Broken twigs

I always return to this page of Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta when I think about the meaning and origin of fascism, the most wretched and debasing form of politics the human race has ever conceived.

The word fascism comes from the Latin fasces which means a bundle of sticks. Like the comic tells us, one stick is easily snapped, while the bundle prevails. Unity—more precisely, uniformity—was the core of early twentieth century fascism. It demanded that the most beautiful aspects of human nature, such as critical thinking, creativity, diversity, artistic expression, were suspended in favor of a single deranged political ideology that championed racial supremacy above all else. Individual identity melted into national projects that exalted violence, territorial expansion, and ethnic cleansing as a means of reattaining a perceived loss of the country’s dignity. Fascism is an extreme form of glorified collective stupidity. It cost our species dearly.

At the doorstep of next Tuesday’s US elections, I find myself reflecting on the similarities and differences between twentieth century fascism and its ugly shadow looming over the world today. Whereas in 1930s Germany, private enterprise was absorbed in favor of the state (to produce Hitler’s tanks and uniforms for instance), nowadays the exact opposite occurs: the legal, political, diplomatic, and military power of the state is instead wielded by corporations to favor their private aims. I’ve always thought of neoliberalism as something far more sinister than merely an extreme and unregulated capitalism. Because of its surveillance capabilities, its militarized police forces, its perverse system of values that allow for the utter incineration of the habitable conditions of our planet for profit, it is clear we are facing something new now, something that shows its unashamed brutality in the year-long support for the atrocities being committed across Palestine. This system is in need of a mask, someone who is most adept to protect and expand the interests of the ruling class.

Donald Trump has made it clear he is a white supremacist and an aspiring fascist. Having brutally suppressed Black Lives Matter protests during his presidency, launched an insurrection against the US Capitol when he lost the previous elections, threatened revenge on his political foes, among innumerable other examples, he certainly meets the criteria of a neo-fascist.

There are however key differences between his strain of fascism and that of the past. For one, he lacks a national project. The Global North as a whole has failed in this regard. There are proposals of course, and no shortage of vital ideas and grassroots campaigning in their favor (such as The Green New Deal, which imagines an energy and ideological transformation of the USA), but these are suppressed or disregarded by the ruling class. In place of national projects, a sense of collective purpose, we are left with vacuums: a hole-ridden, tearing social fabric is what’s left from the relentless privatization and plunder of every aspect of ordinary people’s lives.

One can argue that the creation of a white Christian extremist state is his national project. However, the Republic of Gilead he envisions considerably fails to satisfy the urgent material needs of his base, a dire economic situation Trump’s masters continue to make worse for his supporters. The dollar is losing ground worldwide. Cost of living in the USA skyrockets without salaries to match it. While ordinary people struggle to survive some of the most terrible environmental disasters in historical record, all government funds and taxpayer money go towards militarism and funding genocide abroad.

Having no sense of collective purpose, the far-right lacks the cornerstone of fascism: unity. Let alone political unity; his supporters aren’t even on the same page of reality. Some believe Biden is a clone, others don’t, some believe in the Pizza Gate conspiracy, others simply think he is an astute businessman. It’s evident Trump isn’t always on the same page of reality with himself.

This is their Achilles heel, and why I think of him as a form of proto-fascism, a fascism that has failed to congeal. Given the fragmented nature of the Information Age (better name for it is the Disinformation Age), I wonder if it’s even possible for their movement to unite, even with someone like Elon Musk, Trump’s likeliest heir, at the helm. Instead, they seem keen on betting on the exact opposite, which is to pander as many wild conspiracy theories as possible so that they can further their political agendas undisturbed, while the most vulnerable suffer the blowback. They choose to create chaos instead of totalitarian order, and like parasites drain the world of its wealth.

This strain of fascism is weak. Without unity, without uniformity of thought, action, and purpose—fascist twigs easily snap.

I asked myself if I were a US citizen, would I vote for Kamala Harris as a means of defeating Donald Trump? This thread from Noura Erakat was quite helpful in answering that question.

It’s a sobering read, specially when you contrast it with arguments in favor, like Bernie Sanders’ latest op-ed. Democrats have astonished me with their level of repression. From violently cracking down on student protests across the country, to militarizing the US-Mexico border, to signing blank checks for the Israeli military, effectively authoring the live-streamed holocaust of Gaza, to actively censoring dissent—their fangs truly escape their polite smiles.

Would Harris be better than Trump? The bar is abysmally low. After all this was a man who wanted to nuke hurricanes. She would be less dangerous domestically (though the current political situation is hell incarnate, Dante tells us hell is composed of ever-deepening rings, and there is no reason why our torment cannot get worse), but I think in the end whichever way someone casts their votes in the US, whether it’s Republican, Democrat, or Third Party (who appear to have good intentions but no chance of winning), it signifies a defeat in an election that can only be called a sad and sorry circus as late-stage capitalism continues to implode, and takes the so-called values of the West with it.

Or perhaps this circus amounts to only an illusion of defeat. Politics is not just elections: it’s what we do day to day. How we live in human society defines us. Every day we are faced with political choices that actively shape our beliefs, our thought, our very purpose of existence.

Fascism turns fear into violence. We may turn fear into a real collective unity, that unlike the glorified xenophobia and stupidity of the far-right, derives vitality from individual creative expression, from the sagacity of thought, the power of compassion, the beauty of great art and the natural world. Our unity celebrates diversity across the planet, and continues to weave itself together through the technological integration of human societies, replacing a distrust of other cultures with a natural curiosity towards ways of being different than our own. It seeks to learn and enrich itself, rather than shelter in shallowness of thought and feeling. It repudiates colonialism in all its disguises, and turns the loneliness of a fragmented modern society (another of fascism’s power sources) into a collective movement whose only aim is love: love to extinguish the flames of our burning planet, love that actively opposes militarism, love to empower one another. Reason, kindness, cunning—this is the real meaning of strength.