Sheldon Wolin accurately differentiates the difference between historical fascist dictatorships and our current neoliberal empire with his term, "inverted totalitarianism." However, our contemporary 21st century corporate fascism/neoliberalism was always the goal of the powerful monied interests, which have pushed for inverted totalitarianism for a century! (Remember, Smedly Butler, "War is Racket" blew the whistle on a planned fascist overthrow of the US government during the 1930's.) But the European experiment continued.
Much like warlords empowered by the empire spin out of control, like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin laden; Mussolini and Hitler spun out of control of the 20th century bankers.
So my point is, that although the powers behind fascism/neoliberalism always utilize and support various populist and militia violence techniques; their ultimate goal to concentrate and maintain total corporate power has been better achieved through inverted totalitarianism. Early fascist dictatorships were seen as failures, where the violence spun out of control and gave the charismatic dictator too much power. US history since World War two has been a methodical systematic approach to totalitarian corporate power, while maintaining the military power to destroy everything on earth. If people wake up before the end, they will see the first successful global fascist system has been established. We can use several related terms to describe our neoliberal empire. Totalitarian police state would be another correct description or example that is in no way contradictory.
Important references for activists and the literate to study:
(Inverted totalitarianism, Wolin, The Nation, 2003 www.thenation.com/article/inverted-totalitarianism# )
(Wolin and Moyers www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6HMQM7Lo58 )
from What Next for the German Revolution, chapter 2, Leon Trotsky, 1932
(Note: It's clear that both Trotsky and Wolin might have predicted the privatization of public spaces and the "atomization" of the populace so that the citizenry became isolated disempowered consumers, through a vast and comprehensive set of tactics. We have discussed many of these tactics here on the public listserv for over a decade)
"...At the moment that the “normal” police and military resources of the bourgeois dictatorship, together with their parliamentary screens, no longer suffice to hold society in a state of equilibrium – the turn of the fascist regime arrives. Through the fascist agency, capitalism sets in motion the masses of the crazed petty bourgeoisie, and bands of the declassed and demoralized lumpenproletariat; all the countless human beings whom finance capital itself has brought to desperation and frenzy. From fascism the bourgeoisie demands a thorough job; once it has resorted to methods of civil war, it insists on having peace for a period of years. And the fascist agency, by utilizing the petty bourgeoisie as a battering ram, by overwhelming all obstacles in its path, does a thorough job. After fascism is victorious, finance capital gathers into its hands, as in a vise of steel, directly and immediately, all the organs and institutions of sovereignty, the executive, administrative, and educational powers of the state: the entire state apparatus together with the army, the municipalities, the universities, the schools, the press, the trade unions, and the cooperatives. When a state turns fascist, it doesn’t only mean that the forms and methods of government are changed in accordance with the patterns set by Mussolini – the changes in this sphere ultimately play a minor role – but it means, primarily and above all, that the workers’ organizations are annihilated; that the proletariat is reduced to an amorphous state; and that a system of administration is created which penetrates deeply into the masses and which serves to frustrate the independent crystallization of the proletariat. Therein precisely is the gist of fascism.
The above is not at all contradicted by the fact that during a given period, between the democratic and the fascist systems, a transitional regime is established, which combines the features of both: such, in general, is the law that governs the displacement of one social system by another, even though they are irreconcilably inimical to each other. There are periods during which the bourgeoisie leans upon both the Social Democracy and fascism, that is, during which it simultaneously manipulates its electoral and terroristic agencies..."
