In the wake of the fascists’ electoral victory in Italy, I saw this quote from Toni Morrison’s 1995 “Remarks Given at the Howard University Charter Day Convocation” circulating on Tumblr: Fascism only talks ideology but it really is just marketing, marketing for power. It’s recognizable by its need to purge, the strategies it uses to purge and its terror of truly democratic goals. It changes citizens into taxpayers so individuals become rife with anger at the notion of the public good. It changes citizens into consumers so the measure of our value as humans is not our humanity, nor our compassion, nor our generosity — none of the virtues that human beings aspire to claim, none of that but what we own. And in so doing it produces the perfect capitalist: one who is willing to kill a human being for a product — a sneaker, a jacket, a car, a company.
Great as always
Yes, great synthesis of research in this piece, as per usual. Critical thinking on pressing topics. Looking forward to the next one.