Interesting link about fascism from George Orwell. I think totalitarianism is the more general term, Hannah Arendt wrote a book about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism
-J. Sent from Android -------- Original message -------- From "Robert J. Cordingley" <rob...@cirrillian.com> Date: 15/01/2014 20:39 (GMT+01:00) To The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> Subject Re: [FRIAM] Fascism? In 1944 George Orwell wrote "What is Fascism" . Has anything really changed - tho' the bit about Catholics seems a tad harsh? On 1/15/14 10:17 AM, glen wrote: On 01/14/2014 07:45 PM, Steve Smith wrote: Berkeley, the center of uber-liberalism, has become, in it's collective character and in it's specific approach to governing, quite fascist... despite applying it to a very liberal agenda. I think we've discussed this before, but perhaps only off list. Now's my chance to throw down the gauntlet publicly. ;-) I don't think you're using the word "fascist" properly at all, here. I admit that _an_ essence of fascism is control. And perhaps that's all you mean... a kind of limited degrees of freedom due to an ensnaring web of byzantine rules. Toss in a good amount of shaming, political correctness, hate speech constraints, etc. and I can see how the environment you describe could be called tightly controlled. But I don't think that's what most people mean by the word "fascist". Although I can also admit that most of the people who _currently_ shout "fascism" at the drop of a hat may well mean that. So, perhaps the word is newly defined (evolved) and you're using the new definition? Traditionally (from the dictionary and other sources) I think fascism requires: o a fetish for the military, including paramilitary, and war/battle/fighting, o some sort of dictator/autocrat, and o reliance on physical force, not merely verbal or psychological coercion. I don't know Berkeley at all. I do vaguely remember some news coverage during the Occupy noise about a mayor of Berkeley tending towards more use of police (dressed in very military looking gear). So, it would be easy for you to convince me that Berkeley has _become_ more fascist over the years. But it wouldn't be in correlation with uber-liberalism. It would (I think) correlate more with traditionally fascist aspects. I can tell that I've miscommunicated significantly in this (and this thread only?) thread... Bah! Cheers to miscommunication! One of my favorite aphorisms is "The problem with communication is the illusion that it exists." I have no idea who first said or and I've forgotten who I heard it from. But it always rings true to me.
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