America Becoming a Fascist State?

Here is a quote from the book Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network by James Der Derian.

"In a remarkable 1935 essay for Harper's magazine, "The Revival of Feudalism," political theorist and theologian Reinhold Niebuhr interpreted the rise of Hitler as a reaction to a misguided effort by liberalism to suppress "the organic character of society" that is expressed, sometimes excessively, in displays of tradition, community, and ethnic loyalty. "Fascism," says Niebuhr, "is this outraged truth avenging itself." He concludes that Nazism "could not have achieved such monstrous proportions if our culture had not foolishly dreamed and hoped for the development of 'universal' men, who were bereft of all loyalties to family, race, and nation." (p.170-1)

My question is, are we seeing the same thing in the reaction to the misguided attempts of Liberals to make everyone equal (i.e. no racial profiling (ever), no bias in any way even based on ability, etc.)?

Are we seeing in terrorist organizations here in the US the same fanatism that the Nazi's had in Germany?

Is the Liberal ideal of "one world government" going to create (or already created) support in this country for fascism?

There is plenty of room for revising or undoing multiculturalism without fascism, though efforts to do so will be tarred with that brush. This is already going on in Europe. America will follow, though not to the same degree, since we are already more "diverse" than any European country. Fascism occurs in newer states with less political adaptability and less tradition of representative government or in societies where the bottom has fallen out due to war, depression, inflation or other catastrophe. There would have to be something really monstrous here for fascism to be established. This won't prevent people from throwing the word as an insult at those who want reforms and policy adjustments.

This is from Merriam Webster's Online definition of fascism:

Etymology: Italian fascismo, from fascio bundle, fasces, group, from Latin fascis bundle & fasces fasces

Date: 1921

1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control

This is what I mean when I use the term. For the sake of this discussion, I was leaning toward the second definition more than the first.

Good points.

Germany's Weimar Republic was new, and Italy has always been unstable politically (well, except maybe occasionally during the Roman Republic/Empire). Coupled with the devastation of the Versailles Treaty and generally bad economic conditions throughout Europe, the situation was ripe for such a takeover. With the "Brown Shirts" commiting acts of terrorism within Germany's borders and the Nazi party offering bread to the starving Aryan citizens, it still took a decade or so to bring the Nazi's to power.

With LePen almost elected in France, it got me thinking about many things.

Rome, a republic with a long history of representational government, eventually fell to despotic emporers after many moderate attempts to reverse the effects of liberalism. At least, that's what I understand of her history (please correct me if I'm wrong). I'd hate for the same thing to happen here.

It's been said that Fascism has to do with the anxieties surrounding "modernization. That's why "Islamofascism" rightly or wrongly became such a byword over the last year. If you were a small Iranian landowner or bazaar merchant, and you saw the Shah trying to bring in mechanized agriculture, megaindustries and shopping malls, you might have supported the Ayatollahs too.

The good news is that these anti-modernist rebellions, whether they're characterized as "left" or "right" don't seem to last forever. Two generations of dictatorial rule in China, three in the Soviet Union, a generation of Islamicist rigor in Iran, leave behind a younger generation hungry for Western consumer goods and ideas. Sometimes they can be too naive or too cynical, and they don't overthrow the regime, but they can make it milder.

I don't see any sort of fascism coming to America, but there will certainly be some changes. Multiculturalism is a fragile product of a certain environment, and when nations are threatened, it has to be curtailed. Even prosperity and success at assimilation undercuts official multiculturalism by mixing people together. America is so "diverse" that it has to have a very "broad church" ideology or national consciousness that can appeal to all the many groups that live here.

There is a parallel to Rome. There's always a trauma when a Republic expands to the size of an empire. Does it remain tied to the old values or embrace new universal and imperial ones? Who will rule? But one thing about Rome in Caesar's day and after is that democratic and national ideas weren't so strong as they would be in the modern world, or even as they had been earlier. The strong men would struggle against each other and against the old republican patricians, but the people didn't play much of a role. Being the world headquarters and having "bread and circuses" kept them quiet.

Are we seeing the same thing today with "Fear Factor", "Jerry Springer", "Temptation Island" and the state welfare system? Are they our version of "bread and circuses"?

I've talked to a lot of people about voting, and the most excitement I saw was in the year 2000 when just about everyone I talked to was voting for Bush (except for two of my closest friends who voted for Gore...don't understand that). Other than that, I keep hearing phrases like "what's the point of voting, it doesn't matter anyway," and "The people don't have a voice. Only the rich do, so why bother?" It's different from this Republic's past history from what I've read.

Good point concerning "multiculturalism". Early in this century, Nazism was starting to take hold as a reaction to the huge influx of immigrants, but nothing came of it then. The closest we have to that kind of strength now is the anarchists, and they are relatively puny.

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