Beck and Palin

[Apocalipstic]

We are watching Cspan and the freakish display going on there.

It scares me.

As I look across the sea of white people and Beck preaching and Palin doing whatever she does I am reminded of a part of the US I have fought long and hard to forget. Religous Zealots who are using the rewriting of history to try and change, in the name of God and history, what is right and wrong. What is and was real.

Beck is about to pass out some sort of Merit Award to people who stand against the tide? Whatever that tide is. Suddenly a taped segment with video is happening.....shots of Martin Luther King play in front of a giand field of visor wearing white people. Irony.

He says this group is the greatest group of people who has ever lived....restoring America....blah blah...hands reaching out. Now, A Chief from Oklahoma is going to give out an award. I wonder how they found him?

I am thrust back into a Southern Baptist Revival, only way worse.

Somehow they keep mentioning family...a man and a woman. Makes me wonder what this really is about....

Is anyone else watching? To be honest Cynthia has it on and it is making me really tense. Like a train wreck.

Thoughts?

[Apocalipstic]

The background music is killing me. Taped fanfares and now a lone Black Pastor on stage in a sea of white. A soldier with hooks (not prosthetic hands...hooks) gives the award. The award winner speaking of Dr. MLK.

He says the dream of Glen Bleck is that Jesus gave his life so these people could gather now.

[Apocalipstic]

People are crying.

[Apocalipstic]

The Washington Monument looks crooked.

[Apocalipstic]

Restoring Honor...

They say hope must be based on truth. I see no truth. I see truthyness.

[Apocalipstic]

People wearing stupid hats in front of a huge screen showing photos of Americana....eagles...statue of liberty....

Now, the sports angle.

[Liam]

I think Glen Beck has much more in common with facists, than he does Martin Luther King, Jr..

[Apocalipstic]

Knowing that Beck and Palin and all the cost of producing this multimedia festival of reiculocity must be paid before the actual organization in whose name this is staged, gets a dime.

If they really meant it, they would do it for FREE.

[Apocalipstic]

I think Glen Beck has much more in common with facists, than he does Martin Luther King, Jr..

I agree. Linus wrote yesterday that Beck reminds him of the rise of the Third Reich.

I hope this is not that widespread.

[Apocalipstic]

Winner 2.....fanfares in background....drums....Latino and a baseball player.

Winner 3 will be a woman, I just feel it.

[Apocalipstic]

Now the Screen, which BTW says Restoring Honor on top...they are giving the Satue of Liberty immigrant speech...like Beck does not daily vilify imigrants.

Pictures now of the Depression...talking about Charity.....

I think this is going to the government not helping and not paying taxes, but choosing who churches will offer "real" charity to.

[Apocalipstic]

Not a woman, a Mormon?

[theoddz]

If you don't have cable access to CSpan, you can view it here in streaming video, live.

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN.aspx

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[Apocalipstic]

If you don't have cable access to CSpan, you can view it here in streaming video, live.

http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN.aspx

~Theo~ :bouquet:

Thank you! I know I am babling, but if I don't vent I will explode.

[Apocalipstic]

I keep expecting them to roll someone up in a iron lung to win this award.

[waxnrope]

People are crying.

I'm crying. That these people have the audacity to use King, to display a Native American/First Nation Chief. To throw out the name of Jesus, whose parables were likely the most subversive speeches of his time, makes me weep. I'm sure Beck will parade an "illegal" immigrant who is itching to go home when the music changes to the cockroach song (sarcasm).

I weep that people are so uninformed, so forgetful of a nation's past, so afraid that someone will take what is theirs ... even though it was never really theirs to begin with.

I weep because there are good, knowledgeable Christians, who ate stunned by such display, and who are just at a loss of what to do as anyone else on this website. I weep because what worked in the past, marches, sit ins, etc., in this techno age, no longer seems to work.

So, I dry my tears and hope for youth to once again lead the way. For a new means of reasoned, radical resistance which comes from many corners. I am Pisces. I am a dreamer.

[Apocalipstic]

Not there to receive the award. A Black lady receives it.

Jesus sends his greetings.

"Glen Beck is one of Americas most trusted and honored citizens"

The lady was treated for cancer at the winner's cancer hospital.

I mean, I am an thrilled people give money to charity, but this should not take the place of government programs and regulations and infrastructure.

[Apocalipstic]

I'm crying. That these people have the audacity to use King, to display a Native American/First Nation Chief. To throw out the name of Jesus, whose parables were likely the most subversive speeches of his time, makes me weep. I'm sure Beck will parade an "illegal" immigrant who is itching to go home when the music changes to the cockroach song (sarcasm).

I weep that people are so uninformed, so forgetful of a nation's past, so afraid that someone will take what is theirs ... even though it was never really theirs to begin with.

I weep because there are good, knowledgeable Christians, who ate stunned by such display, and who are just at a loss of what to do as anyone else on this website. I weep because what worked in the past, marches, sit ins, etc., in this techno age, no longer seems to work.

So, I dry my tears and hope for youth to once again lead the way. For a new means of reasoned, radical resistance which comes from many corners. I am Pisces. I am a dreamer.

Beautifully stated!

My hope is that Beck is going too far and less people than he thinks are buying this.

[Apocalipstic]

He is saying people are born knowing the truth and the truth will set us free.

It is almost too sick to watch....slow motion train wreck....

and now.

Dr A. King.

[Apocalipstic]

I guess to make the white people feel better?

[theoddz]

Good Lord, they have the utter *audacity* to hold Martin Luther King's dream and words up to pat themselves on the back and preach "equality" when they're the ones who are spewing the lies and the hatred and practicing their hypocrisy against their own fellow Americans. :|

Nauseating and totally disgusting.

Ya, look at the sea of white people clapping and cheering. The only POC I see, other than the couple of speakers I've seen at the podium since I tuned in, are very, very few and far between in the audience. What's with that???

This isn't a "rally"......it's a joke, right??

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[Apocalipstic]

POC performning for the white people?

Bullshit.

We saw one black lady in the audience and she was pushing a white lady's wheelchair.

[Apocalipstic]

Good Lord, they have the utter *audacity* to hold Martin Luther King's dream and words up to pat themselves on the back and preach "equality" when they're the ones who are spewing the lies and the hatred and practicing their hypocrisy against their own fellow Americans. :|

Nauseating and totally disgusting.

Ya, look at the sea of white people clapping and cheering. The only POC I see, other than the couple of speakers I've seen at the podium since I tuned in, are very, very few and far between in the audience. What's with that???

This isn't a "rally"......it's a joke, right??

~Theo~ :bouquet:

The only thing keeping me from actually throwing up is writing.

[Apocalipstic]

The audience is just sitting there looking bored while the Black lady sings about rebuilding. No one is into it.

I don't think they are enjoying this part.

Now somngs of unity.

The audience?

A few seem to be getting more into it?

[Apocalipstic]

White people clapping not in rhythm....

The singer is awesome, the song powerful about a "House Divided"...

"Black, White, Jew and Gentile".....so only Jews and Christians.....?

[Apocalipstic]

I know this is kind of stream of conciousness and weird....but this is so bizzare, it seems like a movie.

If you are reading...thank you.

[Apocalipstic]

Uncle Martin.

Not too many people clap when she says "love each other".

[theoddz]

Did I just hear right??? :|

Alveda King saying that the "procreative function of marriage" is being "threatened"???? :|

Tell me this woman isn't the hypocrite she is sounding like. Out of one corner of her mouth, she is preaching "equality", and the other side of her mouth she is denying it to other Americans???

And "racism" is America's only moral sin?? What about hypocrisy?? Everyone is "equal", but not equal.

Dammit. These people make me sick.

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[Apocalipstic]

"womb wars"

Everyone has their own specific agenda.

Wants prayer to be welcome in schools.

When children are not in peril in the womb.

So apprently it's ok to hate atheists....according to Uncle Martin?

Singing again......

This is so church.

A revival.

revivals always freaked me out.

I keep expecting an invitation.

[Linus]

Anyone have an estimate on the numbers of attendees?

[Apocalipstic]

It is so nausingly orchestrated.

God will save us.

Pray for the poor and eliminate all govenrment social programs.

VOMIT

[Apocalipstic]

Anyone have an estimate on the numbers of attendees?

way more than I hoped

[lipstixgal]

I think Glen Beck has much more in common with facists, than he does Martin Luther King, Jr..

I agree with that statement...unfortunately it is true.

[Apocalipstic]

Beck says over 300,000.

[Apocalipstic]

Yes, now Beck is talking about President Lincoln.

How is he talking about the scars of the civil war on the Washington Monument (egyptian phalic obelisk) to successionists?

[Apocalipstic]

He is welcoming home the Vietnam Vets, WWII vets, Korea.....

"Hallowed Ground"

He is preaching about the reflecting pool and great MEN.

Preaching.

Some dude in the audience is dressed up like George Washington.

[Apocalipstic]

"do we say today, the experiment did not work" "it does not end here"
"it is up to us"

...A cop looking miserable...

Beck's voice quivers....

[Apocalipstic]

My brain hurts

[Apocalipstic]

By Chanceeeeeeeeeeee....Beck is staying at the hotel where Dr King wrote his speach and the Battle Hymn of the Republic was written.

[Apocalipstic]

How come Beck is reading when he was not going to prepare a speach?

Is God writing on the teleprompter for him?

[Apocalipstic]

OK...note cards, or whatever.....

UGH

[Linus]

His hands aren't big enough.

I did a search for pictures and noticed that the ones I saw pretty much everyone had those fold up chairs. I wonder if that is making the crowd seem larger than it is.

[Apocalipstic]

Preaching.

Burning Bush...

Moses...

Beck can relate to Martin Luther King the most.

Is he wearing a bullet proof vest?

[Linus]

Preaching.

Burning Bush...

Moses...

Beck can relate to Martin Luther King the most.

Is he wearing a bullet proof vest?


Probably. To be real, I'm sure he's had just as many death threats as Obama does. You don't say things like he does without making enemies.

[Apocalipstic]

His hands aren't big enough.

I did a search for pictures and noticed that the ones I saw pretty much everyone had those fold up chairs. I wonder if that is making the crowd seem larger than it is.

Makes sense, and a bunch of people left during the previous segment.

[Apocalipstic]

Probably. To be real, I'm sure he's had just as many death threats as Obama does. You don't say things like he does without making enemies.

True true...

Though I think the people who would kill a public figure are on his side.

[Apocalipstic]

The overblown ego of it all.

"one man can change the world"

"and that person is you"

I thought he was about to go all third reich but he pulled back

[Apocalipstic]

Now he is into the Sermon on the Mount and teaching people to fish.

The poorest among us have all the best blessings....so apparently they need to stop whining?

[Linus]

I was just listening to Beck and noticed he speaks in snippets. It's like he lacks whole concepts and cannot elaborate on them.

[Apocalipstic]

I was just listening to Beck and noticed he speaks in snippets. It's like he lacks whole concepts and cannot elaborate on them.

Yep, like sound bites.

Keeping things simple for the uneducated?

[Linus]

True true...

Though I think the people who would kill a public figure are on his side.


People who kill others in the name of assassination are not on anyone's specific side but their own delusional state.

Just as much as I don't want the right to demonize the likes of me, I will not demonize them. They are people just like us. Perhaps a little misguided and very set in what they believe, they are still human.

[Apocalipstic]

I wonder how many people actually believe this shit?

[Apocalipstic]

People who kill others in the name of assassination are not on anyone's specific side but their own delusional state.

Just as much as I don't want the right to demonize the likes of me, I will not demonize them. They are people just like us. Perhaps a little misguided and very set in what they believe, they are still human.

If you look historically political assasins tend to be extremist.

I see Beck and his followers as extremist and dilusional.

I do agree most of them probably are misguided and would not kill anyone...but I think Beck and Palin stir the fear that looses violence, like the dude who stabbed the Islamic taxi driver this week.

[Apocalipstic]

I wonder if he is going to say what the "right thing" is?

[Apocalipstic]

Wow

we need to go to church and give money so that the US can save people when the apocalypse comes?

"our churches need to stand for that we know is true"

He did mention Mosques.

He is all excited there are helicopters and planes over he thinks to take pictures of him.

Beck still.

[Apocalipstic]

I wonder if he stole his hand towel from his hotel?

He is claiming to have 180 million followers.

[Apocalipstic]

Here they are...in front of the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Dr. King's speech with their own agenda.

[Apocalipstic]

He is crying that he can't find the next George Washington in the crowd.

[Apocalipstic]

Reading some more from his non existent notes....

I wonder if he is truly crazy or if this is a front.

[Apocalipstic]

Inevitably.....

Bag pipes. Amazing Grace.

[Apocalipstic]

Bad bag pipes.

or the satellite is making them off key?

[Apocalipstic]

Palin is crying

[MsDemeanor]

He is all excited there are helicopters and planes over he thinks to take pictures of him.

*cough bullshit cough* DC is a no fly zone.

[Apocalipstic]

Beck cries again.

They have raised 1.5 millin $$'s alledgedly.

I keep wondering who is filming this for CSPAN, them?

[Apocalipstic]

So manipulative.

Someone with hands and most of face blown off to pray.

[Apocalipstic]

Hideous.

A hideous, manipulative revival meeting

I feel sick, in my bubble I don't always realize that nothing has changed. I say I do....but when I see it it seems too much to wrap my brain around.

I guess I will get back to laundry. I have not said a millionth of what I was thinking...but if you do read, thank you for helping me be able to watch this thing.

and.

Please vote.

[Apocalipstic]

I thought it was over..

Joe D Messina. America the Beautiful.

[Linus]

I think the final count came to about 70-75,000 (from what I've read at a variety of places). That said, I'm still not sure what the event was about.

It wasn't political.

It wasn't really religious.

I've been thinking about this and it feels like something a parent would do to tell you what you need to do in life.

It feels like an admonishment.

[Rockinonahigh]

In this day and age I should think people whoul have more smarts than to fall for the snake oil side show they put on,but I gess if a rable rouser can holler enough loud enough...somebody will show up to see what its all about.

[Corkey]

I couldn't watch, my blood pressure would have hit the roof, and I needn't be yelling at the TV it only upsets my wife.

[Toughy]

I wonder how many people actually believe this shit?

depending on who asks, how they ask and what they ask........somewhere between 25-35% of white folks in this country.......it's been that way ever since I have followed politics..........the last time this happened it was over the 'Godless communists' with Senator Joe McCarthy

that said..........the 'God sent me to do this' thing is getting truly truly scary.....really scary...this just seems really different............the lies keep being repeated and the media reports it like fact.......truth is a lie and the lie is the truth....so the media says.........

[Ebon]

I can't wait to see what the Daily Show has to say about this whole thing.

[theoddz]

I think that, since times are so tough now with unemployment, scaled back social services, people who have fallen on hard times find solace in religion. Who was it, Karl Marx who said that "Religion is the opium of the people."??

Oh, okay, here's the quote:

"Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." -- Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[Nat]

These people scare the crap out of me. I didn't watch. Beck grosses me out. Palin too - in a different way. I don't blame religion. I blame human nature. Human pack behavior. Human gullibility. Human brain-laziness. Human lack of compassion. Etc.

[Nat]

Kkv_HE5Rs7Y

[Apocalipstic]

depending on who asks, how they ask and what they ask........somewhere between 25-35% of white folks in this country.......it's been that way ever since I have followed politics..........the last time this happened it was over the 'Godless communists' with Senator Joe McCarthy

that said..........the 'God sent me to do this' thing is getting truly truly scary.....really scary...this just seems really different............the lies keep being repeated and the media reports it like fact.......truth is a lie and the lie is the truth....so the media says.........

I grew up with "god told me to" how does one argue with that which makes no sense.

I can't wait to see what the Daily Show has to say about this whole thing.

I know...I am eat up. I can
t wait! We are taping them...Colbert too and Oberman and Rachel. :)

I think that, since times are so tough now with unemployment, scaled back social services, people who have fallen on hard times find solace in religion. Who was it, Karl Marx who said that "Religion is the opium of the people."??

Oh, okay, here's the quote:

"Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions." -- Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right

~Theo~ :bouquet:

True and SCARY.
I don't agree with the part about abolishing religion to make people happy...but otherwise, I agree with Marx...Yes, I lean very far to the left, but stop at the forcing people to give it up.

These people scare the crap out of me. I didn't watch. Beck grosses me out. Palin too - in a different way. I don't blame religion. I blame human nature. Human pack behavior. Human gullibility. Human brain-laziness. Human lack of compassion. Etc.

Cynthia was watching, so I watched with her.

I agree that everything falls apart when people are involved. Human nature freaks me out.

[Apocalipstic]

Kkv_HE5Rs7Y

lmaooooooooooooooooo

"you know where you are"

really????

[Apocalipstic]

I couldn't watch, my blood pressure would have hit the roof, and I needn't be yelling at the TV it only upsets my wife.

We drank 2 pots of coffee and yelled at the TV together.

[theoddz]

Oh, I wasn't trying to state that I thought religion out to be abolished. I don't believe that, but I do agree with Marx that people, as a group, tend to gravitate more to it during hard times.

We're living in terribly difficult times now. People are clinging to whatever gives them hope and religion has often filled that need. It gives solace, but at the same time, there's enough double-talk and room for interpretation in various religious scriptures to give people with lost hope plenty of license to blame or condemn others.

One of the big reasons that Hitler was so able to "hypnotize" the masses was that, after the defeat they suffered in WW1, the German people were demoralized and their country, particularly the economy, was in shambles. In this case, Hitler was able to utilize Nationalism as a tool to garner support for his extremist and evil goals. We're seeing that again, like yesterday's Beck Rally....emotionalism hyped up by appealing to the conservative American's sense of national pride, patriotism and religious convictions. Same thing happened in Nazi Germany.

I think this is what I find so squicky/scary. Yes, it is "pack mentality"....at its worst and most dangerous.

~Theo~ :bouquet:

[waxnrope]

I think the final count came to about 70-75,000 (from what I've read at a variety of places). That said, I'm still not sure what the event was about.

It wasn't political.

It wasn't really religious.

I've been thinking about this and it feels like something a parent would do to tell you what you need to do in life.

It feels like an admonishment.

That's just it. There's no depth, no real concrete anything. This was the way of Palin's failed journey. Witless platitudes served upon a platter of whiteness, distortions, and a reconstructed(for their own aims) G-d. When it is over, all one can utter, really, is, huh?

[Apocalipstic]

I thought it did seem pretty religious, and politcal.

The points made seemed to be anti women, abortion, taxes, government social programs and more.

It read like a church service.

I agree Theo about what happened in Germany between the world wars. People get scared and they turn on each other like we are seeing now.

For example the anti Islamic thing now...equipment being used to build a Mosque in Mufreesboro, TN (30 minutes from here) was caught on fire yesterday.

Its like we have to have someone to target with our hateful fear.

[waxnrope]

It may have read to you like your experience of church services.*I* feel that we must be careful lumping all religious customs and beliefs in one basket, just as some POC do not lump all white people as predatory, colonizing asshats.

We are lead now to be polarized. Power will use whatever works to attain its ends. Do the corporate structures, operating behind the scenes in the media and elsewhere, do they really give a rat's behind about G-d, or anything having to do with a deeply considered ethos? What approach has been most successful in changing the minds of people? Truth? Or fear of the Other? What makes the other distinct? Since at least Newt Gingrich, we have come to politics with a posse mentality. The nation has succumbed to being whipped up into a frenzy by those in the background who play us like a seasoned lover. There is no reasoned discourse taking place within this circus of the absurd.

Those "religious" or, better, those who profess a religion, struggle with how to counter this insanity. We have been trained to counter Prop 8 when dealing with the media. When our churches, synagogues, and mosques are picketed by the religious right, we run to support and give voice to the media. The media ignores us too. We are crying out to counter what is being done in our name. There are few ears to hear.

[Apocalipstic]

It may have read to you like your experience of church services.*I* feel that we must be careful lumping all religious customs and beliefs in one basket, just as some POC do not lump all white people as predatory, colonizing asshats.

We are lead now to be polarized. Power will use whatever works to attain its ends. Do the corporate structures, operating behind the scenes in the media and elsewhere, do they really give a rat's behind about G-d, or anything having to do with a deeply considered ethos? What approach has been most successful in changing the minds of people? Truth? Or fear of the Other? What makes the other distinct? Since at least Newt Gingrich, we have come to politics with a posse mentality. The nation has succumbed to being whipped up into a frenzy by those in the background who play us like a seasoned lover. There is no reasoned discourse taking place within this circus of the absurd.

Those "religious" or, better, those who profess a religion, struggle with how to counter this insanity. We have been trained to counter Prop 8 when dealing with the media. When our churches, synagogues, and mosques are picketed by the religious right, we run to support and give voice to the media. The media ignores us too. We are crying out to counter what is being done in our name. There are few ears to hear.

Fair enough, I am maybe a wee bit bitter about evangelical right wing conservative denominations, which do not, I agree, represent all religions in any way.

I did not mean to imply that all religions are bad or that everyone religious thinks the same way Glen Beck does!...Just that he read to me as religious. A small segment (I hope) of "religious"...but the show? event? service? was filled with prayer, Bible reading and mention of God and Jesus and Christians and Jews...which *to me* seems pretty religious.

I agree 100% that most of this is being created by the media. Prime example is the fact that both Palin and Beck are on Fox's payroll.

So I am going to add media driven in addition to religious and polical.

Not saying everyone in the media, or who is in politics or is religious....Palin and Beck only. I know there are religious people out there who are as horrified as I am.

[dreadgeek]

One of the big reasons that Hitler was so able to "hypnotize" the masses was that, after the defeat they suffered in WW1, the German people were demoralized and their country, particularly the economy, was in shambles. In this case, Hitler was able to utilize Nationalism as a tool to garner support for his extremist and evil goals. We're seeing that again, like yesterday's Beck Rally....emotionalism hyped up by appealing to the conservative American's sense of national pride, patriotism and religious convictions. Same thing happened in Nazi Germany.

I think this is what I find so squicky/scary. Yes, it is "pack mentality"....at its worst and most dangerous.

~Theo~ :bouquet:

Funny you should bring up Germany in the 30s. I'm currently listening to William Shrier's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" as an audio book as research material for a sci-fi novel I am in the planning stages of. What's instructive to me is just how eagerly the German people ate up what the Nazi's were dishing out and how utterly supine all but, for the most part, the Communists were when Hitler was ascendant but had not yet seized the reins of power. It is interesting to watch this (and I wish I were watching it from *outside* our borders right now) what seems to be a classical proto-fascist movement.

Most of the elements from Umberto Eco's essay, Ur-Fascism, appears to be present in the American Right. (My commentary in parenthesis) To wit:

1. The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition...This new culture had to be syncretistic. Syncretism is not only, as the dictionary says, "the combination of different forms of belief or practice"; such a combination must tolerate contradictions. Each of the original messages contains a sliver of wisdom, and whenever they seem to say different or incompatible things it is only because all are alluding, allegorically, to the same primeval truth.
As a consequence, there can be no advancement of learning. Truth has been already spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message. (They believe that they know both the Bible *and* the Constitution and that both the words and the *understanding* of those words are fixed for all time.)

2. Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism...The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modem depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.

3. Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action's sake. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Goeringís alleged statement ("When I hear talk of culture I reach for my gun") to the frequent use of such expressions as "degenerate intellectual," "eggheads," "effete snobs," "universities a nest of reds." (Liberal elites, the 'lamestream media', 'unelected judges'...)

4. No syncretistic faith can withstand analytical criticism. The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason.

5. Besides, disagreement is a sign of diversity. Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition. (Muslims, Hispanics, Arabs, immigrants)

6. Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. In our time, when the old "proletarians" are becoming petty bourgeois (and the lumpen are largely excluded from the political scene), the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority.

7. To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside. In the US, a prominent instance of the plot obsession is to be found in Pat Robertsonís The New World Order, but, as we have recently seen, there are many others. (Muslims have had this role foisted upon them.)

8. The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. (Mostly this is targeted at queer people but you also see this playing out in "their taking our jobs")

9. For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare.

10. Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology, insofar as it is fundamentally aristocratic, and aristocratic and militaristic elitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak. Ur-Fascism can only advocate a popular elitism. Every citizen belongs to the best people of the world, the members of the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party.

11. In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.

12. Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters.

13. Ur-Fascism is based upon a selective populism, a qualitative populism, one might say. In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have a political impact only from a quantitative point of viewóone follows the decisions of the majority.

14. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. Newspeak was invented by Orwell, in 1984. as the official language of Ingsoc, English Socialism. But elements of Ur-Fascism are common to different forms of dictatorship.

Almost all of 14 elements above were on display at Beckapalooza on Saturday and, more broadly, in the American Right at present.

Cheers
Aj

[Corkey]

http://www.leftake.com/diary/2696/glenn-beck-our-confused-savior

Found this an interesting, and rational read. Not Becks part mind you but the authors.