[ExI] Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps

[Natasha Vita-More]

At 09:51 PM 9/28/2007, you wrote:
>At 10:56 AM 9/28/2007 -0500, Natasha wrote in response to Emlyn and
>PJ on Naomi Wolf's recent essay [ http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51150/ ]:
>
> >Naomi Wolf, in my opinion, built a persuasive thesis but I did not
> >go for it.  I would have preferred she write about how elements of a
> >hip-hop/gangster-rap subculture manipulate women into becoming sex
> >slaves.  The idea of beauty and women wanting to be beautiful
> >reaches far beyond the corner that Wolf paints it into.
>
>Natasha, this is a very, very, very, very strange response to the
>Wolf essay on an alleged furtive preparation by powerful elements
>intent on fascist domination of the USA.

Fascism comes in many sizes and shapes.  Regardless of the cosmetics 
of its makeup, it is treacherous and ugly.  While PJ suggests that 
Americans do not recognize it; I think many do.  I hear it from 
people who sense something is awry.

When I think about the decline of the values America was built upon, 
stemming from The Bill of Rights and the world of Thomas Paine, I 
long for the underlying essence of beauty.  (When one thinks of Naomi 
Wolf, it is almost impossible not to think about her writings on 
beauty (thus the connection))  You might say, "What the hell does 
beauty have to do with human behavior, tryanny and politics?!"

Beauty, according to Le Corbusier, stemming from Pythagoras, is 
mathematical in symmetry and proportion.  Beauty, according to 
Benjamin Franklin, is found in simple yet carefully orchestrated 
musical tunes. According to Thomas Jefferson "The beauty of the 
second amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take 
it."  According to Simone Weil, "Justice, truth, and beauty are 
sisters and comrades."

"Beauty, throughout history, generally has been associated with that 
which is good. Likewise, the polar opposite of beauty is generally 
considered to be ugly and is often associated with evil. ... This 
contrast is epitomized by classic stories such as Sleeping Beauty.

Likewise, beauty according to Goethe, from his 1809 Elective 
Affinities, is 'everywhere a welcome guest'. Moreover, human beauty 
"acts with far greater force on both inner and outer senses, so that 
he who beholds it is exempt from evil and feels in harmony with 
himself and with the world."(Wakjawa 2007)

"An Occasional Letter On The Female Sex" (Thomas Paine, August 1775) 
reflects on bondage and suffering at the cost of beauty."   But isn't 
beauty a deeply valued sense of life that begets the desire for 
freedom to express and experience?   Paine was a "[c]hampion of the 
chaos of change and the beauty of unrestrained libertarianism" 
(Rushton 2006)  The London Chronicle reprinted Ben Franklin's Causes 
of the American Discontents before 1768 (1774).  Paine was distressed 
and wanted to revolt against what he thought was a completely corrupt 
state.  He thought of America as a land were the lovers of freedom 
were uniting against the tyranny.  And that tyranny was an illness, a 
sickness in human behavior.  An unwelcome guest.

> >I for one have always honored women who strive to be beautiful and
> >groom themselves to look their best.
>
>It's true that personal grooming has much to recommend it when one is
>faced with a turn to fascism.

Your wry comment has great value and fact if that grooming is 
performed, with great care, on human behavior.

cheers,
Natasha

<http://www.natasha.cc/>Natasha <http://www.natasha.cc/>Vita-More
PhD Candidate, Planetary Collegium -University of Plymouth - Faculty 
of Technology,
School of Computing, Communications and Electronics, Centre for 
Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts

If you draw a circle in the sand and study only what's inside the 
circle, then that is a closed-system perspective. If you study what 
is inside the circle and everything outside the circle, then that is 
an open system perspective. - Buckminster Fuller
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