The word fascism is thrown around casually today, but few people understand what it really is. It was originated in Italy in 1919 by Benito Mussolini as a response to what was seen as the decadence of the capitalist west, and the atheistic, communist east. The essence was that the means of production would remain privately owned, as with capitalism, but would be controlled by the state, although not owned by the state as with communism. It was a synthesis of the two. In heavily Catholic Italy, it was endorsed by the populace for its anti-atheist agenda.

During the depression of the 1930s, many prominent Americans were enamored with fascism because of the successes of the Italian public works programs. This included Henry Ford, Charles Lindberg, and many officials within the Roosevelt administration. Germany of course adopted the fascist philosophy and extended it even further with extreme nationalism, which it labeled National Socialism. It was only later when the fascist countries became aggressive abroad that western leaders began to criticize it.

The term fascism comes from the Italian word fascio, meaning a bundle or group, symbolizing unity and strength. A rope, for example, is stronger than the sum of its individual threads, a cable is stronger than its individual wires, and in Mussolini’s terms an army is stronger than its individual soldiers. Much of the west today operates on fascist principles with regard to the economy. Mussolini defined fascism as corporatism "because it is a merger of State and corporate power". No one can deny the power that corporations have achieved in the west since WWII, and there is an affinity between fascism and Keynesian economics which has become the sole monetary policy of the United States for the last 60 years.

Corporations can be extremely beneficial to the people as they are able to secure vast sums of money for huge projects such as telecommunications systems that would be far too large for any individual to attempt to produce. But unchecked corporate power combined with state power is a threat to human liberty. In fact, this is exactly what Mussolini envisioned: "The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone..."

Regardless of any perceived economic benefit, fascism at its core is simply immoral because it relies on unwarranted force to achieve its aims by limiting rightful human liberty. The same is true of course for communism.

So while pundits and talking heads throw out accusations toward politicians as being fascist, they are not wrong, because they almost all are, with very few exceptions. Almost all endorse the power of the state and the corporations they take contributions from. Almost all endorse the Keynesian policy of money creation to solve any problems that may come up, the vast majority of which were created by their past Keynesian/fascist policies. Of course when people hear the word fascist applied to certain politicians, they envision racism and the holocaust, which is the intent of the pundit. But the reality is that almost all elected officials are advocating a fascist economy.

Money creation is the most addictive drug on the planet. If we don't break the addiction soon, it may kill us all. We must collectively reject the power of the state and the power of the corporation. We claim to be a capitalist country but we are not. In order to survive we must reject both communism and fascism and refuse to be fooled with seductive names such as Social Democrat or Mixed Economies which are nothing more than euphemisms for communism or fascism. All restriction of rightful human liberty is immoral and criminal. Period.

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