These current dictators rumbling around and creating more chaos - is personally frightening to me. With our own country, the US, in its current state of chaos. We have our own potential "dictators" - cum fascists: The entire Republican party. Threatening to tamper with Social Security and Medicare. As a medically bankrupt person already - what MORE do they want of my Boomer generation?
Nice job, Ruth, of presenting a terrifying vision of authoritarian overreach. "We had better be prepared," you advise. I am wondering how are we to be prepared? I will answer my question. With the foreknowledge and foresight you provide, we can know in advance the worst that might occur and watch our breath, keeping ourselves in balance, in and out.
Jan 24, 2023·edited Jan 24, 2023Liked by Ruth Ben-Ghiat
When I lived in Sicily in the late 1980s, I knew an elderly tailor who was a veteran of Italy's Ethiopean "adventure." He always referred to Mussolini as "that one with the swollen head," i.e. the egotist ("chiddu cu' u testu grossu"), and remembered little bits of Fascist marching tunes such as "Allungheremo lo stivale fino all'Africa Orientale!" ("We will stretch our boot over East Africa!") At that time, there were still, especially in Sicily, many widows wearing black whose husbands had been lost in the war; many men who still bore scars and wounds both physical and psychological.
Unfortunately, much time has passed and they, like us, have forgotten much. They've just elected their first openly Fascist premier since 1943, and there, as here, the fascists are coming out of the woodwork and becoming mainstream. Once again, the lamps are starting to go out, in Europe and here.
THANK YOU for bringing Jared Yates Sexton on! He's an important voice and his new book is wonderful.
Is the Sexton date a typo in today's announcement? Is it Jan, 29th (this Sunday), not Feb. 29?
("I am also excited to announce an event on Sunday, Feb. 29, 8-9pmET with Jared Yates Sexton. We will bring our newsletter subscribers together to discuss threats to democracy, resistance, and Jared’s new book, Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis. We’ll be taking questions ahead of time for this event. I’ll let you know more about it later in the week.")
"Political scientists call this phenomenon “gambling for resurrection,” and almost all autocrats lose the wager." Gamblers call this "going on tilt" or "steaming". And it seldom turns out well.
Ones vision is narrowed and they lose sight of all but their obsession to getting even.
Having personal knowledge of this state of mind I find it terrifying that these unstable people have access to nuclear weapons.
The question of 'memory' is really worrisome because we see this authoritarian/fascistic rise around the world at the same time those of 'living memory' to the past global horror show--WWII, the Nazis and Holocaust survivors--are dying out.
I suspect that's not a coincidence.
We have history books, of course, memoirs; newsreels; letters; even touchable, seeable forensic evidence but direct oral histories and eyewitness accounts are growing faint. It is, therefore, easier to falsify the details, particularly on social media where information is deliberately distorted, facts skewed and 'alternative' theories bolster wild conspiracy.
In addition to the current crop of despots, I recall the end of Nicolae Ceausescu, who as I remember, gave an ill-fated speech in Bucharest only to be jeered and booed by the crowd. Reportedly, the man was genuinely surprised. After all his violence and beastly decisions against his own people, he was visibly shocked.
Shortly thereafter, Ceausescu and his wife were executed but not before thousands of men, women and children had been slaughtered in an attempt to stem the resistance and ultimate overthrow of the government's iron fist.
It appears to follow a grim pattern: the grandiose visions, the hubris, the paranoia, the opulent life style of the cult leaders, the savagery against resisters.
The endings have a familiar echo as well.
Which is why memory is so important and why what we're seeing now has been seen before. Professor Ruth has certainly provided the historical roadmap from there to here.
On a bright note? We still have a choice. Push back now or lie down to be run over later.
Unfortunately, the most vile factions of society are attracted to leadership positions, due to their grandiose self image. Once in power, they are difficult to remove because many view themselves as demigods and superior to mere political constituents and their opinions. The worst leaders in history also had serious mental aberrations. The lesson for us is to make sure these people never get into leadership positions..... recognize what sociopaths/psychopaths/megalomaniacs act like.
My mother’s cousin was married to a man who had been a personal bodyguard to Mussolini; said cousin met him in South America after the war. I had an opportunity to speak with him a few years ago about the war and Mussolini and it was a very interesting conversation. He was a supporter of M right up until his death. He explained to me that M was a hero, saving Italy from Hitler’s regime. He claimed that M only allied himself with Hitler to prevent Hitler from waging war against Italy. It was amazing to me that after all these years, and so much knowledge about Hitler’s atrocities, he continued to be loyal to him.
As an aside, this gentleman was arrested in Italy and sentenced to death, but he managed to escape to South America, and spent the rest of his life serving as a missionary along with my mom’s cousin.
With all our resources and attention focused on the war in Ukraine, it makes me wonder if Xi is calculating that when deciding when and how to order an attack on Taiwan?
Speaking of feeling threatened and the chaos that can come from it, I’m reminded by this article we’re drowning in doomsday cults here in the US and it seems by design.
Whether it’s religious crazies in Judaism, Christianity or Islam predicting impending apocalypse, Qanon, Bugaloo boys, The I AM cult crazies, the race war crazies, they are all pushing maximum end times or civil war. Seems part of our current global power struggles imo.
There is a fantastic podcast called American PysOp I can’t recommend enough.
Its about left wing figure Wes Clark Jr, son of former head General of NATO command, General Wes Clark. The son of a very powerful man, we get a glimpse into the spycraft-filled world of elite influence, one that must look like what Hunter Biden’s has had to navigate.
It is WILD. While he is obviously patriotic and intelligent, he’s also had a psychotic break, so his reliability is difficult to fully contend with. However a journalist helps clarify noting when they can and cannot corroborate his story. But in any case, it is very clear he was targeted for psychological operations, that were likely the source of his psychotic break, to be manipulated by various global power centers, especially around his advocacy around the Standing Rock protests of 2016. There, Mr Clark was quite literally up against Big Oil and their mercenaries.
It is fascinating! Mr Clark believes there may be some sort of attempt to create the conditions in the US that existed under the TaiPei rebellion 150 years ago. With rising rents, awash in opium after the Opium Wars, and also (American) religious propaganda, that Christianity-based insurrection caused 20 million to die and effectively weakened the Chinese as a global power center.
Ruth, thank you for a helpful historical review. These are dangerous times.
In this excellent Lucid article we referred to Italy’s late Mussolini as fascist, once. Otherwise, the label often used for Mussolini, Chinese President Xi Jingping and Russian President Vladimir Putin was “authoritarian.”
Fairly or unfairly, I cringe when fascists like Xi and Putin, are referred to with Orwellian euphemisms such as authoritarians and strongmen. Not all authoritarians and strongmen are fascists, but all fascists are authoritarians and/or strongmen. Fascist, is a pejorative, well deserved by Xi, Putin and others of their ilk—at home and abroad.
I strongly recommend “Putin Isn’t Just an Autocrat. He is something worse,” by Alexander J. Motyl, Politico (3/14/22.) He’s a professor of political science, Rutgers University-Newark.
Motyl stated: “Putin is the undisputed leader of an authoritarian political system . . . he is a charismatic leader who courts praise from the masses and elites and has constructed a personality cult that features him as a hypermasculine . . .
“Analysts have [avoided] asking just what type of regime has these . . . characteristics . . . preferring to say that Putin’s Russia is . . . merely authoritarian. But there is a word that many historians and political scientists use for an authoritarian state with a charismatic leader who promotes a personality cult . . . FASCISM.” (My emphasis.)
Xi and Putin share arguably similar traits. When deserved/appropriate we ought to call fascist, fascist, to accurately inform the public—especially, as we approach the 2024 general elections—than we are facing fascists that are virtual clones of Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Pinochet, et al.
The American electorate should know that we’re facing a stark choice, either democracy or fascism. Let’s urge the media to overcome denial; we’re also threatened by fascists, White supremacists terrorists,the GOP, that must/should be identified and charged as such. As they say, Justice delayed is justice denied.
Thank you, Ruth, for this opportunity and for doing what you do. Words fail to help me express my gratitude. I find Lucid cathartic; an antidote to despair.
The Earth is dying, but the chronic illness can be reversed; The late Ian McGarg, renowned author, landscape architect and professor, warned humans in 1971, in a lecture entitled: “Man, Planetary Disease.” Healing is long overdue. Anosognosia, denial, is a mayor impediment. Let’s contribute to the healing by unabashedly naming the disease, fascism, which includes plundering the Earth, ecologically and politically.
Ruth, again thank you for a helpful historical review. These are dangerous times.
In this excellent Lucid article we referred to Italy’s late Mussolini as fascist, once. Otherwise, the label often used for Mussolini, Chinese President Xi Jingping and Russian President Vladimir Putin was “authoritarian.”
Fairly or unfairly, I cringe when fascists like Xi and Putin, are referred to with Orwellian euphemisms such as authoritarians and strongmen. Not all authoritarians and strongmen are fascists, but all fascists are authoritarians and/or strongmen. Fascist, is a pejorative, well deserved by Xi, Putin and others of their ilk—at home and abroad.
These current dictators rumbling around and creating more chaos - is personally frightening to me. With our own country, the US, in its current state of chaos. We have our own potential "dictators" - cum fascists: The entire Republican party. Threatening to tamper with Social Security and Medicare. As a medically bankrupt person already - what MORE do they want of my Boomer generation?
Nice job, Ruth, of presenting a terrifying vision of authoritarian overreach. "We had better be prepared," you advise. I am wondering how are we to be prepared? I will answer my question. With the foreknowledge and foresight you provide, we can know in advance the worst that might occur and watch our breath, keeping ourselves in balance, in and out.
When I lived in Sicily in the late 1980s, I knew an elderly tailor who was a veteran of Italy's Ethiopean "adventure." He always referred to Mussolini as "that one with the swollen head," i.e. the egotist ("chiddu cu' u testu grossu"), and remembered little bits of Fascist marching tunes such as "Allungheremo lo stivale fino all'Africa Orientale!" ("We will stretch our boot over East Africa!") At that time, there were still, especially in Sicily, many widows wearing black whose husbands had been lost in the war; many men who still bore scars and wounds both physical and psychological.
Unfortunately, much time has passed and they, like us, have forgotten much. They've just elected their first openly Fascist premier since 1943, and there, as here, the fascists are coming out of the woodwork and becoming mainstream. Once again, the lamps are starting to go out, in Europe and here.
THANK YOU for bringing Jared Yates Sexton on! He's an important voice and his new book is wonderful.
Is the Sexton date a typo in today's announcement? Is it Jan, 29th (this Sunday), not Feb. 29?
("I am also excited to announce an event on Sunday, Feb. 29, 8-9pmET with Jared Yates Sexton. We will bring our newsletter subscribers together to discuss threats to democracy, resistance, and Jared’s new book, Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis. We’ll be taking questions ahead of time for this event. I’ll let you know more about it later in the week.")
"Political scientists call this phenomenon “gambling for resurrection,” and almost all autocrats lose the wager." Gamblers call this "going on tilt" or "steaming". And it seldom turns out well.
Ones vision is narrowed and they lose sight of all but their obsession to getting even.
Having personal knowledge of this state of mind I find it terrifying that these unstable people have access to nuclear weapons.
The question of 'memory' is really worrisome because we see this authoritarian/fascistic rise around the world at the same time those of 'living memory' to the past global horror show--WWII, the Nazis and Holocaust survivors--are dying out.
I suspect that's not a coincidence.
We have history books, of course, memoirs; newsreels; letters; even touchable, seeable forensic evidence but direct oral histories and eyewitness accounts are growing faint. It is, therefore, easier to falsify the details, particularly on social media where information is deliberately distorted, facts skewed and 'alternative' theories bolster wild conspiracy.
In addition to the current crop of despots, I recall the end of Nicolae Ceausescu, who as I remember, gave an ill-fated speech in Bucharest only to be jeered and booed by the crowd. Reportedly, the man was genuinely surprised. After all his violence and beastly decisions against his own people, he was visibly shocked.
Shortly thereafter, Ceausescu and his wife were executed but not before thousands of men, women and children had been slaughtered in an attempt to stem the resistance and ultimate overthrow of the government's iron fist.
It appears to follow a grim pattern: the grandiose visions, the hubris, the paranoia, the opulent life style of the cult leaders, the savagery against resisters.
The endings have a familiar echo as well.
Which is why memory is so important and why what we're seeing now has been seen before. Professor Ruth has certainly provided the historical roadmap from there to here.
On a bright note? We still have a choice. Push back now or lie down to be run over later.
Warning, warning: Another authoritarian-to-be is obviously Trump's "Gambling For Resurrection" who plans for a 2024 win. A young acolyte, Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer of Tulsa, Oklahoma is organizing "Pastors for Trump" and has - apparently - received a big THANK YOU from Trump himself. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/jackson-lahmeyer-christian-nationalist-conspiracy-theorist-pastors-for-trump-1234649049/
Unfortunately, the most vile factions of society are attracted to leadership positions, due to their grandiose self image. Once in power, they are difficult to remove because many view themselves as demigods and superior to mere political constituents and their opinions. The worst leaders in history also had serious mental aberrations. The lesson for us is to make sure these people never get into leadership positions..... recognize what sociopaths/psychopaths/megalomaniacs act like.
My mother’s cousin was married to a man who had been a personal bodyguard to Mussolini; said cousin met him in South America after the war. I had an opportunity to speak with him a few years ago about the war and Mussolini and it was a very interesting conversation. He was a supporter of M right up until his death. He explained to me that M was a hero, saving Italy from Hitler’s regime. He claimed that M only allied himself with Hitler to prevent Hitler from waging war against Italy. It was amazing to me that after all these years, and so much knowledge about Hitler’s atrocities, he continued to be loyal to him.
As an aside, this gentleman was arrested in Italy and sentenced to death, but he managed to escape to South America, and spent the rest of his life serving as a missionary along with my mom’s cousin.
Thank you!
With all our resources and attention focused on the war in Ukraine, it makes me wonder if Xi is calculating that when deciding when and how to order an attack on Taiwan?
Scary!
Speaking of feeling threatened and the chaos that can come from it, I’m reminded by this article we’re drowning in doomsday cults here in the US and it seems by design.
Whether it’s religious crazies in Judaism, Christianity or Islam predicting impending apocalypse, Qanon, Bugaloo boys, The I AM cult crazies, the race war crazies, they are all pushing maximum end times or civil war. Seems part of our current global power struggles imo.
There is a fantastic podcast called American PysOp I can’t recommend enough.
https://twitter.com/American_Psyop/status/1612968074009006081
Its about left wing figure Wes Clark Jr, son of former head General of NATO command, General Wes Clark. The son of a very powerful man, we get a glimpse into the spycraft-filled world of elite influence, one that must look like what Hunter Biden’s has had to navigate.
It is WILD. While he is obviously patriotic and intelligent, he’s also had a psychotic break, so his reliability is difficult to fully contend with. However a journalist helps clarify noting when they can and cannot corroborate his story. But in any case, it is very clear he was targeted for psychological operations, that were likely the source of his psychotic break, to be manipulated by various global power centers, especially around his advocacy around the Standing Rock protests of 2016. There, Mr Clark was quite literally up against Big Oil and their mercenaries.
It is fascinating! Mr Clark believes there may be some sort of attempt to create the conditions in the US that existed under the TaiPei rebellion 150 years ago. With rising rents, awash in opium after the Opium Wars, and also (American) religious propaganda, that Christianity-based insurrection caused 20 million to die and effectively weakened the Chinese as a global power center.
Every day ask yourself, 'what can I do today to raise awareness and gently influence?'
Ruth, thank you for a helpful historical review. These are dangerous times.
In this excellent Lucid article we referred to Italy’s late Mussolini as fascist, once. Otherwise, the label often used for Mussolini, Chinese President Xi Jingping and Russian President Vladimir Putin was “authoritarian.”
Fairly or unfairly, I cringe when fascists like Xi and Putin, are referred to with Orwellian euphemisms such as authoritarians and strongmen. Not all authoritarians and strongmen are fascists, but all fascists are authoritarians and/or strongmen. Fascist, is a pejorative, well deserved by Xi, Putin and others of their ilk—at home and abroad.
I strongly recommend “Putin Isn’t Just an Autocrat. He is something worse,” by Alexander J. Motyl, Politico (3/14/22.) He’s a professor of political science, Rutgers University-Newark.
Motyl stated: “Putin is the undisputed leader of an authoritarian political system . . . he is a charismatic leader who courts praise from the masses and elites and has constructed a personality cult that features him as a hypermasculine . . .
“Analysts have [avoided] asking just what type of regime has these . . . characteristics . . . preferring to say that Putin’s Russia is . . . merely authoritarian. But there is a word that many historians and political scientists use for an authoritarian state with a charismatic leader who promotes a personality cult . . . FASCISM.” (My emphasis.)
Xi and Putin share arguably similar traits. When deserved/appropriate we ought to call fascist, fascist, to accurately inform the public—especially, as we approach the 2024 general elections—than we are facing fascists that are virtual clones of Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Pinochet, et al.
The American electorate should know that we’re facing a stark choice, either democracy or fascism. Let’s urge the media to overcome denial; we’re also threatened by fascists, White supremacists terrorists,the GOP, that must/should be identified and charged as such. As they say, Justice delayed is justice denied.
Thank you, Ruth, for this opportunity and for doing what you do. Words fail to help me express my gratitude. I find Lucid cathartic; an antidote to despair.
The Earth is dying, but the chronic illness can be reversed; The late Ian McGarg, renowned author, landscape architect and professor, warned humans in 1971, in a lecture entitled: “Man, Planetary Disease.” Healing is long overdue. Anosognosia, denial, is a mayor impediment. Let’s contribute to the healing by unabashedly naming the disease, fascism, which includes plundering the Earth, ecologically and politically.
Robert Leyland Monefeldt
Thank you
Ruth, again thank you for a helpful historical review. These are dangerous times.
In this excellent Lucid article we referred to Italy’s late Mussolini as fascist, once. Otherwise, the label often used for Mussolini, Chinese President Xi Jingping and Russian President Vladimir Putin was “authoritarian.”
Fairly or unfairly, I cringe when fascists like Xi and Putin, are referred to with Orwellian euphemisms such as authoritarians and strongmen. Not all authoritarians and strongmen are fascists, but all fascists are authoritarians and/or strongmen. Fascist, is a pejorative, well deserved by Xi, Putin and others of their ilk—at home and abroad.