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Authoritarian America?    [ Politics ]

Plastic has an interesting discussion on facism in the United States, not spurred by angry Bush-hating liberals, but from articles by conservative think-tank members, anti-war right-wingers, and former assistant Cabinet members.

The real problem here is not fascism, and calling it that does not necessarily help solve it.   Authoritarian government, whether it be fascism, communism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, dictatorship or a monarchy is the problem.   Any large, powerful, centralized government is prone to committing abuse if left unchecked.   When this is coupled with an ideological or religious calling that allows it to ignore rationality and moderation, those in power will inevitably cause great harm to the country's citizens and others.

The worst terrors of the 20th century came about because of centralized power and centralized belief in the State.   I don't believe that the current administration is deliberately seeking to overthrow the principles of American democracy, but I am truly and deeply worried that their policies lead in that direction and establish terribly disturbing precedents.   Perhaps it is because the United States survived the last century without fighting wars on its own soil, without losing millions of civilians to purges, genocide and the ravages of invasion brought on by authoritarian governments that many now are not immediately and profoundly concerned by these signs of centralized power.

This is what George Orwell warned about in 1984, not just communism, but the State as the arbiter of truth and reality and the human cost of ideologies.