A gem of a column yesterday from my friend and (maybe or maybe not) yours, Ted Rall.
Rather than send you off to his site (www.rall.com), I'll just reprint it here...although I would recommend going to check out some of his other work (columns and comics both).
A Fascist Fairy Tale, Circa 1938
SAN FRANCISCO -- It's hard to believe now, but the Leader had been something of a national laughingstock. The kind of politician who attracted attention with speeches ridiculed for their extremism, hokey sentimentality and tortured syntax, he was ridiculed by the press and the intelligentsia as an idiot and a buffoon. They underestimated him.
The candidate was lucky when he presented himself for consideration. He faced a divided, disorganized opposition. Still, the apathy and confusion of the time wasn't quite severe enough to allow a small-time fellow like him to seize power. Converting his personality flaws into tactical advantages, however, he applied a sort of animal cunning to get what he craved.
Behind the scenes he promised future favors to rich businessmen in exchange for their support. Using the money he collected from these wealthy men, he went to a small cabal of shadowy power-brokers who controlled the political system and bullied them into giving him what the democratic process had denied him. "I'm going to win one way or the other," he growled. "Are you with me or against me?"
And so, despite carrying a plurality of the vote, he became the Leader.
Ruling his country wasn't enough for the Leader, though -- not by a long shot. He and his close friends, the ones who had stuck by him even when everyone had made fun of him, had radical plans. They wanted to transform their country into a mighty empire the likes of which the world had never seen before.
The nation's previous governments had gone into debt building up an immense, technologically-sophisticated military, but those weapons had ostensibly been built to keep the peace. Now the Leader and his advisers schemed to use those defensive weapons, and to build new offensive ones, to force other nations to fear them. They plotted to exploit other countries for their natural resources and to press their peoples into slavery. They would invade and occupy the richest countries; other states, fearful of the same fate, would sign away their wealth and their workers through favorable trade agreements.
Although the Leader's country had a history of militarism, his people had always insisted on some pretext before they marched off to war. They considered themselves gentle and peaceful, but they were no cowards--they would defend themselves ferociously whenever they were attacked.
One day a great fire broke out in the country's largest city. One of the nation's most impressive buildings -- an important symbol -- burned to the ground. Many innocent people died.
Assuming a grave tone and mournful expression as the fires still raged, the Leader addressed his people: terrorists from overseas, he said, had attacked the country. "If anyone should think that through terrorism it can bend us, then he forgets our character," he told them. "He who raises himself against this life of the nation will meet our resolution." He asked the people for their help. These were especially difficult times, he said. Wouldn't they grant him special rights, extra powers, to ensure that he could defend the nation from future threats?
Everyone was frightened. More than anything else, they wanted to make sure that nothing as bad as that terrible fire ever happened to them again. The Leader, people said, had grown into his job. His words flowed smoothly and confidently through his lips. Even the journalists who used to insult him were impressed with his newfound self-assuredness. They called on the people to give the Leader the support that he requested. And they did.
The Leader moved swiftly to crush his potential opponents. Foreigners, men with beards and swarthy skin, were rounded up and sent to detention camps, never to be seen again. Those who worshipped religions incompatible with total devotion to the Leader were singled out for discrimination. Opposition politicians disappeared from public life. People who expressed dismay or who questioned the Leader's wisdom lost their jobs, friends and social standing. Going against the Leader, after all, meant opposing the man who was defending the nation against those who sought to destroy it. By definition, anyone who tried to stop the leader was unpatriotic, perhaps even in league with the terrorists.
The Leader centralized the federal bureaucracy in a way that concentrated power in his hands and those of his inner circle. He used the might of the state to spy on citizens, so that nobody could ever be certain that what they said was private. Soon no one dared say anything that could be interpreted as insulting the Leader or his policies.
To be sure, some journalists, being inquisitive by nature, tried to investigate the Leader and the effects of his policies. But their editors needed access to the Leader and his officials in order to collect the news, so they only published articles favorable to the Leader. The people, whose only knowledge of current events came from their newspapers, increasingly supported the Leader. And the parliament, which the framers of the old constitution had created as a check against executive power, was pressured by the voters to go along with everything that the Leader wanted. Soon even the leaders of the opposition party were pledging their unconditional loyalty to the Leader. The parliament still convened, but they had become a rubber-stamp body.
The Leader had successfully consolidated his power in a short time, but the economy he had inherited from his democratically-elected predecessor kept getting worse. As the fright of the fire began to fade from memory, workers began to grumble that they couldn't find good jobs. The Leader had to act quickly to prevent his popularity from slipping, so he launched his first war.
One morning the world awoke to news that the Leader's massive armies were laying waste to the ill-equipped militia of a small country in a remote region of the continent. Neighboring nations had long considered the backwards, culturally medieval, victim of the Leader's war to be something of a nuisance. Thus they were inclined to believe the Leader when he blamed their government for the terrorist fire. And while some of the rulers of other countries privately doubted that vengeance was the real reason for the war -- everybody knew that the little nation being pulverized by bombs was on an important trade route--they chose not to speak up. The Leader's country was far too rich and powerful to fight and, in any case, they wouldn't mind if the war brought order to that savage and lawless land.
A few months later, the Leader announced the success of his blitzkrieg to his jubilant people. The attack against them had been avenged, he said. Although their worst enemies had escaped -- only for now, he said -- the world had been put on notice. No one would ever dare insult, much less murder, the Leader's people again.
For a few months the Leader reveled in the glory of his victory. People felt that the Leader was not only protecting them, but making them feel strong again. But one day his chief military adviser came to him with a warning. "People are beginning to forget about your victory," he said. "They're worried about their bellies. Their sons are stuck in the occupation force, fighting the remnants of the militia. They're afraid that another attack is coming. Why not start an even bigger war to distract them from these concerns?"
Rather than merely invade another country, however, the Leader hit upon a new strategy. He demanded that the world allow him to invade yet another nation, even though that land had caused no offense to its neighbors for many years. "I am a man of peace, but these evil ones are planning to kill my people," he roared. "I will invade them and stop them and I will consider anyone who doesn't agree to be our enemy." He ordered his armies to mass at the borders of his intended prize.
The world's rulers, terrified of the Leader's hubris and demonstrated willingness to throw his nation's armies into war, gathered to decide what to do. Everyone agreed that what the Leader intended to do was reckless, immoral and unjustified, but nobody wanted to stand alone and thus risk becoming his next target. Besides, they told themselves, he only wants one more country. It's worth voting for one small war now to prevent the whole world from being consumed by war, they agreed.
And so, after much discussion and debate, the world's rulers voted to appease the Leader.
-- O
2:51:48 PM 
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