So, instead of many of the most advanced nations having their crowds saluting marching fascist, the fascists frequently have to be protected from the crowd, - in many cases.
Unfortunately, quite a scary fact is that it takes but a small cascade of circumstances to turn and manipulate the crowd from being a
"patriotic anti-fascist normal person" into a
"ultra-nationalist fascism supporter - without knowing it".
For instance, an economic recession turns the crowd into xenophobes. People start blaming the underpaid, exploited, and often illegal immigrants as if they were the main reason why people are starting to lose their jobs - when in reality through the process of "restructuring", corporate businessmen in high circles fire 20 thousand employees and then give themselves a pat on the back and a 50% raise. Although the notion of "class" became pretty much unpopular since after the destruction of the Communist Bloc and a setback in major Marxist ideals and their thinkers, quite surprisingly the lower 'caste' of the populace as a class, in above described situations, have a dangerously high tendency to be absorbed by ultra-national/ultra-rightwing ideals and start lashing out against either aliens or ethinic minorities in a vent of rage and frustration.
For example is my very own South Korea. One would think our little country, being so far away in the East, and has experienced colonial rule under the Imperial Japanese during 1919~1945, would think that it'd hardly have anything to do with fascitic tendencies.
However, after South Korea has become a major econmic force in Asia after the '80s, immigrations from more impoverished countries such as Indonesia, Phillippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka.. and etc etc.. have been surging, with each passing year bringing in record numbers of both legal and illegal aliens. This social phenomenon is very much new to us - unlike the Western countries which have been experiencing such immigrations for almost a century.
At first, such immigrations were viewed kindly upon, as it was a source of national pride. More aliens coming in meant that South Korea was economically powerful. And then, after the near-fatal economical crisis of 1998, the public view started to change. Although this crisis was mostly an international financial disaster, and hardly had anything to do with domestic employment rates, the impact was severe, and people started blaming immigrants for taking over jobs at lower wages - despite the fact that it wasn't anything like that.
The public sentiment began to lash out against human rights organizations and any such
"left-wing-ish" NGOs who were trying to protect immigrant rights in South Korea. As economic failures loomed over the society, suddenly every crime committed by illegal aliens were making the headlines in the papers. Human rights activists were attacked and accused of
"hugging the foreigners and ignoring national interest by protecting criminal scum". Everyone who had a dark skin color - as those of Southeastern Asians - were viewed as potential criminals and rapists and such.
Incredibly, a domestic surge of pro-fascist political parties consisting of young people under age of 30, has been witnessed during the recent decade. Nazism, racism, ethnic purists and such were never before seen in South Korea, and we don't have laws against such poltical cancer cells since it was never a problem. People simply assumed South Korea had nothing to do with fascism - boy were we wrong. In other words, our young generations are starting to turn ultra-nationalist right-wing.. in an environment where names like "Hitler" or "Mussolini" or "Nazis" were deemed to be something from far away lands.
Although these domestic fascists in South Korea are still very small, they are beginning to grab the attention of younger folk through mediums such as the internet or private publicatons.
Again, since we never thought fascism would ever become a problem in Korean soil, we don't have any laws to protect and contain such menacing ideas from spreading around. Besides, the recent growth of China, and their aggressive and nationalistic postures against its neighboring countries, in fields such as ancient history, has lured many young people into believing a bogus-nationalist view of ancient history which puts ancient Koreans as a
"master race" of people, who've virtually started human civilization itself. They claim the ancient Koreans ruled the entire Eurasian continent, as well as the middle east states such as Assyria or Sumer.
I can hear some of you laughing... since it no doubt reminds you of thosee
19th century ~ WW2 bogus historic theories conjured up by dinky German academics, which was aimed to prove the "racial purity" of the "Aryan master race" who were the "rightful rulers of the European continent". Those late-romanticism piece of craps and their fetish towards horned helmets... "the purest of the breed, the Aryans" giving a new birth to European civilization after the fall of the Roman Empire... and blahblahblah
ad nauseaum.
However, it is no laughing matter. A cult of "amatuer historians" have forged a number of bogus ancient history texts, and this gained so many supporters that major broadcasting channels started making history dramas and movies based on such forgery. Incredibly, more than 30~40% of the population now believes that there are some truths to such outrageous and ahistorical claims, despite warnings from professional historians that such views are far from the truth.
In short, recent turn of events in the socio-political situation of South Korea, has brought up a domestic line of near-fascistic and ultra nationalistic cults which is starting to gain momentum. Unlike the European states or the USA, which have fought against such diseased political ideologies during WW2, and has gained at least some measure of "antibodies" against it, South Korea is totally unprotected and unprepared. We are being caught by the balls in a swift, surprise blow coming from domestic fascists, and the politicians don't even know the society is under such attack.
The only thing that keeps these domestic fascists from becoming a major political force in South Korea, is that their movements are very exclusive and generally do not tend to form alliances... as well as the "old traditional" conservatives and political elites of South Korea, coming from the Liberalist Party or the military dictatorship heritage of old, are usually really very "old" in their thinking, and do not consider such domestic forces comprised of young people as viable political partners in sharing power.
...
What is happening in my Far-Eastern country, should provide some insight to this discussion, in that "fascism" is not an exclusive phenomenon. Fascism is an ugly, perverted version of democracy in its worst form, where people give up individuality and willingly turn totalitarian and through a pseudo-"democratical" process, and start making scapegoats to blame their domestic problems upon. During times of crisis, such as economic crises, the public is lured into believing a government-driven action plan of "purging" the society of "ill elements" for the cause of national interest. In other words, no country is totally immune, and it can happen anywhere - even in a country as ours. They are like mushrooms after a rain. One day, the crowd itself becomes the turncoats.
So in all due seriousness, I don't think its a laughing matter.
