This article was printed in the Toronto Star. While I do not necessarily agree with everything it asserts, I found it extremely interesting, as it raises some interesting points. I'm still digesting it. Comments?
quote: Fascism then. Fascism now? When people think of fascism, they imagine Rows of goose-stepping storm troopers and puffy-chested dictators. What they don't see is the economic and political process that leads to the nightmare.
Nov. 27, 2005. 01:00 AM PAUL BIGIONI
Observing political and economic discourse in North America since the 1970s leads to an inescapable conclusion: The vast bulk of legislative activity favours the interests of large commercial enterprises. Big business is very well off, and successive Canadian and U.S. governments, of whatever political stripe, have made this their primary objective for at least the past 25 years.
Digging deeper into 20th century history, one finds the exaltation of big business at the expense of the citizen was a central characteristic of government policy in Germany and Italy in the years before those countries were chewed to bits and spat out by fascism. Fascist dictatorships were borne to power in each of these countries by big business, and they served the interests of big business with remarkable ferocity.
These facts have been lost to the popular consciousness in North America. Fascism could therefore return to us, and we will not even recognize it. Indeed, Huey Long, one of America's most brilliant and most corrupt politicians, was once asked if America would ever see fascism. "Yes," he replied, "but we will call it anti-fascism."
By exploring the disturbing parallels between our own time and the era of overt fascism, we can avoid the same hideous mistakes. At present, we live in a constitutional democracy. The tools necessary to protect us from fascism remain in the hands of the citizen. All the same, North America is on a fascist trajectory. We must recognize this threat for what it is, and we must change course.
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I deleted it because it rapidly got derailed by a conversation that I felt was best conducted in private.
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I think there were a lot more important factors that enabled fascism to occur in Germany and Italy and even assuming that the premise is true, that fascists dictatorships were born to power by big business, that doesn't mean big business will always give birth to fascism.
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quote:Originally posted by newfoundlogic: I think there were a lot more important factors that enabled fascism to occur in Germany and Italy and even assuming that the premise is true, that fascists dictatorships were born to power by big business, that doesn't mean big business will always give birth to fascism.
But there is some truth to the statement that Hitler was borne to power by the large corporations who perceived he would do their bidding. They didn't create Hitler, but I think there is merit to the theory that they created many of the circumstances which enabled him to come to power.
Of course, Hitler used and manipulated the industrialists just like he used and manipulated the working class. In the end, they all lost.
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quote: big business will always give birth to fascism
See, I disagree. I think big business WILL always give birth to fascism, provided business gets big enough. Because we frequently confuse capitalism and/or democracy with "pro-business" positions, when in reality both of these are actually kind of business-agnostic. An actual pro-business position -- one which supports the rights of the established corporation, industry or business owner over the rights of the individual citizen -- will, IMO, inevitably produce a fascist state.
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Nod to you dh. The scary thing about politics is that the more extreme any position gets, the less distinguished it is from its opposite end of the spectrum opponent.
Perfect Example: Stalin and Hitler, Fascism was known as patently anti communist, and communism was know as patently anti fascist. But both these guys killed millions of people for the love of power and influence; they were both intolerant of other views, and they would both do anything to win, they weren't SO different.
Right now, it seems to me that the american political system draws our attention to comparatively minor differences of opinion, and then slips by the radar with some HUGE 500 pound gorilla issues that no-one ever adresses.
For example: we spend a month in the political world talking about a brain dead human body that we can't decide to let die or keep alive. The issue really has little bearing on the daily lives of Americans, but we obsess over the problem for weeks. Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to develop its arsenal of horrific wmds. (giant daisy cutters, chemical weapons, nuetron bombs, etc.) and there is no debate about this??? There is no roiling controversy over the fact that we do ALL the things we try and stop other countries from doing. (WMDs, torture, terror campaigns)
Oh, we have plenty of people saying, "hey wait, hang on, isn't this wrong?" But our current government manages to marginalize the common sense opposition so well, that anyone with a genuine point about human rights is marginalized as misinformed, unpatriotic or cowardly.
It feels to me like our government is yelling at all of us to jump up in the air as fast as we can because there are land mines everywhere, but they're not telling us why they think there are mines, or where they think they are, or why they would be there.
This is all so general its hard to describe or understand, much less argue with. But what do people feel about our current government?
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quote:But there is some truth to the statement that Hitler was borne to power by the large corporations who perceived he would do their bidding.
I wouldn't say Hitler himself was born out of German capitalism, I'd say that the conditions of Germany that allowed for Germany to end up in the way it did were set up, pre-WWI, by the business of Germany, of which a large amount was armaments and dyes (which later included poisonous chemicals such as those used in Concentration Camps).
So I'd say the two are related, but not as a totally direct cause and effect.
This isn't to say at all that I don't think that we should be wary of hugely powerful businesses and business groups, such as the pharmaceutical companies, just as we should always be wary of any incredibly powerful group or person. I agree with TomD on this point.
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I guess this would be the difference between the free market, and total control of the market by highly centralized big business. Does capitalism, taken to its extreme, become a contradiction of itself?
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