In communist systems there is, whenever possible, great care to pretend to follow legality. There is also great care to make things appear as the expression of the majority of people. An ever growing majority, of course. The leadership maybe be filthy rich with dachas and all, but they tend to be discreet about it. The leadership also, whenever possible, brags of a certain educational level, an ideological formation according to "accredited" venues. When violence is exerted it is in the name of the people, of the state, not of the party, unless necessary. This is of course a very rough approach.
In fascistic systems legality may or may not be followed. It is optional. The word of a great leader is enough. If a majority appearance is preferable, belonging to the caste is far more important. In fact, the caste is there for the benefit of the people. The leadership maybe very rich but claims it is poor even if all appearances are to the contrary. For example, Chavez claimed that he only got his paycheck and he did not even know the amount. He did not know where his fancy tailored suites came from. In short fascist leaders have nothing, just what the people gives them for their work. Education in the leadership is irrelevant: the main and almost sole criteria for promotion is loyalty to a great leader. Between two equally sycophantic characters the educational level may or may not make a difference. And when violence is exerted, it can be exerted just for the sake of it.
This week we observed some truly fascist scenes.
The press conference of two dissenting members of chavismo, both long time ministers of Chavez, was interrupted by a violent mob because they betrayed chavismo, allegedly. The guards around did not intervene to protect them from the mob. Had it been a communist action it would have been better prepared, making sure that the accusations of betrayal included not only the party and leadership. That action was, in my book, fascist.
Since the National Assembly is lost, and by an extraordinarily wide margin, the regime simply is trying to move on by creating a parallel structure, a comunal assembly which is, well, appointed by the regime. In a communist system the National Assembly would have been voided outright BEFORE the election while the outgoing assembly reviewed the legality of the new communal assembly. In fascist system, as the Venezuelan regime has become, there is no care for legality, lip service at best, and the communal assembly is installed just because Diosdado Cabello wanted it so. It is not idle to remember that one of the most fascist acts in Cabello's history was to block access to the National Assembly during debate. Thus a group of people could go inside and break the faces of a few opposition representatives. Communism is kinder; it simply would not allow them to enter the assembly from the start. Or arrest them at home. It is much preferable in a communist system that the blood shed is as discreet as possible, no matter how copious that one may be. The people are kind, you know. In the last stages it is fascism that is kinder as it lets you die.
Even in the argumentation that the regime is clumsily advancing to void the election of the new Assembly we can detect differences.
In a communist regime great care would have been met in tying all ends to avoid a victory of the opposition. Certainly the electoral board CNE tried it so. But communism is not arrogant, just deeply self righteous. Since fascism is arrogant then there was no need for the regime to go beyond what was done in previous elections to rig them. They simply disregarded polls thinking that their pressure mechanisms would work as usual. Alas, it did not work. In its response a communist regime that would have been caught by such a mesure, like it happened in Poland, would try to remain coherent in its response, even if that response was useless in the end. See, contradicting what you said before is something that communism does not like to do, there is an ideology to follow closely at all time. But fascism has no problem to call something blue today that they called yellow yesterday. And thus we have the creator of the current CNE structure treachery apparatus, Jorge Rodriguez, sounding as if he were going to sue the CNE itself!
Amen of the outright lies. A good one was that people were misled into voting against the regime by the opposition controlled media (where? which ones?). Even in their outright lies it reeks more of fascism than communism as this one tries to make its lies viable, credible, even if it is merely through application of self righteousness.
In the past I had qualified the regime of Chavez as a cross between fascism and other stuff, due mostly to its military character. But I must confess my error. Chavismo is a fascist regime, inspired by a communist regime that has turned fascist in its day to day behavior, Cuba's Castro.
Then again this fits better. Fascism is more akin to gangster, mafia operations. And since Venezuela has become a narco state, there you go.
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PS: another thing that fascism is good at is to insult people without reason. Today's France Prime Minister's office emitted a communique praising the MUD victory, signed by Manuel Valls himself.
Maduro was in a fury even accusing Valls of being a racist (interestingly the National Front critic of Valls timeline on Tweeter sound a lot, A LOT, like chavistas). I read French. I can assure you that there is NOTHING in that communique that remotely smacks of racism.
.@NicolasMaduro trato de racista a @manuelvalls ¿No saben leer francés en @DrodriguezVen ? https://t.co/ofcgdtbkxr https://t.co/DurZI9qElb— daniel duquenal (@danielduquenal) December 18, 2015#Venezuela: Félicitations à l'opposition démocratique de @unidadvenezuela. Appel à la libération de @LeopoldoLopez. pic.twitter.com/Pmkt3OTPsH
— Manuel Valls (@manuelvalls) December 17, 2015
Nice post. One of these days I need to sit down and explain why communism morphs into fascism.
ReplyDeleteApparently the election results have given Daniel his energy back. While Daniel and I often disagree on his postings on the US- IMHO he is somewhat out of touch with how the US has changed since his grad student days back in Gringolandia- his narratives on Venezuela are perhaps the best around on what it is like living in the belly of the Chavista best.
ReplyDelete[For that matter, a foreign grad student often has a rather limited perspective on the US even before he leaves the US. What a grad student sees from his grad student cubicle on the 10th floor- especially when that student is so cocooned that he can't even identify buildings on his own university campus-is not necessarily a comprehensive view of a country of 300 million spread out over 3 million square miles.Here I am not speaking of Daniel, but of someone else.]
Fear not. I was not cocooned. And i lived in 5 different states. A decade and a half. Student and working.
DeleteAdmitedly things have changed but i left with a reasonable grasp of what it was like.
Admitedly, again, before the rise of CNN and Fox.
Like I stated Daniel, that "cocooned" statement was NOT about you. Anyone who experiences both metro Bahston and Nawth Carolina, as you did- among the places you lived- has had a fairly comprehensive exposure to the US. Senator Jessie and Senator Ted- that is definitely exposure to a wide variety. And that ain't the half of it.
ReplyDeleteYes I know. I was not clear.
DeleteOh, and thanks for the compliment. :-)
DeleteI'm french speaking and the communication of Valls was pretty fair. No racism at all in this. Maduro seem to be a clown without the nose...
ReplyDeleteDaniel Castonguay
People have learned that playing the racism card works most all the time. A police officer in the US giving a speeding ticket to a black person is defended as "driving while black". And in Europe, the migrants, soon after arrival, use the race card to complain about the miserable circumstances in which they are living.
ReplyDeleteThe point is that racism is now used by minorities whenever possible. It has in most cases nothing to do any more with the facts and it plays real well on white guilt.
Thank you Anonymous
ReplyDeleteThank you Anonymous, for so deftly playing the race card yourself. I guess Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice, and the long list of others, just had it coming, am I right? Your comment is disgusting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for proofing my point Rich but that is it as far as I will go taking your bait. Otherwise, you'll have to look for a poster boy of your agenda somewhere else.
Deletel'll let the law handle the cases you mention and will accept the outcome.
Anonymous 9:27 / Mike