2007/09/26

Limousine Liberal

I made the following comment to Ted Rall's post about Limousine Liberal:

Thank you for calling Commies-R-Us. All of our revolutionaries are currently busy or in prison.

We at Commies-R-Us do not believe in outsourcing revolution. You can be assured that we use only indigenous revolutionaries although we do use the experience of others throughout the world.

For those of you who insist on waiting for someone to answer your call, may we suggest reading Can American Workers Make a Socialist Revolution? By George Novack?

Have a nice revolution.

And now for something completely different.

According to The CIA World Fact Book, the average GDP per person is USD10,200 (2006 est.). So we have a disparity between the $8.50 derived by dividing up someone's wealth and the average GDP.

I think people tend to obscure the difference between the wealth created by people working and the wealth that is stolen from them by the Capitalists.

Some of that wealth the Limousine Liberal was gained by his own effort but the rest was gained by the exploitation of others. So, in dividing it up is one way of returning but it is still a more part.

A better idea would be to do without the Capitalists. Cut out the middle men.


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2007/09/23

An Examination of Bush Fascism

Tj Templeton does An Examination of Bush Fascism (picked up via Diogenesian Discourse: Is HoWARd easing us into fascism? at) which is a continuation of the check-list political analysis I ranted against in Fascism Anyone? Tj Templeton writes that:

The expansion of democracy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries intensified the antidemocratic reaction of conservative authoritarianism. Starting first in Italy as an antidemocratic and antisocialist movement after WWI, fascism is in essence the twentieth century version of age old tendencies in politics. Like democracy, it is a universal phenomenon, and it appeared in different forms and varieties in accordance with national traditions and circumstances.

Fascism is a postdemocratic political system and cannot be understood except as a reaction to democracy. Fascism is not possible in countries with no democratic experience at all: in such countries dictatorship may be based on the army, bureaucracy, and church, but it will lack the element of mass enthusiasm and participation characteristic of fascism. Fascism learned from democracy the value of popular support for national policies, and it sought to manufacture popular support by propaganda and fear. ...

Emphasis Mine

What Tj Templeton refers to as Democracy is to be interpreted as the Capitalist political system. Fascism is not a reaction to Capitalism but rather its defense against the workers.

Fascism is a mass movement of the petite bourgeoisie and their adherents. That mass movement reflects the interests of that class. Thus, Fascism can only arise in a Capitalist or Socialist economy where the mass of the petite bourgeoisie is sufficient to be able to take power in its own right.

Historically, the petite bourgeoisie exists as a class in Feudal, Capitalist and Socialist systems. Not all revolutions staged by the petite bourgeoisie are retrogressive. When the petite bourgeoisie revolted in a Feudal economy, this class was advancing the progressive agenda of Capitalism.

Within the Capitalist system, a revolt of the petite bourgeoisie can either be progressive (if it involves the workers) or retrogressive (if it is against the workers).

Since the composition and consciousness of the petite bourgeoisie class varies for country to country and over time, the lists of characteristics of Fascism will display the same variation.

After the lists of characteristics, Tj Templeton continues:

The hallmark of fascism is a merging of state and corporate power coupled with the transfer of power from the individual to the government and corporate elite. It is for this reason that liberals as a whole must be purged or at the very least, marginalized. Taking a look at the liberal achievements of the past century reveals a common theme. The civil rights movement, equal rights movement, free speech movement, environmental movement, the labor movement, and others all have one thing in common: They put power in the hands of the individual. This is incompatible with the fascist ideal of the transfer of power to the state elite and the individual serving as the raw material for the state machine to function on. Most often, fascist propaganda places the lump sum of the blame for a nations troubles on the shoulders of the liberals. It's worth noting that in Nazi Germany the communists, labor organizers, and liberals were purged before the gays, Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals.

Emphasis Mine

This is not Fascism - this is the normal growth of Capitalism. The State exists to protect the interests of the ruling class (i.e. the Capitalists aka corporate elite). What is described above is the struggle between the classes (Capitalist and Proletariat) for their interests. The ruling class does not grant concession because they are nice, they grant concessions because they want to survive.

Tj Templeton concludes:

The United States is not a fascist nation nor is the republican party a fascist party. The conclusion drawn here is that a small cadre of corporate elite have formed a fascist organization which has usurped the United States government through a questionable election and sympathetic court, installed their members in the top levels of the executive, diplomatic, and military offices, and have hijacked the nations policy to fit their fascist agenda. If actions are not taken to end and reverse this trend, the United States will meet the inevitable collapse met by all fascist regimes.

Emphasis Mine

While the first sentence is true, the second is nonsense. Because the Bush presidency is part of the Capitalist class, they are not members of the petite bourgeoisie and thus members of a Fascist cabal.

My opinion on this is in Proto-Fascism in USA where the petite bourgeoisie are mobilising but not moving against the establishment. As long as the GOP continues to deliver, the petite bourgeoisie will rumble but not revolt.

The situation is the same in Australia. We are not in danger unless the ruling class is unable to perform.


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