Deprived of their unions, the working people could be driven to work longer and harder for less and less money, so that those who subsidized and ran fascism could grow richer. By wiping out all internal competition—especially the small and medium sized business firms—profits were increased still higher for the handful on top. In some cases, the fascists then gobbled control of the top corporations. The living standards of the masses of the people declined, of course. As they earned less and less, they were able to buy less and less of the goods they produced.
Every last detail of life was regulated, with the death penalty often imposed for slight violations. One unhappy victim complained: "Fascism is a regime under which everything not prohibited is compulsory."
Once the fascists were in control of the government, not even the gang on top was safe from its own members. There would be more loot and power per fascist leader if some fascist leaders were eliminated. Some of the party "big-shots" and some of those who had helped them take over were therefore "purged." Many would-be partners in the dictatorship, including some industrialists, wound up in jail, in exile, or dead.
Fascism = War?
(Question: If we leave fascist nations alone, will they leave us alone? Or does fascism inevitably lead to war?)
We have seen that the people of a fascist state earn less and less, and so are able to buy less and less of the goods they produce with their slave labor. This means that eventually the fascist leaders either have to abandon the system, or look abroad for new markets to dispose of the mounting surplus of goods that cannot be sold at home.
The fascists do not choose to abandon their system and give up their graft, and so they are forced to acquire foreign markets and to eliminate competing nations. Due to their slave labor, the fascists are able to undersell the free nations of the world. The free nations must either resort to fascism, so that with slave labor they can meet the cut-throat prices of the fascist nations, or they must erect trade barriers to keep out the ruthless fascist competition. (See Douglas Miller: You Can't Do Business With Hitler!) In either case, the fascist nation still wants the markets, and it goes after them with the same methods used in domestic affairs—intimidation, terror, and force. In foreign affairs, force means war.
The war machine is ready, and waiting for duty. To justify the building of the war machine as the "solution" to unemployment, the fascists nurture a lust for war, a desire for conquest. "Live dangerously," said Mussolini. "Man has become great through perpetual strife," screamed Hitler. A Nazi slogan was "Guns instead of butter." The hungry people were told they would get butter and other riches in due time—by way of conquest.
The press, radio, movies, stage—all were put to the task of glorifying war. The school system, from kindergarten to university, justified and exalted tyranny of the strong over the weak. "The school is the preparation for the Army," said the Nazi Minister of Education.
The people were taught that their race was "superior." Since this concept of "superior" and "inferior" race is completely contrary to the findings of all science, science has to be as carefully controlled and perverted as the schools. No scientist in Germany could safely deny it when Hitler told the Germans that they were a "Master Race" entitled to the land and possessions of lesser folk. The Italians were told in fake "scientific" terms that Latins were born to rule. The Japanese were taught that as "Sons of Heaven" it was both their right and their duty to conquer and rule the world.
Once their people were sold on the "master race" idea, it was easy for the fascists to make them feel that other people were of no more consequence than vermin. We think nothing of killing a cockroach. They were encouraged to think nothing of killing unarmed and defenseless men, women, and children. Many even got to enjoy it. Hence Rotterdam, Lidice, Maidanek.
By all these devices, fascism creates and then is driven by forces that cannot be stopped at will. Fascism cannot stand still. Its internal and external policies are rooted in aggression. It must expand or explode. It must conquer or perish. Every measure taken by fascism—its entire economic, social, political, and military set-up—means eventual war. The war comes when intimidation and terror fail as instruments of fascist foreign policy. The war comes when other nations finally refuse further to appease the insatiable hunger of fascism for markets, military glory, and world domination.
Can It Happen Here?
Some Americans would give an emphatic "No" to the question "Can fascism come to America after it has been defeated abroad?" They would say that Americans are too smart, that they are sold on the democratic way of life, that they wouldn't permit any group to put fascism over in America. Fascism, some might say, is something peculiar that you find only among people who like swastikas, who like to listen to speeches from balconies in Rome, or who like to think that their emperor is god. Their reaction might be that it is something "foreign" that Americans would recognize in a minute, like the goose-step. They
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