Post AaObT4wm7fzrkECEsq by stephenleelawson@www.minds.com
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 (DIR) Post #AaObT4wm7fzrkECEsq by stephenleelawson@www.minds.com
       2023-09-15T03:39:42+00:00
       
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       A Century of Fascism By James TurkIn 1922 Benito Mussolini became prime minister of Italy, putting that country on a path that had global ramifications. He was the world’s first fascist leader.Other fascists soon followed with fanciful promises that were varied but tuned in to what people wanted to hear. Their problems would be solved, whether the restoration of order, removing risks from an uncertain future, the grant of financial aid, and other siren songs that at first blush might appear to improve an individual’s condition. All could be delivered if the citizenry just relied on their government. A broad swathe of people placed blind faith in these promises, allowing their fascist leaders to simultaneously expand the role of government in economic activity and embark on policies that made the State superior to the individual, overriding peoples’ inalienable natural rights expounded by the luminaries of the Age of Enlightenment.Fascism became just a new twist on a well-worn theme – authoritarianism. Regardless of the name given to the political structure – fascism, dictatorship, autocracy, etc. – they all require strict obedience to the State at the expense of personal freedom, which raises the following questions about government today.Do individuals control their government as envisioned during the political awakening in the 17th and 18th centuries that put America on a course different from monarchial Europe, manifest in the transitory period that was the initial outcome from the anti-federalist interpretation and implementation of the American Constitution by its framers?Or as now prevails in most of the world geographically, has the State usurped power and is controlling its citizenry to the detriment of an individual’s liberty, which is the never-changing, never-ending outcome of fascists and other authoritarians?