Fascism, Like Sanberg's Fog, Comes On Little Cat Feet, But Only Gets Worse and Never Moves On

Nazi rally at Nuremberg in 1937.

We've seen this 'fog' before. Now as then, if it had exploded on the scene full blown we'd stand on our hind legs and fight back. But, then as now, "the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. It all took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised as a temporary emergency measure and associated with true patriotic allegiance." - Common Dreams

What happened there, then was that most people did not see the slow motion underneath. As Chris Aaron says, "In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D - and one day it's too late...and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose."

Yesterday's open letter to the people of Brazil from Edward Snowden is emblematic of how completely everything has changed here and now. In one sentence from the letter Snowden writes, "The public needs to know the kinds of things a government does in its name, or the ‘consent of the governed’ is meaningless. . . The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed." the consent of the governed being the moral underpinning of democracy in general and Amerika in particular.

As Benito Mussolini said, " Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." Power, fascist power, 'Heute Amerika, Morgen der Welt' [First Amerika, Then the World].

Near the end of Snowden's letter yesterday he explains succinctly why there's all the hub-bub about his whistleblower releases when he writes, "They say it is done to keep you safe. They’re wrong. There is a huge difference between legal programs, legitimate spying, legitimate law enforcement — where individuals are targeted based on a reasonable, individualized suspicion — and these programs of dragnet mass surveillance that put entire populations under an all-seeing eye and save copies forever. These programs were never about terrorism: they're about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They're about power."

Awhile back Naomi Wolf wrote an article that got her in deep dodo titled 'Fascist America in 10 easy steps', check 'em out:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

2. Create a gulag

3. Develop a thug caste

4. Set up an internal surveillance system

5. Harass citizens' groups

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release

7. Target key individuals

8. Control the press

9. Dissent equals treason

10. Suspend the rule of law

Yikes, 10 for 10 here on peri-totalitary Earth.