[RSCT] Critique of Tyranny--and the emergence of fascism

[Rich Gibson]

         For those who need to be a bit more detached, for whatever 
reason, or who want to pull back the microscope, the critique of 
tyranny has deep historical roots. Here is Aristotle on how a tyrant 
can keep power. Below that is a link to useful questions that could 
be used in many classrooms related to the critique of tyranny. Below 
that is a link to a very short piece on: "What is fascism?"" which I 
believe we witness emerging, fast, as a mass, popular, world-wide 
movement taking varying forms. In the midst of that, school workers 
need to ask some difficult questions, like: "why have school?" That 
is addressed in a Counterpunch link below and a classroom exercise as well.

Aristotle on Tyranny:

"The lopping off of outstanding people  and the destruction of the 
proud, and also the prohibition of common meals and club fellowships 
and education and all other things of this nature, in fact the close 
watch upon all things that usually engender...pride and confidence 
and the prevention of...study circles and other conferences for 
debate, and the employment of every means that will make people as 
much as possible unknown to one another (for familiarity increases 
mutual confidence), and for the people of the city to be always 
visible as they hang about the palace gates (for thus there would be 
at least concealment for what they are doing, and they would get into 
a habit of being humble from always acting in a servile way)...and to 
try not to be uniformed about any chance utterances or actions of any 
of the subjects, but to have spies...wherever there was any gathering 
or conference, ..and to cause quarrels between friend and friend and 
between the people and the notables, and among the rich. And it is a 
device of tyranny to make the subjects poor, so that a guard may not 
be kept, and also that the people being busy with their daily affairs 
may not have leisure to plot against their ruler. Instances of this 
are the pyramids in Egypt, and the building of the temple of the 
Olympian Zeus...(for all these undertakings produce the same effect, 
constant occupation and poverty among the subject people) and the 
levying of taxes, as at Syracuse (for in the reign of Dionysius the 
result of taxation used to be in five years men had contributed the 
whole of their substance). Also the tyrant is a stirrer-up of war, 
with the deliberate purpose of keeping the people busy and also of 
making them constantly in need of a leader."

The wishes of a tyrant are directed by three aims, to produce 
humility, "for a humble-spirited man would not plot against anybody," 
to prevent confidence among subjects, "for a tyranny is not destroyed 
until people come to trust each other," and the people's power to 
resist must be demolished, "so that nobody attempts impossibilities, 
as nobody tries to put down a tyranny if they do not have power behind them."

The question to any government: Is this for the common good?

The ethics of every movement for change for the common good: Freedom 
and Equality.

Link to Questions Related to the Critique of Tyranny: 
http://www.richgibson.com/masterslave.htm

Classroom exercise on Why Have School? 
http://www.richgibson.com/rouge_forum/2008/whyhaveschool.htm

What is Fascism (every brief)? http://www.richgibson.com/fascism.html
A somewhat dated bibliography on fascism is at the end of this long 
piece: http://clogic.eserver.org/4-1/gibson.html

Counterpunch Line on Why Have School and the Schools-to-War Pipeline. 
http://www.richgibson.com/schoolresistance.htm

Good luck to all. We need it.

best r


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