{"id":345,"date":"2021-03-30T03:50:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T03:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/?p=345"},"modified":"2021-05-02T07:18:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-02T07:18:08","slug":"a-sigh-of-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/a-sigh-of-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"A SIGH OF RELIEF?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">Half of America breathed a sigh of relief when power was finally transferred from, the would be autocrat Donald J. Trump, to the less colorful but entirely predictable Joe Biden. The Biden half believe his ascension represents a return to rationality, to social justice, to the standards of comportment expected of a liberal democracy, indeed, to civility itself. This half of America hopes we can end this chapter of American history and return to normal. But, what of the other half, the half for whom normal is not working, the millions who voted for Trump? Where will they go, what will they do, how will their anger be manifest? Will \u201cTrumpism\u201d turn into a proto-fascist movement as many fear? Are the conditions ripe for such a movement? It would seem so. Trumpism seems to share some important features with historical fascism: <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">The adoration of a strong leader (Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Peron etc.)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">The fear and hostility towards an outsider group (Jews, immigrants, Muslims)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">Nostalgia for and identity with a mythical past (MAGA, Pax Romana, Aryan civilization, the old South, etc.)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">An obsession with guns and the second amendment (Black Shirts, Proud Boys, militarization of civil society, militias)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">A belief in conspiracies (The Elders of Zion, Q-anon, communist subversion etc.)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">Fanatical anti-communism (On the rise)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">The ability to mobilize citizens in the streets and at mass rallies beneath the flags of pernicious identities (Nuremberg, March on Rome) <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">A fanatical form of patriotism and glorification of the State (The State is currently an infested swamp but once cleansed becomes the supreme authority beholden only to the Dear Leader)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">A strong distrust in the \u201clying\u201d media (Fake news)<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">A wide spread sense of the betrayal of former leaders <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">A shameless open misogyny <\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">All of these elements\u2014and the list could go on&#8211;seem to be present in Trumpism and when coupled with the abyss of an economic crisis, a pandemic and a divided governing class, it is not unreasonable to suggest that something resembling fascism is looming on the horizon. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">Can it be stopped? Before attempting to answer this question a few curious facts should be acknowledged and questioned. Trumpism and the recent growth of the moderate left of the Democratic Party emerged from the same soil; in many cases the supporters of Obama, Trump and Biden were interchangeable. What reconciles this seeming contradiction? Hannah Arendt<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote1sym\" name=\"sdfootnote1anc\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a> was right to remind us of the mass of literature from the ancients that warned of the affinity between democracy and tyranny. It is of course a striking phenomenon with what relative ease 20<\/span><sup><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">th<\/span><\/sup><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\"> century liberal democracies transformed into totalitarian states and back again. There must be something in common that gives shape to the social subjectivity of the mass of citizens who are prepared to move in two directions simultaneously. I believe that the common social bond&#8211; expressed equally by the two factions of the ruling elite, is <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\"><i>economic liberalism<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">.<a class=\"sdfootnoteanc\" href=\"#sdfootnote2sym\" name=\"sdfootnote2anc\"><sup>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><i> <\/i><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">Whether a state was seeking to expand the democratic franchise as a mode of social control or an authoritarian state determined to grind its citizens beneath the iron heel of fascistic autocracy, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\"><i>economic liberalism<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\"> was always the desired outcome. The politics of the left or right are mere strategies to secure the expansion of the <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\"><i>liberal economy.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">What is the nature of <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\"><i>economic liberalism, <\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">especially when in crisis, that opens so many to authoritarian solutions? This is a complex question but Arendt points her finger some of the effects of contemporary economic development citing social atomization, extreme individualization, a competitive social structure and extreme isolation and loneliness; in a word, widespread feeling of social alienation. This is how we create a nation of sociopaths. The Biden wing of the ruling elite may turn out to be the mirror image of Trump, equally dedicated to the expansion of the <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\"><i>liberal economy<\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">, indeed defenders who will tolerate no challengers. If we wish to resist the devastating effects of a prolonged economic crisis we must embrace those moments of resistance that insist that we are more than cogs in an economic machine whose sole right to exist is to protect the interest of the rich. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"_GoBack\"><\/a> <span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">B. York<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\">2\/15\/2021<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" style=\"font-size: 1rem;\" href=\"#sdfootnote1anc\" name=\"sdfootnote1sym\">1<\/a><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; font-family: 'Avenir Book', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> Hannah Arendt, <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; font-family: 'Avenir Book', serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><i>The Origins of Totalitarianism<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote2\">\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\"><a class=\"sdfootnotesym\" href=\"#sdfootnote2anc\" name=\"sdfootnote2sym\">2<\/a> <span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">I use the term <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><i>liberalism<\/i><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Avenir Book, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"> in its traditional form to mean&#8211;a free-market in goods and labor, along with the absolute right to private property as the cornerstone of individual liberty&#8211; first clearly articulated by John Locke, i.e. capitalism<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"sdfootnote2\">\n<p class=\"sdfootnote\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Half of America breathed a sigh of relief when power was finally transferred from, the would be autocrat Donald J. Trump, to the less colorful but entirely predictable Joe Biden. The Biden half believe his ascension represents a return to rationality, to social justice, to the standards of comportment expected of a liberal democracy, indeed, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/a-sigh-of-relief\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A SIGH OF RELIEF?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","tag-after-trump"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalistperspective.org\/staging\/3363\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}