The Iraq war's critics have long charged that numerous and severe shortcomings in the Bush administration's actions were simply met with the unending rationalization of what many see as blatant and tragic errors. Two often-cited examples of this are the administration's claims regarding Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction, and Iraq's alleged link to the attacks of September 11, 2001.

"The best way to tie these things together might be through what Fromm calls 'irrational authority'", said Burston, adding that "people have a need to believe". He continued, observing that a majority of Americans mistakenly believing Saddam Hussein was involved in September 11 can be seen as "an example of people succumbing to the blandishments, or the temptations of belief", believing in the kind of authority "which routinely resorts to violence, deception and secrecy to achieve its ends", termed irrational authority. And he noted how such misconceptions are aided.

"Crowds can be persuaded through specific formulas that involve frequent repetitions, in an authoritative tone, by someone who is considered authoritative. And for many people, this works - it just works," Burston revealed. Paralleling that, in an autumn 2003 interview with this journalist, Ray McGovern - a former 27-year Central Intelligence Agency analyst who had regularly briefed the White House - had similarly said that Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels "was good, and his dictum about say it five times and people will believe it, turns out, unfortunately, to be true".

On June 24, Reuters reported that former US vice president Al Gore charged that "very soon after [September 11], President Bush made a decision to start mentioning Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the same breath in a cynical mantra designed to fuse them together as one in the public's mind." Gore was also reported as charging that the administration worked "with a network of 'rapid response' digital brownshirts" (brownshirts were German political thugs of the Adolf Hitler era) to pressure "reporters and their editors" into refraining from critical news coverage.

Citing his book on Laing's work, The Crucible of Experience, Burston highlighted that Laing believed most people develop a form of "pseudo-sanity", doing so as a function of the emotional imperative of adapting to "pseudo-realities". The upshot is that they live within a "social phantasy system" of varying degrees.

The described result for the individual is a proportionate loss of the ability to think critically, as well as limited ability to consider anyone or anything outside one's particular group, especially in a positive light.

"People who are deeply embedded within social-phantasy systems like these function effectively within the framework of those groups. But their sense of reality regarding the world outside of their reference group is profoundly impoverished as a consequence," Burston outlined. "That makes them act in ways which - from an outsiders perspective - look insane."

Burston sees the contemporary result as growing "opportunities for people who have a hidden agenda to take advantage of the public trust. And that seems to be increasing dramatically."

Sixty-three years ago, Fromm had said: "There is no greater mistake and no graver danger than not to see that in our own society [the US] we are faced with the same phenomenon that is fertile soil for the rise of fascism anywhere."

And noted political scientist Dr Michael Parenti told Asia Times Online that he agrees. Parenti - who received his PhD in political science from Yale and is the award-winning author of 18 books - noted that "there's a concern that we're tending towards fascism, or we're replicating fascism today". The way in which fascism is defined is key.

Parenti sees fascism as a tool employed by ruthless power elites to achieve their ends. "And what they've learned in the more than 80 years since its [fascism's] origin is that they can achieve many of these things - more securely perhaps - while retaining a democratic veneer.

"The essence of fascism, I believe, is in its output. And its output is a system which systematically redistributes wealth from the many to the few, and ensures the domination of giant cartels over the whole political economy," Parenti said. By eliminating the traditional fascist symbolism and mannerisms, by putting white gloves on it, if you will, Parenti sees the use of "plain old Americanism" as the "cloak around which people will rally and give the president these extraordinary powers, and surrender their own liberty and the like".


http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0709-09.htm