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Edited on Sat Feb-14-04 02:41 PM by Lavachequirit
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." — Friedrich Nietzsche "I am a German. I believe in my people. I believe in its honor. I believe in its future. I believe in justice for it, and I will fight for this justice. I fight for its freedom, and I fight for a better peace than the cursed and hateful peace of the past. I believe that and affirm that in the name of my people before the entire world." — Adolf Hitler Liberal democracy was replaced by Mussolini by these two Holy Trinities: BELIEVE, OBEY, FIGHT, and ORDER, AUTHORITY, JUSTICE. These slogans seem to replace every liberal system sooner or later. The Three Fascist Negations: Anti-liberalism Anti-communism Anti-conservatism (though with the understanding that fascist groups . . . more willing to undertake temporary alliances with groups from any other sector, most commonly the right).
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power.” — Benito Mussolini.
Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Hermann Goering's fondness for a phrase from a Hanns Johst play ("When I hear the word 'culture' I reach for my gun") to the frequent use of such expressions as "degenerate intellectuals," "eggheads," "effete snobs," and "universities are nests of reds." The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values.
Ur-Fascism is still around us, sometimes in plainclothes. It would be so much easier for us if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, "I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Blackshirts to parade again in the Italian squares." Life is not that simple. Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances -- every day, in every part of the world. Franklin Roosevelt's words of November 4, 1938, are worth recalling: "If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land." Freedom and liberation are an unending task.
Fascists particularly loathed the social theories of the French Revolution and its slogan: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." http://www.remember.org/hist.root.what.html
Fascism is an extreme right-wing ideology which embraces nationalism as the transcendent value of society. The rise of Fascism relies upon the manipulation of populist sentiment in times of national crisis. Based on fundamentalist revolutionary ideas, Fascism defines itself through intense xenophobia, militarism, and supremacist ideals. Although secular in nature, Fascism's emphasis on mythic beliefs such as divine mandates, racial imperatives, and violent struggle places highly concentrated power in the hands of a self-selected elite from whom all authority flows to lesser elites, such as law enforcement, intellectuals, and the media.
Fascism: "A philosophy of government that stresses the primacy and glory of the state ... obedience to its leader, subordination of the individual will to the state's authority ... suppression of dissent. Martial virtues are celebrated, while liberal democratic values are denigrated ... led by charismatic leaders who represented to their publics the strength that could rescue their nation from political and economic conditions." - Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Encyclopedia. "The government of an exclusive company of merchants is, perhaps, the worst of all governments for any country whatsoever" -- Adam Smith
“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 D. Roosevelt
“The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist — McDonald’s cannot flourish without McDonnell-Douglas, the designer of the F-15.” — Thomas Friedman
'Its almost fascism, it's almost a military state, but thats the price of having someone to protect you' --Stallone in Judge Dread.
'Corporatist society has structured itself so as to eliminate citizen participation in public affairs, except thru the isolated act of voting and through voluntary activities.' -- JohnRSaul
'You know a society is in trouble when the virtual totality of the elite, now a good third of the population, adopts public silence and private passivity on the professional level, then walks away from society to blow off accumulated steam on private pleasures.' JRSaul
"One of the great attractions of patriotism -- it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous." -- Aldous Huxley, English author, 1894-1963
"The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority." --(Milgram, in Obedience to Authority)
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