Orion Digest №6 — Fascism, a Dangerous Contagion

One of the most dangerous obstacles to unity among humanity is the idea of ‘us vs. them’. When faced with a social problem, many people throughout history have blamed not societal structure but specific groups of people for the issue at hand. Oftentimes the actual grounds for this were merely being an ethnic minority within the community, as a way to give majority groups a clear target for anger and promoting racial superiority. This did not actually change or even touch upon the actual issues at hand, and only propagated racial discrimination, but nonetheless enabled the inciting party to rally people behind them and against groups they did not like.

Overall, it’s a symptom of two problems — the manipulation of corrupt leaders (often referred to as demagogues) and anger towards societal issues without a proper outlet. No society in history has ever been perfect, and as various day to day problems come up, combined with long term, widespread troubles, people inevitably feel that desire for change, for things to return to a state of normalcy. The problems are certainly out of their hands, and most people feel that the government is untouchable by citizens, and for better or worse, must be obeyed. So, with no way to fix things except by waiting for the problems to go away, people end up with anger that has nowhere to go.

In steps the demagogue, a speaker that understands all these things about society, and knows how to play the frustrated people to fit their agenda. The real truth of the matter is that these problems don’t have simple solutions — they are usually based upon faults in the structure of government and society, or a short-term, unforeseen issue (think natural disasters like hurricanes or forest fires). To actually solve these problems, it requires patience, awareness, and cooperation among people of all walks of life. But the demagogue doesn’t use that knowledge; rather, they use the people’s lack of knowledge.

In the end, by turning that anger towards the ‘enemy’, some group designated as the cause of societal woes, the problem isn’t often fixed, but as the main one who has offered a quick and easy solution, the demagogue nonetheless gains the trust of the people, and further troubles are attributed to the workings of the ‘enemy’ rather than the true enemy within. And with that power to cast blame, the demagogue can go further by warning against specific behaviors within their own people — what they spend time doing, what they wear, how they speak. Fear and anger is used by the community to gain control, and the fear of being ostracized leads more and more to join.

Demagoguery is not exclusive to the political belief of fascism, but is commonly associated with it, especially in relation to modern practices. This is for good reason, because at it’s core, fascism is a political ideology that thrives upon demagoguery of a nation. Leaders arise that offer salvation, prosperity, and strength — but usually at the expense of some other group or nation, and at the cost of near total control over the lives of citizens. A government becomes a dictatorship with a cult of superiority — one group is put above all others, oftentimes racial or national.

To exert true power over a nation is not the only goal of fascism. War and imperialistic tactics are seen by fascist nations as a way of creating further enemies to rally against, as well as gaining territory and resources to benefit the economy by subjugating other nations and peoples. As such, fascism often sees the militarization of the citizens, where most if not all people in the nation contribute to the military, which is then used to threaten the citizens into further, blind loyalty. This is then done with conquered peoples (oftentimes in even harsher measures than the original population), resulting in a system that expands and forces people to ‘feed the machine’ out of growing, pervasive fear.

The people in a fascist system don’t work for themselves, and don’t work for a system with their interests at heart. The key to fascism is the domination of a single party, often devoted to a single leader — when you think of the Nazi Party in Germany, the organizer and leader, Adolf Hitler, is often who comes to mind, even when considering neo-Nazis decades later. The only input is from the top, and the citizens are expected only to serve.

In regards to the ideas of world federalism, this is a very dangerous idea and practice. For starters, fear and manipulation trample on the very ideals of democracy, a system that while not perfect, allows all people within a nation to have representation of their ideas and concerns. Fascism denies parts of society this privilege and only breeds discrimination and inequality, championing a ‘pure’ group within the nation and having the rights of others be subservient.

Fascism does not try to avoid conflict with other nations — fascist nations consider themselves superior to all other countries, and consider themselves justified in invading and dominating others. Cooperation with a fascist nation, as seen in the years before World War II, is merely a ticking time bomb, as diplomatic attempts to reason with Nazi Germany resulted in repeated violation of deals and no attempt to bargain about the state of the citizens of Germany. Not that Germany was transparent in their more horrendous dealings — the full extent of the Holocaust was not known by Allied nations until the fall of the Nazi regime.

While one would think that such a totalitarian and hateful school of thought would be ended with the advent of genocide, it still thrives behind closed doors today, and has evolved into forms of demagoguery that operate on targeting minority groups and progressive movements for change. People fed up with political instability once again find themselves buying into the rhetoric of leaders that want to encourage not collaboration and civil debate, but power to one party, and the defeat of all ‘enemies’ it faces.

As we begin to explore this new decade, new century, and new millennium, the concept of ‘us vs. them’ is becoming more engrained in our common culture, even though we should be realizing that there is no such thing as an absolute enemy — there are only other people who oppose us for their own reasons, seeking to solve the same problems that have driven us both at each other’s throats. Fascism is like a contagion that infects societies, leading people down the wrong path and keeping them trapped in the system they build, only growing and spreading as people become convinced the extreme path is the only one to fix the issues they are faced with.

But we do not have to be a society of enemies and divisions, and fascism has never solved the problems it claims to fix. It is merely a mechanism of gaining power, and only helps one group or leader in the end. To create a better future, we must do that together — all types of people, with room for ideas but not for blind hatred.

- DKTC FL