Larry Pinkney

“Terrorism has replaced Communism as the rationale for the militarization of the country [America], for military adventures abroad, and for the suppression of civil liberties at home. It serves the same purpose, serving to create hysteria.”

-Howard Zinn

“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”

-Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz]

A woefully uninformed and/or a perniciously misinformed populace will, in the distorted name of ‘patriotism,’ repeatedly commit the most horrendous atrocities. Such people do not recognize the precariousness of their own existence, the fleeting nature of their own humanity, or the preciousness of Mother Earth and the rest of the global human family. Such people provide fertile soil for fascism to take root and grow. This is the stark reality for an enormous amount of the population of the United States of America, who has been psychologically, institutionally, and systemically trained to be ahistorical and to cling to systemic mythology rather than reality, no matter how obvious such reality might be.

Fascism, contrary to popular U.S. mythology, is alive and growing in this corporately dominated body-politic, institutions, and economy of the United States. An indication of just how very effective fascism has become in this country is the invariable knee-jerk reaction on the part of so many persons here who refuse to even consider that such a reality is even possible, much less already here. Everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people inside this nation are in deep, deep trouble.

‘Americans,’ like Pavlov’s laboratory dogs, have been indoctrinated to believe that fascism can only be in the one form of jackboots, swastikas, and/or soldiers, etc. marching through the streets. This however, is absolutely false. Fascism is not static or stagnant, it has many different forms, and it evolves in conjunction with political, economic, and social conditions. To reiterate: depending upon the political, economic, and social conditions and perceived norms - fascism evolves accordingly. As in the case of the corporate plutocracy in the United States, it effectively subverts any genuine democratic process in the body-politic.

This nation’s populace has been adroitly imbued in ‘educational’ institutions and by the U.S. corporate-stream ‘news & analysis’ media to mentally salivate in horror and utter disbelief at the very idea that fascism could, or for that matter, has already taken hold in this nation. Indeed, there is so much intellectual salivation and repugnancy at the very mention of the word fascism, in relation to ‘America,’ that the majority of the populace quite simply misses seeing the forest for the trees, as it were. After all, can’t we choose between buying the corporate McDonald’s Hamburger, or the corporate Wendy’s Hamburger, or the corporate Burger King, or the corporate Subway food chain outlets, etc.? Can’t we choose between watching the corporate multi-millionaire Oprah, or the corporate American Idol, or the corporate Makeover TV programs, etc. on television or the Internet? Can’t we choose between watching the corporate CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, or the largely corporate-sponsored Public Broadcast System (PBS), etc.? Don’t we, after all, have a choice as to which corporate-funded politician to elect? Don’t young people have a choice as to whether or not to enlist in the military, even as multinational U.S. corporations have outsourced millions of jobs elsewhere in which they might have been employed? Doesn’t this nation have an overwhelmingly corporately controlled judicial system that pretends to be equitable and just? With all these wonderful choices and opportunities how, then, can it possibly be said that this nation is fascist?!

As the discerning reader has no doubt readily noted, none of the above mentioned alleged choices and opportunities are choices at all. They are in fact corporately manipulated non-choices - packaged and presented as choices. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that corporations are hierarchal, profit-driven, and fundamentally undemocratic, and the very idea of a corporate-democracy is a contradiction in terms. Human lives, the environment, justice, and democracy, etc. mean substantively nothing to the corporate elite - profit does! This is why the United States is always at war and maintains at least 800 military bases throughout the world. Wars make huge profit for the few (approximately 1%) bloodsuckers at the top, while maiming or killing the many [i.e. everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people]. The corporate elite [i.e. the Wall Street banksters and robber barons, the pharmaceutical corporations, oil corporations, nuclear power corporations, insurance corporations, etc.] dominate and are in de facto control of every major institution in this country including the White House, the Congress, the military, the news media, educational institutions, the Courts, etc. The one thing that corporations, by their very bloodsucking nature will not long tolerate, is genuine democracy at home or abroad. Real democracy has the inconvenient habit of placing lives, dignity, and justice - above corporate profit. There is nothing less than a ruling corporate plutocracy in this nation - which is 21st century fascism.

Financial might, or in other words, organized corporate capital, systematically and systemically stymies the will of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this country. It subverts the will of the everyday people while maintaining a disingenuous veil of ‘democracy.’ When corporations and government become virtually indistinguishable, as presently exists in the United States, what we actually have is a 21st century form of fascism.

Thus, ‘extraordinary rendition’ & torture, perpetual U.S. wars abroad, the suppression of civil liberties at home, the incessant intellectual dumbing-down of the population, and a burgeoning prison population, etc., combined with indisputable corporate hegemony, has become the new norm. Patriotism and the so-called ‘war on terror’ are, in essence, the watch words meant to neutralize and ultimately eliminate internal political dissent. The corporate / military elite [i.e. the actual government], under the auspices of patriotism and of fighting terrorism, in fact ensures the continuance of “terrorism” and perpetual war; which ensures massive profits for that elite. This U.S. ‘democracy’ is, in reality, the best form of 21st century fascism that [corporate] money can buy.

Notwithstanding the abhorrent and utterly despicable role of Barack Obama in serving as the colored head of the corporate / military U.S. Empire, it must be remembered that in order for fascism to evolve in the United States to where it is today, it was imperative that a nominally black ‘Obama brand’ be cultivated, groomed and installed; in order to deflect and distract the attention of the masses of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people from the political repression and economic disaster at home and the perpetual U.S. wars abroad. We must no longer allow our attention to be deflected or distracted.

Whether or not you, the reader, accept or reject the argument that the United States is now a corporate plutocracy of 21st century fascism, one thing is certain: the U.S. corporate / military government’s political and economic war against the people right here in this nation must not and cannot be long ignored. Moreover, the bloody U.S. wars and corporate / military occupations, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, north Africa, and elsewhere must not be supported. These terroristic wars have nothing whatever to do with the spreading of democracy or the diminishing of terror. To the contrary, these terroristic U.S. wars are themselves increasing and ensuring a further cycle of terror; and this nation cannot in any fashion spread a democracy which itself does not possess.

If ever there were a time for political dissent in this nation - it is now! The words of Howard Zinn ring clear, strong, and true today: “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” It is in the name of not only this nation, but of all of humanity that people of conscience must dissent! Even as the U.S. corporate / military government engages in constant subterfuge and seeks to discredit and neutralize dissent and dissenters, there is the need to redouble our efforts in this struggle for political, economic, and social justice and human rights at home and abroad. The storm is already upon us if we could but see its clouds. Ah! But after the storm, if we have done what must be done, the sweet liberating rays of sun may yet shine again! It is only ordinary everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people, nationally and globally who, in the final analysis, will determine if we have a future and what that future will be!

Onward then my sisters and brothers! Onward!

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BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.) Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.