|
At first it's weird how ass-backwards this is. It's hard to instill a sense of traditionalism and an overvaluation of upper-class mores that must be protected at all costs, if your kids do not absorb all that stuff through a stuff private school education. Then you realize that the American "conservative" movement isn't actually a conservative movement like those in Canada, England, France, etc.; it's not trying to conserve anything. It's a crypto-fascist one, and a freakishly theocratic one at that. The goal isn't preservation of traditional way of life, but rather usurpation and control of all politcal power, and an end to the checks and balances that make the American system work to the extent that it does.
The anti-liberal-arts position of the American right wing makes sense when viewed as a precursor of a crypto-fascist power-grab. Like the original fascist movements of Germany, Italy, Spain and Vichy Francy two generations ago, it requires a suppression of history and philosophy, and a co-option of the arts for propaganda purposes. The difficulty of doing either in something approaching an actual democracy like the US, with its pesky little First Amendment (foreigners: that's the free speech and press clause of our constitution) is the only reason things are not very, very, very bad here. The fact that far-right extremists are building what amounts to private military forces on US soil with virtually no oversight or restraint, and the military itself is recruiting a staunchly far-right body of enlistees - extremist enough to hatch Presidential assassination plots - is a major warning sign. This is exactly how the Roman Republic turned into an imperial dictatorship more than once. People new to the term: The "crypto-" in "crypto-fascist" means 'hidden'; it has nothing to do with cryptography and encryption. Our government's crypto-fascists masquerade as patriotic, freedom-loving "real Americans", who would never say anything overtly fascistic in public, but are nothing of the sort. They have strong ties to globalistic financial interests, and nationalism is simply a tool they use, not a sentiment they feel. Another tool they use, and abuse, are real American conservatives, whom the crypto-fascists lie to and manipulate into unwittingly supporting an eventual program that would make their WWII-veteran fathers and grandfathers turn and scream in their graves. Stanton McCandlish, September 2012 |
|
|
|