NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6180

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From: [e-mail] (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: BOOK REVIEW: _Friendly Fascism_
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Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 20:08:49 GMT
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    "If we made an income pyramid out of a child's blocks, with each
    layer portraying $1000 of income, the peak would be higher than
    the Eiffel Tower, but almost all of us would be within a yard of
    the ground."


You might be interested in the following book review, Harel.  If
you can use it, be my guest.
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\        /  [e-mail]     M O N T R E A L     Te souviens-tu?
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F R I E N D L Y   F A S C I S M                         Friendly Fascism

subtitle "The New Face of Power in America," by Bertram Gross (1912-  ),
387 pages plus notes and index, copyright 1980.  Montreal:  Black Rose
Books--first Canadian edition (1985, $20) includes 1982 preface to the
paperback edition           --Dale Wharton, Montreal <[e-mail]>

IN NOVEMBER 1991 I attended the Sixth (my first) Annual General Meeting
of the Council of Canadians.  It took place in the National Arts Centre,
Ottawa.  Folks came from the prairies, lakehead, maritimes--all over.
Gordon Yearsley of Little Britain ON showed me this extraordinary book.

Author Bertram Gross worked as an insider.  He taught political science
at Hunter College, CUNY, and served as executive secretary of President
Truman's Council of Economic Advisors.  In this latest major book he
seems resolved to tell all, tell it straight, set down the insights--and
some of the errors--of a career.  He acknowledges dozens of students and
colleagues.  The notes cite sources and quotations by the hundred.

Fascism began 73 years ago in Milan; after Italy came Germany, Japan,
and Spain.  It supplanted loose working arrangements that jelled during
world war 1.  Manufacturing and finance had drawn closer. Industrialists
--alongside government officials in wartime agencies--saw firsthand the
beauties of economic planning and cooperation.  Unlike communists, the
fascists--while uncouth--did not menace the survival of old structures.

In seeking the gist of fascism Gross skips the optional extras:  the
single charismatic leader, the one-party dictatorship, rigid censorship,
regimentation of industry/commerce/finance, etc.  What remains is big
government in alliance with big business--right-wing authoritarianism.

World war 2 broke the great depression of 1929-39.  Would hard times
return with peace?  Global events alarmed the West:  1945 Ho Chi Minh,
1947 Gandhi, 1949 Mao Tsetung, etc.  America's economy grew problematic,
as well.  The US responded vigorously, with a "remarkably flexible--even
to the point of sharp internal conflicts--structure of business-
government partnership."  It saw that without reforms, only federal
spending could fend off another crisis.  But heavy spending on welfare
and public works might actually alter the economy:  shift demands among
industries, create new channels and institutions (remember TVA?), even
redistribute income.  On the other hand, an arms buildup as industrial
policy could rally the economy with little risk of change to structures!

    [I.e., with little risk of enhancing the welfare or and
    democratically empowering the majority... --HB]

Some transnationals evolved into conglomerates.  Components spread to
different sectors and might cluster to foster oligarchic cooperation.
In finance--a lead sector in the expanding golden international--a
constellation of banks would be called a "consortium" or "group."  A
cluster might embed its activities in networks or complexes of research
institutes, foundations, law and accounting firms, etc.  One example is
the automobile-highway-petroleum-trucking complex.  With a boost from
President Eisenhower's Highway Trust Fund, this complex helped to
promote suburban growth...and to undermine mass transit in the cities.

Who are the individuals who run this political contraption, those who
constitute the US Establishment?  Gross sketches a ziggurat:  a terraced
pyramid of power.  At the peak dwell the ultrarich, near their corporate
overseers (most of them unknown to the public) and chief executive
network, including a righteous White House.  These provide strategic
guidance.  (A Canadian organization, initials BCNI, springs to mind.)

Some of their valets--lawyers and accountants--have lifted tax avoidance
to high art. "Like an old-fashioned lady's hoop skirt, the corporation's
annual statement conceals far more than it reveals and directly touches
no sensitive parts.... (Some) political contributions never appear...."

Economist Paul Samuelson: "If we made an income pyramid out of a child's
blocks, with each layer portraying $1000 of income, the peak would be
higher than the Eiffel Tower, but almost all of us would be within a
yard of the ground."  The book gets graphic.  Charts portray the Three
Worlds and trace five phases of policymaking. Tables show who goes where
to school...the apex's apex...riot control phasing...corporate crime....

Obstacles to a sudden pounce would likely cause friendly fascism to
creep in on little cat feet.  Inertia, the US Constitution, rifts among
the great ones, all combine to require subtlety in its relentless logic.
A thrust at one level may be followed by a pause or temporary retreat at
another level.  Superficial reforms might flow from publicized episodes
of repression (as at Kent State, Jackson State, Attica, Pine Ridge...).



In manipulating information, we see a departure from classic fascism.
Then it was ceaseless propaganda, backed by spies and informers, to bind
elite support and to mobilize masses--often using the new technology of
radio. The friendly way is with monitoring (opinion polls, focus groups)
and ad hoc communications aimed at passive acquiescence.  Faceless
oligarchs manage the minds of elites via learned journals, the business
press, and educational programs.  They mystify and immobilize the masses
via the hypnotic use of electronic media, mainly television.

The book expresses sympathy for civic enforcers, a lowly station in the
established order. They must contend with larceny, burglary, and robbery
--forms of self-employment that vary inversely with available jobs.
"Police susceptibility to graft is closely connected with morale
breakdowns created by 'war against crime' rhetoric.... The defeated foot
soldiers in this phony war are hemmed in between a criminal-justice
system which is corrupt or inefficient, radicals who brand them as pigs
or fascists, and intellectuals who see them as incompetent or stupid."

Gross offers faint hope of averting neofascism.  He does prescribe
raising aspirations:  setting forth clear lofty goals, broad enough to
embrace a great majority.  But expectations?  He calls for realism--to
reduce frustration and apathetic withdrawal.  Gross asserts that help
from insiders is both essential and available:  "...many co-optees will
change colors again. ...bubbling upward from all levels (of the
Establishment are longings) for fulfilling employment disconnected from
consumer exploitation, environment degradation, or militarism."      ###