An overview of the decisions ahead for the people of the US.
A New Fascism
Let's step back a bit from the current Occupy movement. Instead let's have a look at this piece from Laurence W. Britt called 'Fascism, Anyone?' If the United States is not currently a fascist state, it is very close to becoming one. 'I call bullshit!' you cry. 'We'd all recognise fascism if it happened again!' No, you wouldn't. The very nature of fascism is to disguise itself and present itself as a positive, patriotic movement. The trend toward fascism in the United States is underway, and has been for a while. It is very nearly an entrenched fact. It's not just Britt saying it either, others have recognised the trend too, and have commented on it.
Stepping back to today, the apparatus is everywhere to see. Potential Presidential candidates are openly discussing the validity of torture. It is common to see high-ranking and influential figures demonising their pet scapegoats 'Gays don't exist', 'Half of all gays are murderers', 'Bongo-playing hippies', 'Liberal intellectuals', 'Feminazis', we could go on all day.
Militarise the Police
The reason we see such violence from police departments during the protests of today is the very concrete fact that for years now, they have been trained to become anti-drug and anti-terror agents instead of law enforcement officials. The pet scapegoats of drug dealers and Islamic fundamentalists, have turned civil servants into a brutal army. When turned against a civilian populace, they respond with extreme and unsurprising brutality.
Police forces are being turned, perhaps unintentionally, into the very same kind of jackbooted brute squads that would not have been out of place in 1930's Berlin. It's hard to deny when ex-law enforcement figures are on television decrying the brutality of today's officers.
Changing Goalposts
The very real reason there is such discontent in the US today is this shift further and further toward a right-wing, corporatised autocracy. People haven't changed much. Everyone still wants what people have always wanted - a roof over their head, a good job, someone who cares for them, quality of life. That goal post hasn't changed. The government meant to assist in the pursuit of these dreams has. It has become anti-poor, anti-equality, anti-liberty. It is shifting further and further away from the majority of the population, hence the discontent.
Signs of Change
Many vested interests are spending a lot of time expressing how much of a failure the Occupy movement is - 'It's over!' crowed Fox News in a blatant distortion of reality. 'The message is confused' the mainstream media has lied, since day one. But it's not over, and the message is not confused. The cracks in the wall are forming. Calls for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (who unveiled the $16 trillion theft from the Fed Reserve) to run for President pop up. Legislators are starting to take up the language of the protest movement.
Nature of Opposition
If the Occupy movement and other anti-oligarchic, pro-democratic groups keep applying their pressure, America may be able to be rescued from a complete slide into fascism. Their opposition is fierce. It comes from within both sides of politics, business, finance, the media, lobby groups, and more. Whether they know it or not, this opposition all agitate for one or more contributing factors to a fascist state. Whether it's a state religion, or the demonising of marginalised targets, these forces collude toward a goal they should despise if they could recognise it for what it is.
This is not leftist hippies versus sensible conservatives at all. Such a dialogue is not helpful. I do not believe that many Christian groups, lobbying for a conservative explicitly Christian state, would call the regime that would result a fascist one. I do not believe they think they are working to such a nefarious end. They are, however, whether they admit it to themselves or not.
The general climate of opinion is of a unified conservative power versus a disorganised civilian rabble. I would in fact claim the opposite. I would say that a disorganised, selfish gang of short-sighted, single-issue, moneyed and powerful sycophants are banding together in a haphazard way, struggling to pursue the farrago of beliefs they half-share in the hopes of staving off a broad but populist discontent. A discontent that shares a thousand goals, but treats them all as worthy of a voice and worthy of not just consideration, but action.
The forces of fascism are vast, entrenched and disproportionately powerful to be sure, but they are also opportunistic, shallow and selfish. The forces of discontent by comparison, are not powerful, but the sheer weight of numbers and the unity despite difference in opinion and cause, is like the river that slowly wears down the mountain.
The Emergent Fascism
The people of the US must choose the future that they want. I hope they make the right decision, and I'll be concerned, even afraid if they choose fascism. But I hope we do remember at least one lesson we learned from the rise of fascism in the first half on the 20th century. Simply, that you cannot ally with a fascist and that they must be fought. Do we really think a fully fascist US will still be our ally? Of course not. Even if we pay lip service to that illusion, we would have to turn a blind eye to the inhuman and inhumane injustices they would inflict on their own people and others.
The choice of freedom or fascism will not be theirs alone. All of America's allies, enemies and neighbours will be affected by that decision. I, for one, refuse to call an emergent fascist America an ally of my nation. I cannot and will not support any notion of my country supporting any such new fascism.
I would hope others do too.
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