[lit-ideas] Bushism and Fascism
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:30:57 -0800 (PST)
The expansion of democracy in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries intensified the antidemocratic
reaction of conservative authoritarianism. Starting
first in Italy as an antidemocratic and antisocialist
movement after WWI, fascism is in essence the
twentieth century version of age old tendencies in
politics. Like democracy, it is a universal
phenomenon, and it appeared in different forms and
varieties in accordance with national traditions and
circumstances.
Fascism is a postdemocratic political system and
cannot be understood except as a reaction to
democracy. Fascism is not possible in countries with
no democratic experience at all: in such countries
dictatorship may be based on the army, bureaucracy,
and church, but it will lack the element of mass
enthusiasm and participation characteristic of
fascism. Fascism learned from democracy the value of
popular support for national policies, and it sought
to manufacture popular support by propaganda and fear.
Evidence of this manipulation of fear can be seen both
in the color-coded terror alert system, the false
statements made to the U.N. before the invasion of
Iraq, and this video montage of the Republican
National Convention (.mov file)
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14_pts_2.htm
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