How to Fuel Fascism

How to Fuel Fascism

by Meg Curtis. PhD

     The intense cinematic masterpiece Keeper of the 

Flame came out in 1943, two years after the United 

States entered World War II. The quality of the acting 

and directing may distract viewers from the startling 

timeline which research inspired by this movie launches 

upon contemporary developments.

     One website remedies this oversight: 

A time-line of World War II at http://www.scaruffi. 

com/politics/wwii.html. Immediately, it becomes 

apparent that WWII crept upon the world like a 

centipede, crawling mercilessly over people's minds. 

Before they knew it, it seemed, Japan had bombed Pearl 

Harbor, and Britain and the US had returned the favor, 

declaring war together on 8/12/1941. Then, both sides 

engaged: On 11/12/1941, Germany and Italy declared war 

on the USA.

     This timeline reveals more, though, than the 

onslaught of creeping military machines. Lo and behold! 

The very same countries and locations keep appearing 

like that infamous phrase "de ja vue." Read it carefully. 

Not only do the US and Britain keep popping up along 

with Germany and Japan, but also Hong Kong, Syria, the 

Soviet Union, Iraq, Libya, Greece, and Africa. Like 

forgetful tourists, why do we not recognize the scenery 

and the long hard trek so many nations made before?

     While the media have been blabbing about 

celebrities, plastic surgery, sex changes, drugs, and 

marriages of various kinds, history has been teaching us 

a lesson we apparently skipped while American leaders 

demonstrate again that they don't like war. Is that news? 

Meanwhile, that ferocious timeline keeps crawling 

forward like the machines described so lyrically in The 

Red Badge of Courage, America's monument to its own 

brutal Civil War.

     Read the timeline. Then, read it again. It begins with 

these immortal words: "1933: Students of the University 

of Berlin burn thousands of books by Jewish authors." 

So, where did we ever get the idea that students were 

heroes for being anti-war activists? Where did we get 

the idea that Jews constituted only a race despised by 

Hitler? Those ideas come from propaganda which erases 

history.

     The famous Three R's may be outdated. Maybe it's 

time for the Three S's: Sit down, Shut up, and Study. 

When we get the facts right, maybe we can recognize the 

forces whirling us around like flotsam and jetsam on the 

currents of power—which misuse the ignorant every 

time they can. As the wounded accumulate, it is too late 

to say: "I'm sorry. I overslept that day when the teacher 

covered World War II—and I really had to send a text 

message to my friends."