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Friendly Fascism Hardcover – June 1, 1980
- Print length419 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherM. Evans & Company
- Publication dateJune 1, 1980
- Dimensions6 x 1 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100871313170
- ISBN-13978-0871313171
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Product details
- Publisher : M. Evans & Company; First Edition (June 1, 1980)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 419 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0871313170
- ISBN-13 : 978-0871313171
- Item Weight : 1.79 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,285,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #21,007 in Political Science (Books)
- #87,841 in World History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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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!
Fascism is a loaded word, and this book, "Friendly Fascism" attempts to analyze the fascist currents in modern democracies with some degree of scholarly removal so that we can look rationally at the state of our society. Gross was showing how many elements of Fascism were firmly embedded in American Society in the 1980s. While the historical context of the book is not up to date, the analysis is still very relevant. The book gives the reader some understanding of Fascism and its history, so that the reader can identify and resist the Fascism of corporativism. If one were to apply Gross's analysis one might say that the election of Trump was not the election of a potential Fascist to turn American Society Fascist. Instead, the dissatisfaction that led to Trump's election was probably driven by deep dissatisfaction with economic hardship and income inequality that to some extent was a result of fascistic elements already present in our country.
For those of us struggling to come to grips with what is happening in the US, this book is illuminating and well worth reading. I have found it compelling. The ideas in it are not new to me - they have been picked up by other, later, writers like Chris Hedges. But the historical context on the whole is quite good, and for me I felt that it did - oddly - give me some comfort.
When reading this book, it is important to remember that it was published in 1980. The Cold War was moving toward détente - with the public's desire for peace finally overwhelming the Militarists' competing interests - for now. The US left was in heady times. "People Power" had ended the US involvement in Vietnam, and seemingly scored major advances in civil rights. Almost no one publicly defended racist and reactionary stances that only a decade earlier seemed to represent the sentiments of the majority. But the post-war economic slump was compounded by a recently resolved petrol embargo, and the general malaise and fatigue from too many disappointments combined with the overconfidence of recent advances to open the way to "Morning in America" and the Reagan Revolution, which is described in these pages before the old Second Banana to a Monkey was ever even nominated. At the time this book had to have been written, most Americans would have considered the likelihood of an extremist like Reagan getting elected to be almost zero.
The result of that massive electoral convulsion set in motion a series of attacks on personal liberty and advanced further than ever the primacy of capital, all in the context of one last push at advancing the Cold War to the brink of disaster - with the outcome known in advance only to a select few. (I can recall a high-ranking Reagan official on "Meet The Press" around 1983 discussing arms control negotiations in the context of the Soviet economy, flatly stating that their economic straits were so severe, that if something did not give within the next 5 years, there may not be a Soviet Union any longer. Somehow, the CIA missed that memo.)
Virtually every move made during this time is predicted in "Friendly Fascism" with motivations and rationale to support it. Further, long-term developments that also came to pass are also hinted at. About the only place where the book falls flat is its "alternative scenario" of a "Fortress America" as the lone refuge of Capitalism in an increasingly socialist world, still polarized by a Cold War split. You have to cut Gross some slack here, because unlike the CIA in 1986, he wrote that before the aforementioned 1983 "Meet the Press" episode.
Despite its dated subcontext, this book is useful as a map for the interests of power, and how they are applied within the facade of "democratic rule", and the methods used to allow fascism to exist in plain sight, while leaving it room for plausible deniability that depends on a combination of emotionally-driven denial, and common misperceptions of the true nature of fascism.
A classic that gets far too little credit or attention.




