Wisdom worth sharing, words worth remembering.
Until democracy in effective enthusiastic action fills the vacuum created by the power of modern inventions we may expect the fascists to increase in power after the war both in the United States and in the world.
Fascism is a worldwide disease. Its greatest threat to the United States will come after the war either via Latin America or within the United States itself.
The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity every crack in the common front against fascism.
If we put our trust in the common sense of common men and 'with malice toward none and charity for all' go forward on the great adventure of making political economic and social democracy a practical reality we shall not fail.
What we must understand is that the industries processes and inventions created by modern science can be used either to subjugate or liberate. The choice is up to us.
The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power.
Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.
They are patriotic in time of war because it is to their interest to be so but in time of peace they follow power and the dollar wherever they may lead.
If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States.
There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful.
A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races parties classes religions cultures regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends.
Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends.
