Re: [microsound] [ot] friendly fascism

["earphone.org" <tone@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hi all,

just a bit about u.s. holders of passports, here is says: 27%, http:// 
travel.booklocker.com/index.php?p=132

it does make sense that the number of u.s. citizens holding passports  
has increased now that there is so much concern and paranoia about  
identity and travel, but in the end this is a summation of control.   
it is a means to control a populations movements as well as having a  
central resource to know what citizens are actually up to.  in the  
case of the u.s. i see this increase driven exclusively by a sense of  
pressure from the u.s. culture.  the notion of, "if you have nothing  
to hid, all is o.k.", is merely a veneer painted on an apparatus that  
looks and smells like the 1930's in a few countries, the end result  
was not good then and will result in the same type concentrated power  
that has no social or cultural benevolence.

a u.s. passport is a membership card to the party in control at the  
moment and secondarily a method travel documentation.  it is a means  
to an end that appears bleak.

marc

> earphone (marc mcnulty) - http://www.earphone.org



On Oct 12, 2006, at 5:14 PM, Kim Cascone wrote:

> > for myself, i think of it as a police state- since fascism is so over
> > used as to be rendered meaningless. also, 'police state' emphasizes
> > the military dimention of the authoritarian government, where fascism
> > has racial or political overtones.
>
> this is the trouble with most american's impressions of political  
> concepts...
> we are all taught a certain way of looking at the world in school  
> and we thus frame the world in this manner...
> so americans know little to nothing about socialism/marxism because  
> we are not exposed to it nor taught about it in school...it is not  
> part of our culture, except for learning about the era of  
> McCarthyism in history class...
> isn't it funny that McCarthyism happened just about the time that  
> the Marshall Plan was instituted in Europe -- which was done to  
> keep unionized labor (read: communism) from forming which would  
> have locked out US business interests in a post-war europe/ussr  
> recovery? why was 1950's post-war america so flush with cash? think  
> about it...
>
> also, a factoid: less than 10% of the american population holds a  
> passport...
> this instills a sense of isolationism in citizens which keeps up  
> buffered from not only the problems in the rest of the world but also:
> how the US impacts the rest of the world
> how others perceive us as world citizens
> how our rampant consumerism effects the planet
> and most importantly how other nations choose to organize their  
> societies (Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Viet Nam, Brazil, EU, etc)  
> differently than ours
>
> fascism - as a concept - has distinct negative connotations but the  
> surface traits are exaggerated and fed to us by the dominant  
> ideological machine in the US: our educational system
> this is done in order to keep us thinking that fascism could never  
> happen here and that what we have is different
>
> the truth is something else entirely -- the fact is we are living  
> in a corporatocracy which is similar to corporatism
> again, so long as lobbying is legal we have the greedy leading the  
> blind...
>
> compare the two for yourself:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy
>
> > Many critics of free market theories, such as George Orwell, have  
> > argued that corporatism (in the sense of an economic system  
> > dominated by massive corporations) is the natural result of free  
> > market capitalism.
>
> often times I hear people refer to US democracy as 'Jeffersonian'
> read this:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffersonian_democracy
>
> does this sound like something we have? especially in light of the  
> recent signing of the Military Commissions Act?
> our democracy is deteriorating before our eyes...
>
> what we are blissfully gliding past is a stage of fascism called  
> friendly fascism
> read this because it will open your eyes a bit to what is happening  
> here:
>
> http://a4a.mahost.org/gross.html
>
> how does all this impact us as artists? as people who are creative  
> and cherish the freedom to express ourselves?
>
> what sorts of decisions/actions can we take to combat these things?
>
> is it possible to still have a political voice as an artist and be  
> taken seriously?
>
> is it possible to use artistic subversion to spread a message of  
> resistance? -- such as Banksy?
> http://www.banksy.co.uk/

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