Norman Mailer on Fascism/Neoconservatism

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1. Tyler Nixon says:

   August 18, 2007 at 6:14 pm

   Mailer says : “I’ve always felt that fascism is a more natural governmental condition than democracy…fascism goes back to our infancy, in our childhood, where we were always told how to live. We were told : ‘do this, don’t do that’.”

   It is funny how Mailer talks about the “right wing” but really describes the type of governmental nanny state more typical of the “left” with its big government proclivities.

   Really, I believe that these left/right contrasts are a bunch of pseudo-spatial hokum that only serve to artificially divide people who should otherwise be working in communion (e.g. arguments and accusations from left to right, right to left, all leading to nowhere but division over division).

   Totalitarianism is what Mailer should have been talking about, rather than “fascism”. Both the so-called ‘left’ and ‘right’ have their own nasty versions of totalitarianism.

   Whether national socialism, communism, fascism…they are all basically anti-democratic despotism. They should be stamped out wherever their ugly head rears itself.

   It isn’t helping to act as though it comes from the far reaches of only one ideological ‘wing’. It rises from the left and the right just the same, which really means it rises from neither. It is simply it’s own nasty element of human nature, a la Hobbes’ leviathan.

2. jason330 says:

   August 18, 2007 at 9:05 pm

   Good points – except I think Mailer’s comments are excused by the fact that right now we are more endangered by creeping fascism than we are by creeping socialism.

   Mailer and Vonnegut represent a generation of American who are now who are passing away. They fought fascism in their youth only to see it return in their old age.

3. oedipa maas says:

   August 19, 2007 at 1:42 pm

   The hero of one of the great political dystopian novels has this to say about the arrival of fascism in America — “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” This is from It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, written in the 1930’s. Given the past 6 years, this is looking awfully prescient.

   One thing I am sure of is that Normal Mailer knows how to select his words and it is clear that he used fascist with some precision. Dismissing Mailer’s commentary with a pox on both of their houses argument avoids dealing with the very real fact that the modern conservative movement readily includes, provides a seat at the table for and makes part of their messaging people and organizations that have real fascist tendencies. Even these guys saw fit to sound a warning about it.

   The nationalism, the militarism, the authoritarian religiosity coupled with the need to see everyone who does not share the ideology as an enemy are the signatures of this part of the conservative coalition. These are the people who are on the spear tip of rationalizing away the need to give the government more power, the need to expand government in order to make them feel safe.

   You can hear it all over conservative radio and Fox news(O’Reilly telling Americans that it wold be OK for AQ to take out San Fransisco?). And this passes muster (and makes alot of money to boot) as real repub political conversation. They embrace the Stormfronts, the KKK, the CCC, and anyone who advocates the killing of liberals (Ann Coulter?)

   Of course you can find some unknown Democrat or someone who says that they support Dems spouting off some craziness, but the outliers don’t get the audience or the influence that they do in the conservative movement.