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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pompsander who wrote (754798)	11/21/2006 6:07:34 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769667

Re: "Speaking of the old "making the trains run on time" analogy, I wonder how many people today realize that Benito Mussolini, the original european fascist, made his bones with breaking the Italian labor chaos surrounding the train system....but much more importantly, Mussolini was lionized by the press and politicians worldwide as the brilliant, young Mr. Fix-it of unmanagable Italy. For a time he was held out as the shining example of enlightened rulers..." One important bit of history that I think a lot of people have forgotten... is that Mussolini always resisted the term 'Fascist'. He believed strongly that what he was doing was harnessing the productive capacity of modern Capitalism and corporations to the guiding hand of a strong Executive for the nation-state (not totally unlike the 'Japan Inc' government/business synthesis of the 'seventies and 'eighties that we are familiar with... or the state of modern American government today, where the federal government pays a LARGE role in the nation's businesses... and visa-versa). Instead of the term 'Fascist', Mussolini preferred the term 'Corporatism' for his political movement. (And, of course, a large measure of corporate involvement --- Krupp, Bayer, the banking sector, etc. --- was also significant in the German development of 'Fascism/Corporatism'.) In some ways it's ironic that the new term 'Islamic Fascism' is being bandied about so much --- when, in fact, the backwards-looking fundamentalist Islamic religious movements being discussed have such an ANTIPATHY to corporate power, and multi-national's influence... as they are expressed in most of the world. Yep... ironic! Religious fundamentalism (regardless of how Authoritarian... religious fundamentalism nearly always turns to Authoritarianism...) is nearly at the OPPOSITE end of the spectrum from 'Fascism/Corporatism'.