Did you ever notice, we were able to stop Fascism from spreading,

[bfdd]

I think it has more to do with the concepts of each. It's much easier to get people all wide eyed and eager when you tell them all the good things that can come out of Communism, whereas I don't know anyone who would want to be fascist unless they were the one in charge.

 

[JTsyo]

Vietnam only took 11 years.

Yes, letting economic reality assert itself is a reasonably good solution.

Did the domino theory pan out? Was the US's involvement in the SE Asia what kept communism in check? I don't think China has any aspirations on exporting communism like Russia did. Think they are just trying to hold back ideas from the rest of the world from encroaching into their borders.

I think in general more people have a say in their government than ever before. Not that there isn't corruption and behind the scenes play but I think things have progressed. Hopefully as technology improves it will be easier to keep tabs on governments and hold them accountable.

 

[Throckmorton]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2091201

 

[werepossum]

I disagree with the above dictionary definition of Fascism. While that description is inclusive to Fascism, it is not the definition of Fascism. I think a more global definition would be: A system of government characterized by regulation or control over all aspects of society.

Fascist regimes can be ruled by either dictators, or career bureaucrats, either way the effect is the same. This is different from communism, where the government actually owns everything.

In my opinion, because:
a) our legal system has become so complex and lawyers so expensive that the mere threat of legal action can force you to their will,
b) combined with the regulatory system so bureaucratic, complex and overbearing, controlling every aspect of our lives, that essentially everyone is guilty of breaking some law

we have fascism.

It's interesting that everyone has their own preferred parts of fascism that we prefer as the definition, realizing that the definition of fascism is after the fact by comparison with fascist Italy (as opposed to Marxism defined by the written beliefs of Marx, or capitalism defined via a long refining process.) For me I identify fascism most strongly with the rule of man over the rule of law, enforced by disproportionate violence if necessary, and with government control by fiat (yes, small Italian automobiles) rather than regulation of private industry, so that government ends up with different rules for different people. Certainly we have some elements of fascism in our society, as we have some elements of Marxism, but I wouldn't say we have fascism per se. For instance, we have Obama taking over General Motors and Chrysler but not Ford, which indicates exercise of power not purely for whim or political purposes but also with additional mitigating factors that can be assumed (perhaps incorrectly) to be applied more or less evenly. As Lemon Law alluded we never have pure fascism or Marxism or capitalism, and few of us would enjoy living in a pure version of any of them. Your point is an interesting one though, in that it's possible to enforce much of the same authoritarian oppression as fascism simply through over-regulation and bureaucracy. I wouldn't define it as fascism, but I can see how others might, depending on which elements of fascist Italy one believes to be most important in defining fascism.

 

[dammitgibs]

Democracy has a lifespan.

 

[OCGuy]

Worst thread premise ever?

 

[bfdd]

Did the domino theory pan out? Was the US's involvement in the SE Asia what kept communism in check? I don't think China has any aspirations on exporting communism like Russia did. Think they are just trying to hold back ideas from the rest of the world from encroaching into their borders.

I think in general more people have a say in their government than ever before. Not that there isn't corruption and behind the scenes play but I think things have progressed. Hopefully as technology improves it will be easier to keep tabs on governments and hold them accountable.

Even if it doesn't let us keep tabs on the government, it allows us to stay connected easier to organize against them.

 

[gingermeggs]

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/fascism

fas·cism (fshzm) KEY

NOUN:

often Fascism
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
Oppressive, dictatorial control.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ETYMOLOGY:
Italian fascismo, from fascio, group, from Late Latin fascium, from Latin fascis, bundle

OTHER FORMS:
fas·cistic (f-shstk) KEY (Adjective)

WORD HISTORY:
It is fitting that the name of an authoritarian political movement like Fascism, founded in 1919 by Benito Mussolini, should come from the name of a symbol of authority. The Italian name of the movement, fascismo, is derived from fascio, "bundle, (political) group," but also refers to the movement's emblem, the fasces, a bundle of rods bound around a projecting axe-head that was carried before an ancient Roman magistrate by an attendant as a symbol of authority and power. The name of Mussolini's group of revolutionaries was soon used for similar nationalistic movements in other countries that sought to gain power through violence and ruthlessness, such as National Socialism.

OP,
What country do you live in? North Korea?

So, if you got a bullshit democracy, which is controlled by corporatists, what do you call it?
A closet form of fascism?
Who would you call the most powerful corporatist in the usa?

 

[Siddhartha]

I disagree with the above dictionary definition of Fascism. While that description is inclusive to Fascism, it is not the definition of Fascism. I think a more global definition would be: A system of government characterized by regulation or control over all aspects of society.

Fascist regimes can be ruled by either dictators, or career bureaucrats, either way the effect is the same. This is different from communism, where the government actually owns everything.

In my opinion, because:
a) our legal system has become so complex and lawyers so expensive that the mere threat of legal action can force you to their will,
b) combined with the regulatory system so bureaucratic, complex and overbearing, controlling every aspect of our lives, that essentially everyone is guilty of breaking some law

we have fascism.

In the US, about every two years elections are held which determine who runs the country at all levels. This process has changed the country's policies. You may not agree with the country's policies but there is an orderly process in place to change them.
That does not sound like Fascism to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

Fascism
Fascism, pronounced /ˈfæʃɪzəm/, is a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology.[1][2][3][4] Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy.[5][6] Fascism was originally founded by Italian national syndicalists in World War I who combined left-wing and right-wing political views, but it gravitated to the political right in the early 1920s.[7][8] Scholars generally consider fascism to be on the far right of the conventional left-right political spectrum.[9][10][11][12][13][14] Fascists believe that a nation is an organic community that requires strong leadership, singular collective identity, and the will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong.[15] They claim that culture is created by the collective national society and its state, that cultural ideas are what give individuals identity, and thus they reject individualism.[15] Viewing the nation as an integrated collective community, they see pluralism as a dysfunctional aspect of society, and justify a totalitarian state as a means to represent the nation in its entirety.[16][17] They advocate the creation of a single-party state.[18] Fascists reject and resist the autonomy of cultural or ethnic groups who are not considered part of the fascists' nation and who refuse to assimilate or are unable to be assimilated.[19] They consider attempts to create such autonomy as an affront and a threat to the nation.[19] Fascist governments forbid and suppress opposition to the fascist state and the fascist movement.[20] They identify violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality.[21]

Fascism is a byproduct of aspects of the Enlightenment, stemming from the Promethean, secular and modern ideals of the time, but rejecting the similarly modern concepts of egalitarianism, materialism, and rationalism as failed elements of the Enlightenment in favor of action, discipline, hierarchy, spirit, and will, which are also essentially modern.[22][23] They oppose liberalism — as a bourgeois movement — and Marxism — as a proletarian movement — for being exclusive economic class-based movements.[24] Fascists present their ideology as that of an economically trans-class movement that promotes ending economic class conflict to secure national solidarity.[25] They believe that economic classes are not capable of properly governing a nation, and that a merit-based aristocracy of experienced military persons must rule through regimenting a nation's forces of production and securing the nation's independence.[26] Fascism perceives conservatism as partly valuable for its support of order in society but opposes its typical opposition to change and modernization.[27] Fascism presents itself as a solution to the perceived benefits and disadvantages of conservatism by advocating state-controlled modernization that promotes orderly change while resisting the dangers to order in society of pluralism and independent initiative.[27]

Fascists support a "Third Position" in economic policy, which they believe superior to both the rampant individualism of laissez-faire capitalism and the severe control of state socialism.[28][29] Italian Fascism and most other fascist movements promote a corporatist economy whereby, in theory, representatives of capital and labour interest groups work together within sectoral corporations to create both harmonious labour relations and maximization of production that would serve the national interest.[30] However other fascist movements and ideologies, such as Nazism, did not utilize this form of economy.[30]

 

[gingermeggs]

Democracy has a lifespan.

Noocracy- will be the eventual ideology for evolved mankind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noocracy

 

[gingermeggs]

In the US, about every two years elections are held which determine who runs the country at all levels. This process has changed the country's policies. You may not agree with the country's policies but there is an orderly process in place to change them.
That does not sound like Fascism to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

Fascism
Fascism, pronounced /ˈfæʃɪzəm/, is a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology.[1][2][3][4] Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy.[5][6] Fascism was originally founded by Italian national syndicalists in World War I who combined left-wing and right-wing political views, but it gravitated to the political right in the early 1920s.[7][8] Scholars generally consider fascism to be on the far right of the conventional left-right political spectrum.[9][10][11][12][13][14] Fascists believe that a nation is an organic community that requires strong leadership, singular collective identity, and the will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong.[15] They claim that culture is created by the collective national society and its state, that cultural ideas are what give individuals identity, and thus they reject individualism.[15] Viewing the nation as an integrated collective community, they see pluralism as a dysfunctional aspect of society, and justify a totalitarian state as a means to represent the nation in its entirety.[16][17] They advocate the creation of a single-party state.[18] Fascists reject and resist the autonomy of cultural or ethnic groups who are not considered part of the fascists' nation and who refuse to assimilate or are unable to be assimilated.[19] They consider attempts to create such autonomy as an affront and a threat to the nation.[19] Fascist governments forbid and suppress opposition to the fascist state and the fascist movement.[20] They identify violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality.[21]

Fascism is a byproduct of aspects of the Enlightenment, stemming from the Promethean, secular and modern ideals of the time, but rejecting the similarly modern concepts of egalitarianism, materialism, and rationalism as failed elements of the Enlightenment in favor of action, discipline, hierarchy, spirit, and will, which are also essentially modern.[22][23] They oppose liberalism — as a bourgeois movement — and Marxism — as a proletarian movement — for being exclusive economic class-based movements.[24] Fascists present their ideology as that of an economically trans-class movement that promotes ending economic class conflict to secure national solidarity.[25] They believe that economic classes are not capable of properly governing a nation, and that a merit-based aristocracy of experienced military persons must rule through regimenting a nation's forces of production and securing the nation's independence.[26] Fascism perceives conservatism as partly valuable for its support of order in society but opposes its typical opposition to change and modernization.[27] Fascism presents itself as a solution to the perceived benefits and disadvantages of conservatism by advocating state-controlled modernization that promotes orderly change while resisting the dangers to order in society of pluralism and independent initiative.[27]

Fascists support a "Third Position" in economic policy, which they believe superior to both the rampant individualism of laissez-faire capitalism and the severe control of state socialism.[28][29] Italian Fascism and most other fascist movements promote a corporatist economy whereby, in theory, representatives of capital and labour interest groups work together within sectoral corporations to create both harmonious labour relations and maximization of production that would serve the national interest.[30] However other fascist movements and ideologies, such as Nazism, did not utilize this form of economy.[30]

Try this one on for size- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy

Corporatocracy, in social theories that focus on conflicts and opposing interests within society, denotes a system of government that serves the interest of, and may de facto be run by, corporations and involves ties between government and business. where corporations, conglomerates, and/or government entities with private components, control the direction and governance of a country, including carrying out economic planning notwithstanding the 'free market' label.

Does that shoe size fit better, yes?
Bailout anyone!
GoldmanSachs? News Limited?