The Endgame

The Fascist Eschaton

I've had several people ask me how we can “wake the people up” to end our national nightmare. This, in my view, is the wrong question. It doesn't take into account the nature of fascist regimes, and their historical durability.

Awakening the masses isn’t really the answer. Fascists do not need to be a majority to come to power, they need only a decadent state, and to be the most powerful and cohesive (not necessarily the largest) minority.

Fascist states are quite durable, internally. Hitler’s Third Reich lasted for twelve years, Mussolini’s lasted for twenty one. Franco ruled Spain for thirty five years. Control of the state and the apparatus of communication and the media (modern Fascism wasn’t really possible before the common adoption of radio) allows them to use propaganda freely, and without public opposition, and control of the coercive apparatus of the state and the law allow them to suppress dissent effectively. They do not require popularity, only control of key individuals who run important institutions. They needn’t care too much about what their own people think. It’s not a democracy.

Every fascist regime eventually turns into a death cult. But this is usually brought about by external pressure, usually in the form of a war. Since fascists value ideology and personal loyalty over competence, their regimes tend to be riddled with psychopaths and people whose only real talent is sycophancy and Machiavellian ambition. They cannot effectively handle a crisis that cannot be dealt with by means of propaganda and internal oppression. Every modern fascist state has eventually made too many enemies, largely due to the ideological necessity of being on a constant war footing, and the need for expanding territory to support the inevitable economic kakistocracy that their power structure requires. They turn on each other, and eventually their own populations. The death toll of the Fascist eschaton has, in every case, been in the millions once they achieve total control.

It is difficult to see, however, how external pressure can be brought to bear on a nuclear armed superpower with a military and economic machine that outclasses all its competitors.

The best strategy is to keep them from coming to power in the first place. But that ship has largely sailed. Failing that, the odds against a popular uprising bringing them down are long indeed once they are firmly in control.