The Rising Threat of Fascism: Egypt, Iran, Syria, and Other States

Anti-semitic. Nationalist. Socialist. Corporatist. Totalitarian. Idolizing and exaltating violence, war, and militarism. Emphasizing spiritual renovation, 'better' education, instilling of a will to dominate, and creating national comradeship through the mandatory national military service.

Egypt today is all of these things. Iran is all of these things. The Gaza Strip and West Bank are these things. Syria is these things. These elements are becoming popular in Turkey and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. These elements swirl through Iraq and Afghanistan. And these are increasingly coming to define the Middle East region.

This is not new. The above elements that I used to describe what is happening in the Middle East are the same exact elements that form the core of fascism.

Fascism did not die with World War Two; it was a very popular ideology that had believers around the world, even here in the United States, and just because the fascist powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan were defeated did not mean that fascism would disappear as an ideology and political alternative to classical liberalism or honest socialism. It did not go away- rather, it changed its name and its focus and attempted to disassociate itself from the worst fascists that were out there, but it did not go away. For many years, the United States and its allies fought for and openly pushed classical liberal ideals on the world, driving fascism into the shadows where it lurked, corrupting socialist movements and swaying liberal governments to its siren call of a 'third way' between life and liberty and death and tyranny.

Fascism though is once more rearing its ugly head, singing its song that if only the people would unite behind certain ideals- be they a united community of Muslims preaching nationalism and death to Jews in a corporatist economy, or a divided nation rallying behind a demagogue who promises change and hope while creating a union-government-big business partnership, or Germans smarting from a dehumanizing loss in WWI seeking out Volk through a third way economic program based on environmentalism and postmodern values. Fascism is still going strong today, luring people into adopting it, working with it, and even preaching it in their own little ways, all while vehemently rejecting it just because it isn't spoken in German and this isn't 1940 and because their own mind shrinks back in horrified rejection over the accusation that perhaps what they really are advancing is fascist.

This isn't really new ground for me to cover- longtime readers of my blog will remember my other posts on fascism such as Fascism Healthcare, The Third Way: Obama and Fascism, State Capitalism, Crony Capitalism, Corrupt Capitalism ..., Wikipedia Description of Fascist Sounds Like Someone I Know, or The World According to Obama.

What is new to me is the dawning realization that the Middle East is going fascist, that the people of Israel are in grave danger, and that appeasers hold positions of power around the world and are going to let atrocities, rapes, rocket attacks, land grabs, condemnations, and rebukes occur. And we must fight this new fascism.

For more information about fascism, read Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.

UPDATE: It is stunning to me the lack of education demonstrated by the teachers and their allies in Wisconsin. There are so many signs about this whole Wisconsin budget battle thing where they make their opponents out to be fascists and have sign after sign with a mustache drawn on the Governor of Wisconsin to make him into some sort of Hitler. Not only is it uncivil and disgusting, it is shocking illiterate and uneducated about what exactly fascism is. Making it so that public employees (who are hired and fired by the government and who have an entire civil service commission set up to supervise them) can not unionize and collectively bargain is not something that any fascist at any point in history even thought about, unless you view unions to be communist and argue that fascists hated communists? I doubt this is it- no, rather this is just another effort to disguise just exactly what fascism is and water down the word so that when you see real fascism- like the kind I believe you see signs of in the Middle East and elsewhere- you won't recognize it and therefore attack and condemn it.