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Kid Berwyn

(14,651 posts)
30. Thanks! What FDR and Bertram Gross observed...
Fri Jan 22, 2021, 06:16 PM
Jan 2021

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.” — President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Professor Bertram Gross said fascism was transformed, almost imperceptibly, but is the mechanism of making the rich richer and the rest under their thumb...

Friendly Fascism

The New Face of Power in America


by Bertram Gross

South End Press, 1980, paper

"As long as an economic system provides an acceptable degree of security, growing material wealth and opportunity for further increase for the next generation, the average American does not ask who is running things or what goals are being pursued." — Daniel R. Fusfeld

Introduction, Rise and Fall of Classic Fascism
The Takeoff Toward a New Corporate Society
The Mysterious Establishment
The Specter of Friendly Fascism
Subverting Democratic Machinery
Impossibility: It Couldn't Happen
Quotations

Source w/ links: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Friendly_Fascism_BGross.html

The Unfolding Logic

p161
... as I survey the entire panorama of contending forces, I can readily detect something more important: the outline of a powerful logic of events. This logic points toward tighter integration of every First World Establishment. In the United States it points toward more concentrated, unscrupulous, repressive, and militaristic control by a Big Business-Big Government partnership that-to preserve the privileges of the ultra-rich, the corporate overseers, and the brass in the military and civilian order-squelches the rights and liberties of other people both at home and abroad. That is friendly fascism.

p162
At any particular moment First World leaders may respond to crisis like people in a crowded night club when smoke and flames suddenly billow forth. They do not set up a committee to plan their response. Neither do they act in a random or haphazard fashion. Rather, the logic of the situation prevails. Everyone runs to where they think the exits are. In the ensuing melee some may be trampled to death. Those who know where the exits really are, who are most favorably situated, and have the most strength will save themselves.

Thus it was in Italy, Japan, and Germany when the classic fascists came to power. The crisis of depression, inflation, and class conflict provided an ideal opportunity for the cartels, warmongers, right-wing extremists, and rowdy street fighters to rush toward power. The fascist response was not worked out by some central cabal of secret conspirators. Nor was it a random or accidental development. The dominant logic of the situation prevailed.

Thus too it was after World War II. Neither First World unity nor the Golden International was the product of any central planners in the banking, industrial, political, or military community. Indeed, there was then-as there still is-considerable conflict among competing groups at the pinnacle of the major capitalist establishments. But there was a broad unfolding logic about the way these conflicts were adjusted and the "Free World" empire came into being. This logic involved hundreds of separate plans and planning committees-some highly visible, some less so, some secret. It encompassed the values and pressures of reactionaries, conservatives, and liberals. In some cases, it was a logic of response to anticapitalist movements and offensives that forced them into certain measures-like the expanded welfare state-which helped themselves despite themselves.

Although the friendly fascists are subversive elements, they rarely see themselves as such. Some are merely out to make money under conditions of stagflation. Some are merely concerned with keeping or expanding their power and privileges. Many use the rhetoric of freedom, liberty, democracy, human values, or even human rights. In pursuing their mutual interests through a new coalition of concentrated oligarchic power, people may be hurt-whether through pollution, shortages, unemployment, inflation, or war. But that is not part of their central purpose. It is the product of invisible hands that are not theirs.

Source: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Specter_FriendlyFascism_FF.html

Power through violence Wicked Blue Jan 2021 #1
Agreed. "Kristallnacht" is what one good Republican called it. Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #5
I laugh each time they do this because there's always at least one asshole who does it wrong. TheBlackAdder Jan 2021 #44
That lady was a Trump administration official helping guide Kavanaugh into the SC Beakybird Jan 2021 #2
A real sweetheart. Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #7
I've preferred to describe it as the "Sovietization" of the Republican Party... JHB Jan 2021 #3
Russiapublicans took over the Republican party. They admire Putin. Hermit-The-Prog Jan 2021 #10
Yes, but I started using the phrase during the Bush administration... JHB Jan 2021 #12
Sovietization is also most appropriate. Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #14
Good point considering how Putin came to power... AntiFascist Jan 2021 #24
+1, phrase "racist terrorism" triggers them too uponit7771 Jan 2021 #46
Love this post. Thank you. Nt TexasLefty29 Jan 2021 #4
You are most welcome. More on the weaponized ideology... Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #17
Excellent article matt819 Jan 2021 #6
Think that we understand them perfectly UpInArms Jan 2021 #8
Truth. Memory. Justice. Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #25
I'm okay with calling them Nazi. nt Hotler Jan 2021 #9
Me, too. I've said it before MurrayDelph Jan 2021 #15
Old Nazis, New Right, and the Republican Party (Russ Bellant, 1989) Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #26
Thank you for sharing, I'll read it. nt Hotler Jan 2021 #27
My sentiments exactly. ananda Jan 2021 #11
Thanks! What FDR and Bertram Gross observed... Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #30
Fascism in some form has been with us since Reagan. ananda Jan 2021 #37
The Republican's have been suppressing voters and using gerrymandering for decades to stay in power. jalan48 Jan 2021 #13
FOX News' Roger Ailes was a Big Fan of Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's favorite NAZI filmmaker. Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #31
The reTHUGS do their ratfucking in plain sight. Why do we let them get away with it? abqtommy Jan 2021 #16
Because if anything is ever said about it... WyattKansas Jan 2021 #28
Maybe we can make some changes in the status quo... that'd sure be nice! abqtommy Jan 2021 #29
Ignorance, I hope. For instance, Fossil Fuels... Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #35
Thanks. So it really is a conspiracy we can attack through our laws... abqtommy Jan 2021 #36
Great article, especially when read in its entirety. mtnsnake Jan 2021 #18
Thank you, mtnsnake! Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #38
Trump "emboldened" the Nazis keithbvadu2 Jan 2021 #19
There were American Nazis waiting for Hitler to take control in the 1930s... AntiFascist Jan 2021 #32
Madison Cawthorn's visit to Hitler's vacation home alarms his NC district's Jews Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #39
Excellent article. Thanks for posting. mountain grammy Jan 2021 #20
They want to destroy public education. Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #40
Public education money is massive.. mountain grammy Jan 2021 #42
Ms. Ross, Tucker Carlson is begging to hear from you. soldierant Jan 2021 #21
"Our greatest ally." -- The Daily Nazi Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #41
1930s Germany had strict gun control laws. moondust Jan 2021 #22
The Reichwing and mind control, er, perception management... Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #43
They embraced it long ago and have been desperate to come out for decades. Ford_Prefect Jan 2021 #23
Chambers of Horror. I mean, Commerce. Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #45
Thanks for posting the references and adding detail to this dialogue. Ford_Prefect Jan 2021 #47
Who is the woman in the picture? I read the OP twice. Didn't find it. nt LAS14 Jan 2021 #33
Zina Bash, esq. Kid Berwyn Jan 2021 #34
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