| American authoritism does not advance in a straight line. And it predates "fascism" by hundreds of years, so calling it "fascist" is pretty absurd. If you look at American history, it's pretty obvious where authoritism tends to be maximized. War.
In the civil war you got Lincon's major federal enroachments, arresting of senators, etc. In WWI you got a lot of prohibitions on free speech and press. WWII you got internment camps among other things. The height of the "cold war" you got McCarthyism. Patriot act followed 9/11.
The good thing is, all these things started to dissipate as time went on. Today we see most of them as mistakes.
Seems to me, then, that we will be able to avert at least the more extreme forms of authoritism as long as we can prevent the authoritists from creating the conception of constant war. Perhaps the war on terrorism is the attempt to create such a war, but I think it has failed. Americans are not that afraid of terrorism anymore. Of course, a few more attacks, or, say, a nuclear attack, is all that is necessary to get Americans to give up all their rights. At least for the time being. |