Chase or Trace??

OK, my blog entries have been very dark of late.  Time for something a tad lighter. 

Today I was reminded that the apartment building in downtown Downers Grove, right across from the main train station, and its bus-loading lanes, is called:  Acadia on the Green.

Say what?  I see no green of even a mini-golf scope nearby.  At that moment  what I did see was a line of tanker cars rumbling by with "flammable" and "radiation" stickers prominently mounted on them. 

I used to teach about the difference between connotation and denotation in classes, often with the study of poetry, and we always had fun with car names, even occasionally pulling out the famous sequence of letters between an American poet and Ford Motor Company regarding naming a new car model.

So I am reminded of the usual marketing slime-ology that goes into naming the places where people will be asked to live, either by renting or buying there.  I will skip the absurdity of senior retirement home titles...waaaay too easy.  Lets think about  the category that,  of course,  includes Glen Garry and Glen Ross.

Now, let us pick a tree.  It should be a noble tree, a well-known tree, and not too weird (nix "Ginko").  Let's try "Birch".  Now let us see the gradations of name that connote who will live in a place with "birch" in its name.

Birch Heights or Birch Glen:  here we have the ordinary, where there will be diversity, and perhaps even riff raff

Birch Valley:  better, but valleys are low, and southerners will be reminded of who lives on the hill versus "down in the holler.."

Birch Hill:  better still, and of course we are UP on a hill, whether or not it actually exists.

Birch Hills:  Ahhh, many hills, and hence seclusion and discovery.  And who knows, the hills may be alive with the sounds....

Birch Terrace:  OK, but sort of apartmenty sounding.  Besides, terraces are made of hard-scape material, not cushy golf green grass.

Birch Woods:  Oooh, much better.  Living in a woods means trees, and everyone prefers trees over a developer's billiard-table-on-farmland.

Birch Chase:  now we are getting into the money.  People here are not merely in the hunt, they have perhaps won the chase for gold.  Thank goodness Chevy Chase is now mostly forgotten...

Birch Trace:  At last.  Nirvana. Not merely a Chase, but a Trace.  Here there is no "trace" of riff raff, and the only illegals are cleaning the homes and pools.

The Ponds at Birch Trace:  Yikes!  A whole new connotative Eden emerges, and possibilities are endless.  We have trees and ponds and a "trace."  Can life get better


I pause here, as any of my ex-students know damn well I will, to consider names that might, should, could, or oughta be:

The Barbed Wires of Birch Way
The Barks of Birch
The Terraces in the Promenade of Birch Woods
Birchya Can't Afford It Here

The mind spins out of control.  I welcome further suggestions.

More musings about the drift toward fascism in America

     "Ahh, the "either/or" logical fallacy at work."  
     Some of you saw this post on Facebook recently:   "Strange that some young singles know so very much about marriage without ever having been in that kind of love...it's almost like hearing "holy" and "expert" ecclesiastical celibates expound authoritatively on the subject. One out of three marriages in America does end in divorce; so, what does that actually mean? Is that actually a bad thing? Does that mean all marriages are bad? Bad some of the time? Bad all of the time? Bad compared to what? Bad compared to singleness? Bad compared, say, to a drunken stupor at the end of an unsuccessful Saturday evening of looking for Mr/Ms Goodbar? Bad compared to life in old age without children? Generalities simply can't apply to the hundreds of millions of individual human male and female and transgender lives, all of them different, and lived in hundreds of thousands of cultures. Ya makes your choice and ya lives with it; stop advising me about my own choices! Put your big, biased, and inexperienced paintbrush away; there is nothing to paint with it."

     In my older age, which does come with greater experience and wisdom (sorry, 20-somethings...)  I grow more angry with illogic and its drift toward fascism, which is born and nurtured by illogical thinking.  The greatest gift from any god that may or may not exist -- and surely the greatest gift of our species-- is the ability to think, and thus, to reason.  The gift is not faith, it is not identity, it is not even culture itself.  The gift is to be able to reason logically.  

I have written elsewhere about the characteristics of fascism as outlined by Umberto Ecco, who both studied and lived with it.  I see the steady creep of fascist extremism in American culture more and more.  Four examples:

*Religious fascists:  "Our god is the one god and his (nearly always "his") way is the one way and the one truth. This being so, we cannot tolerate or recognize anyone who does not believe as we believe, and we are justified in punishing them for their blasphemy."
*Political fascists:  "Our party is totally right and yours is totally wrong.  Compromise and state-craft are impossible due to the fact that we have unilaterally declared a grave crisis in our country, offering as evidence whatever we choose to offer.  We shall win by crushing our opponents, not listening to them.  I know all these things to be true because a man in a strange hat tells me so in my house of worship which is the only legitimate house of worship."
*Social facists:  "My way of living is superior to your way of living.  My choices should be your choices or else you are stupid and uninformed, and you certainly cannot be counted among my friends.  If I can, I will institutionalize discrimination against you" ("you" based on gender, age, sexual preference, race, religion, etc etc).
*Educational facists: "Our way of schooling is the only way of schooling.  Traditions as we have identified them, must be maintained at all costs.  Whatever was done in the past is to be venerated, and the past was better than the present."

Fascism ( I will re-post my summary of Ecco's outline) is about bullying.  It starts by excluding and labelling, and quickly moves to excluding, punishing, and even exterminating perceived "enemies.  In my view, America is terribly ripe for fascism now.  This is not about the tyranny of the majority; fascism grows from the tyranny of a minority who find a way to seize power, and then exploit the helplessness or passivity of the masses.

But I hear some voices:  this is the old, tired promise of mere relativism.  This is just a guy making sure there can be no right or wrong, which translates into permission to believe or do anything at all.  Wrong!  There are basic laws of right and wrong, subscribed to by all human beings everywhere on the planet earth.  I refer readers to C.S. Lewis on this fact ("The Law of Human Nature"...an essay that used to appear in high school literature anthologies until the Texas Christian right wingers drove it out).  One example is that there is no culture anywhere on earth that highly values and praises betrayal of trust.  See Lewis for many other examples here on my blog.

I hear readers saying to themselves that I am also way overstating the danger of fascist thinking in current America, but I don't think so.  Fascist thinking becomes a habit of thought, replacing logic and humanism and those "laws of human nature" that Lewis outlines so well..  It aims to destroy and humiliate its opponents in whatever category, not to exercise free speech and debate in a democracy.  For example, if I was to say out loud that America was not, is not, and never shall be a Christian country, I would be a target for lynching and car-bombing these days.  And yet, America is not a Christian country; it is a FREE country, where no national religion can ever be established BY LAW.  This fact stuns and angers many Americans, particularly in a time when they feel threatened by the realities that Americans may no longer have the highest standard of living, no longer have the best health care system, no longer have the top educational system, no longer have the safest economy, the safest food supply, the most secure jobs, the most solvent banks....or even the shreds of the so-called "American Dream."  

Hard times indeed.  I can forgive anyone for being angry, most especially the legions of of young people for whom all American promises seem to have been broken, but I won't tolerate anyone bullying me.


     

About facism, the new American challenge

The term fascist comes from Latin “fasces.” Fasces were bundles of rods tied around an ax which were a symbol of the authority of the Roman empire. They were carried by certain of the Roman emperor's lieutenants. That symbol of authority meant that the carriers of it could, if they chose, kill those they deemed enemies of the state (Rome).

The most useful way to detect modern fascism, which people mainly ascribe to Hitler and his so-called “Third Reich” (although nothing about fascism as an ideology is unique to Hitler or to Germany), was outlined by Umberto Ecco, an Italian writer and thinker of some renown who lived through the fascist dictatorship of the 1930s-1940s in Europe. He has outlined 14 characteristics of “fascism”, and they are more important than ever for enlightened citizens in a democratic Republic to both memorize, and, to teach to their children (for critical thinking skill and the ability to detect anti-democratic ideologies is usually never taught in American public or private schools).

By using the term “Ur-Fascism” in his original 14 points, Ecco attempted to capture this ideology without reference to any specific time, place, state, or regime. I attempt the same herein, hastening to say that there is no one, single fascist threat in my view, but rather many of them which seem to be gathering influence in America. Please read Ecco's own words, readily available on the Internet...at least for now...!

Here I outline, with the help of Ecco's own language, his 14 characteristics of fascim. Please note, however, that nothing in these 14 critical aspects suggests that any American guarding against fascism must thus be against free speech, or a strong and regulated military, or naturally opinionated political leaders, second amendment rights, or enlightened regulation of immigration. Neither does it demand that those who guard against fascism should support every human rights lobby that clamors for legal rights or for an end to all censorship! I write this because of the disturbing rise in the number of voices in America who cry loudly that there is only ONE way, only ONE truth, only ONE light; who separate people into those who are with us and those against us; who want to stop the teaching of thinking and the reading of books they “suspect” in our public and private schools; who are forming isolationist communities of extreme fear and prejudice supported by their own media, schooling, places of worship that stand against democratic values. These people are not one enemy or only one group, but instead reflect a fascist trend which posits that, in these uncertain times, we must suspend reasoning, dis-believe science and research, be suspicious of those different from us, set aside democracy, and instead join a mythic quest to “return” to a vague, or worse, impossible (!), set of values in this 21st century world. This trend denies complexity, refuses discussion, quashes debate and free speech, labels objectors as “traitors,” bullies our government, denies the value of journalism's “fourth estate,” listens to no voices but its own, despises intellect and humanism, and occasionally promotes violence toward people like you who will now choose to read Ecco's 14 points:

1. The first feature of fascism is the cult of tradition. In the mindset of a cult of tradition, there can be no advancement of learning. Truth has been already spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its message, known only to self-designated “experts.” Citizens will be told that the truth can ONLY be found in one book, one religious tract, one theology, one ideology, one politics. All else is traitorous, thus exposing the cult of tradition as a prime example of the black/white or either/or logical fallacy (see “logical fallacies” at www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies)

2. Fascists reject modernism, even though modern technology and the latest police and military tools are matters of great pride to their regimes. The Western Enlightenment (the Age of Reason) is viewed by fascists as the beginning of modern depravity and decline. They complain mightily of the breakdown of_____?____ (family, moral authority, old-time religion, etc...it is easy to fill in this blank for anyone who reads a newspaper).

3. Facism's irrationality depends on action for action's sake, where taking action is often seen as beautiful and noble. Action must be taken without reflection, since thinking too much is cowardice and calls patriotism and masculinity into question. Thinkers and intellectuals are always suspect, frequently referred to as “effete,” “elitist,” “ivory tower intellectuals,” “eggheads,” or “snobs.” Hermann Goering is alleged to have said: "When I hear talk of culture I reach for my gun,” presumably because such conversation betrayed the cult of tradition and the refusal to reject modernism.

4. For Facscists, disagreement is treason. They reject analysis (“paralysis through analysis”) for it could threaten the cult of tradition and also delay immediate action. One must listen, believe, act.

5. Fascists always exploit the fear of what is different, most especially different culture, religion, race, gender, sexuality, and/or ethnicity. These are seen as threats, intruders, disrupters of some “natural” order and by-gone standards.

6. Fascism tends to rise when people feel angry and dispossessed. When whole nations embrace fascism, it is often because they cannot admit they no longer have wealth, power, and or prestige they once enjoyed; that their standard of living is perceived to have declined; that they feel “under attack” and want simple, decisive retaliations. More simply, their people are afraid, and yearn for simple solutions and a return to a simpler time. Fear leads to a rise in mystical religion-ism, a desire for isolation from the world, and tendency to turn to “strong-man” leadership. “Fascist” responses might also happen in the culture of an institution or corporation,...perhaps not harmful to a nation, but clearly harmful to those living within them.

7. People in fear tend to turn to the one thing that is a clear identity for them: being born in the same place. Fascism feeds this by urging exclusion of “foreigners,” radical punishments for those deemed “alien,” application of simplistic formulas for who is “us” and who is “them,” arguing for a strong military not merely for fighting invasions, but for “policing” the citizens – who are also urged to report suspicious behaviors to them. Fascists want citizens to live in perpetual fear, and believe that there are vast plots against them. The “enemy” is always embodied in a single word: “communist,” “socialist,” “Muslim,” Jew,” “liberal,” “traitor,” and ironically, “fascism” itself! It is instructive to recall that Hitler's German supporters acted for the “Fatherland.”

8. Fascism portrays it's enemies as powerful and devious, feeding people's fears that they themselves are not in control, or that the world is spinning out of their control. After all, if the enemy is not depicted as powerful and overwhelming, there is not so much to fear.

9. Because enemies are powerful, fascists depict life as a struggle for survival, never a quest for diplomatic solutions, detente, individual expression, change, a new way of life, or peace. Those who offer such solutions are depicted as weaklings and traitors. A problem all fascists face is that once so powerful an enemy has successfully been created, no final end to the conflict against it can exist, and, of course, people do grow weary of fighting with no end, no victory in sight. Fascism must constantly find new ways to energize fear and keep the “war” going: new incidents, new atrocities, new horrors, new threats.

10. Fascism's power does not come from open discussion, critical debate, analysis, or democracy; fascism comes to power from bullying and force, having created the conditions described in 1-9 above. But to win through bullying is to have contempt for the weakness of those citizens who have been successfully bullied; thus, fascists have nothing but contempt for those they have persuaded to follow them. Such contempt (these days often a mash-up of Machiavelli and SunTzu and Dick Cheney) justifies ever more strident and autocratic leadership. The weak must be guided, shaped, ruled, threatened, and then rejoice at having been saved and remaining subordinate. Every fascist “Caesar” is, however, constantly fearful of the “Cassius-ness” of individual humans making up the masses: “Beware yond Cassius. He hath a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous!”

11. Fascism controls citizens through force, but also by creating myth. In the myth, dying for a cause is great and noble, death is not to be feared, and suffering is part of a grand quest,...often for a reward in some imagined heaven or an afterlife or an eternal fame. Thus, everyone is urged to be a mythic hero, and a test of one's loyalty is their willingness to die for a cause. Blood rituals, often secret and tailored to hierarchies of privilege, are often used to extract and affirm this willingness.

12. People grow weary of war and hard-to-attain heroism, so Fascism again resorts to human sexuality, which is a powerful influence. Typically, to be weak or rebellious is depicted as being infantile, a-”sexual, homosexual, girlish,” perverted, or sexually impotent. It is not a coincidence that fascist propaganda depicts mostly masculine figures, sexual symbols of machismo, and physical domination. In a fascist mindset, the gun is the most powerful (phallic) symbol of sexual potency.

13. For fascists, individuals have no rights...no rights to be unique, to choose, to think, to question, to change, to grow, to self-rule,...even to live. The people are seen as “us,” never individual “I” or “you”. People are required only to be of “The People,” the mass with one common and supposedly noble will.

14. Fascism “speaks newspeak.” Newspeak was invented by George Orwell, in his novel

1984, as the official language of “Ingsoc” (Eng-lish Soc-ialism). Fascists exploit language in order to limit reasoning and individual critical thinking. They reduce words describing their enemies to simple single words. They argue for action using slogans (“the time is now” or “take back our beloved country”). Worse, they strive to change the connotative or even the literal meaning of words, such as, for example, “conservative” or “intellectual” or “patriot.” “Newspeak” is especially dangerous in today's digital world, where words and slogans can spread with exponential speed over the Internet, where digital spying can identify individuals using taboo or suspect words or phrases in writing or in electronic conversation, and where words/phrases/whole chapters in textbooks can be altered forever within the time of several keystrokes.