- Part 1. It strikes me that Eco is talking largely about modern tactics of reactionary brainwashing. Reaction implies discrediting the present (rejection of modernism) and worship of a mythic past (cult of tradition). Brainwashing implies getting people to let go of reason (irrationalism, action for action's sake, fear of difference) and law ("rotten" parliaments). And, having stripped people of everything that makes life good-- progress, reason, law, democracy-- they must be occupied with something to distract them (endless war and hatred). The effect is to replace the ego with the state, such that the individual has no life except through the actions of the nation. What differentiates fascism from, say, the Cultural Revolution, is the use of the mythic past, entirely understandable since fascism is reactionary while Marxism is modernist.
Part 3. Griffin identifies the ethnicism as a key element of fascism. Certainly the Aryan myth was central to Nazi Germany. But as a corollary, one would conclude that pluralistic societies are incapable of fascism while ethnically homogeneous societies are exceptionally prone. While I think it's clear that pluralistic societies have a measure of resistance to fascism that homogeneous societies do not, that's more a matter of distribution of power. If one ethnic group feels that it is being made a scapegoat, it can strike back, and in particular by enlisting other ethnic groups that may feel threatened. Japan, one of the most ethnically homogeneous societies in the world, has intense ethnic fissures, in large part because people want it to be so. People divide themselves according to province or dialect or even as "sweet" and "sour" people.
I would disagree that there is any substantive difference between the antimodernism of Islamists and that of, say, German fascism. They both need modernism to produce weapons and disseminate propaganda. In those areas, they both admire modernism. Outside of those areas, both are equally anti-modernist. It is notable, I think, that the Nazi regime did not arm and equip women to fight in the final days. Their propaganda had worked too well, and they failed to realize that healthy women could be better soldiers than elderly men and young boys.
Also, in this piece, the question occurs as to whether the Patriot movement represents a creation from bottom up or from top down. I think arguments can be made on both sides. The farm crisis, the declining relative status of men (especially white men) and the stagnation of American living standards has created discontent which has spawned extremism. But, on the other hand, would that discontent have reached the level of organization it has without help from very high places?
Part 4. This segment also identifies ultranationalism as a core element of the Patriot form of proto-fascism. I agree that this is critical. What is lacking for the transformation to full fascism, as you quote Pitcavage, is the melding of individual (groupuscular) fasces into a whole. This can only be accomplished by a large scale organization such a government, perhaps through a charismatic leader-- or perhaps through an uncharismatic leader with a relentless media machine and very good PR.
Part 5. I can't agree that the Bushes are certainly not underwriting the far right. While these matters are unprovable, I think it's likely they simply use deniable methods. But George W's participation in neo-confederate organizations, and GHW's participation with the Unification Church seem to go beyond simple opportunism. These suggest to me personal commitments to extremism. I would say, don't be too quick to write off GW as a fascist.
Part 6. This distinction between the corporatist and fascist wings of the movement is strained. Hitler rose to power because most industrialists saw his rise as advantageous. But this was not pure opportunism. Clearly many of them believed part or all of Nazi ideology.
Part 7. Straws that stir the pot or employees? I have a sense that the people who you call transmitters are either actual employees of someone else or are using the movement as a means of career advancement in a society that has started choose who to promote through ideological tests (for example, the attempts of DeLay and Armey to purge Democrats from lobbying and trade groups; for example, the rise of "Christian" businesses that decline to hire people who do not share the conservative, fundamentalist faith in Money). I call Limbaugh an employee, because it's clear that much of his advertising comes from sponsors who are not making economically rational decisions to advertise on his show.
Parts 8 and 9. Here this issue of who is a transmitter and who is part of the decision-making elite becomes clear. James Dobson is not simply someone who acts passively. He is a part of top Republican leadership and an exponent of Reconstructionist views (I regard Reconstruction as a fascist movement; Christian dogma about destroying the individual to reform him around Christ can be used in a totalitarian fashion). The fact that you list so many congressmen and top theocrats -- even Rupert Murdoch's cable network -- as transmitters calls the question: Who is in charge, if not these powerful people?
Part 11. The receivers -- this is the critical part. There are always nuts, and always people who want to seize power. But only rarely are nuts granted power. Certainly it is almost unheard of for a nation that is not in crisis, that is well-educated and nominally democratic, to make a transition from democracy to fascism. The closest example I can think of is Japan, but its democratic traditions were shallow. So, we have to recognize that among the causes of the rise of fascism in the United States, we must include a widespread illness of the body politic that makes it susceptible.
I think the psychological analysis starts to reach an understanding of the phenomenon of fascism, although I will quibble with the terminology. People who join extremist movements feel alienated, even though objectively they may not seem so. They no longer identify with the broader society, even though they may be right at the center of their community. This is what I think is meant by a "lack of integrative ethic" and a sense of a "broken covenant". Feeling isolated (even if one is not) is what sets in motion coping strategies, which you quote Anthony and Robbins as calling "splitting" and "projective". In effect, because the individual feels bad, he creates a locus onto which to displace his sense of badness. But the source of the feeling of badness is the sense of alienation.
And here is where the sickness in the body politic is. These people are allowed to gain power partly through laziness, partly through lack of self-confidence, partly through ignorance -- but partly because so many Americans feel like failures. We have talked about The People of the Lie and the malignant narcissism hypothesis behind right-wingism [a previous dialogue we engaged in at Salon's Table Talk]. I think there's an important insight there.
In summary, I think it would be wiser to forget about politics (temporarily) and split the discussion of fascism along the following lines:
1) The personality disorders, particularly disorders of the ego, at the heart of political extremism.
2) The role of war, financial depressions, forced relocation and other upheavals in exacerbating personality disorders.
3) Coping strategies for crisis. I think specifically of St. Paul's separation of the sinful body and the purity of Christ sown in the heart and the Christian subordination of the ego to the body of Christ as coping strategies that are easily subverted toward wrongful ends,
4) Tactics of modern totalitarian and cult movements; the subversion of individuality, the abandonment of reason, the enlistment of the individual in a great cause such as war.
5) The critical role of the powerful in transforming protofascism into state fascism.
6) Opportunistic issues such as ethnicism, religious extremism and ultranationalism.
Ultimately, I think that what differentiates fascism from other forms of totalitarianism is extremely simple. Of all the kinds of totalitarianism, only a few are reactionary (theocracy and fascism being the main forms). Of the few forms of reactionary totalitarianism, fascism relies on corporate power to effect the transformation.
Much of the dispute about fascism strikes me as actually argumentation about the means by which power is seized, and means tend to be opportunistic or incidental. Communists are not generally in control of corporations before the revolution, so they use other means. But as I commented to an employee who had escaped from post-Tienanmen China, "You have communists in charge, and they are very bad. But in this country, we have communists in charge too. We call them capitalists." In other words, ideology is like clothes. Underneath, totalitarianism is pretty much the same.
And, as for the Bushes, it's premature to write them off as mere corporatists. I think that, as Ronald Reagan said, "You ain't seen nothing yet".
Well, I really am an optimist underneath it all, Joel. But the facade is wearing pretty damned thin these days. Lately, I'm with Digby, for whom the war has been an extremely enervating event. Killing cuts the heart out of me.
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