There appears to be something fundamental in a democratic body politic which discounts the warnings from alarmists–like Churchill and Dr. Ledeen about the rise of fascism, or even Al Gore on global warming–and then only acts when the necessity for action is thrust upon them at the very last possible moment. In psychology and economics, such chronic delayed action, the constant procrastination, is an observed phenomenon in all human beings.
Still, the alarm must be sounded. The discussions and debates about theofascism in Iran must occupy both presidential candidates during at least one of their debates, because one of them will be in office when theofascism goes nuclear in 2012.
Somehow, sometime very soon, distinguished published scholars of fascism from BOTH of our political parties must get together, even if only by email, and craft an alarm to send over their signatures to both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain…and also to ‘Foreign Affairs’ or some similar reputable publication. The alarm should be utterly non-partisan to be effective, and should pull no punches: By their expert analysis, the Iranian form of governance is nothing less than an evolved, 21C form of fascism and so poses the newest great risk to humanity if it acquires nuclear weapons capability.
The scholars’ alarm about Iran’s theofascism should avoid Mr. Gore’s hysterics, and absolutely must avoid his appalling distortion of statistics and science. Wouldn’t such a scholars’ alarm include a demand that the PHILOSOPHY of Iran’s governance be the focus of the candidates’ debate on Iran? If the debate focused on the Imam Khomeini’s philosophy, it would become impossible not to evoke the strident alarms by Churchill, which fell on so many deaf–procrastinating–ears.
Time is running out. As time runs out, options narrow. As options narrow, the final costs explode. The final costs, according to history, will be incalculable.
Can anyone think of an esteemed scholar of fascism who could assemble a reputable group of top fascism scholars from bot political parties? I can think of one. Wrote a good article on fascism in the weekend WSJ.
