How Foreign Interventionism ‘Paves the way’ for Domestic Fascism
1918, as the guns of Europe fell silent in what would be remembered as one of the most horrific wars in human history; half a world away at the New York Central Railroad, out of the ‘hustle and bustle’ of the morning commute, rose a gigantic black pyramid.
Under a statue of ‘Nike‘ the Greek goddess of victory: 12,000 German ‘Pickelhaubes’ (Helmets) were stacked in triumph; adorned with flags, columns, cannons, and ornamental eagles…
The entire presentation seemed to shout out,
“The state triumphant!”
This was pageantry of the first order, Mussolini or Stalin would have been proud; had they been American.
It’s claimed that all the assembled gear came from a warehouse in Germany. But symbolic or not, for me, it’s difficult to look at those helmets without imagining the individuals who might have worn them, or how they may have died…
“But Hinton, fascism could never happen in America.”
“But reader, it already has, it’s happened before…”
There’s a reason the history books are virtually silent on Woodrow Wilson’s presidency. He’s like an abusive relative that the rest of the family only speaks about in hushed tones… then, years later, he dies and the relatives all show up to his funeral and say:
‘He was such a nice President.’
Nope. We don’t ‘white wash’ here at Actual Anarchy…
The truth is, Wilson was a damn fascist, or more accurately, a war socialist. His idea was to introduce a ‘third way’ form of socialism into American society through nationalism and government regulation. His goal? To organize society along martial lines, but for peace time objectives.
To this day, we see echoes of that EXACT mindset throughout many, if not all federal policies:
- The war on poverty
- The war on drugs
- The war on, anything really…
But, if there happens to be an ‘actual shooting war’ taking place… all the better for this strategy; hence Wilson’s desire to join WWI.
“I am an advocate of peace, but there are some splendid things that come to a nation through the discipline of war,”
– Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson’s European adventure gave him massive war powers and total control of the US economy, from price controls to the suspension of civil liberties, wartime was ‘the gift that kept on giving’; it was the ultimate ‘blank check’ for a central planner like Wilson:
“No doubt a lot of nonsense has been talked about the inalienable rights of the individual, and a great deal that was mere sentiment and pleasing speculation has been put forward as fundamental principle,”
– Woodrow Wilson
Feeling that individual rights were ‘soooo last century’, Wilson literally considered himself the embodiment of the collective ‘American will’.
Does all this sound familiar? It should, it’s been parroted by every fascist and socialist leader ever:
Like any self-respecting totalitarian, Wilson pushed for the passing of a sedition act:
“citizens cannot utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language…”
This grotesque law was enforced, in part, by the United States Postal Service. Yup, he had the mailman spying on people. At one point Wilson even employed tens of thousands of professional thugs who patrolled the taverns and local bars across the nation ‘beating up’ anyone who spoke out against the war, or his new domestic order.
At the conclusion of WWI, Over 175,000 people had been arrested for not ‘displaying proper patriotism’… or was it, loyalty to Wilson’s Socialist regime?
Fascism may have changed its stripes since 1918, but it’s still the same ol’ zebra. There’s a schism between the ‘old left’ and the ‘new left’ in America today; with the new left inverting the former’s paradigm:
“The state is NOW repentant!”
Rising to prominence during the Vietnam era, the argument goes something like, “Because of America’s imperialist past we now have to make up for it collectively by…” apparently, engaging in the exact same interventionist tactics that Wilson, Roosevelt, and LBJ did; fighting atrocity and fostering goodwill by, attacking people around the globe.
“Shut up! There will be peace or I’LL KILL YOU!”
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to find a ‘shred of logic’ in this line-of-reasoning that the ‘new left’ has adopted. But, it’s simply another twisted inversion of the original line-of-thinking from 1918. Oh, and by the way, while I have your attention; aid can be used as a tool of war also… hunger is a more powerful weapon than bombs, ask Stalin sometime about his Ukrainian policy.
It’s undeniable though that whether ‘triumphant’ or ‘repentant’; It’s the vision of the progressive left (or the neocons on the other side of the aisle) to impose their globalist ‘centrally planned’ social order on the rest of the world through force and regulation…
These are just a few of the violent conflicts caused by their botched attempts at social engineering:
- The Spanish American War
- WWI (of who’s consequence was WWII)
- The Korean War
- Vietnam
- Yugoslavia
- Iraq (Oh George…)
- Libya (They have open slavery now thanks to Hillary and Barrack!)
Now it seems, in light of President Trump’s missile strikes last week; modern progressives are putting partisan rancor aside to ‘team up’ for a war they like. They’ve found another country that needs ‘fixing’, so Chuck Schumer and John McCain are going to happily lock arms, and skip up to ‘the hill’ seeking further military action.
I however, believe it would be a tremendous mistake for these United States to intervene further in Syria.
Disclaimer: Since the debate appears to be a binary now, lets get this out of the way up-front; before the accusations start flying…
I’m not an isolationist.
I come from a family of veterans, my grandfather was badly wounded in WWII and my father served in Vietnam. I understand that there are horrible people out there, who slaughter their way into power, who use the mythic ‘power of the state’ to brutalize those individuals unfortunate enough to be born under their control. It’s a sad fact of life that more than half of the world lives under some kind of cruel tyranny (and that’s not even counting social democracies, which I consider to be ‘tyranny of the majority’ or ‘tyranny-lite’).
I had to give Syria some thought. Let’s be real, Bashar al-Assad is a total dick. (Heard he once massacred the population of a prison just to make room for more inmates.) But, lets keep in mind that he’s a secular dick; most of these rebels however, or at least the ones who are left after years of bloodletting; appear to be religious fanatics.
By the way, it’s important to point out that Isis is a fascist movement in every sense. They believe in the merger of religion, culture, economy, and government into one centralized authoritarian nightmare. They clearly follow a principle of aggression against those who do not conform; and its also worth mentioning, that the war crimes Isis has committed are ‘arguably worse’ and certainly more prolific than the Assad regime… (especially when considering how new Isis is as a group.)
My vantage point for this horror show is, thankfully, very far away. But, sometimes distance can bring perspective. From over here, the solution seems pretty simple. The people of Syria appear to overwhelmingly prefer Assad to a failed state (or heaven preserve us, an Isis State); as the thousands protesters outside the US embassy seem to show (which CNN, FOX, and all the major networks have refused to cover, by the way).
Sure, the demonstrators could have been compelled to protest by Assad’s regime, that’s possible; however there are still so many ‘red flags’ against US intervention:
Did Assad really use chemical weapons?
I know that’s the consensus, but the intelligence community has been wrong about a lot of things for many years…
Why would Assad use chemical weapons if he is winning?
- Remember, the Russian army just took Aleppo…
- Why provoke the international community?
America has no viable plan to replace Assad:
“Remember that Syrian ex-patriot, living in Paris, whom the people of Syria are now calling for to lead them into democracy…?”
“Anyone?”
Crickets…
It could ruin the chance for a genuine reset with Russia:
The election of Donald Trump was a big frickin’ deal. The American voters side-stepped the usual partisan crap and put him in the white house. (I wish they had picked someone else, not Hillary either, but here we are.) I believe that one of the reasons he was ‘chosen’ was to stop the ‘business as usual’ global adventurism infesting US policy, and to calm our relationship with Russia.
Here’s the thing, trade has the power to thaw tensions around the world. Russia imports very little and makes very little. Their government has always been ‘centrally planned’ going back to the Tsars, so the concept of personal freedom has never had a chance to properly develop there. The country outputs raw materials… that’s basically the whole economy; and it’s a lack of economic ties that make rulers xenophobic. (Not to mention some cataclysmic experiences with war.)
Unless co-opted for state purposes, merchants always have conflicting interests with government. Business people would always prefer to sell to everyone and not make ‘enemies’ out of potential client bases. That’s important to keep in mind because I think there’s a rare opportunity here to build up markets in Russia, create a symbiotic rather then antagonistic relationship with them, and by extension make room for some semblance of personal liberty.
Ultimately though, that’s for the Russian people to decide. How much do they value raising living standards and individual freedom?
American aggression, however, will not win them over…
I would hate to see this historic opportunity ‘strangled in the cradle’ over something that America ‘can’t’ nor ‘should’ be involved with in the first place.
More excuses for perpetual war:
The engagement in Afghanistan is officially the longest war in American history, and now we are talking about starting more conflicts…
Can we at least, win one of these wars first; before starting-in on the next?
Watching the news is like seeing some scary movie that never ends…
“Crap, don’t look behind you… it’s Woodrow Wilson’s ghost!”
Now, I’m not saying that an intervention in Syria will bring fascism to America. Because, the simple truth is, it’s already here. Our federal government loves control, and ever since the early 20th century; fascism has been as American as apple pie.
Regardless of all the ‘doom and gloom’ though, I’m extremely proud of my libertarian (and ancap) brothers and sisters this week. They are the only political group, as far as I can tell to speak out ‘en mass’ against this strike in Syria. Because, they understand what none of the other major parties, nor the mainstream media care to admit. That these missile strikes weren’t about chemical weapons, or children being killed… these strikes were about the American public feeling better about themselves; so they can sleep at night.
Sorry America, but you should grab some NyQuil instead because, ‘interest’ is NOT a high enough standard for the use of lethal force abroad.
Utopia is not possible in this life, there’s no 100%; only trade-offs and risks, with some occasional marginal gains. So before we go to war, lets take a careful look at what we’re potentially losing, in lives, liberty, resources, and prestige… and ask, is this really worth it? Are we genuinely threatened?
Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
Just keep repeating to yourself, dear reader:
“It could never happen here…”
“It could never happen here…”
“It happened here?”