Fascism.

Posted on April 3, 2022 by Opher

Fascism

Definitions — Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition,

While fascism is defined as a product of the far-right it is just as evident in the far-left.

For me, fascism is associated with arrogance, racism and extreme authoritarian control. It divides and labels people. It promotes one group of people above others (even within nations) and sets up mechanisms for suppression and oppression.

Fascism is hierarchical. It sets up a powerful elite and establishes a means of crushing opposition, controlling the people and pumping out propaganda. It runs on fear and deploys secret police, torture and death.

There is no real difference between the way far-right Nazi parties, such as Hitler, Mussolini and Franco operated to that of far-left organisations such as with Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. They all worked on creating division, exterminating enemies, using fear, deploying propaganda, suppressing all opposition and suppressing the population.

We still operate tribally. We like to elect ‘strong’ leaders who put forward policies in black and white. These leaders often appear strong because they are psychopaths or sociopaths.

Much as school bullies attract sycophantic groups of henchmen and henchwomen who they use to help exert their power, fascist politicians attract both henchmen and followers who put their policies into action.

One has to wonder at the mentality of these people. One can see the attraction for those high up but there are similar benefits for those further down the organisation. They are part of the organisation. They have power over others. They are safe, rewarded and have power. Hence the secret police, the torturers, the executioners, the propagandists, the spokespeople, troops and their families feel superior and secure.

Fascism seems to be the default state for human politics. We see democracies such as the present-day USA and UK drifting towards it with Trump and Johnson. It is evident in Russia, with Putin, In China, North Korea and Brazil.

Fascism exists in many forms and can be an insidious force infiltrating the most benign governments. The Johnson government is showing fascistic tendencies – arrogance and superiority, control of the media, suppression of opposition, creation of division, ignoring of the law, move towards a one-party state.

We have to be forever vigilant.

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum – Security Prison 21 – Pol Pot’s torture centre!

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Opher

No trip to Cambodia is complete without a visit to the horrors of Pol Pot and his horrendous torture chambers. The homicidal maniac killed millions in his killing fields and ran a regime of terror, murder and torture.

Security Prison 21 was just one of these terrible places.

Walking around looking at the shackles, implements of torture and painting and photographs one is left with a bewildering set of emotions – horror, disgust, disbelief, sadness, fury. It’s not a nice cocktail.

Walking past the photographs of stacks of skulls leaves one wondering how. How did this regime adopt such horrendous policies? How did everyone join in to carry out such atrocities? What is wrong with people? How did this start? How did a political philosophy become corrupted to become a tyranny? How could human beings do such horrendous things? How could anyone believe that this was OK?

At the end of our tour we met a guy who was a survivor of the camp and bought a small book that was his memoir. He’d witnessed the depravity. All such a short while before.

People are capable of such madness. How can these triggers be initiated?

We see it around the world today – the victims often become the perpetrators. It starts with a group regarding another group as subhuman.

Genocide – the Holocaust, Armenians, Pol Pot, Stalin, Sarajevo, Killing Fields, Mao, ISIS, Native American Indians, the Disappeared, now all of Nature

Posted on August 23, 2019 by Opher

Genocide – the Holocaust, Armenians, Pol Pot, Stalin, Sarajevo, Killing Fields, Mao, ISIS, Native American Indians, the Disappeared, now all of Nature.

Lest we forget

We’re very good at it. Throughout history we storm through and kill everyone who is different. It probably started with the Neanderthals – maybe even before that with other species of hominids.

We are xenophobic, racist and have a cruel, barbaric streak.

The Mongols were good at it. Colonists are good at it. We ruthlessly cull the populations we encounter.

In the modern times we have got industrial.

In South America and North America we used germ warfare – smallpox, chicken pox, flu, measles. There were no defences in the indigenous populations.

In Australia you could shoot aboriginals as if they were rabid dogs.

In New Zealand and the Philippines, everywhere we’ve gone.

On the Crusades we slaughtered. On the Jihads we slaughtered.

All races, all places, all times, all people. It is no particular race ; it is all of us.

It’s in our genes!!

Right now we are still doing it!! These days ISIS is at it.

We use the excuse of religion or politics – even science.

But our viciousness towards each other is not restricted to our own species. We are just as cruel when it comes to everything else. We’ve already wiped out most of the mega fauna and are now working our way through the rest.

We are slaughtering trees, insects and animals, butchering our way around the world.

It’s time we stopped! It’s time we started respecting each other and other forms of life.

It’s time we start to grow up and become intelligent and civilised!

Pol Pot – Cambodia’s mass murderer – Security Prison 21 – Tuol Sleng – Site of torture and genocide. The Killing Fields.

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Opher

There is a madness and hysteria that grips people sometimes. It turns normally pleasant ordinary people into crazed torturers capable of doing the most terrible things.

The Cambodian people were some of the most friendly I have met.

The people carrying out these tortures and killings were brutal, callous devils.

Pol Pot did not start out as a crazed evil psychopath. He was an idealistic freedom fighter.

It all has shades of ISIS, Taliban, AlQaeda, Boko Haraam and the rest.

What happened in this camp was beyond words. Pol Pot was responsible for the torture and death of one and a half million people in the Killing Fields. There were 150 killing camps like Prison 21.