Monday, September 10, 2018
When Lawrence Britt coined the "14 Characteristics of Fascism" in the Spring 2003 Issue of "Free Inquiry" magazine, these two stood out from a recent experience:
Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.
Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
Academic Conference Story
In the seventy-third year of empire, American's heavy military drain on manufacturing has taken its toll on the American economy. With the steel industry under assault in the sixties, autos in the seventies, unions in the eighties, the end of the Cold War gave a peace dividend to the tech industry nineties. Then new wars and uncontrolled derivatives gave us the Great Recession. Now America's last premier industry, higher education, is showing strains. In a conference in Europe, 90% of the panelists were male. And of the four women, three were master's students. Then cronyism and chauvinism teamed up against the one full professor woman. She was told not to respond to one question and also a colleague with hand raised from the start was deliberately passed over trying to ask a question. She asked about this afterwards and was told "You got your fifteen minutes." She was later called a cry baby. One of the other cronies kept trying to force a young woman grad student to say something positive about Trump's attacks of Amazon, when it was completely unwarranted. The woman professor and her colleague were later singled out as outstanding presentations of the conference by a friendly old timer in a wrap up session. These are examples of the persistent sexism and cronyism in today's academic institutions. Good new ideas are often greeted with cynicism by the cronies.
Best Countries for Women
US News and World Report ranked the best countries for women in 2014. Five of the G7 countries were in the top 16, all five in perfect inverse order of their military spending as a percent of the economy in 2005. Canada was 6th best for women with 1.1% military economy, followed by Germany 10th with 1.5%, United Kingdom 13th with 2.4%, France 14th with 2.6%, and last the United States 16th with 4.1%. The Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands were in the top five, and Switzerland Australia and New Zealand were between Germany and Canada in the top 10. The top seven were all cold or Northern countries, while Australia and New Zealand are both close to the South Pole.
Women in National Legislatures
Those same top five of the G7 countries for women had above world average women in legislature percentages except for the high military United States which had 19% in 2010, below the world average of 23%. The two most humbled countries that had lost a war in the forties and been occupied, had the highest percentage of women in the legislature, France 39% and Germany 37%. The three former British Empire countries had the lowest percent of women in the legislature, Britain 32%, Canada 26%, and United States 19%. Australia was between Britain and Canada at 29%, and Britain was more like the other European countries.
Arrogance of Empire
Whether you call it empire, fascism, militarism or misogyny, these terms tend to travel together and promote sexism. What ever it is, it tends to make things stagnant and backwards, kind of like the militarism, inequality, and scientific backwardness of the medieval and feudal ages. Please note in the above statistics the pattern of militarism adversely impacting women. Also note the sexism cronyism and corruption of the current American President Trump.
First two pages were my presentation handouts at the empire conference mentioned above:
https://www.academia.edu/36620474/Good_Concepts_May_2018_Update_Ten_Pages
Please cite this work as follows:
Reuschlein, Robert. (2018, September 10), "Misogyny Militarism Empire", Madison, WI: Real Economy Institute. Retrieved from: https://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/Misogyny-Militarism-Empire,2018161729.aspx
Dr. Peace, Professor Robert Reuschlein, Real Economy Institute
Nominated Vetted for 2016, Given Odds for 2017 Nobel Peace Prize
Possible Favorite in 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Announced October 5th.
Contact: bobreuschlein@gmail.com, Info: www.realeconomy.com