Why Is There No Progressive Alternative to Fascism?

11 min read

Our history is full of “leaders” persuading people to join a group and attack another group and their leaders.
The motive is always power. The results are often extremely barbaric.

Sometimes the motive for that power is expressed as a way of alleviating the suffering of the weak by their oppressors. The list of what are called revolutions and rebellions is unbelievably long!
In the process, over centuries, many beautiful people have lost their livelihoods, and often their lives, fighting oppression.
What do we have to show for all this bloodshed and suffering? Did even the big well-known revolutions achieve anything?
There was the French Revolution. The streets of Paris ran with blood from the guillotine madness of the Reign of Terror. In the end, it was power politics. The American Revolution, based on so many powerfully liberating ideas, involved a couple of genocides in the process. The Russian revolution, powered by more liberating ideas, gave us a 70-year concentration camp, and Mao did little better. Not to mention all the copycats around the world.
In the midst of all this carnage, the appeal of “revolution” was so easy to dismiss that millions of Germans ended up choosing Adolf instead.

The result of all these great ideologies? 100 million dead bodies?

George Orwell and Aldous Huxley must be just shaking their heads in disbelief that no one listened to their warnings.
In spite of this endless failure to address this basic ugliness of the strong oppressing the weak, the anti-fascist forces remain trapped in the same old Left vs. Right dynamic.
Meanwhile the Wretched of the Earth are as wretched as ever and it is about to get a lot worse.
We are living in an increasingly fact-free world, with so-called normal people around the world supporting ever more “Dear Leaders” who are offering various shades of fascism.

Are you still not convinced that any semblance of a progressive movement is reduced to irrelevance?

Then perhaps take a look at the “list of Wars 2003 – to present” or the “list of ongoing armed conflicts,” here” and here. Or maybe just the “list of massacres since 1945” would make the point.
Chomsky is probably the most perceptive voice in the USA on what “The Future of Our World” holds. He is pretty clear: A climate catastrophe and/or a nuclear Armageddon.
What else is in the pipeline? We don’t know. Is AI going to be literally the “killer” app some fear? Or will do-it-yourself, home, genetic engineering kits prove our undoing? Or will nature throw something else at us? It is very unlikely that H5N1 Bird Flu will continue its expansion into mammals and avoid their best customer!
Chomsky’s solution: collective action by people who organize themselves to combat oppression, just like the women’s movement did in the 70’s.
He is right, it helped, and much more is needed. How much? As the secretary general of the UN, António Guterres, has warned:

“Gender equality is growing more distant. On the current track, UN Women puts it 300 years away.”

Perhaps we can agree that whatever oppressive forces are currently being resisted, and often valiantly, we are not progressing. Maybe we are even going backward. It may be poverty, child abuse – physical or intellectual – misogyny, racism, homicidal cops, gender prejudices, book banning, cultural brainwashing, whether secular or “religious,” struggling even to open a Union, just trying to stay sane… or the end of civilization itself.
The poor and the weak are still being left out to dry.
So, perhaps it is time for “the left” to acknowledge that after centuries of struggle, humanity is as far away from sanity as ever. Maybe further.
In short, it is time for a radical reorientation of our resources, or we are finished.
So, what is the basic mistake?
The first point is to realize that we are endlessly fighting only with the symptoms. For sure, symptoms should not be ignored, it is critical to deal with them.

But without an understanding of the root cause of all this suffering – let alone any solutions to deal with those root causes – this struggle against oppression has no foundation and cannot succeed.

Perhaps we better go back to basics.
Introducing Osho. You remember Osho? The one the altar boys of the status quo, the media and the intelligentsia, and of course the rest of the establishment, tried to crucify with lies. Can you imagine: one man “banned” from 21 countries for his words, and hardly a peep out of anyone? With the notable exception of the author Tom Robbins. Osho called out the US government’s fascism at the time. Where were the rest of the anti-fascists? Shades of Martin Niemöller again: “First they came for….”
The fact is that he was in the process of revolutionizing our understanding of what it means to be a human being, and how transformed human beings will create a transformed world. He also outlined in detail how people can transform themselves.
All this was missed by the smartest people in the smartest country – in their support of the politicians and their spurious charges of immigration violations against Osho!
Did someone mention “cancel culture”?

So, let’s just look first at Osho’s basic point about the fundamental limitations inherent in the endless left versus right concept.

The ideology of the right has always maintained that what little evidence there is of civilization would never have emerged without the forces of repression. Otherwise, the unruly masses will rape, murder, steal, and so on. It is just “human nature” they assert.
By contrast, the left has always maintained that it is exactly those forces of repression that provoke the masses to be unruly in the first place. And only when those repressive forces are dismantled can civilization really happen.
The left refers to the right as “reactionaries” – but, as you can see, each is reacting to the other, and both are reactionaries.
Osho explains that both the left and the right are half right and half wrong. Yes, people, as they are today, will murder, rape, and steal without those repressive forces. And yes, it is those repressive forces that are provoking all this mayhem in the first place.

So, how to escape from this age-old dilemma in less than another few hundred years?

Osho explains that only when people become more aware, more conscious – and no longer indulge in these crimes against other people – can this cycle be broken. Then those people who are currently getting rich off the horrors of the repression-incarceration industry – the police, the bail-out lenders, the lawyers, the judges, the jailors… and so on – will be without any work and will have to go and find a less demeaning way of earning their living.
“More aware, more conscious”? Are you nuts? What kind of fantasy world are you living in?
Sorry, comrades. If you want to continue on the present path, you know the outcome. It is up to you if want to consider something different or not.

Democracy is a perfect example.

Progressive forces are all determined to stand for democracy.
But don’t the progressives know that we have been enduring this wonderful democracy for so long already? – and where are we? Do you think we are stupid or fascist because we think democracy sucks! Everyone knows that the rich and powerful pay for the politicians’ loyalty, in various subtle and not-so-subtle ways. The politicians return the favor by enacting laws that allow the same people to become even richer and more powerful. Including laws to make it harder for the poor to vote. Duh!
Are you surprised that the people who are being fed all the nonsense of this fact-free world haven’t a clue what is really going on? The result is obvious. They simply throw up their arms in fear and confusion and sign up for another Dear Leader.

Just step back a moment and review the images of all those flag-waving people who are duped into thinking Donald Trump is good for America! The “genius” who said Climate Change was a hoax, remember?

Or that Brexit is good for the UK. Or any of the other examples that are so transparent from around the world.
Why does democracy suck? Because it is based on the hypothesis that everyone should have the same voice on every subject! You are going for brain surgery, so you decide to ask for a second opinion from the window cleaner or a passing cardiologist!
Is anyone looking at an alternative? Or just repeating the old trope that at least democracy is better than the alternatives? Really? Is anyone even looking? It seems a topic that is never discussed.

If this “democracy” is the bedrock of your way of opposing fascism, don’t hold your breath.

Here at least are Osho’s suggestions for you to consider.
What about all the dumb conspiracy theories that oppressed people grab hold of to explain the insanity of their lives? Osho explains that the real cabal that controls this earth is a not-so-secret group called the priests and the politicians.
If you need lots of pedophilia to enliven the conspiracy theory, the Christian Church seems more than happy to oblige.
This conspiracy between the priests and the politicians – the people who police people’s inner and outer lives – is the one conspiracy in everyone’s face. Is “the left” addressing this?
Of course not. They subscribe to the absurdity that we are obliged to “respect people’s beliefs.” What? I think the moon is made of cheese and you have to respect that?
Why?

Because the world of the left is also based on beliefs. That is what an ideology is.

Secular or religious makes no difference. Intelligent people call a “belief” a hypothesis. But the son of a hypothesis won’t fill the Christian donation boxes. Any more than the hypothesis that human behavior will change after the revolution – when one lot of politicians replace the previous lot – will bring people running to the barricades.
Beliefs or faith or whatever you want to call them are just words people use to convince themselves that something that is uncertain is certain. Hence the need for “true” beliefs. Otherwise, belief would be enough! This is just a psychological trick to cover our doubt.
Political ideologies, whether “religious” or secular, left or right, are about one thing: power politics.
Osho also explains that politics is a disease of the mind based on the simple fact that no sane person wants to have power over anyone else. Those who do are suffering from some inferiority complex that they hope will be soothed by gaining power over others.

These people need treatment, not votes!

Do you see why every revolution fails? It is simply one group of politicians with one ideology replacing another group of politicians with another ideology. The result is that nothing changes. And here we are!
Take another complete misunderstanding of the “progressive left”: the demand for “equality.” Look out of your window and see if you can see anything that is “equal” to anything else that is not man-made in a factory. Even homozygous twins are not equal!
Enter Osho again: His insight is that every human being is “equally unique”:

“Equality is psychologically wrong, physiologically wrong. Every individual is unique and incomparable.

“I am not saying that somebody is higher and somebody is lower, I am simply saying it is absurd to compare a marigold with a rose flower. It is not that the rose flower is higher and the marigold is poor; they are different. People are so different and unique.” 1
So, why is everyone being compared with others? And why are the losers of this stupid game shamed, ridiculed, or worse? It is called “judgment” – including its more familiar cousin, pre-judgment, prejudice.
Welcome to the human mind – whose position in our day-to-day affairs virtually everyone refuses to question.
What you are probably concerned about is inequality. Someone is homeless, hungry, cold, desolate – and penniless. Someone else has 200,000,000,000 US dollars! You can hear the sucking sound and are disgusted.
What is the solution? Waiting for politicians to change the laws that permit this? Or look at the root. It is called greed! Greed for money, for power, for anything, is just greed.

Welcome to the human mind again!

Another huge misunderstanding that progressives are entangled with, and which receives so much attention, is “identity.”
Whatever unique qualities a newborn baby arrives with, they do not include identifying with a religion, a country, a cult or a culture, an ethnic group, a language, a gender, a skin color, liberalism, fascism… with a cop or a criminal, a saint or a sinner. Zilch!
Such identifications are acquired later from the child’s surroundings, from us! We brainwash the young to swallow our beliefs rather than their own intuitions. We then complain that they are screwed up and don’t behave as we want them to.
The price they pay for their borderline sanity is to accept at least the basics: God, country, the status quo, the hierarchy, etc., and so many other “beliefs” that are now so safely lodged in their unconscious that they don’t even realize what has happened.

Then along come the fascists who claim all this madness is human nature. It is not.

It is the direct result of human oppression of vulnerable, trusting, innocent children. Psychological child abuse to be precise.
When the first baby arrives giving a Nazi salute, let us know!
The effect of this “socialization” as academics euphemistically call it, is a mind, now programmed by other human minds to create our “society.” The result is a population that is all too often sickeningly greedy, intolerant, bigoted, misogynistic, racist, violent, self-destructive… and abusive of the natural world too. You name it, The Full Monty.
Why does nothing change? Because we have accepted that society operates on a loop where the conditioned minds of each generation are programmed by the conditioned minds of the previous generation, who were conditioned by…. Ad nauseum.

The most fundamental question facing any progressive, anti-fascist individual today is whether he or she is prepared to consider a different hypothesis.

One that contradicts the beliefs – also only hypotheses – that they have until now accepted as “true.”
The different hypothesis is that “materialism” is not “the truth.” Consciousness is not an epiphenomenon of the brain.
Most challenging for the traditional left-wing view is that the evolution of consciousness is individual, not collective. It marks the end of “party politics.” And good riddance.
As the old joke has it:
“Comrade, comrade. Why weren’t you at the last party meeting?”
“Oh! If I had known it was to be the last one, I would have been there.”
Collective revolutions have failed. It is time for individual rebellion. 

If you just look at the basic functioning of the mind, it is obvious why it cannot contribute towards peaceful, loving human beings.

The mind operates through contrast. Day and night, good and bad, left and right, up and down, etc. Contrast for sure can lead to conflict, as we can see everywhere, but it cannot lead to harmony. It is simply not in the nature of the way the mind works.
Beyond the simple question of the mind’s basic cogitative functioning, the mind is also a repository for endless conscious and unconscious “beliefs” which are in essence societies’ attempts to instill their own cultural biases into all the members of the group.
Yes, the mind can be a wonderful tool that is valuable for many external functions, like adding up the price of your groceries or splitting the atom. When it is given the role of “command center” and “master controller” – as is the contemporary Western view of its proper position in civilized people – it can only lead to division and conflict. Exactly what plagues all human beings and the world those human beings are creating.

Would you accept any other part of your body as an autonomous, unpredictable, involuntary determinant of what happens next? Like a Tourette’s syndrome of the brain?

This alternative hypothesis has been proposed for thousands of years. Perhaps first by Patanjali who proposed, “cessation of the mind.” Essentially how to find the “off button” for what is otherwise a compulsive cause of dis-ease. From Patanjali down the centuries – all who have looked have confirmed the same. Down to the no-mind of Zen, and Osho.
“The Eastern mysticism is almost ten thousand years old. And it is not a question of one man saying it or one country saying it; different countries, different races, different times, and they had no exchange of ideas, have reached to the same conclusion.

“You cannot simply go on ignoring it.

“Half of the humanity – and perhaps the best half because it became civilized long before the West, it became cultured long before the West, it has lived all the glories that West thinks he is attaining now….
“Looking at its literature, looking at its sculpture, looking at its music, its poetry, you have to think about that the people who have created such sculpture, the people who have created such great poetry, such great painting, such great music, should not be ignored out of hand.

“They should be listened carefully and whatever they are saying should be explored without any prejudice. They are saying that mind is not the end of man; no-mind is his basic reality.” 2

And:
“Politicians live on war. And now the game has come to its ultimate peak. The old wars, those bullock-cart wars, were okay. A few people died, somebody became victorious, somebody was defeated. But now war has lost all meaning. Nobody can be defeated, and nobody can be victorious. With war losing all meaning, politicians have lost their greatest vested interest.
“And if politicians disappear, there is no need for nations. I cannot conceive why nations should exist. Science has turned the whole world into a small global village. Yes, there can be a functional world government. But there is no need of armies – millions of people just sitting stupidly polishing their guns for years, doing “left turn, right turn,” and then creating Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For all that is ugly, the whole credit goes to the politicians.

“Just a general raising of consciousness is needed, and the politicians will melt like snowflakes.

“And with them will go nations, national boundaries, stupid ideas of some nations being special, just born to rule over the world. And all the energies which are being wasted in creating war materials – and that is not a small amount: seventy-five percent of the energy of the whole of humanity is being diverted into war. We are living on only twenty-five percent of our energy.

“Just think: if one hundred percent of our energy is available, there is no need for any Ethiopia to happen. There is no need for anybody to remain uneducated, poor. We can make this world a paradise – the politicians just have to go on a long, long weekend.” 3

END

1. Osho, The Last Testament, 1, Talk #15 – I Am Not a Prophet
2. Osho, The Last Testament, 5, Talk #28
3. Osho, From Bondage to Freedom, Talk #39 – Every Child Is Born a Witness

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The post Why Is There No Progressive Alternative to Fascism? appeared first on OSHOTimes.