Just 2 months after the Germans surrendered, ending WWII in Europe, President Truman said this to representatives of the brand-new United Nations:
Fascism did not die with Mussolini. Hitler is finished, but the seeds spread by his disordered mind have firm root in too many fanatical brains. It is easier to remove tyrants and destroy concentration camps than to kill the ideas that gave them birth.
What can I say further? I hope that understanding fascism better (thanks to Albright's book!) will help me fight it better. But what can you do when people don't want to be free?
Another good reminder:
No error is more common than to assume that the winner of an election has license to do whatever he or she many want. In a true democracy, leaders respect the will of the majority but also the rights of the minority—one without the other is not enough. This means that constitutional protections for the individual must be defended even when those protections become inconvenient to the party on top.
I may well end up copying the whole book, but better to go get a copy.
Fascism did not die with Mussolini. Hitler is finished, but the seeds spread by his disordered mind have firm root in too many fanatical brains. It is easier to remove tyrants and destroy concentration camps than to kill the ideas that gave them birth.
What can I say further? I hope that understanding fascism better (thanks to Albright's book!) will help me fight it better. But what can you do when people don't want to be free?
Another good reminder:
No error is more common than to assume that the winner of an election has license to do whatever he or she many want. In a true democracy, leaders respect the will of the majority but also the rights of the minority—one without the other is not enough. This means that constitutional protections for the individual must be defended even when those protections become inconvenient to the party on top.
I may well end up copying the whole book, but better to go get a copy.