The news that Giorgia Meloni has consigned "fascism to history" is a shame because it is one of the most successful systems, much better than Capitalism and has much to still teach us. That is the claim here.
The difference between systems is that Capitalism is Imperialist and enables the international wealthy to exploit a country's success, while Fascism is Nationalist and keeps the wealth for the nation... indeed that is the essence of National Socialisms in general. Communism by contrast keeps the wealth for "communes" etc. So far so good.
To do this the nation creates national monopolies from the best companies, so there is some enterprise and competition, but profits all go to the people of the country. So far so good.
Now this is where it gets murky: who are the people of a country? The debate is still on!
For Capitalism "workers" have no identity they are viewed only as able to work or not, so immigrants are just as good as the established community. It means that products made in a Capitalist economy have no cultural or historical craft an Indian makes cars as well as an American. There is much interest in "ethnic" handmade crafts these days made by people employing the tools and skills of particular communities because this has all been lost under Capitalism.
Contrary to the claims of Capitalism most communities actually name themselves from their "country of origin" (COO) so you have Chinese, Indians, Africans/Blacks, French, Germans, English, Jews (is an odd one) so implicitly everyone actually thinks in terms of Nations being Races also. Under Capitalism people move about to find jobs but still identify with COO. When racists say "Go Home" they are simply articulating this implicit idea that everyone already has... everyone thinks they know their "home". So Fascists try to honour this sense of "home." The Crisis of Modernity in fact is caused by everything in Capitalism losing its home.
Now that is complex cos we all came from Africa originally, that is our true "home" but since then communities have developed other meanings to "home." Anyway under Capitalism people's home is where the work is, under Fascism home is where you think it is... and that requires some negotiation because 1st generation immigrants are split between COO of their parents and where they were born.
This does not need to be complex. In essence I think the litmus test is "which country would you fight for in a conflict between them" is the necessary condition for a passport. Which is actually incredibly intuitive and simple. Can you really call a country your "home" that you would allow another country to invade?
This potentially does get complex for some people. What if Britain invaded Saudi Arabia or Israel would Muslims or Jews in the army take part in the invasion? I say Saudi Arabia cos that is where Mecca is.
So anyway Fascism should not be consigned to history as it absolutely has important lessons for the Capitalism! Altho the "Capitalists" is really exactly why it is supposed to be consigned to history! And like criminalising drugs sending things underground only creates a black market and a festering underworld. Fascism needs to be brought into the open and discussed. Conspiracy theorists may argue here that our fear of Fascism in fact rather suggests Capitalists feel threatened by it.
===
To be fair this is all wrapped up in the infamous "Holocaust" since that was instigated by the Germans under Fascist organisation. But Italy and Spain were fascist too and did not have a Holocaust, so we can't argue that Fascism leads to Holocausts. Holocaust in quotes because actually it means a whole host of things to different people. For some the Holocaust is the whole period of the concentration camps so includes the 1930s. For others it is the mass starvation of concentration camp inmates during the 1940s war (more than half of victims died AFTER the war ended from starvation), and for others it is the Death Camps and the gassing of people. Jews were the largest racial group in the Holocaust so it is often called a Jewish Holocaust but of course Germans needed workers for their factories so did not just amass Jews. Russians were also well represented in the Holocaust. So its a complex period of history, meaning many things, and importantly it is not necessarily entirely linked to Fascism. As argued before in this blog, with the complete destruction of Germany by the Allies and the wide spread starvation this caused, it seems a bit unlikely that all the Jews were starved or gassed to death by the Nazis alone. Hard to believe but the official story of the Holocaust is still that the Allies liberated the camp inmates and the Nazis tried to starve and gas them all... and not one inmate succumbed to the starvation caused by the Allied invasion. If/when this error of history is corrected it may well turn out that the Capitalist invasion of Germany had a bigger hand in the Holocaust than the Fascists! And then importantly we can see how destructive war is and why we should never go to war. But as an aside Fascism gets a reprieve and we can look at it again, and Imperialist Capitalism which has been the real reason for most of the wars of the last few hundred years can get the proper criticism it deserves.
===
Saw a program last night on Nazi home movies and included videos of the horrors and excesses of Operation Barbarossa. The sheer brutality of war is always shocking and no one can ever justify war at any level. I ended up wondering what was worse being an innocent Jew rounded up by Nazis and shot, or being an innocent Japanese and having your city flattened by a terrifying atomic weapon and then wandering the streets for days with you skin hanging off before dying of radiation poisoning. The correct answer is both. Both are worse. Both are unjustifiable, unimaginable horrors. But what is revealing is how propaganda works. Unfortunately for the program on Nazi home movies it was spoiled by sections of emotionally driven and extremely prejudicial narration which made it look like propaganda. Can't people let the Nazi atrocities speak for themselves? If you need to add prejudice this rather suggests the atrocities are not bad enough, which is actually letting the Nazis off. But in the same way you see coverage of the War in the Pacific or Vietnam and there is a matter of fact approach to the atrocities of the Americans which works the other way to make you feel the US is a bunch of psychos who don't care for the lives of anyone and can surgically remove people from the skies without the slightest concern. Who is more terrifying the Americans or the Nazis?
I've mentioned many times in the blog the problem with brainwashing is people replace thinking and sensitivity with factoids. Most people in the West can easily think about Hiroshima as little more troubling than burning their breakfast toast. "It saved lives" is the mantra. Such double-think is particularly typical of the work done by the Pentagon to brainwash. When you have double-think you can almost guarantee it began life at a Pentagon desk. "Saving lives by killing" should start off alarm bells immediately. But perhaps the US is right, by ending the war decisively it saved a long drawn out conflict and saved lives. Except suppose that long drawn out conflict had led to the Japanese winning! That's a deal the Japanese would have accepted. Was it really about saving lives or was it about winning? If it is really about saving lives then why didn't the US just stop fighting? The US has never cared about lives that is the lie hidden in this propaganda. For instance they bombed the Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians mercilessly for 20 years killing innumerable civilians with no actual goal and then withdrew and the world carried on as if the US had never visited SE Asia and destroyed it. Entirely pointless loss of life. The US can never argue that it cares about life! But never-the-less the brainwashed never even think about this. This is exactly the horror of war that people become glazed over and unable to see the horror what they are doing or witnessing. This is exactly how all countries and regimes conduct the insanity that is war. What often happens in fact is that the horrors of war become so great that the propaganda cannot hold them back and then people realise the insanity and head for the negotiating table if they are in power, or start protesting if they are the powerless masses.
So the problem of speaking about Fascism is the over whelming amount of propaganda and brainwashing that the Capitalists have created against it. It leaves you unsure what you think any more. If you are totally brainwashed then perhaps Fascism was never bad at all? And if you are totally brainwashed then perhaps Capitalism is the total evil? This is the problem of Propaganda. Once you realise your establishment has an agenda and has been lying to you to coerce you then don't know what to think anymore. And this is extremely dangerous for everyone. Lying establishments should face the International Courts for misleading their people far more than establishments that abuse and kill their people. At least with violent dictatorship you know where you stand. With insidious brainwashing dictatorships you are inclined to madness.
And this rather underlines the issue raised in this blog that we need to go back and look at Fascism properly, ignore all the prejudice and propaganda and learn properly any lessons there are, which as argued are actually considerable.
No comments:
Post a Comment