Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

Fourteen Early Warning Signs of Fascism:

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
4. The supremacy of the military/Avid militarism
5. Rampant sexism
6. A controlled mass media
7. Obsession with national security
8. Religion and government are intertwined
9. Power of corporations protected
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated
11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections

This list is excerpted from “Fascism Anyone?” by Lawrence W. Britt (Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 23, Number 2). Read the full article to get more detail on what Britt means by each of the fourteen points. He created the list after making a study of several Fascist regimes, including Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco's Spain, Salazar's Portugal, Papadopoulos's Greece, Pinochet's Chile, and Suharto's Indonesia.

Now, I'm not saying that we live in a Fascist nation, or trying to slyly call President Bush a Nazi. I don't believe that either of those would be true statements. But I do believe that the end result of many of the President's priorities and policies are surely - if not deliberately - leading us toward a form of Fascism.

Read the article, then think about how many of the fourteen requirements today's USA might satisfy. I'd say we easily fit ten or eleven of the points and are well on our way on the few remaining. Luckily, we still have an election scheduled for just a few short weeks from now. We are not quite so far gone that we can't still reverse this drift into totalitarianism. Get out and vote.

"Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. ... No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." -- James Madison