Just My Rant

For many years now I have debated whether in fact America was moving towards a fascism. Now to many fascism evokes visions of Hitler, Mussolini and other historical madmen but in reality fascism is much more subtle and even more insidious than the blatant outward hatred shown by these historical demons. Fascism is all about control of people in any way possible, all to achieve power and wealth that far exceeds anything the normal person’s imagination can come up with. Fascism is manipulation of the ‘working class’ via propaganda, coercion and fear in an effort to ‘brainwash’ them into believing they are working for the ‘greater good’ when in fact they are being subjugated into what some might call ‘worker bees’.

In my readings I came across a somewhat obscure American politician that came to these same conclusions back in 1944. His name was Henry A. Wallace. Mr. Wallace was Secretary of Agriculture from 1933 to 1940, under then president Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was a driving force in Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ and a stanch supporter of the struggling underclasses. What really brought my attentions on Mr. Wallace was an article he wrote for the NY Times in 1944. Reading the article I was shocked at the similarities between what he wrote and much of what is going on in the US (and world) today. The first paragraph that grabbed my attention was this:

A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of a fascist, to which his ends are directed, may be money or power; may be a race or a class; may be a military, clique or an economic group; or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.

“to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends” …. where today have we seen this? How about our own government? How many lies, half truths and falsified reports have we seen over the past few years, all leading us into a war based on these so-called ‘facts’. A war that ‘churns the money machine’ of business. You see war is BIG business, always has been and always will be. It is also a business that is confined to a select group of companies which stand to make (and have made) vulgar amounts of income.

But lets leave the Government alone for a second. What about the massive corporations in existence today? What about the Enrons and Worldcoms that manipulated money and people in any way they could, all for the love of the almighty dollar. What about Halliburton and the endless stream of complaints they charge insane amounts of money for services to our government and troops, all while providing (what has been reported) sub standard, if not non existent, services? Again the money machine of war comes into play but this time the ties between the government and big business appear a bit more ‘intimate’ than in previous wars.

The next paragraph that made my stomach feel sick was this:

The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned. The really dangerous American fascists are not those who are hooked up directly or indirectly with the Axis. The FBI has its finger on those. The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.

“With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.” Except for the dated reference to Hitler this might have well been written yesterday. How about all those phony ‘terror threat elevations’ we saw, all of which seemed to be timed perfectly to ‘wag the dog’ away from other news that may have been embarrassing to our government? The word propaganda makes a lot of people uncomfortable but in fact that is exactly what 90% of the American news has become. Either they are reporting some nonsense about some idiot star all while ignoring important news or they are falling for some new ‘report’ from the government that is as idiotic as their previous claims of WMDs.

The very next paragraph in Mr Wallace’s paragraph is even more chilling:

If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States. There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful. Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends. They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so, but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.

I don’t think I really have to comment on this with one exception, replace German chemical firms with ‘Iraqi and Iranian oil firms’.

Very next paragraph:

American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists, the deliberate poisoners of public information, and those who stand for the K.K.K. type of demagoguery.

“a purposeful coalition among the cartelists” … You mean like the connections between big oil, defense contractors and our government?

The next paragraph goes on about how he thought the next wave of fascism might come from South America but one line in it really stood out:

Our chemical and other manufacturing concerns are all too often ready to let the Germans have Latin American markets, provided the American companies can work out an arrangement which will enable them to charge high prices to the consumer inside the United States.

All I could think about as I read this line over and over was the record profits the oil companies have posted while whining that gas prices HAVE to be at the $2.50 - $3.00 a gallon range or they would lose money. Total bullshit and in my mind total fascism! The next sentence in Mr. Wallace’s article states:

Fascism is a worldwide disease. Its greatest threat to the United States will come after the war, either via Latin America or within the United States itself.

Latin America? Nope! Within the United States itself? Bingo!

Mr. Wallace goes on:

Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion. American fascists of this stamp were clandestinely aligned with their German counterparts before the war, and are even now preparing to resume where they left off, after “the present unpleasantness” ceases:

Again, all we need do here is replace the German with one of many other countries.

We continue:

The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power. It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice. It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups. Likewise, many people whose patriotism is their proudest boast play Hitler’s game by retailing distrust of our Allies and by giving currency to snide suspicions without foundation in fact.

As powerful as that whole paragraph is one line made me shiver:

Likewise, many people whose patriotism is their proudest boast play Hitler’s game by retailing distrust of our Allies and by giving currency to snide suspicions without foundation in fact.

Let’s not even talk about the ‘air of suspicion’ that has been placed on just about anyone who is, or appears, to be of a mid eastern decent. What about things like ‘freedom fries’ as a slap in the face to France because they (rightly so) called Bush a liar before the war? Again OUR government used the horrible acts perpetrated on 911 to stir an almost maniacal frenzy of Patriotism to get exactly what they wanted: an unjust war with Iraq and the repeal of many of our constitutional rights!

The next paragraph is do damn ‘on target’ it literally took my breath away:

The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to conceal their own selfish imperialism. They cultivate hate and distrust of both Britain and Russia. They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.

I’m sorry folks but I have read that paragraph at least 25 times and each time I feel sicker and sicker! Again all we need do is replace ‘Britain and Russia’ and replace them with Iran, Iraq, Venezuela and North Korea! As far as destroying every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution? Well we all know they have done a damn good job of that so far with the Patriot Act. Hell, even it’s name evokes that ’super patriotism’ nonsense! And what about the repeal of habeas corpus? Have you noticed ANYONE in this newly elected Congress or for that fact ANYONE in our government or media mentioning this lately?

The next paragraph is long but there is one section that speaks to the new era of monopolies in the US today (another thing the news and government seems to not notice):

Monopolists who fear competition and who distrust democracy because it stands for equal opportunity would like to secure their position against small and energetic enterprise. In an effort to eliminate the possibility of any rival growing up, some monopolists would sacrifice democracy itself.

For those of you that haven’t been paying attention in the last few years (and most of your haven’t) a good portion of our media is now owned by a few massive companies. Hell even good old ‘Ma Bell’ has been slowly but surely rebuilding their power by taking over any smaller phone company they can get. If you looked at the full list of takeovers in the past 6 years (under GW’s administration) it would scare you! The day of the monopoly (and the breaking of the unions and the average worker’s rights) is here just as much as it was in the early 1900!

Mr. Wallace continues in a bit of a rant here:

Democracy to crush fascism internally must demonstrate its capacity to “make the trains run on time.” It must develop the ability to keep people fully employed and at the same time balance the budget. It must put human beings first and dollars second. It must appeal to reason and decency and not to violence and deceit. We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels. As long as scientific research and inventive ingenuity outran our ability to devise social mechanisms to raise the living standards of the people, we may expect the liberal potential of the United States to increase. If this liberal potential is properly channeled, we may expect the area of freedom of the United States to increase. The problem is to spend up our rate of social invention in the service of the welfare of all the people.

The ‘make the trains run on time’ reference is in relation to Mussolini’s comments that ‘He made the trains run on time’, in essence he was trying to con the Italian people into believing he was ‘on their side’ by pacifying them, all the while destroying Italy from the inside out. But let us ignore that for now. Mr. Wallace was saying that government, science and technology MUST be the servant of the people. Their goals MUST be to make everyone’s lives somewhat better. With all the advances in technology that have come to fruition in the past 60 years how many people today still are homeless, are impoverished. How many families have to choose between eating and seeing a doctor. How many families have two adults working two (or more jobs) and STILL can’t pay the bills, all while corporate profits soar and trillions of dollars are wasted by our government each and every day!

There is a lot more but I will only quote this last line from his article about fascism:

It is an infectious disease, and we must all be on our guard against intolerance, bigotry and the pretension of invidious distinction. But if we put our trust in the common sense of common men and “with malice toward none and charity for all” go forward on the great adventure of making political, economic and social democracy a practical reality, we shall not fail.

“with malice toward none and charity for all” … now there’s something most Americans couldn’t even comprehend these days!

Mr. Wallace seemed to have been a soothsayer with this article, a visionary in so many ways and a man of compassion and understanding. He saw what so many today seem to not be able to see (or choose to ignore) over 60 years ago. Thinking of him I wondered what he would say if he were alive today and what others would say about him. My guess is he would be attacked by the powers that be as a rabid liberal or a nut!

You can find the full text of Mr. Wallace’s article here

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