Friday, October 17, 2003

[Colin Glassey] What is Fascism? This is always hard for me, one might think, having read history for 30 years, that I would know what Fascism is. Michael Ledeen of the National Review has a new essay which talks about Defeating Fascism, Again. Here is an interesting quote from Ledeen: They shared a wildly optimistic vision of human potential and a common political style. Above all, fascism foresaw a transformation of man from a supine servant of modern bourgeois society to a creative warrior who would transform the world in his new image. The fascists believed that the prototype of the "new fascist man" had been forged in the trenches of the first world war — above all, the willingness to risk all, and sacrifice all, for the cause — and that only such men were worthy of positions of power and prestige ...one of fascism's most vexing paradoxes [is] that while the political doctrine emphasized individual creativity, the actual practice of fascist regimes imposed a monotonous conformity, enforced in the name of the collective, whether it be nation, race, or people. I have a hard time seeing the difference in real terms between Fascism and Communism. Yes, their ideas were different and they surely treated private property differently (Fascist said private property was OK, Communists opposed it) but in real terms, how do they differ? Its always about the veneration of one man as the supreme authority on earth, the glorification of the military, and the designation of some group as the hateful other who needs to be eliminated by any means. One can argue that the U.S.S.R. after Stalin died was still communist but not a dictatorship. The same thing happened after Deng died in China. China is still nominally communist but it is not dictatorship. I don't know how to describe China today, Mr. Ledeen says some are calling China a the world's first mature fascist state. As to the article, is Khomeini best described as a clerical fascist? Certainly Castro is and Kim Il Sung of North Korea. And Assad of Syria was a fascist, just like Saddam. But Khomeini? A radical Shiite. A religious dictator. But a fascist? I'm having problems seeing fascism in religious terms. Its true Khomeini is something new by Shia standards but he is hardly the first religious dictator. 2:30:25 PM     [Colin Glassey] History May Not Repeat but Criticism of America Does You will not believe this article, first published in Life Magazine in January, 1946 by the famous novelist John Dos Pasos called Americans are Losing the Victory in Europe. Mr. Dos Pasos makes a critque about our handling of Europe since the end of the war and you litterly can't see the difference between this attack of what is now universally recognized as a huge success and our handling of Iraq. This is NOT a parody. Here are some priceless quotes: Friend and foe alike, look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they are disappointed in you as an American... Never has American prestige in Europe been lower... We have swept away Hitlerism, but a great many Europeans feel that the cure has been worse than the disease...our mechanical de-nazification policy in Germany is producing results opposite to those we planned. Have you no statesmen in America? they ask. 60 years later, having destroyed Saddam's evil, monsterous, tyranny we see the exact same arguements about how America is doing such a bad job. Really? And I suppose our occupation of Germany in 1945 is now regarded in the same light as the Russian occupation of East Germany? OK, now for the truth. Germany was litterly bombed into the earth by the time Hitler committed suicide in April of 1945. We took over half of Germany, the British assumed control of about 20% of the country and we had our hands full trying to fix things. Germany was in very bad shape for many years after the war, the ruined buildings had to be cleared away (on the Russian side, some buildings were still in ruins when the Berlin wall fell in 1989!), the roads had to be rebuilt, the factories had to be repaired, the many, many refugees had to be settled and fed. The problems of Iraq don't even compare to the problems we faced in Germany in 1945. Yes Germans went hungry in the years that followed, yes our soldiers looted a fair amount of objects from the Germans, and yes we weren't really ready to rebuild Germany once we took it over. In fact there was real debate about doing ANYTHING to help the Germans after the war. But as we know from history, what we did worked. West Germany became a hugely successful country by any rational standard within 20 years. So all these people who are shouting about how Iraq is a disaster area, they should learn some history. Nation building takes time and money. Time is most important. We can't be expected to fix everything instantly. We live in the real world. 1:36:44 PM

© Copyright 2003 cglassey. Last update: 11/7/2003; 3:54:35 PM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.