When WW2 ended, I was 10 years old, naive, uninformed, and impressionable. I celebrated the end of the war as well as finding a relief in the fact that the creation of an Israel gave the Jewish people a safe homeland. The fact that they were taking the land from the Palestinians never entered my mind.
It was a time when the people of this country mobilized to fight against fascism and Hitler’s Naziism. I say the people mobilized, not necessarily our government nor the leaders of our business world. While Americans were fighting in Europe, several business leaders continued to do business with Germany, supporting them financially as well as with much needed supplies needed for their invasion of other countries. My feeling is that if not for Hitler’s arbitrary invasion of other countries and Roosevelt’s friendship with the well-known racist and white supremicist Winston Churchill, the US could very well have assumed a supportive stance for fascism.
It was the Soviet Union and communism that was the main concern of the capitalist class, not fascism.
As I got older and more knowledgeable, I began to realize that capitalism and the capitalists were very comfortable with fascism, that capitalism cannot be reformed and must be eliminated, that Israel had no right to form a Jewish state and brutally remove the Palestinian people from their own homeland, and that Zionism was a disease that had to be neutralized.
Why can’t capitalism be reformed? There exists a hierarchy that is built into this system where there are queen bees and worker bees, the haves and the have nots. Therefore, there can only be bosses and workers which ensures the existence of a class struggle, one that clearly favors the elites over the workers. That is inherent to the structure of capitalism, allowing the elite class to always have the power and means to control the lives of the workers. That truth will exist no matter how many reforms are put in place.
There are times where the capitalists agree to concede to the working class demands for reform but there is no change in how we live our lives. The elite live lives of luxury while the workers struggle to pay their rent… that is if the worker is fortunate enough to have a place he can rent.
The truth of the matter is, fascism offers no threat to the capitalist because it, as a system, reinforces the hierarchical structure that dominates capitalism. It is communism and socialism, systems that empower the people and neutralizes class dominance and subservience, that threaten the capitalist class.
We in the US have been taught that we live in a democracy, one that allows us to spread our wings and work towards realizing the “American Dream,” a dream where anyone of us can become rich and join the elite, powerful people of this country. We too can then live a life of luxury and influence where we can afford to buy politicians who will protect us and the privileges bestowed on us. But, we, the people, are told that we control the political life of this country. Periodically, we have the opportunity to vote in candidates for office of our choosing. Really?
We have a two-party system that automatically limits our choices. Both parties work hard to eliminate any threat to their power by ensuring that it is almost impossible for a candidate that is independent to get his or her name on the ballot. Our vote must go to either a Democrat or a Republican, both, by the way, chosen to run for office by the elites with their wealth and power over the political process. So, in reality, or choices are reduced to selecting one of the two candidates obligated to the ruling class and will ensure to maintain the status quo and keep the working class subservient. This is our democracy.
Democracy and capitalism are antithetical, you cannot have both at the same time. Just as an extra piece of information, the “framers” ensured that there were controls on the influence of the masses by neutralizing their votes in presidential elections. This was accomplished by forming the electoral college, a system that can override the popular vote of the people. See the election of 2016 where Hillary Clinton garnered close to 3 million more votes than Donald Trump and still lost the election. This is not the first time this has happened.
Until we realize that capitalism, by its nature, is anti-democracy and anti-working class, there will be no meaningful change in our lives. Capitalism kills. It is instrumental in the poisoning of our water and air, the dangers to our existence due to climate change, the need for continuous wars in their desire for world dominance, the need to maintain a poverty class to ensure cheap labor, etc.
WAKE UP, WORLD, THE CLOCK IS TICKING AS WE SPIRAL TO EXTINCTION.
Dave Alpert has master’s degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner-city adolescents.
Fascism and Captitalism are two sides of the same coin. You have an elite controlling group and the proletariat. Both systems strive for power and control. Look at politicans from both sides; left and right. You have the Trumps on the right and say Hillary and Bill on the left. Both live extravagant lifestyles and are controlled and financed by special interests who benefit no matter who wins.
From an intellectual point of view they are polar opposites; one representing Main Street and the other Wall Street. The reality is that Wall Street funds both sides. That is reality and that is the human condition.
The elites always win and the little guy always loses.