Reply #27: "What does it mean for the average citizen to be a fascist?" [View All]

[Melinda]

"I do not have a certain answer to this question. Anyone with a more precise understanding should help here. It seems clear that, at least in the early phases, the average citizen carries out no directly repressive or murderous actions. Rather, it would seem that in a fascist society, s/he watches others do so without protesting, participates in collective national rituals without asking about the repressive and murderous actions being fulfilled by police or soldiers in the nation's name.

<snip>

If in the United States no serious and deep public questioning arises concerning the use of false intelligence and reporting to justify the declaration and pursuit of war, if such questioning is not accompanied by formal political and legal investigation, then I think we would have to face the disastrous reality that significant sectors of the world's wealthiest and most technologically advanced nation are willing to be lied to by their leaders.

I'm not saying this is necessarily the case. I'm saying this looks like a real test. If a majority, or even a preponderant minority of American citizens are collectively willing to go through all the rituals of bellicosity and superpatriotism, but unwilling to demand investigation into the facts which are supposed to have made those rituals necessary, then one would have to very seriously ask the question whether a fascist society is not emerging in the USA."

Somehow seems appropriate here.