The New Fascism – the Last Throes of Authoritarian Madness?

8 min read

What seems like a wave of authoritarian madness, the new fascism, sweeping across the planet may be just like the final flaring of a dying candle!

Who would have thought that Benito Mussolini and/or Adolf Hitler would be role models for millions of people so shortly after the horrors of fascism roiled the world?
The mind boggles. Is it really possible that anyone with two grey cells to rub together could possibly support the heirs to Auschwitz and the murderers of six million Jews, gays, Romas, the disabled….
Any “one”? No, millions. Yes, millions of people in Hungary, the US, Italy, and Germany for example are currently jumping up and down with glee at the prospect of handing power to the heirs of these horrors.
About 51 million people recently voted for Bolsonaro to rule Brazil.

This is a man who bragged on video to a journalist about his potential for cannibalism:

“I’d eat an Indian, no problem at all,” he said, referring to the indigenous people in the Amazon, where he is currently causing unmitigated destruction of the rainforest bordering on genocide.
Or Putin raining explosives down on people’s houses and then accusing them of being terrorists.
Is it possible to understand this? What is really going on?
Then you discover that in each case there is a similar story: Almost exclusively males, the whiter the better, pulling in God and the priesthood where available, and always appealing to “love of country” to cement their appeal as the leader you need of this great nation at this critical moment.

The result of course is the same old male (or more precisely, masculine) authoritarian nationalism.

“Putin, God put you in power,” announced the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church recently on Putin’s 70th birthday – while he was ordering the deaths of people who objected to his diktats – is the perfect example.
Another is Trump’s fascist MAGA movement in the US – or “semi-fascist” as polite uncle Joe puts it. Or Bolsonaro in Brazil again.  Both are the darlings of their respective Christian evangelicals.
Wherever politicians declare their support for these fascist values, God and his priests are always smiling in the wings ready to assist.

It is not just the Christians. The Taliban in Afghanistan and the Mullah’s in Iran all claim that their repressive authoritarian regimes are God’s work! Which of course is reminiscent of India’s Modi and his nationalistic “Hindutva” ideology.

Why do those millions keep falling for this crude propaganda?
It is a mixture of brainwashing and brain-bashing.
The main Western trick is to brainwash each new generation to believe in this white, male, Uber-Fuhrer in the sky, whose hierarchically arranged acolytes insist on total obedience. Otherwise, judgment follows – with the threat of eternal damnation for those who do not comply.
The brain bashing – of white supremacy, misogyny, racism, and all kinds of ugly bigotry – is bound to follow. The natural result of this crude judgmental approach to life.

How much longer will people continue to buy into the story of a white guy in the sky with a long beard who is “everywhere present,” who knows everything, and spies on everyone 24/7?

It is fine for Sci-Fi comics but not as some central feature of human existence.
These politicians can see the churches emptying as young people lose interest in this fairy tale.
When the Iranian authorities are reduced to murdering young women on the streets because these women are objecting to some dodo guy telling them what to wear on their heads, you know where this is going. Ask the Taliban whether they think girls’ education is going to be more or less common in the future. Duh!

They know the writing is on the wall!

Further east they wrap it together with different ingredients but with the same outcome. In China and North Korea for example, instead of a God, they insist on hierarchical philosophies from people like Confucius. Or they make the leader himself almost a divine emperor-like figure. Then they do the usual routine of brainwashing everyone into believing that the Chinese – of course we mean the Han Chinese – are the best in the world. Or the North Koreans are…. Or whatever works. And it does!
China’s Xi is using the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to present his great contribution to Chinese thought. What is it? Nationalism again! Male Nationalism, naturally.

There is not one woman in the Chinese Politburo and only 8% of the Central Committee are women.

How original is that? Even with the inevitable “Chinese characteristics” thrown in as bunting for the parade. Essentially, Xi’s Patriarchy Rolls On.
In fact, it is almost a copy of Adolf Hitler’s obedient “national community” from 90 years ago. Where the Nazis claimed that different identities could join one homogenous national blob. Well not quite all of them!
As Xi explained recently – “Cultural identity is the deepest kind of identity.” How do you create that cultural identity? Brainwashing. And again, like everywhere else, with additional brain-bashing for anyone who does not comply.
Tibetans and Mongols and Uighurs and all the other potentially deviant elements in China will now be joined together in one happy family. No more talk of the Uighur genocide. Indeed, this is all about inclusivity – being swallowed into the national fold.

East or West, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, whatever…. and everything in between are all on the same song sheet. Wall-to-wall “nations” – that we want to make great again – glued together by this indoctrinated “cultural identity.” Run by yesterday’s men!

These arbitrary lines on the earth, and artificially induced lines on the minds of children, are the essential elements of the power of the priests and politicians – the backbone of the old man and his grip on humanity.
You don’t have to be Einstein to notice that the places on the planet where humans are in conflict with other humans are on these borders. Between Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims. Or Protestants or Catholics. Or between Russia and Ukraine? Taiwan and Mainland China, North and South Korea….
You are told these borders are to protect you. It is simply about politicians, like the kings before them, needing to establish what is their land. Just like male dogs need lampposts!

In fact, these borders are exactly where we find the greatest threat to our survival.

Add the boundaries of belief created between people by ideas of misogyny and racism and all the other “reasons” we justify judging the other, and you can see what a catastrophe all this is.
The bottom line: for thousands of years, men, and recently almost exclusively white men, have ruled the world. They made the rules. They made power-sharing arrangements with the priests where available so they could claim God was on their side. Or they invented whatever other myths would successfully justify their power. They then used whatever violence they needed to maintain their position and enforce their wishes on everyone else.
Now the question is how much longer are people going to keep supporting a system of male control, particularly white male control – based on childish fairy tales – when anybody can see the world that these men have created is such an unholy mess?

Who is left still supporting this new fascism? Aha!

Male people, white people, and older people – the ones who can see their ancient privileges slipping away. The fear of that loss is then exploited by the politicians, creating an unholy alliance of skin color, gender, age, and the politics of national egotism.
Such a simple game:
For example, brainwash millions of white US-Americans into believing that blacks and immigrants are the main threat to their well-being – and women are not far behind!
Siphon off their wealth, create huge inequality, scare the living daylights out of them about violence and crime and poverty and such like. Throw in some unscientific propaganda about how violent competition is just “human nature,” add a touch of climate change, and then watch them fight each other – without realizing who is really pulling all the strings.

Meanwhile, the real villains, the beneficiaries of this authoritarian madness, are laughing all the way to the bank, ensuring there is plenty of cash left over for the next election – if there is one.

What a sick joke. Hey, divide and rule. Never fails.
The same kinds of games work in Europe too. In Russia, China, and even India, more brain-bashing is in order. Lots of places hardly bother with any pretense at persuasion. Just do what you are told, or you are toast. Like in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel… and a ton of other places. Just they provide a narrative like Putin’s “real Christianity,” or the Taliban’s “true Islam,” or Israel’s “historical right.” Any story will do. Xi hit the nail on the head: “Cultural identity is the deepest kind of identity.”
Woven into the fabric of every narrative is nationalism. The old game was to spend years getting young kids to sing national anthems and salute flags and accept the absurd belief that their country is better than everyone else’s country.
It was so effective; you hardly needed any sheepdogs. Today?

Does it still work? 700,000 young Russian men just walked off the job!

Or as Mohammed Ali nailed it perfectly: “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”

As the old patriarchies see their world collapsing and their prestige evaporating, they become ever more extreme in their last-ditch attempts to cling to power. Like the flame of a candle flaring brightly just before it dies, this new fascism is having a desperate final fling!
Why is the end of their reign of authoritarian madness so obvious? Why is this largely white male oligarchy crumbling?
White males comprise only about 8 percent of the world’s total population. 85% of the people of the world are not white.
50% of the people in the world are female. 50% of the world is 30 years old or younger.
It is time. Enough already. As Osho explains:

“The priests and the politicians are very vulnerable; they have no ground beneath their feet. Just a good hit is needed, and they will be finished. And once they are finished, society will have a taste of freedom.

“We can bring up children in a more human way, unconditioned, intelligent, looking at the whole earth as one – not Christians, not Hindus, not Mohammedans, not Indians, not Chinese, not Americans. Nations and religions are creations of the priests and the politicians. Once they are finished, religions and nations are also finished. And a world free of religions, free of nations, will be a human world – without wars, without unnecessarily fighting for things which nobody has seen.
“It is so stupid that for thousands of years people have been killing each other in the name of God. None of them has seen God, none of them has any proof, none of them has any evidence. They don’t even feel embarrassed because nobody has asked the question looking directly into their eyes.

“They are going on crusades, jihads, religious wars, destroying all those who do not believe in their dogma, because their dogma is divine, and every other dogma is the Devil’s creation.

“They are trying to serve humanity by killing people. Their intention is to free those people from the clutches of the Devil. But the strangest thing is that every religion thinks that the other religion is created by the Devil. So, the fight continues. Politicians are fighting war after war – for what? I don’t see the point. The earth has no lines, so why make these maps, and draw lines?…
“If we can make man silent, peaceful, loving, nations will disappear, wars will disappear, all dirty politics will disappear. And remember, all politics is dirty; there is no other kind.
“But we have to hit on those who have the power. Hitting the poor common man will not help, because he has no power, he is a victim. Even if we can change him, it won’t be a great change.

“But if we can abolish the conspiracy between religion and politics, priests and the politicians, it will be really a great change, a revolution – the only revolution that is needed and that has not yet happened.”1

And:
“If we can release intelligence – and we will have to release it because this is not the time for ifs and buts, it is a question of the survival of the whole of humanity. All its creativity, thousands of years of evolution, are going to be finished by a few foolish politicians? Is nobody going to create a conscious energy?

“That’s what an authentic religion is: a conscious force around the world against all kinds of stupidities of religion, of race, of blood, of color, of caste, of nation. All are stupidities. The time has come when the earth should be one, that’s the only way to save it from destruction.”2

END
You can read the complete talk here:
1 Osho, Beyond Psychology, Talk #26 – The Circle Can Be Broken
2 Osho, From Personality to Individuality, Talk #22 – Withdraw the Fence between Heaven and Hell

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The post The New Fascism – the Last Throes of Authoritarian Madness? appeared first on OSHOTimes.