Newspeak 10/22/10

FASCISM. This term is widely bandied about on many levels from the teenager whose father will not let him have the car keys on a Saturday night, to anyone who opposes liberal progressive ideas.  Strictly speaking, fascism strictly applies only to the Italian Fascisti who were created by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in the 1920s. The fasces, the symbol from which fascism gets its name, goes back to Roman times. It is a bundle of sticks bound together. The point is that one stick may be easily broken but the bundle is much stronger. The fasces appears many times in the United States. It was on the reverse of the Mercury Dime that the U.S. used between 1916 and 1945, is on the National Guard symbol and in several state seals. E Pluribus Unum, anyone? What the liberal progressives ignore or do not know is that Italian Fascism and that in Nazi Germany began as liberal movements. Author Jonah Goldberg calls fascism “a religion of the state.” Many on the American Left were enthralled by the prospect of European fascism in its early years. A major advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, Rexford Guy Tugwell, said of Italian fascism, “It is the cleanest, neatest most efficiently operating piece of social machinery I have ever seen. It makes me envious.”

Jonah Goldberg defines fascism as follows: “It assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. It is totalitarian as it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. It takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought or action, whether by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including the economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. Any rival identity is part of the ‘problem’ and therefore defined as the enemy.”  (emphasis mine) Mussolini believed that the state had to be strengthened against the individual, see Individual below. He said, “It is not the people who make the state but the state which makes the people.” Holy smoke! Goldberg has obviously read 1984. His description exactly describes the world in Orwell’s book, from “national leader attuned to the will of the people” (Obama/Big Brother) to doing anything they want in order to achieve the “common good” (intrusive, over-regulation of our lives) to demonizing the “enemy”  as in “the problems caused by the last eight years”. My apologies for using “Holy smoke!” It is undoubtedly politically incorrect and I should have said, “Secular smoke!”

FEAR MONGERING (WHAT IS GOOD FOR THE GOOSE DEPARTMENT). The charge that the Left throws at normal people when they question parts of the liberal agenda, say, healthcare, by warning of the enormous cost overruns that will undoubtedly occur.  Barack Obama said during the debate about healthcare, “There's been a lot of fear-mongering, a lot of overheated rhetoric.” Now, however, the Arizona immigration law is “reminiscent” of how Jews were treated in Germany just before World War II,” said Democratic Congressman Jared Polis. “It is polarizing the situation,” said President Obama and, “If you don’t have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you’re going to be harassed. That’s something that could potentially happen.” Sorry about that, gander.