Facism 101

Q: Daddy what is fascism?

A: Well my lad a long long time ago in an Empire far far away, in Rome, there was a symbol that people used to denote the power of the state. It was the Fasci. A bundle of sticks strapped around a battle axe. Ironically enough there is a Fasci on the backside of the US Dime. Around the torch of liberty are a bundle of sticks.

Q: Why a bundle of sticks daddy?

A: Well you see the symbol illustrates that a bundle of sticks bound together is much stronger than a single stick.

Q: That doesn't sound bad.

A: Well it isn't bad. The idea anyway. However the symbol on our dime bares little association with what we today call Fascism. Fascism today revolves around the notion that a single party must control the reigns of government.
The must control the media, education, and though allowing capitalism and private property ownership, strictly control who gets to own the means of production by adherence to party doctrine.

Q: You said a mouthful Daddy. How can you tell if you live in a Fascist state?

A: The first sign is single party domination of the national government. A single rigid ideology. Secondly you will observe that rigid ideology taking hold of most media outlets to control the flow of information.

Q: What else?

A: Usually the single party will use fear and scapegoating as a means to scare the population into A) relingishing freedom and B) blaming the problems associated with the coming tyranny on the outcasts.

Q: Who are the outcasts?

A: Well outcasts in a Fascist state are anyone who does not adhere to doctrine. Sometimes labeled terrorists by the state. Others are people who the general population has long distrusted. The NAZI had a whole lot of scapegoats. Socialists, communists, labor organizers, liberals, intellectuals, homosexuals, and of course people who were not "pure" in the eyes of the state; namely the Jews.

Q: Gee dad I was listening to a rightwing radio man say that all the liberals should be put into concentratioin camps until the war on terror is over. I heard that it is okay for the government to cross check the books I take out of our library and read my emial. And that a national TV network is ordering the broadcast of a TV program designed to spread lies and misinformation. I also heard that the president of the Diebold company, the one who makes the electronic voting machines, says he will deliver a victory to the current government. And we are constantly being told that we are in danger.

A: Well my lad if it smells like fascism, and looks like fascism, it probably is fascism.

Q: We would never be NAZI's dad.

A: Of course not my boy. A very smart man, who happened to have fled Germany, named Albert Einstein, said long ago, that if Fascism were ever to come to America it would be called Americanism.

Q: But Dad isn't it okay to love your country?

A: Absolutely. Not only should we love our nation but we should practice that love by making sure we never relingquish our freedom or give in to hatred and fear. You see our freedom, and all that flows from that, is our strength.

Q: What happens to nations who follow a fascist ideology?

A: Well they usually bankrupt themselves by going to war all the time. They become more and more isolated from the world. Finally they either end up being bombed to bits or collapse into revolution and anarchy, or both.

Q: What do we do Daddy?

A: For a start, try not voting for fascists. You see most fascists come to power by way of election, thought usually a corupted one.

Q: Why would anyone want to vote for a dictator?

A: If the fascists have done their job well, then enough people will be too scared to vote for anyone but the fascists. By voting for the fascists, who tend to use force and militarism first, the public is lulled into the wrong belief that they are safe. But as soon as they think that the state instills more fear in them so they are again willing to give up more of their freedom.
Until there is no freedom. And people are scared, not of terrorism, but to speak out against the state. People begin to be arrested for simply carrying a sign in the wrong location. Like the women who were arrested yesterday for wearing a t-shirt that said "protect our liberty".
Would you honestly cast a vote for a man or party that would arrest a woman for wearing t-shirt that sais "protect our liberty"?
Q: That sounds bad dad. What does God say about that?

A: Well Jesus said "There will be many false prophets who come and profess in My name. They will apear as sheep, but are really wolves on the prowel.

You will know them by their deeds."