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Friday, March 25, 2016

Fascism is not our problem

My latest post appears here.

5 comments:

Energyflow said...

Typical yin-yang dichotomy. The korean flag symbol. You go so far in one direction as possible and the sed of change lies in this. Then this seed blossoms and the situation turns around. Diversity, ideologically, ethnically through immigratiion, through media distractions, geographically through choice of residence has all allowed USA to become a country divided, into red-blue by region, city, neighbourhood, webpage, ethnic grouping, sexual and religious identity. The current internal civil war runs parallel to the undeclared cold war and both are similar in scope and have their roots in the confused mindset of the population. USA has to decide its relationship to itself and to others. Conflict or self analysis or both. Putin and china are pushing back from outside and the impoverished masses from the inside.Rational limits to power expansion must be set. What is government for, global police state, global free trade, unlimited migration, bank and corporate socialism or a politics of rational limits for a regional power with a nurtured working and middle class. USA looks like late stage Rome frankly. In human history this story always repeats itself. King of the hill we called this game as kids. In yin yang terms if you take it too far you get karmic feedback corresponding to your input. Annihilation of middle class, foreign great powers brings power vacuum filled by despotism due to lack of alternatives. Rise of trump and right wing in Europe is casen in point.

Gloucon X said...

“To put the matter simply, western society lacks the organizational skill to create a totalitarian movement.”

Organizational skill has nothing to do with it. A Fascist or Communist style totalitarian movement simply does not suit the needs of our current plutocracy, which is rapidly growing in strength using far more brilliant but less dramatic organizational skills. Today, people are controlled financially, without the need for a lot of goosesteping. Financial control is much smarter than dressing up in a distinctive uniform and making yourself a target, don’t you think?

Rather than “Big Government”, Americans took their chances with “Big Corporate Plutocracy” instead. Sure, there’s a bit of grumbling now over the fact that the plutocracy decided to eliminate the middle class. But polls show that well over half of Americans believe in heaven, so they really don’t mind, in church every week they are assured that they will get pie in the sky when they die.

Bozon said...

Professor

Great post. Re Weimar, etc., great analogy, it seems to me.

No Americans understand a word of this, I fear. Oh well....

See also my post, somewhat on this subject:

http://bozonbloggon.blogspot.com/2014/07/as-my-father-in-law-once-put-it.html

all the best

sglover said...

Organizational skill has nothing to do with it. A Fascist or Communist style totalitarian movement simply does not suit the needs of our current plutocracy, which is rapidly growing in strength using far more brilliant but less dramatic organizational skills. Today, people are controlled financially, without the need for a lot of goosesteping. Financial control is much smarter than dressing up in a distinctive uniform and making yourself a target, don’t you think?

Agreed, but with a small quibble about "financial" control. That's the desired end. But the mechanisms are ultimately psychological: The tools of distraction and diversion pioneered by marketing. These are vastly more effective and efficient than anything Goebbels or Stalin could have dreamed up. Direct coercion is expensive and prone to backfire.

Energyflow said...

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/depressing-survey-results-show-how-extremely-stupid-america-has-become
This article based on survey results confirms your academic experience with dumbing down. If obesitybis the fault of automobiles then stupidity is to be blamed on mass media. Slavery destroyed southern states morality as in old rome and our automated entertainment and cars, household appliances as slaves are destroyong our independent thought and capability for fine motor skills and cardiovascular fitness. Animals exist to survive on the cutting edge of individual capability in every sense. We live in a sort of zoo managed by govt./industrial keepers. Socialized in schoo
, work, media to go through a routine that is constantly less challenging we lose all survival skills like a tiger in a zoo in xth generation who never knew the wild, cannot think for himself and is out of breath standing up. So plutocrats take us over. Mise en place was done by taming us with machines and media, creating physical and psychological dependencies.