A while back, Laurence Britt published an article in Free Inquiry magazine entitled “Fascism Anyone?”.
In the article Britt looked at a number of fascist regimes (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia) and finds fourteen common characteristics of all of them. The “14 characteristics of fascism” from the article have spread far and wide across the net–you’ve likely seen them, and if not Googling either that phrase or Britt’s name will return plenty of hits.
Here’s one of the points, by way of example:
7. Obsession with national security. Inevitably, a national security apparatus was under direct control of the ruling elite. It was usually an instrument of oppression, operating in secret and beyond any constraints. Its actions were justified under the rubric of protecting “national security,” and questioning its activities was portrayed as unpatriotic or even treasonous.
Britt is actually pretty subtle, making his points and letting them speak for themselves with the obvious conclusion about modern day America. Only where the article was published, and the final paragraph make his point explicit:
Does any of this ring alarm bells? Of course not. After all, this is America, officially a democracy with the rule of law, a constitution, a free press, honest elections, and a well-informed public constantly being put on guard against evils. Historical comparisons like these are just exercises in verbal gymnastics. Maybe, maybe not.
Since my first read of that article I have wanted to post follow-ups to it.
One idea I had was to list the fourteen points and then under each one I could add links to news stories that highlighted how the point applied to modern day America.
However, it appears that someone already did that
Another idea I had was to make a Flash movie where someone with a cool voice (I was thinking Avery Brooks, using his Hawk voice) would read the points from the article while the images of various current news bits that illustrated the relevance would flash on the screen.
But… someone did that already, except without the cool-voiced narrator. (If you’re just skimming this article, you should still watch that movie.)
So, I guess I’ll just do a post on this, and make sure my small cadre of readers have all seen it.
