I think the idea of a book club requires participants, and I assume we'll have a healthy number for The Fire Agent, but alas, for this book, it might just be moi, and that's okay, though I think DB may have read it as he did offer up the book for consideration.
I've read the first 3 of 10 chapters and I'll summarize some key points. Feel free to chime in, even if you aren't interested in the book. I'll write "F" when referring to fascism. I've taken lines right out of the book so please, no plagiarism charges, it was just sometimes easier this way.
I should point out that as an enticement to join this book club, today I have on offer Ritz Crackers topped with Venezuelan Beaver Cheese, and some cold Narragansett beer! Top that if you dare!
F tactics are a mechanism to achieve power and it's important to stress the EMOTIONAL appeal, as opposed to a cool, intellectual and rational approach.
Among F's strategies are commitments to: the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, appeals to the heartland. The book provides good examples for each of these.
A few of my takeaways: F loves traditional gender roles, at the national and family levels. The father figure thing probably explains their traditional religiosity. They just long for that big daddy, less they have to think for themselves. Women are clearly second class citizens and are expected to pop out many kids. JD Vance is clearly on board with these folks. PURITY is big with these people, be it racial, cultural or religious. F attack education, expertise and play language games. They also keep things simple for the simpletons in their midst. Think Trump's big 3 promises: drain the swamp, lock her up, and build the wall. And recall, he didn't achieve any of them!
The rural vs. urban divide is huge. The rural folks are hard working, traditional, god-fearing, righteous and uncontaminated by all those cosmopolitan types, and the foreigners with the odd languages, customs, cultures, religions, etc. The rural are producers and the urban are lazy, producing little and living off the hard work of the rural folks. And they abhor what they perceive as DECADENCE! Putin and Orban endlessly bitch about decadence, what whiny little wimps they are!
The dangers of F, where to start? Here's a roadmap: dehumanize certain people along racial, ethnic, or religious lines. This exclusion limits the empathy afforded them which leads to all sorts of nasty treatment from repression of freedoms, mass imprisonment, expulsion, and in the worst case, MASS EXTERMINATION.
The author provides examples of F at work in many nations: Italy, Germany, Poland, Rwanda, Hungry, India, Turkey, France, Myanmar, and in America's southern states during and after, well after, The Civil War. Each country takes what it needs from the F playbook, but there certainly are commonalities (grievance narratives, an emotional emphasis on purity, fear, othering, threats of violence if not the real thing). I should also mention that increasingly we see attempts to eliminate independent judicial systems, the rule of law, and install government-controlled media outlets. Additionally, in some countries, it's illegal to criticize past abuses committed by the nation. So much for sunlight's disinfecting power!
One final addition, there's a reference to Plato's Republic and Socrates's warning that people are not naturally led to self-governance, but rather seek a strong leader to follow. Democracy, by permitting free of speech opens the door for the demagogue to exploit the people's need for a strongman who will use this freedom to prey on the people's resentments and fears. Once the strongman seizes power he will end democracy, replacing with tyranny. The Republic argues that democracy is a self-undermining system whose VERY IDEALS LEAD TO ITS OWN DEMISE.
That's a wrap for the first 3 chapters. You can expect more to follow in the coming days, unless my wife and I take off for northern Vermont and southern Canada, it's up in the air. Too bad you didn't get to partake in the extravagant snacks, especially the succulent Venezuelan Beaver cheese, a favorite of Maduro I've heard!
Peter T.
