I got this from Robert Reich this morning. It is well worth watching:
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Do you remember when Morocco asked to join the European Union?
They weren’t rejected because they didn’t meet the political or structural criteria which they would have had to work on of course.
They were rejected because Morocco wasn’t in Europe.
“Morocco .. were rejected because Morocco wasn’t in Europe.”
A bit tongue-in-cheek, but it didn’t stop Australia and Israel taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest.
It also hasn’t stopped a Tory leading the Labour Party
Without a doubt, D. Dumb is a fascist. More concerning, though is the masses that will just lap it up. Unfortunately, as A. Einstein put it, “Few people are able to express opinions that dissent from the prejudices of their social group. The majority are even incapable of forming such opinions at all”. Good Luck.
Very good-as Reich usually is. It is taken from, or very similar to the work of Robert O Paxton, an American scholar.
Paxton adds Fascism is, largely, a non-socialist working class movement (leadership often not ) which always does a deal with capital to stay in power.
There is another term whose meaning needs some debate. Liberal. Classical liberalism was about individual freedom and the restraint of government. Neo-liberalism is economic in origin but in practice has empowered the elites. Like Fascism it has not done much for the working population.
We define liberal thought as about tolerance and acceptance of difference as well freedom of speech and association.
It failed -speaking very broadly- to consider freedoms for groups as groups. To use an example i read recently, in New York just before the First world War, bakers demanded shorter hours. The authorities took the view that free men were free to negotiate their own contracts and it was not a matter for them. However, women were felt not to be capable of doing that so they agreed to limit their hours to ten a day! Without the women the bakeries couldn’t operate so the men got the same hours by default. As we can see it was about maximising profit but the administration of Theodore Roosevelt acted to limit the powers of big business. (And he was a Republican ! ) Women and the poor could only secure their rights by joint action. Thus socialism entered the arena.
Today we have the Right dominated by neo-Liberal and Fascist beliefs. The ‘Left’ lacks a clear definition it seems to me, but I am open to other views, We see a number of suggestions on this blog which promote a more efficient economy and both group and individual rights. But in society as a whole, many people are like the spouse of one my children. They have always voted for one party but when asked how will you vote next time, replied, ‘I really don’t know.’
We need an identity? program? defintion to suit the modern world.
We do
In the US Bernie Sanders and his many supporters (like me) have the same problem. “Democratic Socialists” does not really cut it.
This is important and worrying, not least because the Financial Times considered a Liz Trust government “the most economical right-wing major party in the developed world” https://tinyurl.com/fvdzkn8v
Of course, being economically far right doesn’t make you a fascist, but when your right to protest is made illegal, and you want to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights, you have to think where this might be leading.
I think the answer is clearly fascism.
Potent – it brings fascism right up to date.
As Ian Tresman says there are echoes of the current Tory Party.
What do you call somebody who won’t defend his own profession but in a very powerful position to do so?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/aug/14/keir-starmer-urged-to-defend-lawyers-after-tories-targeted-campaign
Unprincipled, or a coward, or a captured figurehead operating for undisclosed powers.
I call them a complete and utter waste of space.
What Reich doesn’t mention is genocide which fascism inevitably leads to – cf How To Stop Fascism by Paul Mason.
Asking the wrong question.
Trump is a symptom of the failure of the US body politic to reflect the interests/desires/needs of the US public. Trumps articulation of these needs etc is absurd and nonsensical – but at least it is an articulation – & one that has some resonance.
Reich is part of the problem, he is part of the “elite” that has gradually over time, evicerated US society in the broad sense. In any given society, when there are a range of, often complex problems, that the politicos are incapable of fixing, space is given to those with “quick fixes” and “simple messages” – Mussolinin and Hitler are cases in point.
Jk Galbraith charted the rise of the US financial/industrial complex – and the inevitable development of a political elite that serviced that complex – rather than the needs of citizens. Maybe the US will chuck Trump in jail – “that”l learn him” – and up will pop another Trump-look-alike – because the causes, that produce the symptoms (trump) are not addressed.
The monstering of political alternatives in both the US (Sanders) and UK (Corbyn) show that existing politico/economic systems will not accept anything other than BaU+a little bit (business as usual). Any & all dissenting voices are ignored – & when such voices deliver reality-based truths – cognitive dissonance is deployed by elites and their handmaidens. Cam-moron claimed in a recent televised interview that Labour (pre 2010) suppressed the growth of food-banks by instructing gov welfare centres not to refer people to them. Demented? deluded? or just a liar? I wil leave it to you to decide.
Galbraith was Reich’s PhD supervisor if I recall correctly
I am not convinced he is the problem
I think him an astute observer
You got it wrong there Mike. Trump backed down when the Chinese threatened to impose steep tariffs on US farmers exports of soya and corn (sweet corn) to their country in retaliation for Trump hiking up tariffs on their imports. He made little difference most of what Americans buys continues to be made in China or re-badged to pretend it comes from another country. Trump knew full well he needed the predominantly rural Republican vote to stay in office and cut taxes for the rich like himself even more than he’s already done so!