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At 09:29 PM 10/7/2007, Lee wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">James writes<br><br>
> ...I think Wikipedia (as usual) does an adequate job of explaining
what is meant<br>
> by Fascism
(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism" eudora="autourl">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism</a> ):"Fascism is an<br>
> authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement)
that<br>
> considers individual and other societal interests subordinate to the
needs<br>
> of the state."<br><br>
Fine.</blockquote><br>
Consider this in the light of the EP theory of war and it makes
sense. The tribe's (state's) needs come first in situations where
the population is stressed. The is because in the EEA the survival
of shared genes in band or small tribe was more important (to the genes)
than the individual copies in the warriors.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">> If you're trying to infer
from my post that I only consider America or<br>
> Americans to be fascist, that would be totally incorrect.<br><br>
Glad to hear it. Then you'll join me, I imagine, in noting how<br>
strange it is that the word is never used except as a pejorative<br>
against certain patriotic (or hyper-patriotic) Americans and<br>
their allies. How strange. Especially since the people in
question<br>
*never* use the term to describe themselves.</blockquote><br>
Of course not. But by the above definition it applies to groups
that are facing war or something similar. About 20 years ago I
noted:<br><br>
"Some memes <br>
(for example Nazism) are observed to thrive during periods of economic
chaos <br>
just as diseases flourish in an undernourished population. Thus it
is not much <br>
of a surprise that Nazi-related beliefs emerged in the Western farm
states <br>
during the recent hard times."<br><br>
snip (Fascist as epithet)<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Let's face it. It's a code
word spoken by liberals/leftists/progressives/<br>
collectivists/... (those labels keep evolving at a high rate, but I
do<br>
think it appropriate to call people by the descriptions they
themselves<br>
provide). The code word is used as a signal of solidarity
among<br>
them to each other---and, equally, as a signal to their adversaries.<br>
It's really worse than the <n-word> , because at least the
<n-word><br>
is often used among the very targeted people
themselves!</blockquote><br>
Solidarity is the correct way to put it. The "bundle" of
wood bound up made the point that you could break the individual stick
but it was much harder to break number of bound up stick or a group of
aligned people than single sticks or people one at a time.<br><br>
<a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=fascist" eudora="autourl">
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=fascist<br><br>
</a>1921, from It. partito nazionale fascista, the anti-communist
political movement organized 1919 under Benito Mussolini (1883-1945);
from It. fascio "group, association," lit. "bundle."
Fasci "groups of men organized for political purposes" had been
a feature of Sicily since c.1895; the 20c. sense probably infl. by the
Roman
<a href="http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=fasces">fasces</a>
(q.v.) which became the party symbol. Fascism, also 1921, was originally
used in Eng. 1920 in its It. form, fascismo. Applied to similar groups in
Germany from 1923.<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>"A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation
with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory
cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of
committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective
collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and
pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints
goals of internal cleansing and external expansion." [Robert O.
Paxton, "The Anatomy of Fascism," 2004]<br><br>
</dl>Which is just what you would expect from a stone age tribe about to
go to war because times are looking bleak.<br><br>
Keith Henson</body>
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