[Nettime-bold] what is fascism?

[david turgeon <david.t@steam.ca>]

there are plenty of sides to fascism, one can pick their own for rhetorical 
purposes.  there's the eugenism part.  there's the hatred (stemming 
from?).  there's the arrogance about its own virtues (i thought this was 
democracy?).  but these definitions are centered around visible symptoms of 
fascism, not the underlying base of it all.

i think fascism equates with a WAR AGAINST INTELLIGENCE.

to the fascist, the crucial element at play is not economy (which is 
dependent of power it already holds or seeks to hold) but a certain amount 
of SENSITIVE DATA.  the fascist secures its position through various 
rhetorical/political loopholes (i.e. power scams) & the last thing it needs 
is to have them debunked.  fortunately, intelligence has no effect if it 
lacks certain data.

the power scam may be many things.  all of them aim squarely at intelligence:

- "we are the master race."
(nice to hear if you feel repressed, yet entirely without sense any way you 
look at it)

- "the economy works this way: <...>"
(but even adam smith said it didn't?)

- "you will not publish this article attacking <corporation> in <corporate 
media>."
(why only one naomi klein?  is she being used as grant canadian print's 
"good conscience"?)

- "we are not a monopoly."
(why only one apple computers?  didn't need more than one enemy eh bill?)

- "we'll listen to the protesters when they get elected."
(silly me, & i thought all along that electoralism was one of the things 
they were protesting against...)

attacking intelligence == "to stun & demoralize the critical consciousness 
with statements too absurd or extreme to be dealt seriously with" -- 
northrop frye (as quoted by m. schudson)

to a fascist, there are 2 types of people (apart from the degenerate 
"economic elite" serving as government):
1) the squares (the PLASTIC PEOPLE, no one has ever seen them but how else 
do you explain bush, sharon, haider, berlusconi, fox, chr�tien...?)
2) the SPIES...

why "spies"?  because that's just how a fascist computes it:

the sensitive data == scientific findings, secret deals, breaches of 
ethics, software, product side-effects, political manoeuvre, etc.

secrecy (or ignorance) of sensitive data == required in order for a scam to 
continue unimpaired

some sensitive data == required for the useful practice of intelligence

SPIES == people needing access to some sensitive data  (access -> intelligence)

activism, inquiry, research, protest, free press -> intelligence

in this sense, the war against intelligence becomes a true intelligence war 
(in the "intelligence agency" sense), at least in the fascist's mind, with 
the "sensitive data" considered an intelligence treasure not to be shared, 
no matter how important it would be for people to know about it, just as 
general fact, you know?  (oh, so that cute-looking cell phone DOES wreak 
havoc to my little brain when i use it day in, day out!  DUH!!!)

of course, only to a fascist would there really be "two types of people" in 
life.

they are likely to have many different reasons to oppose a fascist order & 
this can be seen with the apparent difference of ideologies between 
"anti-globalization" protesters.  although they don't necessarily have a de 
facto individual reason to oppose the order, they band together anyway 
because they have been selected as enemies beforehand.  in this the fascist 
falls victim of its own one-against-one logic -- or has it purposely lit 
that one, too?

to be true, we never know for sure when there is fascism, because it has 
been a latent thing in history.  but we know it exists at times when the 
concept of "NECESSARY CASUALTY" is used.  this concept may appear in 
various forms.

sometimes when a protester gets in trouble you hear "they were looking for 
it"...  when a shoe manufacturer considers you should have no say in how 
the people who make the shoes are treated, it is also pushing the 
"necessary casualty" button.  likewise if you see someone praising the work 
of the police at demonstrations (i personally call them soldiers, as i 
expect a normal police officer to answer when i talk to them): every rubber 
bullet becomes "neccessary", & if there's one shot dead, that's business as 
usual.  but Hey, maybe the Rich & Powerful will appear Shocked To Hear That 
He's Dead!

sweatshops fight intelligence.  police states fight 
intelligence.  belligerence fights intelligence.  scientific secret fights 
intelligence.  electoralism fights intelligence.  third-world policy (i.e. 
colonialism) fights intelligence.

& crucially: a society (public or private) avoiding inquiry is the most 
visible sign of a bona fide WAR going on against intelligence.

two famous canadian examples of "thank you, now shut the fuck up":
1) john saul, writer & acute philosopher -> now following her wife, 
ex-journalist adrienne clarkson around as she has been made Governor 
General of Canada (where she symbolically represents the Queen Mother in 
canadian soil);
2) lise bissonnette, sharp thinking editor of leftish paper "le devoir" -> 
now sent to head the forthcoming "great library of qu�bec".  have fun!

"you were meant for bigger things, trust me, YOU'RE TOO SMART FOR PRIME 
TIME!!!"

what is fascism?  it's a game with two goals: 1) the control of 
Intelligence & 2) the idealization of the Idiot.  not that the Idiot is in 
power, mind you.  but it is not interested in intelligence (no time for it, 
find it depressing, watching the news already, closet ayn rand fan, etc.).

because the loophole is this: the Better World which Intelligence 
(science+philosophy) can accomplish requires constant reevaluation 
(deontology/ethics), which implies a mobile political ground & a diffusion 
of power.  this is an Ideal State so far as i'm concerned (one may call it 
Anarchy), but power being what it is, an organization may wreck this 
fragile ecosystem as soon as they decide to avoid a just inquiry 
(reverse-engineering?).  obviously this will make power grow 
artificially.  but as a disease, not as a "necessary state of society".

nobody is really against globalization (hey, i can talk to my friend in new 
zealand in REAL TIME), it seems to me that what everybody in genoa is 
fighting against is really the resurgence of fascism, though you don't see 
the word used all that much anywhere, as though the phenomenon magically 
ended in 1945.  the war against intelligence kills one, two in genoa...  & 
a few hundreds more in third-world countries (oh, but so 
indirectly!).  none of it by any means "necessary".  i call it fascism 
because that's what it most looks like.

~ david


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