[Peace-discuss] (no subject)

[Morton K. Brussel]

Extract from a comment to Ray McGovern's piece on Creeping Facism at

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/27/6026/

I'm always pleasantly gratified and surprised at the pointedness of  
the comments to such articles.

“Fascism in America won’t come with jackboots, book burnings, mass  
rallies, and fevered harangues, nor will it come with black  
helicopters or tanks on the street. It won’t come like a storm—but as  
a break in the weather, that sudden change of season you might feel  
when the wind shifts on an October evening: Everything is the same,  
but everything has changed. Something has gone, departed from the  
world, and a new reality will have taken its place. All the old forms  
will still be there: legislatures, elections, campaigns—plenty of  
bread and circuses. But “consent of the governed” will no longer  
apply; actual control of the state will have passed to a small and  
privileged group who rule for the benefit of their wealthy peers and  
corporate patrons.
To be sure, there will be factional conflicts among the elite, and a  
degree of debate will be permitted; but no one outside the privileged  
circle will be allowed to influence state policy. Dissidents will be  
marginalized—usually by “the people” themselves. Deprived of  
historical knowledge by a thoroughly impoverished educational system  
designed to produce complacent consumers, left ignorant of current  
events by a corporate media devoted solely to profit, many will  
internalize the force-fed values of the ruling elite, and act  
accordingly. There will be little need for overt methods of control.
The rulers will act in secret, for reasons of “national security,”  
and the people will not be permitted to know what goes on in their  
name. Actions once unthinkable will be accepted as routine:  
government by executive fiat, state murder of “enemies” selected by  
the leader, undeclared wars, torture, mass detentions without charge,  
the looting of the national treasury, the creation of huge new  
“security structures” targeted at the populace. In time, this will be  
seen as “normal,” as the chill of autumn feels normal when summer is  
gone. It will all seem normal.”
— November 10, 2001
Moscow Times (English Edition)
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