’ve been talking about. With every policy
question that comes up, we ask, “Will this new suggestion put more money
in the workers’ pockets – or less? Will Americans be more free – or less
so? Is our government more secret, or more open?” Then we vote. Why, after all, did we go to war
against Hitler and Mussolini and Tojo? Why did we hold the line against
the Soviet Union all those years but to protect our liberty and the chance
ordinary people have here for a decent life. That being the case, we have
to ask how a free and prosperous people can be tricked into surrendering
their freedom and prosperity to fascists. How that happens is next.
Extracting The Freedom From A Free People There is a science to this. The
assault on the freedom of free people is as old as freedom itself. We see
it in ancient Athens and Rome, but the most instructive lessons come after
the Industrial Revolution and the creation of the mass media. The clearest
lessons are offered by Hitler’s rise to power, overthrowing the existing
democracy in Germany. How shall a free people be persuaded
to yield their freedoms up to a central government? In America, this
should be a non-partisan (or a multi-partisan) question. Nobody owns this. First, you need an emergency. You can
always make one up, but usually there’s something scary going on you can
point to. Top Nazi Hermann Goering put it this way: “…it is always a
simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a
fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship,. Voice
or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the
leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being
attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing
the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” So you need a climate of fear.
Put a steady diet of fear into a man and soon a steady stream of anger
comes out the other end. Fascism loves anger, encourages it as a form of
civic righteousness, then uses its political steam to do the new work of
the state. We can recognize fear and anger as spiritual toxins. Fascism
depends on those. Citizens are encouraged to think of themselves as
victims whose desperate plight excuses them from moral restraints. The fascist enthusiasm for manly
action prefers polarization to reconciliation, war-making to peace-making.
This preference wins fascism the allegiance of
defense contractors and many in the military, especially the senior
officer corps. Those who don’t go along are replaced with new,
enthusiastic recruits. Fascism distrusts intellectuals not
already on board, and seeks to crush dissent from any defenders of civil
rights and freedom. So fascism makes war on ambiguity. Problems are
distilled to childlike simplicity; all questions are reduced to yes or no.
Fascism glorifies decisive action and the masculine. “Whenever
anyone says the word “culture,” said propaganda genius Goebbels, “it makes
me want to reach for my pistol.” Fascism identifies with a fixed set
of national symbols and narrowly defines what it means to be a true member
of the country. Those who can’t or won’t
conform, either for reasons of faith or conscience or intellectual
scruples, are denounced as unpatriotic and enemies of the state. In the
name of country, citizens are encouraged to despise their fellow
countrymen if they fail to conform. Ironically, the interests of God
and faith can be invoked in the midst of the most immoral projects. We
saw this in the medieval inquisitions. The faithful were threatened with
hidden evils only a trained elite could detect and save them from. As
always, extreme measures were called for. They always are. Fascist leaders will appear blasé
and arrogant. Their usurpation of civil
liberties must be justified by their superior knowledge and foresight.
Here’s where a subservient media is vital, so inconsistencies and mistakes
can’t be pointed out in public. When cornered, national security can
always be cited, as Goering suggested over a half-century ago. If we have a color-coded system of
national alert for terrorism, we should have one for fascism too. Watch
for the signs; then vote against anyone whose behavior suggests fascism to
you. Such patriotic vigilance transcends political party concerns. I know
lots of people in both parties. None of them want fascism for America.
Love of country is a good thing, but it has to translate - as love always
must - into actual benefit for the beloved. Democracy is safest when
economic and political power is not concentrated in too few hands. Such
concentration cannot be justified as a defense of democracy. It is, in
fact, democracy’s executioner. The
Character Of Freedom We are Americans who love our country.
We love our freedom. We love the land we live in and we’re grateful for
the quality of life it gives us. We also know that freedom always has its
enemies. In today’s world, those enemies come at us from two main fronts:
they are religious extremists bent on terrorizing us into conversion… or
they are powerful persons intent on tightening their grip on wealth - and
their advantage over those whose work produces it. If we do what citizens in a democracy
are expected to do, faced with a threat, we’ll ask ourselves what we need
to do to counter the threats that face us. At the moment, I’m not talking
about the things somebody else is supposed to do to protect us. I’m
talking about what we ourselves can do. (I can feel Jefferson clearing his
throat impatiently behind me.) We must perfect ourselves as best we can as
citizens. We must embody – each one of us – the character of freedom. How, you ask, can traits of character
– any character – detect a nuclear device being smuggled into Detroit?
Obviously, it can’t. We have the FBI for that. What possessing the
character of freedom will do is equip us to respond appropriately to
whatever happens to us next… that whatever casualties our enemies inflict
on us, our liberty itself will not be among the missing. So what would a
democratic character look like? It would be the character of fascism
turned inside out. If fascism stokes fear and anger,
democracy responds with courage and forbearance.
We have people shouting at us and telling us every day why
we deserve to be angry and who we’re supposed to be angry at. If we’re
going to think straight, we need to calm down. Keeping a clear head under
pressure is the stuff of heroism. The democratic character expects every
human being to be capable of self-transcendence when it counts. If fascism promotes a punitive
intolerance of non-conformity, freedom asks for proof of injury before
judging others. A free society can be defined as
diversity thriving in an atmosphere of tolerance. We have our civil law to
regulate our public lives, and the democratic character demands the law be
applied equally to all. About religion and other private matters,
democracy requires a respectful silence and a respect of others’ privacy. If fascism distrusts the life of
the mind and champions violent action instead, democracy requires critical
intelligence from all its citizens – and an understanding of history.
At the opening of our history, John Adams
reminded us, “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge
among the people.” In a democracy, the construction of a library is a
patriotic act. If fascism glorifies war and its
war leaders, democracy calls its citizens to it with extreme reluctance.
The democratic character knows that the best way to support our troops is
not to send them into danger unnecessarily. When we have no choice, we
expect honor and valor from our warriors, but we also recognize the threat
any permanently armed force poses to our own freedom. This ambivalence
about armed force can be traced right back to the founding fathers. Most of all, the democratic
character continually seeks to expand the fortunes of the common man and
woman. There is, in that hope of expansion, an innate distrust of
power and privilege. “He mocks the people,” said Grover Cleveland, “who
proposes that the government shall protect the rich and that they, in
turn, will care for the laboring poor.” Any charlatan can burst into tears at
an unfurled flag. American fascism, if it ever comes, will be as American
as half-time at the Super Bowl. So it won’t be on their expressions of
patriotism that we should choose our leaders but for their protection of
liberty and the lack of secrecy with which they do the public’s business.
At the beginning of our history, the
founding fathers had to justify, in an age of autocracy, the vesting of
ordinary people with political power. To do so, they had to insist that
ordinary people can have the wisdom to know what is right and the moral
courage to do it. No institution can be better than its members. Nothing
has changed. While freedom occasionally requires us to fight for it, we
defend it best, and daily, by living in it. |
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