Customer Reviews

Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I ran across this book when I was 17; it spooked me then. I decided to pick it up again and see how far we've come, and I am amazed at how on the mark Bertram Gross was in his analysis of elite control of America.

These days, even reading a book like this likely gets you branded a "conspiracy theorist" but Gross points out several times he's not referring to conspiracies -- the Big Government/Big Business combine that is the fueling engine of fascism is alive and well. Indeed, stronger than ever in this country.

This book is a deep, frightening account of elite power structures in America. Friendly fascism is fascism with a friendly face -- not so much jackboots, mass rallies, and so forth that comprise the popular stereotype of fascism, but rather an insidious, public-relations savvy manipulation of power for profit.

What impresses me most is how thorough and cogent Gross's analysis is, and I am sad more people haven't read this book. While it came out in 1980, anybody who is politically aware today will see that, rather than being dated, Gross was definitely ahead of his time in his thinking. This is a big book (@400 pages), and densely packed with information, but it is definitely worth your time.

I lost my trusty old `dogged-eared' copy of this wonderful classic in a house fire a couple of years ago, and only recently found a used hardcover copy at the wonderful independent bookstore in Peterborough; The Toadstool Bookstore. Considering how relevant the book is to events transpiring in this country now, it was a fortuitous discovery. This is a relatively short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward; the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of `friendly persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans through what Gross refers to as "friendly fascism".

For anyone familiar with modern social theory, it is apparent that the author's thesis is a quite clever and accurate extension of sociologist C. Wright Mills' well known notions of what came to be known as the `mass society' theory. This was an essential aspect of Mills' famous theory of the power elite as forwarded in a book with the same title. Like social theorist G. William Domhoff ("The Higher Circles"), Professor Gross shows how the deceptively friendly and engaging style of the powers that be actually constitute an increasingly dangerous threat to the democratic process and to the long-term survival of our precious civil liberties. Of course, for Americans used to the association between the term `fascism' and the image of angry totalitarian states such as Nazi Germany and the Italy of the same period of time, it is perhaps difficult to associate with the notion that clever and systematic manipulation of the general population through use of the mass media is a form of fascistic influence. Yet, as Gross argues so persuasively, that is exactly what it is.

The term that pops to mind is that process that M.I.T. scholar Noam Chomsky would refer to as "manufacturing consent", a dangerous propensity which dangerously influences the perceptions of individual citizens by continually immersing the populace in an electronic stream of messages, both blatant and subliminal, that serves to condition them to a particular way of experiencing, participating, and perceiving the world around them. We find ourselves constantly bombarded by powerful and suggestive images, message-laden icons which deliver consistent themes regarding the nature of the environment we are living in, one we come to employ more and more exclusively as our preferred method of interacting in both the civil and legal aspects of contemporary society. As Professor Gross so prophetically forecasted, the mergers of all commercial news sources, both electronic and other, have come under the ownership and control of corporate America, one of the leading edges of the power elite. Amazingly, all of this also rings a responsive chord with the single most prophetic work of fiction in the 20th century, Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World". Lost in our petty diversions and self-absorbed in a pool of trivial pursuits, we become increasingly more vulnerable to the solid wall of subliminal and other messages all conveying a message regarding he nature of the world and our social, economic, and political place in it.

As our experience with the several successful Presidents ranging from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, the artful use of personal charisma to cover a mean-spirited political agenda has worked amazingly well. In the twenty years since the book was originally published, many aspects of our collective socioeconomic well-being have been profoundly changed, almost exclusively to the favor of the rich and well placed and to the increasing detriment of the average man and woman on the street. The statistics available are overwhelming in detailing the levels to which ordinary citizens have been stripped of most of the socioeconomic gains of the last century. In every area of contemporary life, from the cost and extent of health coverage to the responsibility for a variety of aspects such as providing for individual retirements, the vastly expanding future tax liability, and the use of the federal treasury to provide for subsidies to corporate America, the story is the same. Increasingly we are being manipulated into surrendering our voice in the democratic process and to playing a more limited role as consumers, which the elite evidently sees as our only crucial civic responsibility. As George W. Bush said with a booming voice and a congenial charismatic smile, post 911 Americans just had to get out to do their patriotic duty by once again buying things, to get the economy going once more. Indeed, it is becoming a brave new world. This is a wonderful book, and one that is a great, thought-provoking read. Enjoy!

Friendly Fascism, by Bertram Gross, is an excellent, gripping, knowledgeable and illuminating book by a man who served as an insider in the system (the White House) and evolved to the point that he felt the system itself was the problem, and both needed exposing (as to its anatomy and tactics, never discussed publically in the mass media or in our educational institutions) and its need for change. His book was a warning as to the seeds of a new brand of fascism he clearly saw evolving in this country (written during the Reagan administration), which was also warned against, prophetically, in Romano Guardini's early books, The End of the Modern World, The World and the Person, Power and Responsibility, Letters from Lake Como, and The Virtues (some of which are still out of print). He brilliantly analyzes the hierarchy of the system, where real power lies, how it is maintained, the role of the public in all this, perhaps - most importantly - the issue of wealth and control of information. When I read this book I felt great joy - because he succeeded in getting it into print and because what he had to say was so desperately needed. I even feel this more strongly now - my only complaint is that what he said was beginning was, I feel, understated - it has evolved and progressed farther than that and many of his warnings (as surveillance) are now "accepted" ways of conducting high-level business, are, in fact, the foundation of it in many ways. Whole industries (as mass media) are becoming built upon this, hidden behind Gross's brilliant explanation of "triple speak" (truth, only whispered at elite gatherings, myth, and jargon - the latter two fed to the public to confuse and distract.) It is an exciting, brilliant and very necessary book, right on the mark, and highly recommended.

At the close of the Carter administration, Bertram Gross was less concerned about Billygate or an October Surprise than about the vision he had for America's future. Now with the hindsight of sixteen years, it is readily apparent how talented a prophet Dr. Gross was. His premise was simple: Big Business and Big Government have realized that with the increasing docility of Americans, along with their demand for mindless consumption, no longer need to resort to the violent oppression of its citizens that has been the hallmark of past authoritarian states. Today, it is much kinder and gentler (and, arguably, more effective) to assert control through Big Media, what Chomsky would refer to as Manufacturing Consent. No more messy clubbings of uppity citizens darkening the screens of your evening news and no real access to the media for those outside of Big Government/Business. Now controlling all we see as real, these forces are capable of molding reality into their own image, marginalizing those outside their own ranks, and rendering any action, as individuals or collective citizens, impotent. Yet this is all done with a smile, painted just like Ronald's, and just as faux; with a grandfatherly arm around the shoulder as Reagan took America under his wing; and with Big Business' promises of more and better services and products to keep our minds dull and occupied, starving for the next opportunity to consume. Yes, Gross saw the future nearly two decades ago, and it has quietly strolled to our doorstep. Can't you hear the knocking? Or is that just the Domino's delivery driver?

Bertram Gross, while writing this book some 20 years ago, predicted a lot, but far from all. The fascism is here allright, but the "friendly" part is missing, and missing badly! Today's America is the land of the unfree, enslaved people, the land of presently the largest in the world and still growing at an enormous rate Gulag for the poor and disadvantaged. We now hold more of our people in cages than any other country in the world, both in real numbers and per capita. We punish our people and punish them harshly, frequently for totally victimless crimes, or for the crime of wanting to feel better in a hostile world called America. We hold in cages more mentally ill people than any other dictatorship in the world and many of them have been denied their freedom because of their actions triggered by their illnesses. We grant due process of law selectively only to those, who are rich enough to afford to buy it, while processing others through the legal grinder of the human souls, with the grotesque and bizzarre figure called "public defender" assuring near 100%, or frequently exactly 100% rate of conviction. And yes, torture of prisoners in America is quite well-documented fact. So, where's that "friendly" fascism?

Our government kills its people for the crime of murdering another, most of the time, only one human being, but then it sends our army into other countries, kills many thousands of totally innocent people, including entire families and small children, injures, disfigures thousands more, and never admits any wrongdoing and is never punished in any way.

Our Constitution has been raped and destroyed. We now have the largest police force in the world, also both in real numbers and per capita of population. Federal Government is involved in activities forbidden by the Consitution and it doesn't even feel the need to explain, justify the fact. Police breakins into people's homes, searches without warrants take pleace in massive numbers everyday (just watch any TV show Cops - they don't even hide it, they want you to get used to it). They no longer must justify any traffic stop - now they can stop you only because they ar the police, and you are not!

Still, Bertram Gross saw more than what 99.99% of Americans did. This book is well-documented, scholarly written and definitely interesting to read. But do yourself, your country and the humanity a favor. Read also, listen to Gore Vidal, Noam Chomsky, go to any search engine on the Internet and enter "American Gulag", "fascism in America", "prison nation USA", visit at least a few of those sites, study, read, learn, understand. Check www.amnestyusa.org, www.lp.org, www.aclu.org, www.hrw.org, www.cato.org. Until you can, until everything is not yet shut down and destroyed. And never, ever say you didn't know...

"...Huey Long once said, 'Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism'. I'm afraid, based on my own long experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."

Nafeez Moseaddeq Ahmed, Preface
and quote from Jim Garrison, New Orleans
District Attorney, 1967, from the Conclusion
THE WAR ON FREEDOM

the author successfully shows how the military-industrial complex has conquered America and managed to turn it into a Corporate State. Devastating, it shows how the Leftist ideology has been co-opted to serve the interests of Supranational Capitalist Elite. In similar vein to the works by G. W. Domhoff and Rene Wormser (Foundations:their power and influence) - A MUST FOR THE CONSERVATIVE-LIBERTARIAN CITIZENS -

This book is not politically oriented--not pro left or right.
It's also not a conspiracy theory book. Conspiracies aren't required for what has and is occurring.
It is about the evolution of Capitalism from its simple beginnings into Corporate Oligarchy, which Gross call Friendly Fascism.
This book is even more relevant today than when it was written. His predictions of what would occur if his theories were correct were very accurate.
This book profoundly changed my perception of modern Western civilization. It should be required reading for anyone concerned for the future of the United States and other countries with the same reliance on capitalism.

How much freedom do you think you have? Very little. Did you know some 90% of what the government robs us of each pay day finds its way into the hands of the rich, and Giant Corporations? You know the weapons we buy for the event of war, which do not function as advertised. Then we the Taxpayers spend billions more to make these weapons function as sold. Not just weapons, but computers, and just about everything else the government purchases.

The Federal Reserve is not a government bank, but a private bank, and they print, and value our money. Shockingly they are now writing laws designed to protect these bankers aganist the everyday citizen's attempts at filing bankruptcy. With Government being so impotent in the face of the Bankers, it is no wonder all of our jobs are going over seas, and soon we will be in the grips of a new depression. Thank you Woodrow Wilson. No wonder we can do nothing to prevent all the illegal aliens from flooding into our country. It is called economic control. A sure sign of "Fascism." Something we fought World War II to put an end to.

Taxes are scattered to prevent you the taxpayer from understanding just how much we are robbed each payday. You know income tax, gas tax, sales tax, property tax, exise tax, etc.,etc. And you know what, we pay taxes on the taxes we pay. Our bad, we do nothing to change these tax laws. We sit back and take the screwing, all done without lube. Imagine that.

It is all here, but the fact is, some of this should have changed long ago, because this book was written in 1982. Things have only gotten worse. This means we the people are not reading, or trying to change things. We continue to elect, and elect the same old "Brainless, Spineless Twits", and refuse to look past our noses, meaning we get what we deserve.

Read America, please read. Become informed, only by learning can we hope to restore our government.

Timeless work. When my heavily underscored copy of Friendly Fascism wasn't returned from its loan in 1994, I was compelled to close my bookshelf gap through an out-of-print book search. Happily, it's permanent place is now restored. I've read most of the book at least five times since 1980, and I'm not a person who enjoys political obsessions. So why? In a word, exceptional quality. This brilliant analysis is not how to think; it is how to perceive. The calm, courageous, forensic rationality of this gifted man results in a carefully organized, intricate but clear, intellectually powerful, and carefully organized presentation achieving the level of human genius. Bertram Gross implicitly challenges habits of action and inaction (against manipulation) in ways one could not normally open themselves to examine. Like a model professor, his impact is to activate and forever advance the thoughts of any conscious person on any point of the political spectrum. Slightly ironical to consider, his book is itself a tangible example of the efficient wisdom of submitting to a truly superior intelligence.

This book is an excellent study by Bertram Gross on the type of fascism that has strangled the American Republic. The process in which this happened is story lined in the book, Don't Weep for Me, America: How Democracy in America Became the Prince (While We Slept), but Gross's analysis is more of a snapshot, drawing from classic fascism and denotes parallels with the US as well as differences.

Gross tries to gain exceptance of this powerful and scholarly work from the "establishment" by labeling America's fascism "Friendly Fascism". He defines this as "a slow and powerful drift toward greater concentration of power and wealth in a repressive Big Business-Big Government partnership", and "that this drift leads down the road toward a new and subtly manipulative form of corporatist serfdom". This, says Gross, is contrasted with the "vicious corporatism of classic fascism in the past of Germany, Italy and Japan". (The reader needs to keep in mind that this book was published in 1980-today, the "Friendly Fascism" has evolved into the same "Vicious Fascism" of classical fascism days.

But other relevant definitions are offered as well, such as; "a vivid definition of fascism: capitalism in full nudity", or; "fascism as a terrorist dictatorship of big capital". Such definitions are lost on a public conditioned in capitalistic establishment thought because they are not aware that enduring capitalism requires enduring wars for its survival.

This 400-page book is loaded with analysis of fascism and how America properly fits in. For easy understanding, there is a chart with two columns, one with descriptions of "Classic Fascism" and the other with descriptions of "Friendly Fascism, U.S.A.). Following are some of the comments listed in the U.S.A. column:

"An integrated Big Business-Big Government power structure with new technocratic ideologies and more advanced arts of ruling and fooling the public".-see my review of the book, Propaganda.

"Subtle subversion, through manipulative use and control of democratic machinery, parties, and human rights".

"Direct terror applied through low-level violence and professionalized, low-cost escalation, with indirect terror through ethnic conflicts, multiple scapegoats, and organized disorder".

"Informational offensives backed by high-technology monitoring, to manage minds of elites and immobilize masses". (I love this comment in place of "propaganda")

"Rationed rewards of power and money for elites...".

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL: "...mass apathy"!!!!!!

These are all covered in my review of the book, The Dialogue in Hell between Machiavelli and Montesquieu: Humanitarian Despotism and the Conditions of Modern Tyranny (Applications of Political Theory).

American should never forget the comment of Karl Popper, "'It cannot happen here' is always wrong: a dictatorship can happen anywhere".

Or Aldous Huxley, "Hitler's propaganda successes were accomplished with little more than the radio and loudspeaker, and without TV and tape and video recording...Today the art of mind control is in the process of becoming a science".

Gross writes, "To subvert such a government, some people might think that some kind of coup d'etat might be needed. Although this could conceivably happen, it need not. The prerogatives of the Corporate Overseers and the Ultra-Rich could be protected by a combination of legal means so effective that within a few years' time...".

Gross includes excerpts from a book written by Zbigniew Brzezinski in the 1950's, including, "force, fraud and violence have always been features of organized government". Zbig is the embodiment of fascism. He became the US National Security Advisor in the year "Friendly Fascism" was published. For his criminal intentions, see my review of the book, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives. Zbig still influences US foreign policy today.

Gross mentions in this 1980 book that one of our military capabilities is; ocean explosions to produce tsunamis (tidal waves).

How about this quote from neo-con father, Irving Kristol, "The worst is yet to come"!

Gross writes, "the control of minds through managed informaton became as important as terrorism, torture, and concentration camps". This alludes to the comment by Alexis De Tocqueville in his monumental "Democracy in America" that "Civilization has perfected despotism".

"Only through managed information can volition itself be captured and minds be so perfectly subjugated as to keep the appearance of freedom"!

This is "mass suggestion" for your political thought.

'Even under Hitler, as Richard Grunberger has pointed out, "most Germans never knew the constant fear of the early-morning knock on the door. Most people retained the impression that within their own four walls life remained appreciably unchanged"'.

Gross consistently comments throughout the book that there is no conpiracy, even as he writes about the Bilderberger Group and the Trilateral Commission. This "sucking up" to the establishment was meant to gain approval by the US secret government-CFR. In fact, Gross proudly solicited a review of his book "Friendly Fascism" from the CFR and this is the CFR's review:

"A rambling, sometimes cloudy, sometimes insightful lament over the growth of centralized power by business and government in alliance under the direction of faceless managers who mean no harm but are, so the author claims, replacing democracy with a form of benevolent fascism".

I guess that's fair enough. But folks, all I have to say is read this book...so that you aren't surprised at that...knock at your door...