Re: CONTROL FREAKS (nee, AIDs testing and privacy)

[jamesd@netcom.com (James A. Donald)]

Alan Olsen writes
> But it is also the case that industrial countries, when they fall on hard 
> times tend to fall back on an authoritarian "bread and circuses" approach to 
> governing.  Fascism in 1930's Germany was one such govenment.  ...
> ...
> ... (Remember that Hitler was elected.) I 
> think that this country is ripe for such a movement.

Not so.

Fascism was a more sophisticated and coherent philosophy than
you give it credit for.  Hitler mass marketed a vulgarized
mass market version to the ignorant unwashed masses, but this
was only after the political romantic philosophies came to have
substantial support among the intellectuals, and this philosophical
support was translated into political support by intellectuals 
for the various volkish parties, one of which was the National
German Socialist Workers party, which Hitler later joined
and swiftly came to dominate.

There really is no similar contender on the scene today.

The fascists were able to take power only after the ideas that
underly fascism had been growing in support and sophistication
for three hundred years.  When put into practice this system 
of ideas suffered a devastating setback, not only the particular
form that we called fascism, but all forms.

While a military dictatorship is possible, a military dictatorship
that is not armed with good volkish philosophy is unlikely to
be capable of doing much harm, because military dictatorships
are continually and gravely threatened by loss of internal cohesion
and discipline.

A military takeover might well be a good thing.  The soldiers could
in the short term impose discipline on a corrupt and lawless government,
and in the long term would profoundly weaken that which they sought
to strengthen.


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We have the right to defend ourselves and our
property, because of the kind of animals that we              James A. Donald
are.  True law derives from this right, not from
the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.                jamesd@netcom.com