PAREDES
In her recent book simply titled “Fascism–A Warning”, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright quoted the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as saying, “If you pluck a chicken one feather at a time, people don’t really notice.”
Albright, a Jew who was a victim of Nazi persecution during the Second World War, was describing Mussolini’s quiet creep into power, slowly transforming Italy into fascism, a brutal system of militaristic rule. It did not happen overnight and it was already late when people realized it.
The road to dictatorship took slow, careful steps. First, the public had to be conditioned to accept the narrative of the need for strongman rule. All sorts of propaganda taking advantage of people’s lack of education had to be employed. The appeal to emotion is the distinctive style of fascist propaganda. The easiest way to capture the people’s sentiment is to tap into collective pride, such as notions of racial superiority or past glories.
Nationalism is evoked to rally the people behind the Strong Leader who promises to make the nation “great again.” Whereas, liberal democracies aspire for leadership marked by rational and impartial decision-making, fascism is politics based on charisma. Strong will appeals more to people than claims to objectivity.
There is a formula to fascism or a set of common conditions that give rise to it. Fascists take advantage of people’s frustrations with democracy’s imperfections, exploiting open space to demonize the current system and its leaders. The fascists hate or have no respect for the democratic institutions particularly rule of law and human rights. Liberalism is attacked as individualism. Instead, collectivism is promoted often in the guise of nationalism and the idea of universal individual rights is seen as an obstacle to shared goals such as the fight against criminality.
The Strong Leader has to be given a free hand to lead the nation towards promised “change.” Dissent and criticism only delay the reforms so opposition has to be crushed. The media is attacked, censored or closed down. Check and balance is abandoned as the ruling party seizes control of the legislative and judicial branches by sheer privilege of numbers.
Or, as the Nazis did to undermine the democratic Weimar Republic, enabling laws are passed to grant more powers to the Strong Leader and his supporters. With that single feather plucked, Hitler is able to equate himself with the Law, thus allowing him to impose orders at will, some of which resulted into the worst crimes against humanity.
Likewise, Martial Law made it easy for Ferdinand Marcos and his supporters to pluck feathers that led to the slaughter of Philippine democracy. With a Supreme Court dominated by people he appointed, Marcos easily abolished Congress and replaced it with a parliament that he similarly controlled. He was then granted the power to give unlimited Executive Orders, practically equating him to the Law as Hitler did.
Today, we see the gradual slaughter of our democracy once again as feathers are being plucked one after another. The latest is the removal of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno with the clever sweep of a vote in favor of quo warranto by the same magistrates who accused her in the first place. Now, we have a Supermajority in Congress and a Judiciary that has just lost its independence, all in favor of the Executive. Still, a few more feathers await to be plucked before the chicken is cut up and dumped into the cauldron