It's impossible for a fascistic police state to consolidate power without the approval and acquiescence of a very large segment of the middle class. Currently, in the United States, the stage is set for a mighty struggle between those who would prevent the ascendancy of a fascistic police state, and those who would enable it. The stakes are that high.
In the current situation, the struggle will take place between the segment of the population who has risen in protest against the nascent fascistic police state, which is embodied in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and those members of the middle class, who failing to understand or conceptualize the fact that we are indeed in the middle of a transformation towards fascism, are more focused on demanding order, stability, and security.
This is a very dangerous, and difficult situation... For whatever reason, it is always the case that there is a minority of middle class members, intellectuals, and members of academia, and labor unions who in every society, in every historical period, are able to understand the danger of a rising fascistic and oppressive Police State.
When the State has "turned" fascistic, this segment of the population always rises up to confront it. But historically, they have been unsuccessful because they are typically a minority within the middle class. The vast majority of the middle class usually remains oblivious to the rise of fascism, and see those rising against it as dangerous, disruptive, and a threat to their economic security, safety, and well-being.
I know many people take issue with the use of the word "fascism" when they believe it is being used in the wrong context, so in order to address that objection (a priori), let me summarize my understanding of the current situation in the United States, and why I consider it the rise of a fascistic police state:
A plutocratic ruling class has taken over all the levers of power across the country, mainly by using money and influence to corrupt the entire political machinery to do their bidding. This has resulted in a massive transfer of wealth and power to ruling elite, and a proportional lost of economic stability, human rights, constitutional rights, education opportunity, for the rest of society. This plutocratic system has put into place an oppressive fascistic police state in order to protect it, keep order, and control the population.
One definition of fascism I found online, written by Chuck Anesi, makes the point in more general terms:
Fascism is a form of political and social behavior that arises when the middle class, finding its hopes frustrated by economic instability coupled with political polarization and deadlock, abandons traditional ideologies and turns, with the approbation of police and military forces, to a poorly-defined but emotionally appealing soteriology of national unity, immediate and direct resolution of problems, and intolerance for dissent.
The emphasis is mine. Other characteristics of a fascistic system, as put forward by Dr. Lawrence Britt, include: Disdain for human rights; supremacy of the military, which is given a disproportionate amount of funding as domestic needs are ignored; controlled mass media; obsession with national security, and the use of fear to manipulate the masses; corporate power protected, and labor power suppressed; disdain of intellectuals and the arts; obsession with crime and punishment; rampant cronyism and corruption.
To a certain degree, all those conditions have already been met in the United States. And since every historical era is different, new fascistic characteristics of this era will be written about by future historians... Things related to the use of technology, massive surveillance, etc.
Again, the odds are against a significant-enough segment of the middle class coming together to reject the imposition and consolidation of power by a fascistic police state, if history is any guide.
When the confrontation comes to a head, the corporate fascistic police state is likely to be able to use its total control of mass media to demonize and delegitimize the resistance movement (Occupy), appealing to middle class sensitivities when it comes to social order.
A version of this situation is what set the stage for the rise of all previous fascistic regimes. The question is whether we'll be able to buck the trend, and unite a large enough segment of the middle class against the nascent fascistic police state. That remains an open question.
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