The Rise of Fascism in America
Written by Gary Alan Scott
Thursday, 13 April 2006
Fascism in America won’t come with jackboots, book burnings, mass rallies, and fevered harangues, nor will it come with black helicopters or tanks on the street. It won’t come like a storm—but as a break in the weather, that sudden change of season you might feel when the wind shifts on an October evening: Everything is the same, but everything has changed.Something has gone, departed from the world, and a new reality will have taken its place. All the old forms will still be there: legislatures, elections, campaigns—plenty of bread and circuses. But “consent of the governed” will no longer apply; actual control of the state will have passed to a small and privileged group who rule for the benefit of their wealthy peers and corporate patrons.
To be sure, there will be factional conflicts among the elite, and a degree of debate will be permitted; but no one outside the privileged circle will be allowed to influence state policy. Dissidents will be marginalized—usually by “the people” themselves. Deprived of historical knowledge by a thoroughly impoverished educational system designed to produce complacent consumers, left ignorant of current events by a corporate media devoted solely to profit, many will internalize the force-fed values of the ruling elite, and act accordingly. There will be little need for overt methods of control.
The rulers will act in secret, for reasons of “national security,” and the people will not be permitted to know what goes on in their name. Actions once unthinkable will be accepted as routine: government by executive fiat, state murder of “enemies” selected by the leader, undeclared wars, torture, mass detentions without charge, the looting of the national treasury, the creation of huge new “security structures” targeted at the populace. In time, this will be seen as “normal,” as the chill of autumn feels normal when summer is gone. It will all seem normal.
--Chris Floyd, November 10, 2001 Moscow Times (English edition
Since the 1970’s, American businesses have grown larger and more monopolistic, helped along by deregulation, the repeal of anti-trust laws, and a steady transformation from manufacturing to capital management (dare I say, “capital manipulation”?). As Paul Bigioni puts it in his excellent essay entitled “The Real Threat of Fascism”: “If we are to protect ourselves from the growing political influence of Big Business, then our antitrust laws must be reconceived in a way which recognizes the political danger of monopolistic conditions.”
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The Dawning of Fascism in America
No term generates more confusion or misunderstanding than fascism. It has been applied to people like McCarthy, Hoover, government policies and governments themselves. Exactly what is fascism? It is a totalitarian system of government that bases its economy on capitalism. While none of those examples are completely fascist, if they involved the lost of rights leading to a more authoritarian state or the enhancement of the elitists in a capitalistic society then we shall consider the label appropriate. After all fascism comes in various degrees or flavors just as democracy does. Further it took Hitler over a decade before he attained full power. Fascism and capitalism are inseparable. Notice how the corporate power structure is authoritarian and is geared to reward the elite owners but not the workers.
Leon Trotsky in a brilliant pamphlet first described Fascism. This description of fascism in and of itself is not noteworthy and has been expanded by several others, but the analysis of the evolution of a capitalistic society into a fascist society was brilliantly prophetic. We have already alluded to the fact that Hitler attained his power gradually and no rebellion or revolution was required, this is what makes fascism so insidious and dangerous. It is just a natural degenerative process of a capitalistic society. Likewise, Mussolini also attained power not through rebellion or revolution but through what could be termed a loud march or strike, a riot would simply be an overstatement of the facts. This paper will examine the creeping fascism present in the US and where it may lead if it's unchecked. We shall define creeping fascism as the lost of individual rights or the enhancement of the rights of the elite and corporations containing one or more elements of fascist behavior as defined by past philosophers of fascism or as defined by past behavior of fascist regimes. But first we must look at the evolution of governments and define exactly what fascism involves.
When I was a teen growing up I can recall my father stating that no government had ever lasted more than 200 years. At the time I scoffed at the idea, but with age comes wisdom for most people. So what is the wisdom in that simple statement? Obvious the 200 years figure is incorrect, the US government is now over 200 years old, but that for the most part is trivial. And we surely could find other examples in ancient history for instance the Chinese dynasties, the Roman Empire, ancient Egypt under the pharaohs. No the wisdom in the statement lies in the degeneration of all governments over time until they fail, one might be inclined to say its entropy's effect of tending to disorder. But that doesn't explain why some governments last for 200 years some fail after 60 years, the USSR and still others fail after thirteen years, Nazi Germany. Thus, there is even a more prominent and fundamental reason for the demise of governments through out time. Governments' failure to provide for the masses while maintaining an elitist class is a common theme in the failure of governments old and new a like. A casual glance at past governments that have failed reveals there is a relationship between the amount of liberty that a society enjoys and the stability or longevity of that government. Severely repress people have little to lose in a revolt. Even in a democracy the freedom of the masses are eroded over time as the rich elitists slowly chip away at personal freedoms and scheme to pass laws beneficial and protective of themselves. Perhaps, Thomas Jefferson said it best in the familiar quote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is natural manure."
And what of the revolutions, do they always lead to increased freedoms? Unfortunately no, revolutions come in as many flavors as do the political "isms". Two types of totalitarian revolts are possible from the right we can have a fascist revolt. Fascist revolts are best characterized by private ownership of industrial wealth, a capitalistic economic system and receive the most support from the misguided middle class seeking to maintain their status quo. Or we can have a totalitarian revolt from the left, communism. Where, the capital is collectively owned and supported by the lower members of that society. Also, possible is any revolution between these two extremes with increasing freedoms as one moves away from either extreme, a good example being our own revolution from the King of England that lead to far greater freedoms than previously imagined.
Rather than view this in the traditional left/right continuum it is best to view it in two dimensions. On the graph below the X-axis is the economic system, the Y-axis is the political or degree of control of the society. As one moves away from the center the more extreme nature of the economy or the more totalitarian the political control becomes, resulting in a more unstable society. The figure could easily be extended into three-dimensional space or even greater. By inserting a Z-axis for the social structure (at one extreme there is a rigid class system that would include slavery, much like India's caste system of days gone by at the other end a completely classless society much like the idealized vision of Marx.) further dimensions are unneeded. For now we have the social economic model and the social political model. But for clarity only the first two dimensions are shown in the graph. Just as the center of a ball is better protected from the shocks of the real world, the surface of the ball is exposed to all insults from its environment first hand. Alternatively one could think of peeling away the layers of an onion where each layer represent controls or lost of freedoms until finally one arrives at the germ cell in the center from which true liberty may sprout. With all the emphasis placed on the center, it appears your author here is a centralist, why the lousy no good statist. Well have no fear dear readers, there are far too many damn fools that will label this as the work of a left wing extremist.
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