A very cute hummingbird was just hovering outside my home office window as I started writing... I'm writing this as I take a break from working on some projects I got recently; the economy is actually picking up, and I'm feeling a lot better about the prospects for my one-man business consulting gig.

I've been eating much healthier lately, exercising regularly, and trying to make some time to meditate once in while, read, and sometimes watch some of my favorite TV shows, mainly on HBO... Love Game of Thrones! But tonight, TGIF, we're having (thin crust) pizza!

Oh, let me get back to the subject of the diary... I almost forgot.

When fascism is implanting itself in a society it almost always happens surreptitiously. Actually, it is an essential requirement that for fascism to come to life, that the great majority of the population remains totally oblivious of its arrival.

Also, one mistake people make (in my opinion) when it comes to ascertaining whether fascism is engulfing a society or not (in this case, the U.S.), is to rely on narrow definitions based on past experience. And this too contributes to it remaining stealth, as it arises, in every generation and in every society that has been ravished by it in the past.

I argue that in order to recognize it early enough, one must start by conceptualizing it using the broadest definition possible. The reason for that is that as societies evolve, threats to democracy also evolve, not too dissimilar from the way viruses and bacteria that cause diseases evolve.

Many readers may have heard about the "fourteen characteristics of fascism." If one looks at the situation in broader terms, I argue that we've met all 14 requirements for our current system of government to be considered fascist. In some, the criteria has been met more completely than with others, but in general, we are pretty much there.

Specifically, here's the situation in the U.S.: Our type of fascism is a Corporatocracy. There is an alignment between (big) business and political power, at the expense of the population.

Behind all this, there is a very powerful and relentless movement made up of thinkers, philosophers (of the right wing persuasion), legal scholars and business titans, whom during the last several decades have been able to implement their vision and understanding of how society should be structured.

One key thing to understand is that "these people" don't see themselves as fascistic, nor do they believe they're doing anything wrong. To the contrary, they see themselves as "saviors" of civilization. To get and idea of what I mean, think about the dialogues of John Galt, of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." These people think in similar fashion.

When it comes to the philosophical influences that brought about fascism to the U.S., one of the most important is that of political philosopher Leo Strauss. In essence, it assumes (rightly so?) that societies will always be structured in this fashion: the organized few will have dominance over the disorganized many. It assumes that the masses cannot be trusted with self-government because they lack the type of intelligence and understanding necessary to run things. And it assumes that it is necessary to lie to the masses, and to manipulate them, mainly through propaganda.

Another good reference source about this topic is The Lewis Powell Memo, about which I wrote a while back.

I don't know about exactly what it takes to defeat fascism, as I'm just going along on the ride like anybody else, but it seems to me that there may be two essential requirements: (1) A large-enough segment of the population should become aware of it; (2) That segment (or social movement) of the population should organize and unite in similar fashion as the small ruling class who has brought about fascism has done (organization, structure, discipline, focus, clear strategy).

By and large, the situation we have right now is one where the fascistic ruling class has taken total control of all the important levers of power (something that took decades, and to which the populace agreed to by being manipulated with propaganda and fear), and are now implementing and and consolidating the Corporatist (Fascist) State, which includes total information awareness surveillance, and an increasingly oppressive Police State.

As they act, "we" react... Witness the myriad of diaries here pointing out one misdeed after another, perpetrated by the fascistic power structure.

Finally, one important thing to understand is that, by and large, most "establishment" entities, starting with the Democratic party (which represents the most painful betrayal), and many leaders in large workers' unions, have been corrupted by the system.

So basically, "we" are on our own.

In my view, the most promising movement, which demonstrated the potential for eventually being able to challenge the fascist corporatist hegemony, was (and is) the Occupy Wall Street movement.

But as it usually happens in fascistic systems with similar movements, the OWS movement has been severely wounded following an onslaught of corporatist media propaganda against it. Other wounds have been self-inflicted, such as the pathological rejection of organization, discipline, and strategic cohesiveness, and focus.

Nevertheless, at its core, the movement fully recognizes most of what I argue here, and that's why it is non-partisan, recognizing that both parties are corrupt, and in the pockets of their corporatist pay-masters. And it recognizes that the entire U.S. media landscape is a propaganda machine.

The movement has achieved half the battle by having been able to break through the mental shackles the system is designed to engender. But it desperately needs to achieve the second half, and again, that is becoming highly organized and focused.

And the tactics need to change. Putting yourself into a position to be arrested, or beat up, or pepper sprayed, or tortured, or killed, or left inside a police van to defecate and urinate in your pants, with your hands tied behind your back, by an increasingly brutal and fascistic, and militarized police force across the country, in the hopes of generating outrage and sympathy (shame, shame, the world is watching, etc.) is not going to cut it.

My wish? I wish one day someone would contact me and tell me that there are 1,000 OWS chapters across the country, tightly coordinating strategy to take on the oligarchical corporatist fascists. That there are very formal strategic meetings, at the local, regional, and national level. That rich people, and artists, and other people with influence and wherewithal have been recruited to the cause.

And most of all, I wish one day we turn the tie and the Left starts to act, instead of (mainly) react to the misdeeds of the fascists.

Get up one morning and read in the paper that all media conglomerates have been disbanded; that all criminal Wall Street banks have been broken up and nationalized (if temporarily), and that scores of banksters have been charge with serious crimes.

I'd like to see media/propaganda campaigns across the country, billboards, ads, TV, flyers, marches.

But it all starts by acknowledging the obvious: That the United States of America has become a Corporatist Fascist State. If people can't even acknowledge that obvious fact, then nothing of significance will be possible in order to start the process of removing the Corporatist Hegemony.

Spread the word....