Tuesday 2 April 2013

Everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State...

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Fascism is being reborn.

The headline I've chosen would be welcomed by the Owen Jones' of this world - it describes and defines what they believe. It is the very essence of Richard Murphy's 'courageous state' - a definitively fascist concept.

And the headline is a quotation - a translated quotation - from the man who created Fascism, Benito Mussolini. There was no subtlety at all to Mussolini's hatred of the Italian elite or to his belief that the institutions of society - industrial might, the strength of labour and the passion of leadership - must be directed by the state in the interests of the state.

Fascism is being reborn - here is Lyndsey Hanley writing in the Guardian:

Yet isn't the idea of 3 million people working hard and not being required to pay tax a recipe for their disenfranchisement? The Liberal Democrat segment of the coalition is most likely to see a high tax-free allowance, which goes up to £9,440 on 6 April, as a step towards the goal of a "citizen's income" – a no-strings basic payment from state to individual over and above any earned (and therefore taxable) income. A fundamental component of citizenship, however, is paying towards the ongoing work of building and maintaining resources for everyone to use. 

Everything in the state, nothing without the state.

Every day I see the dark shadows of this authoritarian creed - in the denormalising of personal choices, in the arrays of cameras pointed at everything we do, in the selection of chosen "hatreds" to condemn and in the braying offence of calling for more regulation, more control and more taxation.

As Benito said:

The Government has been compelled to levy taxes which unavoidably hit large sections of the population. The...people are disciplined, silent and calm, they work and know that there is a Government which governs, and know, above all, that if this Government hits cruelly certain sections of the...people, it does not so out of caprice, but from the supreme necessity of national order.

Or perhaps this fascism sums it up:

His narrative depicts the State in a current crisis of confidence, neutered by the self-doubt of elected politicians who are taught to believe that the market knows best. This results in a weak government unable to perform its duties and uncertain of the State’s ability to work for the benefit of the citizens it represents. Yet...vision the State is not just the best but the only solution to the current financial turmoil, uniquely positioned to deliver a prosperous, sustainable, and equitable future for the greatest number.

Mussolini would have cheered Richard Murphy - and his courageous state - to the rafters. Here again is that rallying call for action against the corruption of the markets and the evil of capitalism. Here - cheered on by  the likes of Ms Hanley - is a new authoritarianism of the left, a new fascism.

And it scares me.

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3 comments:

SadButMadLad said...

Another quote - "No taxation without representation". Except that the left think that the only taxation is that of wages. What about all the other taxes that we pay in our daily lives such as VAT. That includes virtual taxes such as red tape and bureaucracy which tax us as we try and make a living.

Anonymous said...

And these same people have the chutzpah to criticise Sunderland FC for appointing Paolo Di Canio as manager, without even the merest hint of irony.

singapore sling said...

First commentor misses out on the fact that no left-winger has ever called for unemployed people and other benefit recipients to be disenfranchised, but a number of Tories and kippers have. Oh dear.