One critical political fact lay undiscovered by William Shirer and the other brave men who dissected the horrible corpse of Fascism and Nazism, and that is LOVE lay at its heart. Less so with Stalin and the horrific descendants of Lenin, who were far more practical and less moony than the Europeans. Tatars and Georgians and Central Asians tend to deliver their message straight-up, from the bottle, and don't need the mushiness and moon-shine of Goethe and the romatics. A head, that is severed, on a pike - what more is there to say? Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky - honest men. An ice-axe through the head on the other side of the Earth! Now, that's a statement for you!!
But, the Europeans. Truly, Fascism and Nazism could not have come to pass, without love. Hitler had the absolute Midas touch that every gay man, I'm sure, would give his soul for. He could elicit love - yes, tender, passionate love - from heterosexual men. And who can be crueler than a person in love? All one needs, is the beloved - and a threat against him (or her.) Those Jews, then - they would not have been so passionately condemned, were they a threat only to some little politician. But against the Fuehrer, mein Gott! It was no great surprise, I am sure, when the inner circle of the Nazi Party discovered Ernst Roehm's homosexuality - the very leader of the Browshirts, the dreaded bullies of the SA - a homosexual!!? (was it ever not known by the inner circle?) It only became important when the time came for the Night of the Long Knives - and Roehm was expendable, and quickly dispatched.
But it must be love - that deep, passionate love in which the eternal truth rests - that people will do all sorts of moronic things in the power of love. Stupid women become accessories in crimes of their vicious men - because they love them so. Whatever that might mean, it is a force which must be reckoned with.
And it must indeed be deep and profound love - "true love," the kind which sweeps you up on angels wings. This sort of love must be transformative, not only of the magic beloved - but also, in reflection of the Self. It must literally make one's self New Again. The love of Hitler gave transformed the German Empire into the Aryan Reich. What power, that man's love had!
And, that's what's needed to form the triangle - the Beloved, the Threat against the Beloved, and the Transformed Self. I see many Americans mewling around and bitching like estrogen-soaked teenagers, loving love and waiting for the Beloved to come. Those on the right act like jealous, bitchy junior-high-schoolers, wrathful at the evil Bitch Obama that all of the Left seems to think is the Hosanna Savior, they hate his guts for it. Want to find this behavior in literature? Read the Sorrows of the Werther by Goethe - there's enough whininess in there for a dozen TEA parties on Independence Day.
America, somehow, used to be much less European in character, but became more so. THAT was the continent of failed ideas, and newcomers were asked to wash their feet before treading on the doorstep, please. In a place where political parties were suspect, kings and leaders despised, and independence admired, once upon a time - now we have a bunch of mewling cats in heat, looking for L!O!V!E!
The Republicans are especially jilted nowadays, as many of their "possible candidates" look like ass-holes. They certainly are not the Beloved. Passion still holds for Sarah Palin, who may break the Glass Ceiling of Fascism and become am ersten Fuehrerin. She could, too. She's got the chops, and she's crazy enough.
And that's why I think America's too damn good for Americans, these days.
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Freudianism is well-criticized these days. One of the chief critiques - which applies to Ayn Rand as well, is that if he were so smart, why did so many morons follow him?
But except for being right frequently, Freud has little to say for himself. The dynamic of European-style Fascism is easily jiggled into the Oedipus configuration - and maybe not so wrongly so. The primitive Loved Object, the primitive Bad Object, and Melanie Klein's off and running.
One's essential Identity derives from the result of the struggle between the Loved Object and the Bad Object, in both Freudian terms, and in the history of Nazism - clearly. Are we Great, or are we Small? Are we not Nordic Aryans? Is it only the Jews that keep us from realizing our Full Potential?
Americans are carefully trained by advertising and the media to remain thoughtless meme-bags. One of the most critical elements is the ability to inspire Love - and that is what the media does in spades. We are in the middle of an outpouring of undeserved love (and undeserved scorn) for a child singer from Gary, Indiana, who became both very rich and very crazy. The Jackson 5 were the first American Idols.
Other mechanical memes with significant life-events are Farrah Fawcett, a Texas model and beauty queen made famous for her abilities; Sarah Palin, another made famous for her lack thereof; a moony South Carolina Governor who lost the struggle between Christianity and tumescence (leaving a rather smudgy lesson for those parents trying to enforce the primacy of the first over the second), a Senator self-confessed of staff-porking; and other movies played upon the screen, with cues to the Chorus how to behave. Drama! Love! That's how we operate.
Gone are the days when we ran our own souls, took in what we honored and discarde what had no merit. Now, forcibly opened to the slush we call media, we pour it in. Do we love Miss California? Do we hate Miss California? What of what she said? Was it right or wrong?
Many years ago, mankind had little to do than watch the scurry of the ants, and perhaps they chose one or the other in some sort of bet - who will return to the anthill first? That's the best they could do for entertainment. And that whips our ass today.
fascism, love
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