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May 2005, Volume 12 Nr. 9, Issue 144

The Fascist Ego and the Future

Jozef Hand-Boniakowski
  

The French author, Andre Gide, wrote in his book "The Immoralist", "One must allow others to be right. It consoles them for not being anything else."  The most powerful man in the world, George W. Bush, as commander-in-chief of the United States military forces is always right.  The arrogance and hubris of the man, intelligently masked by deliberate projected stupidity, serves as successful diversion from his highly skilled persona of mass manipulation.  Edward B. Toupin, author of "Ego, Arrogance, and Self-Esteem" writes that, 

Regardless of what we feel or do, we are all simply searching for some type of meaning within our own individual existence that can somehow take us further.

Slate Magazine reported (June 13, 2003, Profile: George W. Bush, William Saletan and Avi Zenilman) that the president's net worth is  between $9,634,088 - $26,593,000.  With assets acquired at birth beyond most people's understanding, Bush's moving forward in finding meaning in his existence presents a clear and present danger to the United States and to the world.  George W. Bush, like his father before him Herbert Walker Bush is wealth inherited.  Their elite status and power separate them from working people struggling daily to make end meets.  Their search for meaning is very different from the John and Jane Doe whose jobs they export overseas.  The super rich are incapable of relating to what moving forward means for working people.  Their disconnectedness and isolation from common people won't allow it.  The cost of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread is never a consideration for the ruling elite.  Neither is paying the rent or medical care a problem.  George W. Bush revealed his separation from working men and women in the following exchange on February 4, 2005 while promoting changes in Social Security in Omaha, Nebraska.  

MS. MORNIN: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.

THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?

MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that. (Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)

George  W. Bush's public persona of stupidity is a clever diversion from his ego agenda.  Operatives try to relate the president to the people by projecting an air of anti-intellectualism.  They reinforce a camaraderie of those in contempt of the more educated.  As critical thinking requires specific set of skills and continuous practice Bush bonds with those that lack both.  Thanks to the glorious educational system that capitalism has made few citizens today possess critical thinking skills.  As a result, simplistic explanations and directives suffice.  When the regime fails Bush's facade of false common folksiness saves the day.  It projects the blame for its failures onto others and the sheeple follow.  The regime castigates its critics as being part of the problem.  No matter how insane the policy those that are not "with us" and "against" us.  To Disagree with this administration is to be branded as being in opposition to it.  Team Bush players quickly realize that no disagreement is too trivial.  The majority of the populace sold on team loyalty easily agree and go along.  They prefer associating with their pack over being branded and shunned by it.  

The projected image of the educated liberal and the progressive as the enemy is a well-thought out project decades in the making.  Media talking heads and corporate-state "news" constantly castigate liberals as being the problem.  Any view, and anyone, left of the neo-conservative agenda is demonized as preventing the populace  from moving forward.  The meaning of life is pre-ordained  and liberals are demons in opposition.  Egos sharing common cause rally into action.  They squash dissent and orchestrating media events by screening out and hint of opposition. This regime's fascist elements know exactly what they are doing.  With the takeover of most radio, television and newspapers by sympathetic corporations the co-optation of public opinion is complete.  It exceeds Goebbels' success in shepherding his flock to orchestrated conclusions.  "We the people" thus know who to blame for being stuck unable to move forward.  We do not see our president and his fascist leaning team as being responsible for any problem.  The liberal is.  The progressive is.  The intellectual is.  The environmentalist is.  The anti-war activist is.  The pro-choice people are.  The atheist is.  The socialist is.  The communist is.  The terrorist is.  Take your pick.   Anyone other than the regime is to blame. 

It is, however, the axis-of-super-egos presently in power that are  the road blocks to fellow workers moving forward. The size of the obstruction is as immense as the size of the administration's huge egos.  It is as large as the mass of the messages delivered over many decades by state schools, religious vested interests and their minister pimps, television, corporate controlled media, and the  ever-present advertising.  We the daily lied-to masses accept the lies as truth.  When these messages, the paradigms of capitalism run amok become ingrained and internalized, we become thusly defined associating ourselves with their proponents.  Our ego shares a vested interest with the liars egos.

When we accept the mythology that hard work will make us wealthy just like the ruling elite we embrace wannabeism. We want to be like the wealthy.  We want to support the rich ruling elite and the powerful, not because it is in our own best interest, rather, because we want to be like them.  Perhaps, the thinking goes, if Ms. Mornin only had five jobs instead of just three, she could join the rich club alongside the Bushs, Kennedys, Kerrys, Guilianis, Saudis, etc., of the world.  While the working class is duped into struggling to be like the rich, power is passed on from generation to generation via inherited wealth.  Sons are given access to the best schools, given companies to play with, bailed out when misdeeds are committed and transgressions expunged.  Being wealthy means never having to take responsibility.  Being part of the elite means never having to say you're sorry.  Being born into wealth means never having to do  either.

William R. Tucker in his book "The Fascist Ego" (Univ. of Calif. Press, Berkeley, 1975) suggests that (Brasillach) fascism is  inspired anti-modernism and that individual creativity supporting such sensibilities place the ego at the center of things.  As the ego is designed for ensuring survival a grave danger is created with the intertwining of the state and the ego.  Add religion and the mixture becomes volatile.  The blurred boundaries increase the probability of "right wing anarchism" (Tucker) and so an anything-goes neo-con we-know-best and we-wiil-pre-emptively do it mindset pervades.  With that modus operandi comes the irrationality of arrogance.  What nation will the superpower attack next?  Where will be the next Guernica?  The next Fallujah?  Where will the next Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib be?  Who will be extremely rendered next?  And thereafter, what of the results?  The philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote:

I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: "The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair." In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.

And so, the biggest military power in the history of the world hits upon the weaker nations.  Consider the suffering and death toll from its adventures in Southeast Asia, and now, West Asia.  

Fascism is perhaps the ultimate expression of the ego lost in its identification with the state.  The ego becomes the uber state.  History shows that empires rise and fall.  Today's superpower is yesterday's chapter in the rise and fall of nations.  Without learning from history we are repeating the same mistakes.  We remain a country mired in our own individual national identity.  As a result the future is precarious, with the inevitability of "the bigs", as Bertrand Russell called them,  becoming the "medium sized" or worse, a time when once again the history of the human race will repeat itself.  Is humankind incapable of moving forward?  Perhaps it will someday destroy itself.  If it does, the fascist ego will finally cease to exist.  Perhaps that is the ultimate resolution to planet Earth's dilemma?

You know, there are different kinds of refugees. There are people who are forced to take refuge under a railroad bridge because they ain’t got no place to go, and there are those who take refuge in public office …    Woody Guthrie

© 2005 Jozef Hand-Boniakowski

 
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