Friday, September 5, 2014

Prevent Fascism...By Acting Fascist!



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/03/koch-brothers-recording_n_5757592.html

Once again, the Koch brothers and their fellow travelers are using words when they do not know the meaning of those words. In the post which stimulated this response, they carefully avoid specifics while their supporters repeatedly referred to well-regulated capitalist systems as being fascist or, at least, invariably leading to a fascist dictatorship taking over the entire country.

If in fact the concept is correct, then England, France, Italy, Finland, Japan, and all all the wealthy countries of the world other than the US are already fascist. They have all followed economic policies the Koch brothers and their colleagues claim are automatically deadly to freedom. Of course, that fact doesn't matter because the Koch brothers and their colleagues don't give a damn about facts and reality. They care only about the emotionalism that they can use to generate fear and hysteria and thus gain their goals through the panicked reactions of a population turned in to a political mob.

Obviously, a well regulated capitalist system has nothing to do with fascism. If it did, then America post World War II was a fascist country from the 1950s through the 1970s. Historical note: it wasn't.

Disturbingly, much of what the Koch brothers are trying to accomplish actually does copy the fascist economic system. No, I didn't call anyone Hitler. I referred to the fascist economic system.

It's important to note that not all economists agree that there was a specifically fascist economic system; however there were common elements, especially in those of Germany during the 1930s and 40s.

The system was built upon private ownership. It was built on monopolies. It was built on a few becoming extremely wealthy and using their wealth to maintain political power. It was based upon workers having little or no power. It was bitterly antiunion. It guaranteed that the wealthy capitalists would face no real risks because if the company did face an economic failure, the government would immediately bail them out. The system was a social Darwinian system which assumed that classes were necessary. The superior would rise to the highest class, the wealthy, while the inferior would naturally degrade into the lowest class, the workers. Regulations, especially environmental regulations, were despised. It was assumed the Darwinian effects so desired by the system would be muted by such regulations.

So far, the real Fascists, especially those in Germany, adopted an economic program nearly identical with that of the Koch brothers and their conservative allies.

Now, we must note there were differences between the fascist system and with the Koch brothers' proposals. For example, while there were a few regulations, the German government took an active and, if it desired, a total control of investment.  Nevertheless, most of the significant features of a fascist economic system are replicated in the Koch brothers' proposed economic system for America.

See the following article: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_fascism

Excerpts from the article follow. It is a long read, but clearly reports the elements of a fascist economic system, which is in many ways very similar to the Koch bothers and GOP economic policies, while it is significantly different in a few ways. Please don't just take my word for it. Read the article and do some research on your own. I don't need blind, mindless agreement. I need thoughtful intelligent conversation.


...On the whole, except in a few cases, nationalization of the economy of the fascist states developed on the basis of private property and of private initiative, but it was subordinated to the tasks of the state. As part of the relations between workers and employers fascism was guided by the principles of social Darwinism: the strongest prosper, while the weaker are rooted out. In economic practice this meant on the one hand, protecting the interests of successful businessmen, on the other the destruction of trade unions and other organizations of the working class, "the use of extreme violence to suppress the working class and all working people." 

...The Nazis favored corporatism and class collaboration for assuming - as opposed to the Socialists - that the existence of inequality and the division of society into classes - it's good.

...the responsibility of taxpayers to private capitalist enterprises, the state thus covers failures of the capitalists' profits - business and private individual.


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