America: On A Fast Track To Fascism

By Ken Setter

America emerged from World War 2 as the world's largest creditor; it is now the world's largest debtor. This unmistakeable fact seems to have passed relatively unnoticed, most especially by those Americans who dream the dream of America.

The reality is America is broke, so huge are Americas debts that it must repay foreign investors over $US2 billion a day just to stand still, it couldn't repay its debts even if it wanted to. Hence America is a country fast descending into fascism.

The idea, widely held by many Americans, is that America saved the world during World War Two then financed the peace through its generosity and goodwill, hence the world should be grateful. It's a nice story to tell the children at bedtime, but has no basis in fact. The truth is America did what was good for America , no more, no less. What America does better than most is selling itself, few others other countries come close in self-promotion, hence the myth lives on.

But wait a moment I hear you say, America is known as the land of the free; its constitution has checks and balances to ward off tyranny, how can we say America is heading towards Fascism? Yes, that's true, plainly a little history is required, but first we must not think of fascism in terms of jackboots, stiff-arm salutes and bad hair days, but a system of corporate governance.

America emerged from WW2 with its economy largely in tact; it had enormous quantities of pent-up savings due to wartime shortages. The years following the war brought unusually high profits to corporations servicing a market hungry for its products, principally consumer goods.

However by the 1960's faced with increasing overseas competition and declining profits, the warning bells were ringing; managers chose the easy option, by moving to low cost countries, and America started to dismantle much of its industry, a process that is ongoing with GM and Ford recent decision to drastically cut back on production. The outcome of this capital shift, known as de-industrialisation, is evident by America 's foreign currency debt of $US2 billion each and every day.

Meanwhile America is, once more choosing the easy option, America is arming itself for a war on credit, a war against its creditors, should they be foolish enough to recall the debt. A loaded gun to head, it is reasoned, to be the best insurance against foreclosure.

With the shift in productive capacity came added pressure to import, hence America has a current account debt of around $US750 billion. Financial journalists Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, authors of the informative Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis , expose the extent of Americas dire economic state, with an outstanding debt of $US37,000 billion. Much of it owned by China, yes that's right Communist China, China has been propping up the American economy for years, and the White House has been telling us they were the enemy. The Asian banks that need to buy US treasury bonds to prevent their own currencies from becoming overvalued against the dollar prop up the US economy.

However the military machine in the Pentagon decided long ago that bankruptcy and Chapter 11 was not an option. Its military bases spread across the world, 969 military bases (as of 2001) in the United States dispersed over 50 states and 725 bases overseas many with luxury hotels, 234 have private golf courses. Not a square inch of land on earth is unmapped by the US military, yes including your back yard and mine is targeted and co-ordinated in American military computers. The military empire flourishes as the top brass fly between conferences and ski resort in luxury jets, enjoying the fruits of imperium.

Of the many changes America has undergone few have been more significant than the conduct of foreign policy. Whereas previously foreign policy and diplomacy was largely a civilian operation, carried out by men and women steeped in diplomacy, accustomed to defending American actions with other democratic nations, this had been transformed. According to Chalmers Johnson informative book The Sorrows of Empire , the military is foremost in all matters of policy, to the extent that America no longer has a ‘foreign policy', it has a military empire complete with permanent overseas military bases, staffed by half a million soldiers, spies, technicians, teachers dependents, and civilian contractors backed up by a dozen carrier task forces in all oceans and seas of the world. America has become a truly military empire.

Those who recall President Eisenhower's warning of a military-industrial-complex ruling America do so with much sadness as they witness a decline of democracy and the rise of fascism. I was brought up to think of fascism as a system of government the capitalist state turned to when the normal workings of democracy proved difficult or unworkable, a crude definition, I agree, nevertheless it has much truth within it.

But wait a moment I hear you say, fascism, that's some form of National Socialism; America is capitalist and proud of it? Well yes and no. America is a capitalist country, but like Australia huge chunks of its economy are decidedly ‘socialist' by that I mean they are supported by the state and would not exist without massive amounts of state support, farm subsidies are put to shame when compared with the arms manufactures, the makers of Americas guns and bombs and bullets, its chemical and bacterial weapons of mass destruction, its nuclear weapons, spy satellites, intelligence agencies, many of whom actively spy for private corporations against competitors. Where would the aircraft manufactures be without state money? In addition the government is the main driving force behind technology, innovation, and science: the military-industrial-academic complex, is alive and well. America 's economy is a National ‘socialist' economy

America is a violent place, it always has been, its top export is violence. Even The Passion of the Christ was violent. The stories they tell are violent, its movies are violent, they represent more than harmless entertainment, the violence carries a powerful message, and the message is ‘step out of line buddy and this is what you can expect'. Annihilation. While in the home children are exposed to TV violence, some say they view around 8,000 murders and other violence before going to school.

These days each branch of the military has a ‘ Hollywood ' office in Los Angeles office, they view scripts, provide equipment, and send officers on location to watch everything being filmed and offer advice. No studio, no matter how rich, could afford to make and pay for the equipment required for Pearl Harbor . The Pentagon supplied the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis to the Disney studios. The movie was designed to portray the military in a favourable light and promote the idea that service in the armed forces is romantic, patriotic, and fun. The Chicago Tribune later reported that recruiters set up tables in the lobbies of theatres where Pearl Harbor was being shown.

The cooperation between Hollywood and the Pentagon is deeper than public perceptions, military camera crews filmed over 250 hours of footage, much of it portraying real live action, in making the movie Enduring Freedom: The Opening Chapter , surplus footage was made into commercials and DVD's, in partnership with Regal Entertainment Group, America's largest theatres chain with over 4,000 screens around the country.

A few years back as a member of Paddlers for Peace, a group opposed to the entry of nuclear-armed warships into Sydney harbour, I found myself directly in front of one of America 's giant aircraft carriers. Its flight deck dwarfed my kayak. It excluded the sunlight; the ship towered above me like a skyscraper. Its propellers turning slowly as it positioned itself. I felt myself getting sucked down, the harbour mottled as the props slowly sucking me into it orbit. This was American power at first hand, and it was scary. The propellers unseen, slow moving, seemingly unstoppable, deep below the surface were having effect. A better metaphor I have yet to see. What you don't see can harm you. Much of the American war machine is unseen, but its presents still felt.

So how does America see itself? Many who travel the freeways and byways of America visualise all roads lead to ruin, many believe Sodom and Gomorrah looms large around the next bend. For them the affluent society represents the, trophy wife, the toy boy, the gay life, same sex marriage, drugs and gambling in each and every truck stop, the next thing, they say, will be fornicating in the streets. And by God we can't have that. Shout the outraged; enter the backlash, but backlash to what, the consumer society, to evil, the ungodly, to capitalism? Surely these people would not oppose capitalism.

On the streets the Christian Right is marching, bombing abortion clinics, killing doctors, intimidating pregnant women, and restricting trade. Meanwhile southern black churches, long since the sole refuge of the poor, are burned at a rate of one per month. The Klan of yesteryear, the hoods, the nightshirts, the flaming cross have been superseded by mainstream ‘ Left Behind' books, the rapture, and a President who believes he was personally chosen by God to rid the world of evil.

These are the storm troopers of the New American Century, ideologically driven and charged with moulding the nation and the world in its own fashion. They kill the name of the ‘right to life.' George Orwell eat your heart out. Their message is not the message of Christ, of love, compassion, and good will to all. It is ‘One Market Under God' , an American God, who a Goggle search would no doubt reveal, first worked for MacDonald's before serving in the military, then later appointed as of CEO of Enron or some such corporation.

As the Reichstag fire was used as an excuse to change and reshape German institutions and culture, likewise Bush's America has unleash a host of repressive measures, following 9/11. It is no exaggeration to say that Christian fascists are marching on Washington , their aim; to use the military might of the United States as Gods weapon in the creation of a global, Christian empire. Pat Robinson holds aloft a cardboard cut out his personal Jesus, a masculine Rambo-like figure, a man powerfully built wielding a huge sword, Jesus the man of action, casting out demons, battling the Anti-Christ, attacking hypocrites and castigating the corrupt. He is followed by a flock of televangelists and talk back host's, sinners all, having repented on live TV they present the public image of the cleansed, they have the fiery glow of the fundamentalist.

The marchers advocate a new political religion; they aim to control the institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government. Pat Robertson tells his audience he is training students to rule when the Christian regents take power. The path he say's will not be easy it will ultimately involve violence. And the enemy is clearly defined and marked for destruction. The unbelievers.

The immediate aim, to gain independence for Christian schools whose duty will be to train a generation of people who know no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. These people denounce income tax as "idolatry," property tax as "theft" and call for the abolition of inheritance taxes. They cannot be dismissed as ‘harmless nut cases'; they present a real threat to democracy and world peace. They are busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order, which finally denies freedom and the religious liberty to the enemies of their God. Already the Bush administration is channelling millions of dollars in federal funds to groups such Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing, and National Right to Life , as well as to fundamentalist religious charity organizations and programs promoting sexual abstinence through The Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Education and Social Welfare.

God, according to the new storm troopers, has called upon the United States to become the first truly Christian nation, its mission, to make disciples of all nations. If that is not a manifesto for a fascist America I don't know what is.

My space is running out and time is not on our side. Mormons are knocking on my front door and the barbarians are close behind them, and no amount of wishing will stop them. The only way to counter their arguments is to create meaningful jobs, a decent health care system, and a moral society for all Gods creatures large and small.

The modern consumer society has betrayed the overwhelming mass of decent hardworking Americans, a reaffirmation of what it means to be truly and consistently human is a matter of some urgency. As Hannah Arendt wrote in her Origins of Totalitarianism “What convinces masses are not facts, not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the system which they are presumably part.”

I can do no better than to leave the final word to the American establishment.

A recent edition of The American Conservative reported ‘the very fact that the f-word can be seriously raised in an American context is evidence enough that we have moved into a new period. The invasion of Iraq has put the possibility of the end to American democracy on the table and has empowered groups on the Right that would acquiesce to and in some cases welcome the suppression of core American freedoms.'