>How about agreeing the debate is pointless as long as a substantial >number
>of the participants refuse to even seriously discuss any of the >recent
>scholarship on fascism that result in a range of new >definitions--none of
>which are applicable to the current situation?
>Pick any recent scholar: Griffin, Eatwell, Postone, Fritzsche, >Lacquer.
>How do their theories relate to the claim that were are in a >period of
>fascist reaction? They don't! Their varied and sometimes >competing
>definitions do not show any serious analogy that could be >stretched to fit
>these arguments.
How about giving us a little bit of the new scholarship, Chip, to start the ball rolling. I, for one, would like to see it.
I have to agree with Chip, though, that, at the present time, calling what's happening in the U.S. "fascism" is incorrect. Whether or not it actually will lead into fascism proper is another matter. According to the MIA,
>Bonapartism has been used to describe a government that forms when >class
>rule is not secure and a military, police, and state bureaucracy
> >intervenes to establish order. Nineteenth century Bonapartism is
> >commonly associated with Twentieth century fascism and stalinism.
Of course, this doesn't preclude a military, police, and state bureaucracy from establishing order for other reasons; that's what it is doing now. But this doesn't seem to be coming from a weakening of the bourgeois factions of the U.S. at the hands of the proles, or even in spite of them. The U.S. ruling class looks secure at this point. If anything, Bush and Co. seem to be using the opportunity presented to them to the hilt, "paying off election debts" as Chip put it, solidifying Bush's legitimacy (recall the cloud under which he took office), and clumsily and paranoically responding to terrorist threats (keeping the public in "war fever"?) wherever they seem to pop up. Not that I can blame them much; look at the guerilla-like nature of their enemy.
Chip, you seem to worry that this use of fascism is somehow playing into the hands of the real fascists. Could you explain that, please?
Todd
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