We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Posts that I especially recommend today: Thursday, October 22, 2020

Rockhill explains, in the words of an academic, that fascism is an integral part of capitalism. Initially, he uses words that are acceptable in bourgeois academic discourse (such as "liberalism", the classic meaning which denotes the ideology of capitalism) that tends obscure for ordinary people most of the harsh realities of capitalism. However, to his credit, he soon uses the "good cop, bad coop" metaphor, which ordinary people can understand, to explain the harsh realities of capitalism. 
Capitalism is a social-economic system that tends to hide the fact (the classic meaning of "liberalism") of capitalist rule: a ruling class of major private owners of economic enterprises who are always on guard to preserve their system which delivers them so much wealth and power, particularly the latter. 
Power is a very intoxicating and addictive drug that can easily cause some humans to commit all sort of harmful behaviors toward their fellow humans ranging from simple exploitation to outright murder: all characterized by ordinary people who regard such behavior as immoral or criminal. "Liberal democracy" is a system that relies on the rule of their laws.
Such a system results roughly in social-economic classes in which the majority are rented workers, those who benefit by serving the major owners of economic property, and the latter who form a tiny ruling class. The term "ruling class" is not a pejorative term, rather it is a descriptive term. This class puts their stamp of interests on the rest of society which includes workers, middle class people, and their fellow members of the ruling class. Their stamps of interests of this latter class impose on other classes of society range from their beliefs about their system of capitalism as good for all of society, the rule of their laws, and down to the differential behavior and the style of dress permitted to all social classes.

Whenever the ruling class are threatened or their beliefs about their capitalist system are threatened, they are inclined to use violence. History has demonstrated that this system over time results in the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. A ruling capitalist class thus might depend on overt violence or the threat of violence if they feel sufficiently threatened. Such a system is described by various people as fascism. The ruling class of capitalists increasingly ignores their rule of laws in order to rely on violence imposed on people who threaten their system in any form. To gain supporters from other classes they use bribes and fake threats posed by fake enemies (racial groups, Muslims, "terrorists", "communists", etc.).

Finally, the partial sentence "When fascist parties attain state power and are no longer held back by their commedia dell’arte with liberals" needs some explanation. Here he means by "liberals" the current meaning of "liberals": mainly middle and upper-middle-class people who are well rewarded for their support of the ruling class and who support their lies of propaganda. The phrase "commedia dell'Arte" combined with "liberals" suggests that "liberals" only pretend like actors on stage to support the ruling capitalists. Thus the partial sentence means when the fascist parties or fascist segments of the population are no longer held in check by acting liberals, "...." Although the use of "commedia dell'Arte" is clever, I don't think that most liberals are merely acting. Rather I think that most of them (particularly professionals and managers) fervently identify with, and support, the ruling class because the latter supplies them with comfortable careers.
  • UK Gov't Bans Teaching Of Anti-Capitalism featuring Lee Camp of Redacted Tonight hilariously reporting and commenting on the UK's banning of teaching anything that is anti-capitalism in a 7:22m video from his channel on YouTube.
  • How Bolivia fights fascism – It takes more than the ballot box featuring a 35 minute video in which "Anya Parampil speaks with [Bolivian] journalist Ollie Vargas in La Paz, Bolivia about the historic victory of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party in the October 18 elections." Posted on The Grayzone. (My insertion)
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