Violence... The story so far

The ultimate fascist is the sociopath, or the more frightening moniker—psychopath. As we have discussed elsewhere, there is no difference between these terms. Sociopaths are quite sane and in full control of their senses. What sets them apart is their lack of any conscience. The most dangerous ones are those with smarts and charisma. Hitler literally held his audiences spellbound, sometimes for an hour or more. Fortunately, true fascists have come to power only twice in spite of a dozen or more serious efforts.

As both Milgram and Zimbardo showed by rigorous experiments with ordinary people of both genders over a range of ages, the barrier between the violent and peaceful human can be punctured by no more than commands from persons in white coats who simply profess authority. Our psychic balance is fragile indeed. Since our individual psyches are so vulnerable, we must be especially aware of the danger we present to ourselves. Therein lies the greatest singular danger to the whole of humanity. This fragility explains not only Hitler but Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo equally well.

And so it is with the true fascist. In the process of coming to power, classical Fascism takes advantage of social unrest arising from national humiliation, weak governance, shortages of jobs, scarcity of food, sustenance and individual safety. In that environment it is easy for those suffering to want to band together in trying to improve their plight. The existence of such a polity provides the fertile ground that the charismatic fascist exploits by promising better times and focusing their scattered protests into a national movement of protest. Hitler’s rise to power is the supreme example. He had a ready template, Mussolini. In each case, a deceitful thug, in addition to the polity, found critical support among some elites and most business leaders of his day to achieve initial power by legitimate means. They listened to what the thug said—unaware of what would actually transpire.

Once in power, the fascists soon set aside the remaining democratic institutions by both peaceful and violent means, seizing total power in the ‘national interest.’ That national interest included war against all enemies and uncooperative neighbors as well as “cleansing the homeland.” They dismissed or simply did away with any elites who stood in their way. For the industrialists, it was a windfall. Armaments led to new business. They could look the other way considering the profits to be made. Sound familiar?

For the citizens it was an escalation of the natural tensions between their instincts for peace or violence, the latter playing out in practice. Being dominant, if only over the stray Jew or Gypsy, was still a pleasure not felt before. (The analogous feeling in today’s America is expressed as “Kick Ass” and triumphalism) So the German spirit rose after Hitler set the new tone. For the leaders, through their narcissistic eyes, the situation appeared a bit different. The masses were merely suckers to be exploited in whatever ways the leaders chose. They invented ogres to be despised and eliminated—Communists, liberals, Jews and Gypsies in Germany; Ethiopians in Italy. Reclaiming rights of empire energized each populace.

In this way, otherwise well-meaning people and their five basic pillars of personality went along with their sociopathic leaders. Why? The literature is compelling on how dominance, obedience, cooperation, altruism and parenting all evolved as common behavioral traits expressed by the typical human genome each of us carries. Only our logical need to cooperate for survival separates our parental/altruistic selves from our dominant/obedient tendencies. Given our herding instinct, it is all too easy for an entire society to hail the fascist and give away the store—especially when the fascist gives that society someone to spit on, as both Hitler and Mussolini did. For our times read Muslims and immigrants for those being demonized.

• Robert Paxton details the gore that is Fascism in his book “The Anatomy of Fascism.”
• Martha Stout, Babiak and Hare, and Justin Frank provide insights into the socio-psychopathic personality that comprise about 1-4% of all of us.

The ultimate fascist is the sociopath, or the more frightening moniker—psychopath. As we have discussed elsewhere, there is no difference between these terms. Sociopaths are quite sane and in full control of their senses. What sets them apart is their lack of any conscience. The most dangerous ones are those with smarts and charisma. Hitler literally held his audiences spellbound, sometimes for an hour or more. Fortunately, true fascists have come to power only twice in spite of a dozen or more serious efforts.

As both Milgram and Zimbardo showed by rigorous experiments with ordinary people of both genders over a range of ages, the barrier between the violent and peaceful human can be punctured by no more than commands from persons in white coats who simply profess authority. Our psychic balance is fragile indeed. Since our individual psyches are so vulnerable, we must be especially aware of the danger we present to ourselves. Therein lies the greatest singular danger to the whole of humanity. This fragility explains not only Hitler but Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo equally well.

And so it is with the true fascist. In the process of coming to power, classical Fascism takes advantage of social unrest arising from national humiliation, weak governance, shortages of jobs, scarcity of food, sustenance and individual safety. In that environment it is easy for those suffering to want to band together in trying to improve their plight. The existence of such a polity provides the fertile ground that the charismatic fascist exploits by promising better times and focusing their scattered protests into a national movement of protest. Hitler’s rise to power is the supreme example. He had a ready template, Mussolini. In each case, a deceitful thug, in addition to the polity, found critical support among some elites and most business leaders of his day to achieve initial power by legitimate means. They listened to what the thug said—unaware of what would actually transpire.

Once in power, the fascists soon set aside the remaining democratic institutions by both peaceful and violent means, seizing total power in the ‘national interest.’ That national interest included war against all enemies and uncooperative neighbors as well as “cleansing the homeland.” They dismissed or simply did away with any elites who stood in their way. For the industrialists, it was a windfall. Armaments led to new business. They could look the other way considering the profits to be made. Sound familiar?

For the citizens it was an escalation of the natural tensions between their instincts for peace or violence, the latter playing out in practice. Being dominant, if only over the stray Jew or Gypsy, was still a pleasure not felt before. (The analogous feeling in today’s America is expressed as “Kick Ass” and triumphalism) So the German spirit rose after Hitler set the new tone. For the leaders, through their narcissistic eyes, the situation appeared a bit different. The masses were merely suckers to be exploited in whatever ways the leaders chose. They invented ogres to be despised and eliminated—Communists, liberals, Jews and Gypsies in Germany; Ethiopians in Italy. Reclaiming rights of empire energized each populace.

In this way, otherwise well-meaning people and their five basic pillars of personality went along with their sociopathic leaders. Why? The literature is compelling on how dominance, obedience, cooperation, altruism and parenting all evolved as common behavioral traits expressed by the typical human genome each of us carries. Only our logical need to cooperate for survival separates our parental/altruistic selves from our dominant/obedient tendencies. Given our herding instinct, it is all too easy for an entire society to hail the fascist and give away the store—especially when the fascist gives that society someone to spit on, as both Hitler and Mussolini did. For our times read Muslims and immigrants. For how our inner conflict came to be, see the following:

• Robert Paxton details the gore that is Fascism in his book “The Anatomy of Fascism.”
• Martha Stout, Babiak and Hare, and Justin Frank provide insights into the socio-psychopathic personality that comprise about 1-4% of all of us.
• Books by Theodor Adorno, who set the initial stage, which Stanley Milgram built upon and Philip Zimbardo went on to prove beyond any remaining doubt, describe the mechanisms that led even well-meaning citizens of Germany to support Hitler for over a year after it became apparent that his war was lost
• Frans De Waal, Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond and Edward Wilson, provide the evolutionary roots and attending commonality of behaviors among wildly different species.
• Karen Horney, Lee Alan Dugatkin, Stanley Milgram, Phillip Zimbardo, and Rush Dozier developed most of the psychology underlying the Five Pillars of personality.
• Edward Wilson—most Importantly—built on Darwin, Mendel, Watson and Krick and his own extensive investigations to bring consilience to it all. The basic dichotomy in human personality has been there all along, and goes back most of a half billion years for some traits, such as fish schooling long before birds flocked and Border Collies herded sheep.

These works and observations have all been replicated or verified in one way or another and none is at odds with the concept that five basic pillars govern how humanity exists in ‘civilized’ societies. Most simply, traits evolved for survival in the jungles are not those best-suited for peaceful civilization, absent natural enemies other than each other. It seems we simply must have adversaries that we can vanquish. A dramatic example of that tendency was illustrated dramatically when Hitler turned on his own people as the end neared.

Now, what does that mean for America today? Paxton’s case is pretty emphatic that Fascism exists in most developed societies. The Neo-Nazis are cases in point. See Wikipedia for verification of their ubiquity. Classical Fascism has no chance of wresting power from strong governments or over intelligent societies with the wherewithal to say no. The same is true in vigorous economies. But a world recession now besets most of the world that has many citizens protesting the status quo on six of the seven continents. Polarization is also occurring not only between economic classes but among the three monotheisms and political elites as well. Stage one (depressed times and polarized societies) has energized the classical fascists. Immigration in numbers of crossings today, is actually now very low--too low to worry about. Yet sealing the borders gets popular support—naively, of course. Mutual hatred among Christian, Jews and Muslims replicates the fascist need for an adversary to go to war against. And these issues too often bring out voter support to bring about hatred as political correctness. All this may not be true Fascism, but it need not be to constitute a grave danger to democracy. But just as organisms and social systems can evolve, so can Fascisms. Control over the American populace and loss of freedoms are being systematically expanded—not only by the above attitudes, but by tangible constraints imposed by the Homeland Security branch of government. It continues to happen under a president who promised otherwise.


That key elements of Fascism permeate America today, is quite apparent. In fact, they have for some time. Alexander Cockburn in the 21 May 2012 issue of "The Nation" formulates the issues. We paraphrase his observations with those of Robert Paxton’s history of Hitler’s policies.

Fascist Regimes	American Democracy
Repress Labor’s right to organize	Passes Taft-Hartley law and subsequent similar laws to restrict rights of labor classes
Prohibit freedom of speech and right of assembly	Breaks up “Occupy” assemblies across the nation and arrests participants
Spy obsessively on their citizens	Patriot Act employs surveillance techniques that Hitler’s SS would envy
Imprison anyone at will	Upon no more than a presidential decision, renditions, kills or imprisons enemies of the state, whether foreign or home grown, without judicial review.

The Taft-Hartley Act, robbing unions of much of their power, passed way back in Truman’s time. (To be sure, union excesses clearly increased political motivation to limit their power.) Sadly, the direction Taft-Hartley set whittling away at union power, has been followed all too consistently under both Republican and Democratic administrations down to our times until at last some good citizens of Wisconsin decided they had had enough. Spontaneously, and about the same time, Occupy movements arose peacefully in many states, and some other countries as well to protest the unbridled power of Wall Street.

Paxton and Cockburn have company. Ari Berman in the 21 May issue of “The Nation” looks at what may be coming.

To certify far-right wing support for his presidential candidacy, the Rev. Richard Lamb advised Romney to interview:

• Rick Santorum for Attorney General
• Newt Gingrich for ambassador to the United Nations and
• John Bolton for Secretary of State

That scenario may not even be remotely plausible, but it certainly could happen—some day. And for sure, Romney would deny such a possibility. Neverthless, Romney’s team is in fact loaded with holdovers from the Bush Administration who are tarnished by the fiasco that Iraq became, and for establishing policies akin to Fascism that may indeed eventually become permanent, even if Obama finds the backbone to reverse them. Wherever bin Laden is, he must be laughing up his sleeve. Not only did he bring down the twin icons that were the Trade Center, he indirectly conned the American public into buying into a state of perpetual war. That war is certainly costly to those who dare harbor the remnants of al Qa’ida, but if it is pursued by America as vigorously in the future, say in Iran, as it has been in the past in Iraq, it will in the end be deadly to American Empire. Wasn’t that bin Laden’s original goal? He and his brethren voluntarily—in a strange and horribly distorted irony—became to America, what the Jews were to Hitler. America will not suffer Hitler’s exact fate for sure. But any analogue cannot and will not be pleasant for any society involved.

Arriving at this state of affairs is in no way classical Fascism in action. Nevertheless it borrows from Fascism and extends it to something worse for all of humanity. Hitler did not have nukes. The US does. Hitler could not manipulate means to create a pandemic. The US does. Hitler eventually exhausted all resources. And so will we if we persist in a perpetual state of war now in its 12th year. We will sooner or later reach the point of no return economically. A massive defense system will not save us. The opposite would give us a chance, if indeed it is not already too late. Perpetual war along its periphery eventually brought down mighty Rome; Romans, as well as their adversaries carried the same genes we do.