Re: Michael Mann, again

[boddhisatva <kbevans@xxxxxxxxx>]

                To whom,


        I say that the fascist movement was part of the capitalist
revolution.  If you can't see capitalism as a revolution that brought liberal
values and rights to the working class, you are fooling yourself.  Capitalism
overthrew the social ideology of the ruling class and replaced it with the
cult of the "Great Man", who was the symbol of the possibility for a worker
to rise from his class.  Look at Ayn Rand.  Capitalism is the vehicle by
which the "Great Man" fuels his rise.  Meritocracy is the ideology with which
the capitalist justifies his place in the social order.


        Feudalism was based on tradition and force of arms.  Capitalists
overthrew force of arms with force of money.  They needed an ideology to
replace tradition, meritocracy was that ideology.  Fascists (and in this
group I include Stalin and Eisenhower) of course had to establish the new
order through force of arms, because it was a new logic of repression and
needed a little push.  Yet once the order was established it worked
beautifully.  America was perfect for this ideology because we had no
cohesive ruling class with identifiable social privileges.  They essentially
had bought their positions in the first place.  Thus America needed the least
repression to get in line.  Hitler became everybody's dictator who didn't
have one.  The huge rise in the military population allowed a reworking of
the social order along military lines.  Everybody felt important, thus they
were more likely to accept the new meritocratic ideology.



        We in America think of the years immediately following WW2 as
idyllic, yet there were more strikes in 1946 than in any other year of our
history.   Working people got a huge boon in those years, both in economic
terms and, more importantly in sociological terms.  And of course there was
the cold war for an excuse to keep the lid on the new revolution.



        peace


                boddhisatva





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