Enlight 21

Madeleine Albright: 21st Century Fascism

The rise of demagogues with autocratic tendencies--men who can rally certain segments of society using nativist, racist, and fake populist appeals--is an emerging trend today. Madeleine Albright and Bill Woodward have written a book, Fascism: A Warning, about how Hitler and Mussolini rose to power. The parallels between their tactics and those of today’s budding autocrats are strikingly similar.

Here is an excerpt from a New Yorker article about the book:

Albright writes. “This was how twentieth-century fascism began: with a magnetic leader exploiting widespread dissatisfaction by promising all things.” Il Duce, who was Italy’s Prime Minister from 1922 until 1943, said that his mission was “to break the bones of the democrats . . . and the sooner the better.” He used the term “drenare la palude,” or “drain the swamp.” He had a talent for theatre, Albright notes, and was a poor listener who disliked hearing other people talk. He discouraged cabinet members from “proposing any idea that might cause him to doubt his instincts,” which, he insisted, were always right. He also promoted the idea of national self-sufficiency “without ever grasping how unrealistic that ambition had become.”

Adolf Hitler catapulted to power in Germany using similar tactics in a similar environment—a craving by the people for direction that conventional politicians weren’t providing. He “lied incessantly about himself and about his enemies,” Albright writes. He convinced millions that he “cared for them deeply when, in fact, he would have willingly sacrificed them all.” (MORE)

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/madeleine-albright-warns-of-a- new-fascism-and-trump