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Unity Within the Fasces

It has been said that the freemasons may have believed that a person’s spiritual wellbeing could be improved through exposure to representations of (what are believed to be) divine geometric proportions in architecture – even if the person thus exposed had no consciousness of the power of the geometry. This leads me to wonder if exposure to other symbols might help explains the disintegration of egalitarian justice which seems to be rampant in the halls of political power in Washington, D.C.

In a number of significant government buildings in Washington D.C. there is a distinct replaying of ancient Roman symbolism. Among the various expressions of that imperialism are many representations of the fasces.

There are three components, the blade, the bundled supports of the handle which enfolds the blade, and the restricting straps which tie it together. The fasces are usually seen as tight, vertical, rounded lines which are tied together by diagonal, criss-crossing and parallel lines. In the iconography of Washington, the blade is often unseen in order to limit to focus on unity.

Among the many locations where the fasces are displayed, the most prominent use of these symbols are probably in the Capital building – especially in the House chamber – and on the Supreme Court building, but they are even found beneath the hands of the seated Lincoln in his memorial.

These symbols in the architecture are meant to convey the message that it was the unification of the former British colonies in warfare which made the United States of America possible and these symbols now speak of the importance of their unity in all of the subsequent wars. It seems to be assumed by most people that this is a vital expression of integrity and a commitment to equality of all the identical vertical parts which form the handle of the weapon.

There are other messages within these symbols which, I suspect, are not recognized and which underly the above stated assumptions about unity and integrity. One overlooked message is that the binding together of the parts of the fasces is done from the outside. This means that the supposed unity and integrity are imposed upon the weapon by forces which keep themselves beyond the restrictions which are used to to make the weapon serve the purposes of those forces.

The fasces of the Romans was fashioned from an assembled group of uniform rods which were gathered and manipulated to secure the blade. The reduction of, at least some of, the parts to fit as uniformly as possible made for a more efficient weapon. The efficacy of the fasces as a weapon has always depended upon the reduction of individual differences and a striving for uniformity among the components so that, when tightly bound from the outside, there is a guarantee that no component could escape their position of service to its controller.

The restrictive imposition of unity and uniformity from outside of the natural characteristics of the component parts of the handle does not mean that the component parts have greater integrity. It also does not mean that the component parts can infuse integrity into whoever has control of the fasces.

It has become somewhat commonplace for people in the now faking USA to point at the lousy, dis-integrative, manipulative arrogance of the Trump administration and label it as fascist. This is easy to understand and it does seem appropriate, but there is a great danger in trying to limit the fascist characterization to the Trump administration and to ignore the fact that the government has celebrated fascist imagery and has inconsistently but continuously promoted the characteristics of fascism for much of its existence.

The most significant aspects of Mussolini’s delineation of fascism which are currently widely promoted by democrats and republicans alike include an authoritarian promotion of patriarchal religiosity, the continuing enlargement of militarization of the society, the increasing control of economics by private corporate interests, and the blatancy of disregard and intolerance for the self-determination of other nations. This employment of the beliefs of Italian fascism has been gradually, bi-partisanly increasing since the middle of the 20th Century and it has become more and more dogmatic and smug in its dismissiveness toward consciousness and democratic processes during the most recent decades.

The (so-called) democrat primaries and their convention of 2020 have taken the lessons of 2016 and are tying them up more tightly in favor of a unity of abusiveness and submissiveness to please the desires of militarized private interests. The desired priorities of the majority of voters who identify as democrats have been summarily crushed by the party. This year, weaponized private interests have more quickly crushed the upstarts of socialization and environmental responsibility while they openly celebrated their devotion to neo-con deviants.

The priorities of Mussolini’s ideology have been increasingly infusing the fascist imagery in Washington. It is a growing repudiation of integrity in favor of the supposed security of greater restrictive bindings whereby the blade of global conquest will continue to be enlarged for the advantage of its handlers.

Clearly, TrumpPence is a disturbing glint on the leading edge of the blade, but it is a gross mistake to pretend that BidenHarris would reduce the razor-like edge or the thrust of its use in the service of global disintegration. Either way, with either Trump or Biden, it will be swung and the death and destruction which it delivers will be in service to those who control the binding of the handle’s components.

Bernie Sanders led people on with the illusion that his supposed campaign was about “Us, not Him,” but as push has come to shove again, he has again left “Us” in order to align himself with corporate control and more militarism under the dubious notion of “unity.” That “unity” is based upon the whittling away of the components of the handle so that they will be more uniformly pressured against each other and submissive to the weaponization of their good intentions and more readily tied up within the control of/by private corporate cunning.

The democratrepublicans are demanding one option with two campaigns.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have spent most of their careers helping people like Donald Trump and Mike Pence rise in power and vice versa.

I honestly do not know if these people are cognitive-challenged, if they are predatory deviants, or both. I only know that I have no way of trusting any of their judgement and their words. This distrust is based upon their own histories of promoting predatory malfeasance and how they have already misrepresented themselves. At this point, of these four, Biden has the most blood on his hands, but I have no confidence that Trump, Pence, or Harris are above trying to push for greater suffering and slaughter. They and their parties make numerous accusations of international malfeasance against other nations while they and their supporters participate in greater displays of the very same sorts of malfeasance on a much larger scale. It is hard to believe that the democratrepublicans are so stupid that they can’t see their own devious and predatory hypocrisy.

Possibly the worst devotees of the fasces are the supposed progressives who resemble stale, twisted pretzels as they again and again help prevent the rise of a real progressive and anti-fascist party. Their corporately owned party continues to display its disdain for them and these pseudo-progressives keep insisting that it is vital to submit to the abuse they receive. They seek unity with their preferred abusers and they think they are superior to the foolish voters who proudly seek more abuse from Trump. The idea that someone can vote for Biden and claim that they do not support his clearly stated disdain for progressive ideas and programs is beyond absurd.

With either Biden or Trump in the White House, the military budget will increase farther, international hostilities will increase, social programs which help protect the vulnerable will be, at best, minimized, and greater wealth will continue to be directed into the pockets of the greediest.

Once again, the outer bindings of the fasces will be tightened and the ensuing destruction through its use will be for the benefit of the owners of the weaponized bundle while the vast majority of people will be locked within the handle. We are supposed to take pride in our entrapment and we are supposed to believe that this subjugation is a democracy.

I believe that most people want something resembling Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal, but the democratrepublicans continue to insist that what we need is more of a Pentagonally controlled future.

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