-Caveat Lector-
>From newsmax.com
Third Way or Third Reich?Richard PoeMay 18, 1999
What is the Third Way, and why is Bill Clinton pushing it?
During the collapse of the Soviet Empire, Mikhail Gorbachev promoted
the so-called "Third Way" as an alternative to free markets. This new
way of governing would be neither capitalist nor communist, but
something in between. The Third Way flopped in Russia. But Bill
Clinton thinks it will work here.
On November 14, 1998, while most of us were distracted by sex
scandals, the New York Times quietly reported that, in response to
the growing worldwide recession, "Mr. Clinton has proposed a `third
way' between capitalism and socialism."
Actually, Clinton has been touting the Third Way since 1992. But his
evasive language prevented most people from figuring out what he
meant by it.
"We have moved past the sterile debate between those who say
government is the enemy and those who say government is the answer,"
Clinton said in his 1998 State of the Union address. "My fellow
Americans, we have found a third way."
Of course, most Americans didn't even know we were looking for one.
But now that we've found it, how does it work?
Among other things, the Third Way calls for business and government
to join hands as "partners.”
"We are working with business to use technology, research and market
incentives to meet national goals," Clinton told the Economic Club of
Detroit in February. "Some have called this political philosophy the
third way."
What Clinton means by this gobbledygook is that Big Business will own
the economy (as under capitalism), while Big Government runs it (as
under socialism).
Corporations will be bribed into obedience through subsidies, tax
breaks, customized legislation and other special privileges.
It all sounds very cozy. But what would life be like under such a
regime? History offers some alarming clues.
"National Socialist Germany has created a new economic doctrine,"
boasted Adolf Hitler in 1939, "which views ... the economy as the
servant of the people." Hitler exemplified the Third Way. He left
industry in private hands, but appointed government bureaucrats to
run it.
Production goals were set and price controls imposed from Berlin.
Jobs were created through public works, tax incentives and government
credits.
"Hitler ... anticipated modern economic policy," enthused liberal
economist John Kenneth Galbraith in 1973. "That a nation oppressed by
economic fear would respond to Hitler as Americans did to FDR is not
surprising."
Nor should it surprise us that some might look back with nostalgia on
Hitler's strong-arm tactics, now that global depression lurks around
the corner. Is the Third Way a coded expression for fascism? Perhaps.
This new ideology does not come with jackboots, goose-stepping thugs
or delirious crowds shouting, "Sieg Heil!" But maybe it doesn't have
to. Back in 1980, a leftwing political scientist and urban studies
professor named Bertram Gross, in his book Friendly Fascism, foretold
a kinder, gentler brand of tyranny.
"Anyone looking for black shirts, mass parties or men on horseback
will miss the telltale clues of this creeping fascism..." he wrote.
"In America, it would be supermodern and multiethnic -- as American
as Madison Avenue, executive luncheons, credit cards and apple pie.
It would be fascism with a smile."
Most people would accept the new order without distress, Gross
predicted. They would have fewer rights, of course, but more gadgets,
perks and entertainments. Troublemakers would be blacklisted and
discredited, but rarely jailed or killed. When violence became
necessary, it would be done discreetly.
"One can look forward to improved capabilities ... for the use of ...
induced heart failure ... induced suicide ... and `accidental'
automobile fatalities," wrote Gross.
The author of Friendly Fascism was no wild-eyed Cassandra. He was a
leading architect of liberal social policy under presidents
Roosevelt, Truman and Carter. As such, Gross unwittingly helped build
the partnership of Big Government and Big Business that he later
decried. He recognized his guilt only late in life.
While writing his book, Gross dreamed that he was searching through a
huge, empty house for "friendly fascists." He found one at last.
"I flung open one of the doors," Gross writes. "And there sitting at
a typewriter and smiling back at me, I saw myself."
Over the years, Gross had helped draft such Big Government
legislation as the full-employment bills of 1944 and 1945, and the
Employment Act of 1946.
"I sought solutions for America's ills ... through more power in the
hands of central government," Gross admits. "In this I was not alone.
Almost all my fellow planners, reformers, social scientists, and
urbanists presumed the benevolence of more concentrated government
power."
But they were wrong. Gross realized that centralized power was, in
fact, the linchpin of tyranny. "Big Business-Big Government
partnerships ...," he wrote, "were the central facts behind the power
structures of old fascism in the days of Mussolini, Hitler and the
Japanese empire builders. ... I see Big Business and Big Government
as a joint danger."
If only the Clinton cheerleaders were capable of such introspection.
Gross died in 1997. But his spirit lives on, a fading spark of
leftwing conscience, unsung and unheeded in the mad rush to the Third
Way.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Richard Poe is a freelance journalist, a New York Times-bestselling
author and a staunch libertarian. His latest book is Black Spark,
White Fire (Prima, 1998).
>From Amazon.CoM
Friendly Fascism : The New Face of Power in America
by Bertram Myron Gross
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 8,552
Avg. Customer Review: <Picture: 5 out of 5 stars>
Number of Reviews: 4
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other readers!
Reviews
Synopsis
Widely acclaimed and hotly debated, this provocative and original
look at current trends in the United States presents a grim forecast
of a possible totalitarian future--a book that "offers a very clear
exposition of where America is, and how we got there" (William
Shirer).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: <Picture: 5 out of 5 stars> Number of
Reviews: 4
A reader from USA , October 29, 1998 <Picture: 5 out of 5 stars>
This book is one of the best books on elite corruption.
Friendly Fascism, by Bertram Gross, is an excellent, gripping,
knowledgeable and illuminating book by a man who served as an insider
in the system (the White House) and evolved to the point that he felt
the system itself was the problem, and both needed exposing (as to
its anatomy and tactics, never discussed publically in the mass media
or in our educational institutions) and its need for change. His book
was a warning as to the seeds of a new brand of fascism he clearly
saw evolving in this country (written during the Reagan
administration), which was also warned against, prophetically, in
Romano Guardini's early books, The End of the Modern World, The World
and the Person, Power and Responsibility, Letters from Lake Como, and
The Virtues (some of which are still out of print). He brilliantly
analyzes the hierarchy of the system, where real power lies, how it
is maintained, the role of the public in all this, perhaps - most
importantly - the issue of wealth and control of information. When I
read this book I felt great joy - because he succeeded in getting it
into print and because what he had to say was so desperately needed.
I even feel this more strongly now - my only complaint is that what
he said was beginning was, I feel, understated - it has evolved and
progressed farther than that and many of his warnings (as
surveillance) are now "accepted" ways of conducting high-level
business, are, in fact, the foundation of it in many ways. Whole
industries (as mass media) are becoming built upon this, hidden
behind Gross's brilliant explanation of "triple speak" (truth, only
whispered at elite gatherings, myth, and jargon - the latter two fed
to the public to confuse and distract.) It is an exciting, brilliant
and very necessary book, right on the mark, and highly recommended.
<<End Excerpt>>
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