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GROUP ASSIGNMENT 8: Encouraging Political LiteracyMany people throw around terms like “fascism” and “communism” without really knowing what these words actually mean. Instead, people hurl these words at one another as a sort of insult. In 2008 American President Barack Obama’s critics called him both a fascist and a communist. His public critics didn’t try to deal directly or argue against his ideas; rather, they attacked him personally. By definition a person cannot be both a fascist and a communist. These two ideologies are diametrically opposed to one another and based upon fundamentally different assumptions about reality.Interestingly, the two ideologies share some things in common in terms of their structure and how their adherents exercise power. This assignment was designed for the express purpose to increase student literacy around fascism and communism—ideologies that continue to exercise a great deal of influence on history. Procedurea). Read the article below. While reading use three different colored highlighters indicating:In yellow, any ideas or concepts you do not understand or have questions aboutIn green, ideas striking you as either important or interesting (for whatever reason)In blue, ideas or approaches fascism and communism share in commonb). Then create a word document in Google Docs. Name it “Fascism and Communism”. Complete the following tasks:i). Conduct research and create a list of five fascist states that have existed in history.ii). Conduct research and create a list of five communists states that have existed in history.iii). In a paragraph, answer the following hypothetical question: if you had the choice of living in either a fascist or communist state, which one would you choose to live in and why?The paragraph must meet all of the following standards in order to earn full marks:Submitted by deadline (no late work will be accepted)No shorter than 150 words and no longer than 300Free of grammatical, precision, historical and logical errorsInclude at least one textual quotation from an outside (likely web-based) source, i.e. the quote should act as proof to support your stated positionNote: the quote does not count towards your word count.c). Share your paragraph through Google Docs with the instructor (rdelainey@lcbi.sk.ca) and hand-in the article so your highlights can be checked.The purpose of this article is to help students understand and appreciate the origin and nature of the ideologies of communism and fascism. An ideology is a system of political ideas and ideals. Ideologies are, in a sense, a type of secular faith, i.e. there is no God to believe in; yet, just like a religion an ideology like fascism requires believers (or adherents) to think in a specific way. The same is true of every ideology, e.g. communism, fascism, liberalism, socialism, progressivism, and so on. Ideologies are the basis of every political movement; they are by their nature problematic: firstly, they limit the ability of an adherent to think “outside of the box”; secondly, the world is actually quite complicated—ideologies boil something as complex as human nature into something simple, e.g. deep down human beings are economic creatures and nothing else OR deep down human beings are selfish and incapable of acting selflessly. In reality human beings are neither exclusively this nor that; instead, they are a combination of many different things (sometimes even contradictory things). Perhaps the only assumption we can make about human nature is people, by and large, are typically more motivated by emotional concerns as opposed to logical ones. Possessing a working knowledge of what ideologies are, and why they’re problematic, is an absolute pre-condition to understanding why modern history has unfolded as it has. Fascism & Communism: A Direct Comparison1.?Ultra-NationalismCommunists are “international” in their outlook while fascists are “national.” For example, Nazi Germany was aggressive to neighboring countries like Poland. The Germans believed they were a “master race” entitled to rule over so-called inferior “slave states.”Communist countries, like the Soviet Union (Russia and China), were in principle governed by the working class: workers belonged to an international movement because they were exploited by corporate elites in every single country. Communists everywhere, therefore, were united by a single purpose—defeat the?Bourgeoisie. Fascists aim at exclusion not inclusion, e.g. German fascists excluded people not belonging to the so-called “master race.” Fascists tend to look inwards; they want to protect their local community from perceived corrupting influences. Part of Donald Trump’s appeal in 2017 was a promise to build a wall along the American-Mexico border to keep migrants from Latin Americans out. He further stoked the fear of supporters by claiming (falsely) that some Latinos were carrying prayer rugs with them. He was implying some of the Latinos were Muslim (which, presumably, is a synonym for terrorist). By contrast communists look outside?their own borders for enemies. Again, fascists look inside.2.?AuthoritarianismBoth fascism and communism are authoritarian; they are both typically single-party states meaning, unlike Canada which has multiple political parties, there is only one political party led by a dictator. Spain (Francisco Franco), Italy (Benito Mussolini) and Germany (Adolf Hitler) were led by dictators. The Soviet Union (Josef Stalin) and Communist China (Mao Zedong) were also led by strong men who did not share power.Members of the ruling party—in both fascist and communist states—received benefits and privileges non-members did not. In the communist context, differences in social class were supposed to be gone; this means everyone was in principle politically, economically, and materially equal; however, in practice members of the Communist Party enjoyed material benefits the average Russian did not. For example, a member of the Communist Party could leave the Soviet Union; they enjoyed a higher standard of living; and they owned private cars. The average Russian worker did not enjoy these benefits.Fascists want to build a strong state. In Germany, this was accomplished by ruling the people through the?Führerprinzip?or “leadership principle.” Hitler’s command was regarded as “above all written law.” Basically, whatever orders Hitler gave had to be unquestioningly obeyed. (He could make up the rules as he went along. In a country like Canada, the law prevents the prime minister from just doing whatever they want.) Therefore, all government policies, decisions, ministries, etc. operated in complete and absolute obedience to Hitler.27711402235835Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 6 Fascist states glorified the military. They associated the idea of a strong military with the idea of a healthy nation.0Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 6 Fascist states glorified the military. They associated the idea of a strong military with the idea of a healthy nation.27559006096000By contrast authority in a communist society is supposed to be decentralized. This means power was not centralized on any single person or group of people. Instead, every member of every workers’ council (called soviets) shared power with other workers. Soviets acted as regional governing bodies (replacing the need for either municipal or provincial governments). In reality, authority in both the Soviet Union and Communist China was exercised in basically the same way it was in Germany: decisions were made by a dictator and enforced by a single ruling party through a combination of?laws, secret police, intimidation, propaganda, and the?military. The average citizen, in both Germany and the Soviet Union/China, had absolutely no say in decisions directly affecting them. They lived in totalitarian societies.3.?EconomicsEconomically speaking, fascist states allow citizens freedoms unavailable to people living under communism. In Nazi Germany you could own your own home, factory and land. In the Soviet Union, the government owned everything (it was illegal to own private property).Taken at face value fascism appears to offer freedoms unavailable to communists; however, upon closer inspection the appearance of freedom in?Germany is deceiving, e.g. while you could own a factory, and even keep profits for yourself, the Nazi Party told you what to produce, how much to produce, when to produce, and how much to pay workers.In the Soviet Union, the government did the exact same thing—telling people what to produce, how much to produce, what to pay workers—but all profits went directly to the Communist Party before being distributed to the People. Fascist run economies are stronger than communist ones.4.?The StateFascist states typically glorify war; therefore, strong government is considered necessary to produce an equally strong, disciplined military. There is no room for catering to perceived public needs in a fascist society. This is the reason Otto von Bismarck, a proto-fascist himself, observed the “world does not look to Prussia’s liberalism but to her power.”In principle, a strong government in a communist system is considered a necessary but short-term evil. Karl Marx actually argued that over time the need for a central government would disappear; he believed a country could function through the workers’ councils. By comparison fascists make a point of permanently establishing a strong centralized government. Karl Marx argued that a dictatorship like Josef Stalin’s was only necessary in the short-term. Marxism as an ideology got a lot wrong: the reality is the Communist Party (in both China and the Soviet Union) did not “wither away” as Marx predicted. Instead, powerful men emerged taking control of the party; their greed and self-interested ensured a central government would remain in place indefinitely. There was too much to be gained by keeping things the same.Marx’s claim the?state?would eventually disappear on its own is completely without historical precedent. No ruling party or ruling class has ever voluntarily relinquished their power. One of communism’s failings, and there are many, is it ignores how human nature actually works:?human beings don’t normally give up power and privileges voluntarily; thus, if someone benefits from keeping things the same they will fight to prevent anything from changing. For this reason a revolutionary who used to be on the outside looking in, when they themselves are enjoying power and privilege, ceases being a revolutionary wanting to change—they become members of a new elite wanting to preserve a system benefiting them personally. This is how history and human nature work.In?the Soviet Union, communists overthrew the tsar (in 1917) to establish the ideal workers’ society Marx envisioned; yet, the Communist Party did not establish a classless society. On the contrary, the Communist Party formed the basis of a new permanent ruling class. Ironically, instead of being the workers were no longer exploited by a business elite; they were now exploited by the very same people who claimed to liberate them.5. Ideological IssuesBoth fascism and communism are ideologies. An ideology is a systematic way of looking at the world. As worldviews go, neither fascism nor communism reflects how the world actually works, how people think, how they behave or what motivates people to do what they do. This is a problem: specifically, communists and fascists attempt to build societies based on how the world?ought to be?or how people?ought to munists assume people are either capable of cooperation or competition but?never both. In reality, people are capable of both. For example, Marx did not believe economic elites in Canada, Britain or the United States would ever voluntarily share their wealth or weaken their control by allowing the creation of laws protecting workers, e.g. giving people universal healthcare, passing minimum wage laws, or providing workers with unemployment insurance. Yet, this is precisely what happened in the latter part of the 19th century into the early part of the 20th.Marx did not anticipate this change because ideology literally blinded him to the possibility attitudes and societies can and do change over time. The reality is people are complex and capable of both cooperation, competition, and everything in between. Ideologies failing to take this complexity in to account—and this includes the world’s most dominant ideology, free market capitalism—are doomed to fail because they encourage the adoption of an incomplete understanding of the world and humanity. This incomplete understanding is bound to lead people to make errors or exercise poor judgement.Ideologies that take into account human nature’s complexity are longer lasting and more stable. For example, England’s?Westminster system of parliamentary democracy has existed uninterrupted, and in essentially the same form, since 1689. Related parliamentary democracies like Canada’s, quite unlike fascist or communist dictatorships, encourage citizens to practice toleration, compromise, consensus building and pluralism. Canadians are also directly involved in the decision making process. Some all-powerful ruling party or dictator doesn’t make all the decisions in Canada. Since Canadians have the right to directly participate in the decision-making process, decisions made by governments are regarded largely as legitimate;?further still, democratic governments do not try to stamp out differences of opinion or force people to agree with one another (as is the case in fascist and communist dictatorships). Instead, the role of the government is simply to preserve the peace; that is, democratic governments function precisely to constructively manage disagreement making sure everyone respects the peace and the rule of law. Disagreements exist in democracies; however, disagreement tends to be peacefully expressed. By contrast communists and fascists make extensive use of a secret police, concentration camps, intimidation, murder, and terror, etc. to force citizens to “behave” and “agree” with official party policies and principles.6. Anti-Democratic SentimentFascists attack other political parties or groups attempting to influence a country’s affairs. Fascists despise trade unions because the labor movement?influences a?country’s economic and political life without being subordinate (or obedient) to the aims of the state. Theoretically labor unions provide a healthy counter-balance to governments which tend over time to be more and more dominated by corporate elites.In Nazi Germany, individual citizens were simply expected to obey—disagreement, disobedience, freedom, etc. were considered contrary to the principle of building a perfect society. Thus, fascists sacrifice liberalism and freedom in order to achieve goals like “racial purity” or the “conquest” of weak neighboring countries.In principle, communist countries are supposed to be democratic. Yet, in practice they tend to be anti-democratic, e.g. you do not build the perfect society through parliamentary debates or debates in the workers’ councils. You build it through terror, murder and intimidation. The problem confronting any authoritarian-minded political party—whether it be communist or fascist—is most people genuinely prefer living in liberty rather than under a dictatorship. Therefore, fascist societies are governed by decree and anyone who opposes destiny is removed (imprisoned, exiled or killed outright). In the context of communism, Karl Marx assures us once the enemies of communism are destroyed the government will mystically “wither away”; then, and only then, will state sanctioned murder become no longer necessary. The problem is no communist experiment—despite seventy plus years in Russia—ever succeeded. Communism does not work both theoretically and practically speaking, i.e. people want to live in liberty.7.?Racism & XenophobiaFascists believe their country is in crisis or “rotting from within” because of the presence of “impure” people. To address this crisis fascists attack enemies of the country’s “true identity” (usually members of some sort of ethnic, racial or religious minority). The rash of xenophobia in Canada towards Muslims in 2015 (Syrians in particular) demonstrates the sobering fact fascist tendencies (however weak) exists in many of us and is never far from the surface; it reflects the fact we typically interpret the world through emotion as opposed to our reason. Also, fascists consider any citizen who speaks out against attacks on minorities as enemies. For this reason people who supported the humanitarian aims of bringing Syrian refugees to Canada were wrongly labelled as either sympathetic or active “supporters of terrorism.” Fascists feel a sense of urgency when it comes to purifying society; it cannot be achieved fast munists likewise desire purity; yet, the purity they are after isn’t racial. Instead, they want citizens to be?ideologically?pure. In other words, the Russian Communist Party wanted the “thinking” of their citizens to line up perfectly with the teachings of communist theorists like Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin. Perhaps the greatest expression of this pathological desire for ideological purity came?when the Soviet Union liberated its soldiers from prisoner of war camps in Germany at the end of World War II (1939 to 1945 CE). Instead of being freed to join their comrades in the Red Army, these liberated prisoners were sent to new prison camps in Siberia, Russia; they had to be prevented from spreading heretical ideas like liberty and freedom in the USSR. The ideological purity of the Soviet Union had to be preserved at all costs. North Korea in the present day does the same thing to its citizens—it prevents them from having any contact and knowledge of the outside world. If the North Korean population actually knew how poorly they lived, they might actually stop obeying Kim Jong Un (the Dear Leader).Communists, just like fascists, do not tolerate criticism of the ruling party. Individuals do not have the right to freedom of speech or even a right to freedom of conscience. You are expected to give yourself entirely over to the communist cause (a cause which requires great sacrifice?now?with promises of paying off at some mysterious point in the?future—a future that never seems to arrive,?by the way). Both fascists and communists strive to build a utopia (perfect society).Fascists view minorities as the enemy. Communists, on the other hand, insist capitalism is the real enemy. Fascists deal with minorities in one of the following ways: if they can they’ll expel them (kick them out of the country); and if this doesn’t work they’ll imprison them; and if imprisonment?doesn’t work you can always kill them.?Similarly Karl Marx argued exterminating the Bourgeoisie might be necessary since they would resist change and communism.In principle fascism focuses on what a person intrinsically?is?or?is not?while communism focuses its attention simply on a person’s social role. Both communism and fascism have some serious drawbacks; but at least it can be said of communism that one doesn’t have to necessarily resort to mass murder to “purify” society. Again, in principle (so many principles), you can change a person’s social role without having to first destroy the person. The difference between fascism and communism is?fundamental: communism seeks to develop everyone while fascism excludes or eliminates all who don’t belong to the “ideal.” ................
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