Page 8 - Ruminations

6. Three observations about fascism

1. The definition of “fascism” has changed in the American Heritage
Dictionary. One might reasonably wonder why.

A philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a
dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state
and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent
nationalism. (1969)

A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a
dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental
controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy
of belligerent nationalism and racism. (2018)

2. How to maintain power in a manufacturing economy:

 Manufacture consent: “opiates of the masses” religion, drugs,
self-indulgence and consumerist involvement in vicarious life:
show-business, sports, role-playing; fantasies of opportunity.
 Manufacture dissent: internecine conflict; division of
opponents, agents provocateurs; politics of attrition;
delegitimization of public bases of power not de facto
following the rulers’ line or attempting de jure change.
 Manufacture emotions: channeling of fear and aggression
masked as patriotism; PsyOps and propaganda to minimize
inquiry and maximize brutalization of life as social necessity;
habituation to “1984” surveillance by degrees.
 Manufacture information: spread lies through interlocking
directorates of fictionally independent sources of education
and information; reinforce paranoia via conspiracy theories;
deflect attention from real power; suppress independent
thought, rewrite history.

3. The autocratic fascism of Russia is obscured by the term “oligarch.”
The obscenely wealthy people Putin controls are not rulers. In the
USA the roles are reversed: the obscenely wealthy control a puppet
government. In Russia, money follows the power; here, power follows
the money. The USA looks more like a plutocracy than Russia does.
The real “bundle” of fascism is not the unified power of people
sharing the wealth, but the tie-up of wealth and power in a few people.