Public policy, social issues, gender politics, religion, civitas, and other taboo topics fall under the hammer of Shava's iconoclasmic force of natural philosophy.
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The "F" word
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
8:49 AM
I was talking to my mother, a sweet 82 year old labor liberal, and as we were chatting about the State of the Nation, she said it was about time people resurrected the "F" word, talking about the current administration.
Being as my mother is not accustomed to using bad language, I was taken aback for a minute. "What word, Mom?"
She said, "I am old enough to remember the rise of fascism in Europe. Fascism rises out of jingoism and xenophobia, building up the little man by putting a paternal government over him, and taking away choices. The suppression of dissent."
I could see that.
"Every time people use the word fascist they think of the horrors of folks like Hitler, but Mussolini invented the word. He was an Italian good-old-boy, a horror of banality. He made the trains run on time. What's so different?"
So, I decided to look up what might be considered to be the characteristics of fascism.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power."
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), Fascist Dictator of Italy
"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to the point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group or any controlling private power."
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt - on the threat to democracy by corporate power
Go Mom! Passion keeps you young I guess...;) I'm so used to associating fascism with the sort of rhetoric where you stop the conversation by calling someone Hitler. Even as a political hack, I don't think I could have defined the characteristics.
I'm not sure I'm quite as radical as my parents. I don't know if I'd use the "F" word in mixed company. But it does give one pause.
Food for thought, if a bit emetic...
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