Monday, April 30, 2007

This Is Not A Fascist Coup

An important article by Naomi Wolf was posted on Alternet today describing how everything necessary to the lightening fast transformation of America into a fascist state is already in place. Author Chris Hedges recently wrote a book making a similar case. You can read the Real Change interview with Hedges here.

Since I have fighting poverty on the brain lately, I immediately related this news to my own favorite obsession.

It strikes me that Americans are feeling more economically vulnerable as a whole than we have since the depression, and with good reason. There is mostly a vacuum where the effort and resources to organize should be. This is not only appallingly shortsighted; it is dangerous.

Times of economic crisis do not augur well for the future in proto-fascist states. In the absence of a concerted progressive effort to get ahead of the times in which we live, the inevitable economic downturn which we face is much more likely to trigger authoritarian repression than a movement toward progressive reform.

Something to think about.

1 comment:

Anitra Freeman said...

If one wanted to be really, really cynical, one could speculate that the reason for throwing the economy into such straights was to create the desperation that would welcome a totalitarian rule.

It's a whole lot easier to con a tired and hungry man than when he is healthy, well-fed and secure.