[lbo-talk] In control, yet "oppressed"

[B.]

This is a reply to my own post, an email list faux
pas, I know. It also makes my 4th post of the day.
Oops! I'm not in Yoshie territory yet, but after
sharing the comic in the previous post, a friend
forwarded me a relevant observation from Umberto Eco I
thought I should share:


>From Umberto Eco, "Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of
Looking at a Blackshirt"

"8. The followers must feel humiliated by the
ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies.

When I was a boy I was taught to think of Englishmen
as the five-meal people. They ate more frequently than
the poor but sober Italians. Jews are rich and help
each other through a secret web of mutual assistance.
However, the followers of Ur-Fascism must also be
convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus,
by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the
enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.
Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because
they are constitutionally incapable of objectively
evaluating the force of the enemy."

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"I'm not too worried by hegemony / I know the cadre will look after me" - Magazine, "Model Worker," 1978