The Dangers of Fascism Endure Today
Elio Delgado Legon
HAVANA TIMES – When History repeats itself with all the same mistakes and disastrous consequences, it means that something has gone wrong: education hasn’t fulfilled its purpose in educating following generations and the media hasn’t done one of its main jobs which is to never let history be forgotten.
Everybody knows that today the world is in political and social crisis, as a result of the capitalist system coming to an end, which concentrates more and more wealth in the hands of a select few while the rest of humanity sinks into greater poverty and starvation.
Self-interest in Capitalism doesn’t allow global food production (which could perfectly feed the entire human population on Earth) to resolve the issue of starvation in the world today, as it would rather throw out tons of food than put it to use because this might reduce market prices.
A “fun” fact that illustrates the crisis situation the world is in: with just a fifth of what is spent on arms and weapons to kill, millions of people who die of starvation and of preventable and curable diseases could be saved.
All of the above, from us forgetting history to the current crisis countries are facing today, could lead the world to suffer the consequences of Fascism again.
This explains why political candidates with fascist, xenophobic, discriminatory and racist ideas are receiving alarming levels of popular support at the polls. And I won’t give you examples because my readers are well aware.
Another thing that I have mentioned in a previous article of mine in the appearance of neofascist groups and parties who freely spread their ideology, displaying fascist symbols like the swastika, which most people remember with great sadness, especially those who suffered the Holocaust more firsthand, and the concentration camps that Adolf Hitler set up in Germany when he chased after world domination.
Trying to dominate the world using arms so that people respond to an ideology and a system that is already in crisis is one of the greatest dangers we face today, when every continent is riddled with US military bases, even with nuclear arms deployed and at the ready, which could be the end of humankind.
Let’s teach history in all its rawness and be on the watch out for dangers that we face if we turn a blind eye. Let’s expose the real dangers that ignorance of historic events can lead to with out media, otherwise we will be committing the biggest mistake of all, which can lead us once again (even with a pseudodemocracy in place) to something we thought was a thing of the past: Fascism.
Cuanta razón tiene el Sr. William Jarrell..Cuba califica para lo que es un estado fascista..Un gobierno autoritario con el liderazgo a la personalidad ( los Castros ) y la represión a la desidencia,,caso mas reciente,,el escandaloso espectáculo q hizo la ” diplomacia cubana ” en las Naciones Unidas ,,no hay peor ciego q el q no quiere ver,,
Este periodista cubano debe ser un perro faldero de la dictadura Castro Comunista,,todo lo q escribe es pura mierda,,me da risa lo q escribe,,que su gobierno lucha con uñas y dientes para darle mejor vida a su pueblo..que pueblo?
If you define fascism as an authoritarian government with personality cult leadership and suppression of dissent doesn’t Cuba qualify as a fascist state? I know that the left wing narrative is different from the right wing narrative but the practices are strikingly similar.
The far right is on the rise here in Europe and over there in the Americas.
The Nazi Party scored 33% of the vote in November 1932 which was enough for them to take control in Germany.
We are now witnessing Far-Right European political parties scoring similar percentages. They don’t wear the same weird uniforms and they don’t do the goosestep. Their rhetoric has softened. But their underlying theme is the same: For complex problems they provide simplistic answers which involve laying the blame at some or other minority race or religion. In Austria (the birthplace of Adolf Hitler) the Far Right are in a coalition government with the conservative party – the latest in a litany of collaborations between the Far Right and Right Wing Capitalists.
To continue with Mr P’s vegetable theme:
In the USA president trump is the carrot.
The thugs who basically took over Charlottesville a year ago under the protection of militias armed with assault weapons……
are the stick.
Cuba may not be perfect and Elio’s views are notoriously one sided,
but the rise of Dumbed-Down Right Wing Populism, the Far Right and the Extreme Right is infinitely more disturbing.
Being anti-fascists is easy. Likening current political trends to Hitler and Nazism to make your point is slow-pitch softball. Elio could show some journalistic huevos if he would also tell us how nearly 60 years of Castro dictatorship has contributed to the struggle against Fascism and helped advance democracy around the world. By the way, I resisted eating my brussel sprouts when as a child my mother told me that there were starving children in Africa and Elio’s argument against weapons on behalf of curing diseases fails in the same way. Here’s why: Even as a child I knew that eating my veggies would not help starving kids in Africa. Likewise, building less weapons doesn’t cure disease. Curing diseases ‘cures’ diseases. When the scientists have the cures, the money always follows. Elio’s argument is simply based on the hope that some of those weapons aren’t aimed at Cuba. Nice try.