>I think it's kind of reckless to call people fascists who don't have
>a modern state and a giant industrial machine behind them. The word
>should mean something more than icky and repressive.
Chip pointed out, quite correctly I think, that fascism doesn't need all that modern state and giant industrial machinery behind them; that's not what makes fascism. According to a couple of lovely articles he pointed out about fascism, it's definitely a revolutionary force (which is what the Taliban has effected in their regime) and it definitely sees itself as the only source of good, which must fight against the evil by any means necessary, in an evil and debased world. It's millenerian and manichean in outlook. Big machinery doesn't make fascism; hearts and minds do.
Todd