NOTE: I wrote this to share with my high school ('63) classmates in mind, many if not most of whom are Trumpies, some of whom are neo-fascists, and a few are neo-Nazis.
FASCISM FOR DUMMIES
Looking at the title, you're probably thinking I wrote it to insult somebody. Quite the contrary, the story may surprise you.
I remember about twenty years ago going into a lot of bookstores and seeing booklets in yellow and black with titles like “Windows for Dummies,” “Chess for Dummies,” and on and on, “You-name-it for Dummies.” I hated those books because they were screaming at me that I was a dummie if there was something I didn't know. What if I didn't want to know it? Am I still a dummie? “Fishing for Dummies"? I hate fishing.
I saw a book called “Gardening for Dummies,” and twenty years later I regret not reading every word.
My wife is an avid gardener. We have a nice plot on the edge of the city which we call our weekend farm. Unfortunately, all I know how to do is water the veggies, and I'm fairly competent when it comes to watering. Turn on the hose. Aim the hose. Soak thoroughly. Call me Waterman. (Did you know a guy named Waterman invented the fountain pen? Coincidence? I don't think so.)
Then the other day she told me to pull weeds. So, I pulled anything I thought was a weed, and a few things I wasn't sure of. I held up one strange plant and said, “This is a weed, isn't it?”
She said, “No, that's your dinner, dummie.”
Suddenly those black and yellow books didn't seem so off-putting. Why couldn't I have thought of “Gardening for Dummies” as a marriage manual? Life could have been so much better.
* * *
So, what is fascism anyway? We all think we know. It's Hitler and Mussolini and all kinds of bad guys starting World War II, right? That's true as far as it goes, but if that's all you know about it, you're missing a lot.
Consider that Hitler didn't do this all by himself. He had millions of followers. And, in spite of the disdain we rightly have for the “Good German,” most Germans at that time were normal, moral people who either didn't know about the atrocities that were going on or chose to ignore them. True, a large number believed that the Jews had "brought it on themselves” - in other words, they believed Hitler's Big Lie that Jewish traitors had caused Germany to lose WWI and brought about the collapse of the economy. Why did they believe such a lie? Because they were stupid?
After the war, after Germany had been devastated and faced a monumental task of rebuilding, a survey found that the majority of German citizens believed that the Nazis had the right idea but went too far. (Does the name Marge Schott ring a bell?)
What attracted otherwise decent people to Hitler? Well, one thing was he made a lot of promises: national pride, law and order, and on and on.
And Mussolini's appeal? Well, “he made the trains run on time.”
Making things work is enough for a lot of people, and there's nothing wrong with it if that's all you care about. But the primary message from absolute dictators like the two big bad guys of WWII is “Sit down and shut up and stay out of politics. I run things here. Cross me and you die.”
Believe it or not, I lived under just such a system for seven years, and down here on the street level things were not bad at all. Not only did the trains run on time, but the economy thrived.
A little history here. After the Korean War the US tried very hard to implement a democratic form of government on South Korea in spite of the threat from North Korea which lingers to this day. By 1960 the government was so corrupt and inept that a military coup was inevitable. A two-star general by the name of Park Chung He marshalled his troops, took over government and moved quickly to assert control over the country.
Long story shorter, Park, who grew up under the Japanese and was trained by the Japanese military, imposed full control over the country, and more importantly chose a cadre of economic planners and entrepreneurs who would not only enrich themselves and their families but also lead the most remarkable decades of economic development the world had ever seen.
It didn't end well for any of the three. Hitler didn't want to wait around for the allies to come and hang him, so he put a bullet in his head. Mussolini's longtime adversaries caught up with him as the war was ending, killed him, strung him up by his ankles, and put him on display for the world to see. Park was assassinated at a drinking party by his own CIA chief for reasons still unclear.
The city of Daegu, where I live, was in favor of Park throughout his reign. His hometown is only a few miles from here, and the area was showered with all kinds of benefits during Park's time. It is still overwhelmingly right-wing, and I am swimming in a sea of neo-fascists. Fortunately, I speak to almost none of them about politics owing to the fact that my Korean language skills are terrible.
Park didn't strut around in self-aggrandizement like Hitler or Mussolini, but in the matter of how he treated the opposition his government could reasonably be called “fascist.”
* * *
So, the question is why did all those Germans, Italians, and Koreans, especially Daegu-ites, go all in for these nasty dictators?
The quick and easy answer is self-interest. Most Germans didn't know any Jews, didn't care about Jews, and thought maybe the persecution of Jews wasn't so bad. Italians and Koreans accepted that getting involved in politics was dangerous and maybe not all that important since “the trains ran on time.”
But there's a much deeper answer than that, and I've wondered about it for a long time. As children we acquire a basic worldview, a script that we can follow which will best insure our survival. For many of us that script may closely resemble the very benign television show of our youth “Father Knows Best.” If that's the case, we are very lucky because the parents were very kind and nurturing. The same was true for Ozzie and Harriet. But those were television shows; life is rarely that simple.
Philosopher-Linguist George Lakoff uses the term “strict father” in contrast with the "nurturant parent” model of child rearing. The main concern of the Strict Father is to maintain absolute authority, which must never be challenged. In contrast, the Nurturant Parent focuses on setting limits and providing guidance according to the child's needs.
Most of us grew up with one of the parental models dominating, and we may have adopted that model as the script we follow not only as parents but in our work and in our daily lives generally. Others may have rejected that model and adopted the other script. All good parents teach their children a healthy respect for legitimate authority, but it's the Strict Father's penchant for absolute authority that enters into the discussion of fascism.
A thin line separates authoritarianism and fascism. On the fascism side of the line we find an abundance of hatred and violence. Fascists always govern through fear and violence. Authoritarians may but are often better political manipulators. Josip Tito of Yugoslavia held power for decades after World War II but was celebrated for maintaining his independence from Stalin. Fascists carry their fascination with violence to an extreme. In this matter Park, like Tito, fails the fascism test.
Many authoritarian dictators prevail in countries around the world. Among them President Duterte of the Philippines seems to revel in the murder of those he deems undesirable. Tucker Carlson of Fox News seems to have a particular fascination for Viktor Orban of Hungary.
Fascist leaders always have a group to blame for all that's wrong with the country. The reason I fear a fascist takeover of the United States is that Trump and the Republican Party have made hating on non-white, non-Christian, and ethnic minorities so acceptable. When the pogroms start, right-wing militias will already have their targets lined up.
This year Republicans will be running on a platform that supports the Big Lie of election fraud in 2020. They will tell you the January 6thinsurrection was justified and that “patriots” - like Good Germans – were trying to take back their country.
When World War II broke out our fathers and their brothers went away to fight fascism. Thousands of them never returned. For the next 75 years Americans told themselves fascism can't happen here.
It's happening here in the US. What will we do about it? What will we tell our ancestors if they discover they died in vain?