Book: Fascism

I have tickets to go see Madeleine Albright in ten days. Should be interesting. She’s always whip smart and right on the money politically whenever I’ve seen her on TV.

Guess I need to buy her new book and read it.

Eighty years on.

Albright’s book is surprisingly well-written(?), starting with portraits of fascists in the 20th Century Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.  

It strikes me that the conditions that brought these two dictators to power — the worldwide economic depression of 1929-1935 — parallels the worldwide economic recession of 2008-2014.  During 2008-16 several right-wing self-professed nationalist strongmen have been elected worldwide.  The fear/scapegoating of Jewish immigrants 80 years ago has been replaced with a fear/scapegoating of Muslim immigrants today.

Does this mean that sometime next year — 2019 — after the US midterms but before the presidential election — a major international conflict will be started to bolster the hold on power by these wannabe tyrants?

Fascists make all the decisions and tell their subjects what to think.  It’s a government style for the lazy, the uninvolved, the uneducated.

Thomas Jefferson wrote:

An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.

Investment in quality public education is required for democracy to work.  Without it the society will fall back from self-government into government by the motivated few.

Vladimir Putin’s father was a member of Stalin’s secret police.

His grandfather was one of Stalin’s chefs.

Madeleine was excellent last night.  She appeared in front of a sold-out house, and has been on book tours long enough to know how to work an audience.  She had numerous really funny laugh lines(!) and some stories that brought tears to your eyes.

For instance:  apparently for many years she has attended the ceremonies where immigrants are sworn in as new American citizens on Ellis Island.  As an immigrant herself she is not able to lead the ceremony, but she enjoys handing out the certificates to the graduating class.  One year a man from Bangladesh exclaimed, "Imagine!  Me, an immigrant, getting my papers from the former Secretary of State!"  To which she replied, "Imagine, me an immigrant, BEING a former Secretary of State!"

In between she had many tales of the complexity and delicacy of diplomacy, and how going in like a cowboy can backfire.  She had many not-so-subtle digs at the current administration, which of course elicited enthusiastic applause from the Seattle audience.  She finished up with her hopes for all the women entering electoral politics, not just state and national offices but also local even down to the school board level.  This level of engagement is a civic duty, and sadly lacking in the past generation.  This has allowed people who enter politics for the wrong reason to take it over.

She took audience questions afterward, and answered many personal questions, such as being a woman (the first woman Sec't of State in 64 SoSes) and how she balanced family and work, and how foreign heads of state received her.  At 81 she was whip-smart, spoke passionately and eruditely, and was able to give personal anecdotes about many world leaders the rest of us have only read about.

One of the audience questions was “Would you have considered becoming Secretary of State again if Hillary had won?”

To which she replied — to great applause — “Well in fact, Hillary DID win.”

Saw her on Colbert. I'd like to read her book, though I don't imagine getting hold of a copy anytime soon.