Different types of totalitarian governments
interesting post on slashdot.org
about what Fascism actually looks like in America.
[...]
In the real world, fascism is when the corporations and governments work as a single entity, and you can wander around with your fucking gun all you want. In fact, you'll have to wander around, because the government/corporations took your house and your car, and no one will hire you.At which point you'll be arrested, not as some big anti-government hero by jackboot thugs, but for stealing bread to live on, by a perfectly normal cop who's just doing his job, a job that absolutely no one except you disagrees with, so when you shoot and kill him you're getting the electric chair and no one thinks you're a hero at all.
There are different types of totalitarian governments, and assuming a fascist one operates like a communist one is faulty. Fascist governments don't put troops in the streets...they work with corporations to make sure 'the wrong sort of people' do not have any economic power, and do not have anywhere to peddle their ideas.
Modern fascist states don't even bother to kill those people, and pretending they're going to show up in some stormtrooper outfit and start a gun battle with you is insane. They'll show up with a court order to evict you from your home because you failed to pay your mortgage, because pressure came from the top at your company to let you go. Or they'll just sue you and ruin your finances.
[...]
Delicious
Digg
Reddit- Login or register to post comments
- 1016 reads
- Email this journal
- bart's journal
- 26 points
Differentiating Between Fascism and the State
Hey Bart,
This is really interesting and I think it brings up an necessary question: how do we distinguish between fascism and a regular capitalist state? While I agree that the marriage of corporations and the state is at the very least proto-fascist, a capitalist state like the United States has not consolidated and centralized power to the same extent as a truly fascist country. That being said, people with a sense of justice and egalitarianism should oppose a capitalist state with the same vigor as a fascist state. While power may not be as centralized in the United States, it is oppressive and deadly to poor people, people of color, queers, etc... Its violence comes from a slightly different place one might describe as neoliberal. Neoliberal states that promote globalization, such as the U.S. under Clinton's rule, could be considered differently murderous than Bush's U.S. The sanctions against Iraq killed over 1 million people. Bush's bombs have similar records. Policies like NAFTA have had deadly effects on indigenous communities in Mexico and on workers in the United States. These policies, the governments that push them, and the police that defend private property and the government are all guilty of waging violence against the majority of the worlds people for the benefit of a greedy, white minority. Does that make them fascist? I'm not sure it matters. What matters is that police, states, and the rich are help accountable for their crimes, that power is taken from them, and that people liberate themselves from the snares of greed that shape capitalist, fascist, and many communist states alike.
Perhaps a more relevant question to our current crisis is "Is there a viable state solution to the oppression poor people and people of color face?" If a state requires the consolidation of power and resources, I emphatically argue, "No."
By all means, smash the fascists, smash the capitalists, smash the state but whatever we do, we must also create viable systems and structures that ensure direct participation, safety, and health for communities most affected by the violence of the greedy.