16 June

This was the Germany of my dad's childhood. He knew a bit about fascism. (And to be blunt, look at that. Trump is a rank amateur.) One thing and one thing alone produces tyrannies. Not ideologies, not violence or bullying, not people doing funny salutes. One thing. People copying each other, in their millions. That's it, just copying. It begins with the simplest, most innocent things. Copying pictures of cats riding on vacuum cleaners, or selfies. Or what they wear, or what they say. Or all singing the same songs at the same gigs, in their thousands or millions. Anything at all will do it. Just copying. Because every imitation is driven by rivalry, even though it looks like people just 'sharing' things. The more imitation, the more the rivalry, the more violent the society becomes. 'Fascism' is just what happens when you arrive at the point where everybody copies everybody else, without thinking. The most inhumane atrocities can happen then. People are 'only following orders' (i.e. copying). Fascist societies are the most social of all societies. They are social life, on steroids. Nothing but sharing. Nothing is individual.