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elder999
9th July 2003, 14:07
So I looked up "facism" in my American Heritage Dictionary, 1983 abridged edition. It stated:

"A system of government that exercises dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

Then I checked the current AHD edition online. Mention of the "extreme right" had been scrubbed, along with any reference to the merging of state and corporate power.

So much for the "lies of the liberal media.....":rolleyes:

Welcome to the Matrix.

glad2bhere
9th July 2003, 14:28
Dear Aaron:

On many of the Nets these days are a growing number of comments on the nature of the American governmnet and its role in the future. Lost in many of these discussions are the implications of such past events as the Kennedy coup, the Gulf of Tonkin Lies and the recent wholesale failure of the American Coporate system. The United States has been run by the monied interests almost since its inception, though the time when 90% of the country were rural farming communities is long a thing of the past. To my way of thinking the masses of rural communities formerly acted as a buffer of sorts between the disenfranchised and the wealthy--- much as the suburban middle-class does in the more corporate urban setting of today. It is, however, something of a maxim in social dynamics that the more diminished the Middle-class the greater the probability that the disenfranchised will confront the wealthy--- and the result to date has always been revolution and redistribution of the wealth.

To my eyes it is becoming increasingly apparent that we are not only headed in this direction but that the government has already moved to anticipate such an eventuality with various actions such as the Homeland Security Office, consideration of Urban surveilance, reduced services to "unprofitable" quadrants of the society and culture and increased focus on military action and international policy.

There is little or no reason to pursue discussion along these lines as the advocates of government policy are almost universally those who has either benefited from it in one way or another or have never experienced the consequences of a government which has lost touch with the people. On the other hand a person such as myself will never be able to re-establish a faith in the government having been disillusioned by the results of its policies in the past. Effectively the discussion becomes a stand-off. FWIW.

Best Wishes,

Bruce

David T Anderson
9th July 2003, 17:48
Heh -- I vaguely recall a comment attributed by Huey Long, a former governor of Louisiana and a noted political strongman. He was asked [back in the 30's when 'Fascism' wasn't a political swear-word] whether Fascism could ever come to America. "Yes", he said, "but it would be renamed 'Americanism'".

BTW, this isn't a slam against America or Americans. I would say that _every_ Western nation nowadays is well down the road to Fascism by the AHD definition...esp. including Canada where the current Prime Minister is related by marriage [his daughter] to one of Canada's biggest financial/industrial families, whose businesses get some very useful gov't favours. All this is not to mention the many very cozy ties between business and government on all sorts of levels.

This is one of the reasons I am a Libertarian who advocates an ultra low-tax laissez-faire political economy. Big money and political power is an incredibly dangerous mix, and everything we can do to limit the connection will repay us in freedom.

CEB
9th July 2003, 17:52
Isn't Fascism were people pay a ridiculous amount of money for ugly or weird looking clothes from fancy designers that you can never wear to work?

A. M. Jauregui
10th July 2003, 01:23
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