Most academics and many journalists labor under a view of politics so rosy it rises to the level of a delusion, such as in this book passage I recently saw on social media which declares that the descent of a republic into fascism is “one of the strangest chapters in history”. What a bizarre statement! For anyone who has lived in the real world for as long as I have and studied history and the behavior of masses as carefully as I have, there is one inescapable conclusion: The orderly (not “peaceful”) degeneration of a republic into a fascist state is not strange at all, not in any way. The premise that such a shift is “strange” derives from two pious fallacies not uncommon in ivory towers: 1) That the majority of the populace want self-determination rather than control from above (they do not; only about 1/3 do); and 2) That the majority don’t want the “other” oppressed. But in reality, a very large fraction of humans view the world as a hierarchy in which they would ideally occupy a position perhaps 1/3 of the way from the top, with their “betters” making wise decisions and doing the hard work of running things, and their subalterns in subservient roles. That’s why this kind of social arrangement, with exalted “leaders” at the top and servants at the bottom, with the typical citizen of the dominant race, caste, or class in the upper middle, is so common throughout human history. Republics take intellectual and moral work, and most people are intellectually and morally lazy. Furthermore, the kind of corporate power which is necessary for the development of fascism can only arise in relatively open societies rather than highly-stratified authoritarian ones; in other words, for fascism to arise from a relatively “democratic” society is not only not “strange”, it is the only kind of society from which fascism is likely to arise at all.
Archive for August 11th, 2025
Not At All Strange
Posted in Current Events, History, Tyranny, tagged fascism, Germany, politicians, psychology, racism on August 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »
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