anwaar

‘Fascismo’ is the Italian for Fascism. Strictly speaking, the term is relevant to the autocratic political movement that ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini.

Fascismo, however, is also applied to Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler and, loosely, to all other authoritarian-cum-totalitarian regimes since then.

Fascismo is characterized by dictatorial attempts to impose state control over all aspects of citizens’ lives: ranging from political and social to cultural, and economic. Fascismo lauds the nation, state, or race as superior to individuals, institutions, or groups composing it. As an attractive façade, and to whip up mass support, fascismo uses popular rhetoric, calls for a heroic collective effort towards make-believe goals and demands loyalty to a single leader or group of leaders.

Fascismo thrives in a state milieu of insecurity. As people would sacrifice any thing to feel secure from real or imaginary threats (economic, xenophobic, terrorism, crime, etc.), national security remains the main rallying point of fascismo. Toward this end, a sense of insecurity is pumped non-stop into every stratum of societies in fascist states.

The most distinct characteristic of a fascist state, however, remains corporate power and its sinister collusion with the state. Benito Mussolini - who knew something about fascismo - had a more down-to-earth description: “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”

Out of the three most dominant attributes of fascismo i.e. corporate power, militarization of society and racism, the first two stand out as the most common in fascist states. It is clear for all to see that these two traits are now firmly entrenched in the greatest ever power on planet earth. Fascismo has gate-crashed in the grand United States of America. A group of leaders having manifest fascist leanings have America in a stranglehold. Life is slowly being choked out of America’s democratic spirit. The world watches on in a dumbfounded awe.

Some past American leaders have been most prophetic about America’s current state of affairs. Abraham Lincoln, the great seer, once stated, “I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of our country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed.”

Likewise, Kennedy once told the Americans "The biggest threat to American democracy is corporate power,”. Sen. Huey Long was even more accurate when he said, “I'm afraid, based on my own long experience that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."

A small but ruthless group of men, the “money power” described by Lincoln, has stolen democracy from the American people. These men adhere to a political philosophy that sends shivers up the collective spine of global citizenry. To get a glimpse of where these men come from in their politics, it would be appropriate to briefly familiarize ourselves with the ideas of their lead guru, one Michael Ledeen, for it is this man’s portentous ideas that are repeated daily by such figures as Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz.

Ledeen has become the driving philosophical force behind the neoconservative movement and the military actions it has spawned. A quick reading of the brief rejoinder he gave to former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft in 2002, regarding regime change in the Middle East, is enough to give an inkling of which end of the political spectrum these men come from and where they are headed;

“He fears that if we attack Iraq "I think we could have an explosion in the Middle East. It could turn the whole region into a caldron and destroy the War on Terror." One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today………”

The above was Ledeen’s take on America’s foreign policy. For the internal control of America, in a paragraph in his latest book ‘The War Against the Terror Masters’ , he has this to say;

“Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our own society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture, and cinema to politics and the law. Our enemies have always hated this whirlwind of energy and creativity, which menaces their traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for their inability to keep pace. Seeing America undo traditional societies, they fear us, for they do not wish to be undone. They cannot feel secure so long as we are there, for our very existence—our existence, not our politics—threatens their legitimacy. They must attack us in order to survive, just as we must destroy them to advance our historic mission.”

Given both his passion and his influence over the men with the guns, the current ruling American elites, it would not be far fetched to assume that fascismo has finally arrived in the great United States of America.

So who, if any, would stop this inexorable American march towards fascism?

To answer this question, let us first identify the groups of citizens who are capable of effecting a change in the governance of a given country.

Any state, fascist or otherwise, comprises of two distinct sets of citizenry that can profoundly affect the governance of that state, the elites and the masses. These two sets may work together, or singly, to bring about the desired change. When the elites only bring about a change, it is usually to further their own perks and privileges. When the masses rise to do the same, revolutions are the usual outcome with unpredictable consequences. The best results are achieved when the two sets work in tandem to realize the wanted change in their states.

Unfortunately, in fascist, or fascism-prone states, the elites follow a two-pronged strategy. One, to keep the masses in line and two, to siphon off as much money as possible from the rabble to themselves. In dominant military powers, like America, with vast capacities for waging war, maintaining that country on a permanent war footing is the natural choice for fascist elites of such countries. War, without doubt, is the most profitable swindle of them all. Not only does war produce enormous wealth for the elite, it keeps the sheeple divided, shocked, unable to present any kind of resistance and easy to control with sham legislation in the name of national security. It really is that simple.

America, for example, is estimated to have gone to war in no less than five dozen places on the globe since WW II and has dropped, by some estimates, over a hundred million tons of bombs on foreign lands over the last 50 years.

Additionally, in America of today, money is already in the hands of the fascist elites with less than 5% of the population now controlling over 95% of the country’s wealth. Avarice, though, knows no bounds and the present set of American leaders knows this fact for sure. They, therefore, have been wooing these very elites in a variety of ways. They give them tax cuts, help them accumulate wealth without checks and balances and dangle the promise of new markets for their produce with imperialistic expansion. Especially, shifting of the tax burden from the elite onto the masses has been the corner stone of the present cabal’s internal economic policies.

Moreover, in today’s America the elites are spread evenly in the two major political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. While they may appear to be on the opposite ends of the political scale, they have a commonality of interest in looting the masses. The elites in Democrats, the opposition in today’s America, would much rather have common Americans direct their fury into the electoral system rather than stir them to challenge the ruling elites. For however fraudulent the election process may be, the practice also keeps them in their positions of power and privilege. The ruling elite’s complicity in this sinister game, of course, is a definite given.

Therefore, American elite rising to check this relentless stride toward fascism is a non-starter. And with nary a Gandhi, Mandela or King visible on the American horizon, the elites and the masses working in tandem to bring about the desired change seems equally non-viable.

That leaves us with the second set of citizenry capable of providing a serious challenge to this apparently unstoppable march of fascism in the United States of America--the common Americans. Though an ever-growing number of informed Americans are indeed fighting a brave rear-guard action to stem the rot, much more is needed. Only a massive awareness by common Americans, the realization that they have only each other to bond with and their willingness to challenge the powers that be of this illegitimate takeover of their country, the destruction of their constitution and Bill of Rights, can stop the ongoing fascist onslaught in America.

Upton Sinclair had once said: "Fascism is capitalism plus murder."

What hope, if any, is there of stopping the unremitting slide toward fascismo, this dangerous mix of capitalism and murder, in America? Will the lifeless body of American dream replace the torch on the statue of liberty in a deafening sheeple chant of viva fascismo? Or will the American masses transform themselves into a seething, raging torrent to check the relentless march of fascism in their country?

These, then, are the ultimate questions.