The Difference Between the Fascists… And the Rest of Us

Why the Impulse to Control Other People’s Lives and Choices Is Sweeping Our Societies

Image Credit: Tim Williams 

You don’t have to look very hard to see it: the old poison of fascism, spreading through the world again. This time, in many variants. There are the religious ones — what Americans call “Christofascism,” sometimes. The political ones, like Trumpism. The ideological ones, with their paranoia about the genocide of the master race. On and on they go. And the question should be asked: what’s all this about? How do we deal with it — not just at the political level, but at the human one, as people?

Let me ask that in a different way. What’s common to all these strains of fascism, racing around the globe?

There’s a certain way to sum up modernity, modern life. It’s often thought of as a cliche. But while some cliches are “thought terminating,” as the internet likes to say, some are…true. Because they’re thought provoking. Timeless. Something like north stars. This one goes like this. Hey, you live however you like. As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone — it doesn’t bother me.

You’ve heard that before. We all have. Now. Take a moment to see just how much threat that basic belief of modernity is really under. It’s what’s really disappearing from our societies. Because the far right, which is the only right remaining, really, has become adept at triggering people into believing they’re under profound, constant, existential threat. Over and over again, it triggers the primal fears — of annihilation, abandonment, of being engulfed. And so our societies, increasingly, are giving up on this simple belief — hey, you live how you want. As long it doesn’t hurt anyone — doesn’t bother me.

All this needs to be — by us thoughtful people — interrogated, examined, reflected on. Because something is very, very wrong here.

Let’s go back to the fundamental principle of modernity. You live how you like — doesn’t bother me. If it doesn’t hurt anyone — go for it. Why is this such a profound, beautiful, wise…not just belief…but attitude, perspective, stance, way to live? Because it encapsulates the values of democracy, and is how we enact them. If and when I say this to you, act this way towards you, what am I really doing? Well, I am bringing many values to life. I am granting you freedom. I am respecting you as an equal. I am offering you dignity. I am saying that truth matters, because you can live yours.

When I take this stance on life, I am enacting the basic values of democracy. It is so, so crucially important for us to really understand and remember all that in times like these. Because more and more people don’t believe any of the above.

Instead, they believe something that, seen through the eyes of modernity, is truly and utterly bizarre. Hey — you. You random stranger, you person that doesn’t have anything do with me, you that I’ve never met before. I don’t think you should be able to live the way you want.

Me? I want to interfere with your life. Think about how genuinely weird it is to really believe that. Here you are, thinking about people that you’ve never met, never going to meet, have nothing to do with you in any way whatsoever — that your role in society is to limit their choices. That’s your job, task, primary responsibility. You’re never going to meet these people — not once, not for an instant — but for some reason, you’ve got to stop them living the way they want. From making their own choices.