Fascist Alert!

Of all the baleful political forces on this planet - Islamism, communism, etc. - one makes me worry far more than all the others combined. That one is fascism. It worries so much because it's so resilient; humanity's natural tendence to turn to dictators in times of crisis will never go away.

61 years ago, World War 2 ended. That massive orgy of destruction, willfully brought on by fascist countries, convinced much of the world that the fascist impulse was badly misguided. Fascism was thrown away in favor of democracy and (for a while) communism. But nearly everyone who remembers World War 2 is now dead, and so the lessons learned there are being forgotten. Inevitably, the dark tide of fascism is creeping once more across our world.

Here's your quick Noahpinion Guide to the sources of modern fascism:

1. Islamofascism. With an ideology that opposes education, executes people for their religious beliefs, enslaves women with unparalleled viciousness, and condones absolute power for the clergy, the modern jihadist/Islamist movement must be seen as one of the principal sources of fascism in the world today. Iran, already part of this trend, is becoming increasingly hardline, while other countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh are teetering on the brink. Worse, significant minorities of the global Islamic community are signing on to the Islamofascist cause (and "significant minority" sounds scary if they have weapons). American conservatives have correctly identified the global jihadist ideology as fascist, and liberals are fortunately starting to do the same.

2. American neoconservatives. One must only read this editorial by Charles Krauthammer to realize the extent to which the American neoconservative (i.e. foreign-policy conservative) movement has embraced fascism. Krauthammer argues that it is perfectly natural to remove all checks on executive power during a time of war. He then argues that the "War on Terror" has no definite ending, given the shadowy and free-roaming nature of our opponents. Thus, he is arguing that America must now become a permanent dictatorship (dictionary.com defines "dictator" as "a ruler who is unconstrained by law"). This is a plain and simple argument for fascism. Unfortunately, Krauthammer's viewpoint is echoed by many mainstream conservatives. The U.S. is not yet a fascist country by any means, but major political forces are, for the first time in recent decades, trying to push us in that general direction.

3. China and Russia. The world's other two major powers are either fascist already or trending that way. China, of course, long ago replaced communism with a nationalist/corporatist ideology in which the perpetually ruling Party and companies are intertwined. That nation is one of the world's most authoritarian, and responsible for many human rights abuses (such as killing people and selling their organs). As for Russia, Vladimir Putin has already swept away most of that country's democracy, replacing it with a repressive regime based on censorship and government intimidation. In both of these cases, "security" and "stability" are given as the reasons that the populace allows fascism to continue.

4. Rogue states. North Korea, Burma, and Sudan, fascist countries for many years, are taking advantage of U.S. weakness (caused by the Iraq quagmire and spiralling deficits) to assert their power on the national stage. These are the worst fascist regimes. North Korea tests chemical weapons on people in concentration camps, and forces people to burn their own relatives at the stake. Sudan and Burma wage massive campaigns of ethnic genocide inside their own borders. Unfortunately, occupied with Islamofascism, neoconservative fascism, and the emerging China/Russia fascist bloc, liberal forces in the West have not done a lot about these states.

The news from around the world is therefore almost uniformly bad. With the World War 2 generation out of the picture, people worldwide are once again beginning to turn to unchecked leaders and oppression of minority groups as guarantors of security. Tragically, this will backfire, since fascism nearly always destroys more security than it creates. This is why liberalism - defined in its broadest sense, as a philosophy that governments should obey the law and respect human rights - must redouble its efforts to stem this rising tide.

There is no more important political task in the world today.