So if “the status quo” inevitably leads to fascism, the only way to avoid fascism would be a society that is in constant change? Well, for one thing, every society is in constant change unless you install some kind of religious dogmatic dictatorship, and even those break after some time under the stress of sociological pressures.
Fascism, or things very much like it, happen whenever you let fear mongering powerhungry fools who deny reality in favor of some kind of nostalgia infused “greater” image of your society get away with their bullshit.
Human leadership leads to fascism at some point, because humans love their fears and their tribal behavior.
Society is constantly changing, yes. The problem is our institutions have not kept up.
A given institution (or complex of institutions) incentivize a certain set of behaviors. Not everyone adopts those behaviors, but enough do that the effect accumulates. Eventually something will break, some set of behavioral interactions start negatively interacting with the system (like, say, a for-profit healthcare system that incentivizes not treating the sick and wounded).
In a functioning system, this would be where you study what happened, and use what you’ve learned about the problem to try adapt the institution. This will create a new set of incentives for a new set of behaviors… and inevitably a new problem will grow out of it and the process starts over again.
I can’t speak for other places, but in the US that is very much NOT what happens. Our status quo is stagnant. We’ve had the same problems for decades now. That is what creates fertile ground for fascism - when the guy saying, “We’ll burn the rot and go back to when it was better” sounds more appealing than, “Nothing will fundamentally change”.
So if “the status quo” inevitably leads to fascism, the only way to avoid fascism would be a society that is in constant change? Well, for one thing, every society is in constant change unless you install some kind of religious dogmatic dictatorship, and even those break after some time under the stress of sociological pressures.
Fascism, or things very much like it, happen whenever you let fear mongering powerhungry fools who deny reality in favor of some kind of nostalgia infused “greater” image of your society get away with their bullshit.
Human leadership leads to fascism at some point, because humans love their fears and their tribal behavior.
Society is constantly changing, yes. The problem is our institutions have not kept up.
A given institution (or complex of institutions) incentivize a certain set of behaviors. Not everyone adopts those behaviors, but enough do that the effect accumulates. Eventually something will break, some set of behavioral interactions start negatively interacting with the system (like, say, a for-profit healthcare system that incentivizes not treating the sick and wounded).
In a functioning system, this would be where you study what happened, and use what you’ve learned about the problem to try adapt the institution. This will create a new set of incentives for a new set of behaviors… and inevitably a new problem will grow out of it and the process starts over again.
I can’t speak for other places, but in the US that is very much NOT what happens. Our status quo is stagnant. We’ve had the same problems for decades now. That is what creates fertile ground for fascism - when the guy saying, “We’ll burn the rot and go back to when it was better” sounds more appealing than, “Nothing will fundamentally change”.