Quote:As for fascism, speak for yourself:
The quote is from French philosopher Michel Foucault. Sadly i didn't have enough characters to accredit him. Never mind i thought, being dead he's over worrying. Fascism is of course about 'control'. Do you think to be free of controlling Soren? More so than I? I think the immigration thread would indicate otherwise.
Quote:I think it is vacuous in the extreme to pretend that the difference between the political systems of Australia or Britain or the US on the one hand and Syria on the other is merely cosmetic.
Do you really? Well a few more people have been killed in protests, but not a great many. People get killed protesting in Western Democracies as well, (not to mention getting shot for being Brazilian electricians). But by and large protest produces less violence.
Most significant is the peacefull nature of protest in the West. As the international media pointed out to Aboriginal protesters in Sydney during the OzLympics, 'sorry, peaceful is nice, but not exciting'. A million marched through London before and against, the Iraq war. Nobody got killed and nobody took a blind bit of notice. If a million people had rioted in central London they might actually have stopped Britains participation, the government would certainly have had a few shot.
They would have said it was to 'prevent anarchy'. Because they perceive, as the leaders, that the place would go to wrack and ruin without them. When the protest has been more serious, as with Cable Street' in 1936 notice was taken. The Anarcho/Jewish coalition that made that fight stopped Fascism in Britain in its tracks and arguably changed the course of the history of the 20thC. Nobody was killed, but that was a minor miracle of the day.
http://nickmilne.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/october-4th-the-battle-of-cable-street...