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Parenti says that fascism is a new order and consciousness that served the same old power structure(the plutocrats) and promised to solve the ills of the many while protecting the interests of the few. He answers in detail who financed the Fascist parties and what services the fascists rendered in return. Many of the measures enacted by fascists were frighteningly similar to those enacted today: They include the privatization of state owned enterprises, reduction of corporate taxes and inheritance taxes, defeat of unions, and the suspension of civil liberties.
http://www.tucradio.org/1109parentithree.mp3
Listen first to this program then continue to read this post.
The government of Nazi Germany was a fascist, totalitarian state. Totalitarian regimes, in contrast to a dictatorship, establish complete political, social, and cultural control over their subjects, and are usually headed by a charismatic leader. Fascism is a form of right-wing totalitarianism which emphasizes the subordination of the individual to advance the interests of the state. Nazi fascism's ideology included a racial theory which denigrated "non-Aryans," extreme nationalism which called for the unification of all German-speaking peoples, the use of private paramilitary organizations to stifle dissent and terrorize opposition, and the centralization of decision-making by, and loyalty to, a single leader. Very important was to give the people a Myth to believe in as well. Perhaps the myth of Intelligent Design or that of Democracy is what is being used today. Besides, the term Capitalist Democracy sounds softer than Totalitarianist Fascism.
Totalitarianism is a form of government in which all societal resources are monopolized by the state in an effort to penetrate and control all aspects of public and private life, through the state's use of propaganda, terror, and technology. Totalitarian ideologies reject the existing society as corrupt, immoral, and beyond reform, project an alternative society in which these wrongs are to be redressed, and provide plans and programs for realizing the alternative order. These ideologies, supported by propaganda campaigns, demand total conformity on the part of the people.
Totalitarian forms of organization enforce this demand for conformity. Totalitarian societies are hierarchies dominated by one political party and usually by a single leader. The party penetrates the entire country through regional, provincial, local and "primary" (party-cell) organization. Youth, professional, cultural, and sports groups supplement the party's political control. A paramilitary secret police ensures compliance. Information and ideas are effectively organized through the control of television, radio, the press, and education at all levels.
The intellectual roots of Fascism can be traced to the voluntaristic philosophers who argued that the will is prior to and superior to the intellect or reason.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was a German philosopher who held that the will is the underlying and ultimate reality and that the whole phenomenal world is the only expression of will. Human beings have free will only in the sense that everyone is the free expression of a will and that we therefore are not the authors of our own destinies, characters, or behavior, he wrote. He theorized that space, time, and causality were not absolute principles but only a function of the brain, concepts parallel to the scientific discoveries of relativistic physics two generations later.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher and poet best known for "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." He theorized that there were two moral codes: that of the ruling class (master morality) and that of the oppressed class (slave morality). The ancient empires grew out of a master morality, and the religions of the day out of the slave morality (which denigrates the rich and powerful, rationalism, and sexuality). He developed the concept of the "overman" (superman) which symbolized man at his most creative and highest intellectual capacity.
Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was a French philosopher of Jewish parents who was the leading rejectionist of the concept that scientific principles can explain all of existence. He asserted that metaphysical principles also apply. He found credence in applying the biological theories of Darwin (which pointed to the "survival of the fittest" in biological systems) to social theory.
George Sorel (1847-1922) was a French social philosopher who had a major influence upon Mussolini. Sorel believed that societies naturally became decadent and disorganized, and this inevitable decay could only be delayed by the leadership of idealists who were willing to use violence to obtain power. His anti-democratic, anti-liberal views and pessimistic view about the natural life-cycle of a society were antithetical to most of his contemporaries.
Gabriele D'Annunzio (1863-1938) was an Italian politician, poet, dramatist, novelist and war hero who was a supporter of Mussolini.
Fascist Ideology
Fascist ideology was largely the work of the neo-idealist philosopher, Giovanni Gentile. It emphasized the subordination of the individual to a "totalitarian" state that was to control all aspects of national life. Violence as a creative force was an important characteristic of the Fascist philosophy. A special feature of Italian Fascism was the attempt to eliminate the class struggle from history through nationalism and the corporate state. Mussolini organized the economy and all "producers" - from peasants and factory workers to intellectuals and industrialists - into 22 corporations as a means of improving productivity and avoiding industrial disputes. Contrary to the regime's propaganda claims, the system ran poorly. Mussolini was forced into compromises with big business and the Roman Catholic Church. The corporate state was never fully implemented. The inherently expansionist, militaristic nature of Fascism contributed to imperialistic adventures in Ethiopia and the Balkans and ultimately to World War II.
Nazism
Nazism refers to the totalitarian Fascist ideology and policies espoused and practiced by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Worker's Party from 1920-1945. Nazism stressed the superiority of the Aryan, its destiny as the Master Race to rule the world over other races, and a violent hatred of Jews, which it blamed for all of the problems of Germany. Nazism also provided for extreme nationalism which called for the unification of all German-speaking peoples into a single empire. The economy envisioned for the state was a form of corporative state socialism, although members of the party who were leftists (and would generally support such an economic system over private enterprise) were purged from the party in 1934.
How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.
Adolf Hitler
The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.
Adolf Hitler
The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.
Adolf Hitler
The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.
Adolf Hitler
Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for its own destruction.
Adolf Hitler
What good fortune for governments that the people do not think.
Adolf Hitler
What luck for rulers, that men do not think.
Adolf Hitler
When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community."
Adolf Hitler
Who says I am not under the special protection of God?
Adolf Hitler
Listen to the parallels to modern republican America, and be afraid. The plutocratic philosophy is alive and well in the American philosophy of world domination.
Nazi means National Alliance of Socialist German Workers Party.
You people like to ask questions and make me do the work. Heres some research for you to perform. Time to start thinking and comparing.
In the United States, the president is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. What does this do to his power as leader. How could this be used to regulate the power structure of checks and balances. Is it in the best interests of America to allow this power to be weilded by one man?
Obtain a report from Amnesty International on human rights violations around the world. Also obtain the parallel report from the State Department, China, Russia, Iran etc. What do others say about our human rights violations that seem to be missing from our reports. Is there a consistent pattern?
How does the domestic media reports compare to the Voice of America news reports?
Could an avowed racist or anti-Semite be elected President of the United States? If not, why not? If so, how might such an election come about? Does being white give privilege and purpose to the concept of master race and leadership of all other races?
When Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, comparisons were made between Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler. How does this compare as to the differences in the world situations and the world's responses to Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland and Hussein's annexation of Kuwait.
If you were a citizen in 1933 Germany, how would you feel about your government? What options did you feel you had for expressing opposition to this government or to participate in it? How do these options differ from the options you have today in the United States?
