Uh-oh. That sounds like Obama Meets The Taliban.
That is accurate, if as deliberately uncharitable as possible. I prefer to think of it as the Roosevelts unencumbered by an uncooperative Congress and Supreme Court, before all of this modern liberal silliness. I am not interested in primitive tribal barbarism-- merely the reclamation of moral standards of decency and decorum that our society has abandoned.
We need laws to prevent people from harming others; we do not need laws telling people what to do "for their own good."
No? When people hurt themselves, they hurt everyone around them. They lose productivity. They become a drain on resources. They destroy their own lives, and their families' lives, and innocent bystanders' lives. I think we need seatbelt laws and helmet laws and laws against drinking or texting while driving. I think we need laws against public intoxication and public indecency. I think we need laws against pornography and prostitution and the solicitation of prostitution. I think we need laws to limit the abuse of tobacco and cannabis and other drugs. I think we need laws that help hold families together rather than laws that tear them apart.
The way you explain it, it actually sounds good.
I challenge you to read Mussolini's
Doctrine of Fascism and tell me that what he is promoting, his
ideals, are not positive and life-affirming. There were failures in implementation. There were unfortunate decisions. There were atrocities. I won't make excuses for history, but there hasn't been any atrocity committed by autocratic governments that hasn't been duplicated in democratic governments.
But who decides what is moral/ethical? Are those things not subjective?
"Moral" is a relative term.
Absolutely, yes. Which is why they have to be enforced. It isn't so much a matter of whether or not you are right-- though some values are better than others-- as a matter of whether or not you are committed.
What country currently has this form of government?
Currently? None. China is probably the closest, but as a former Communist republic its ideology is too anti-spiritual. There's no shortage of autocratic regimes on the planet, but the majority of them are either Communist or monarchies. Iran is another possible candidate, but it is a case of the clergy having
too much power; to be properly Fascist, spiritual authority has to be incorporated into secular authority, not the other way around. A Fascist State has to be both spiritual
and forward-thinking.
It's also worth noting that what works for China and Iran is not what works in America. Americans are a unique people and American Fascism must be uniquely suited to them.
1. If a fascist system is autocratic, do you see problems in people handing off power as it seems it would require a bit of a cult of personality, given the examples of German, Spain, and Italy.
2. Do you see general societal harshness towards what is determined to be lesser people a general feature or a bug?
1. Yes. It is a problem. Having some mechanism for establishing the lawful transition of power is key, but due to the means by which Fascist governments obtain power, it's unlikely. A strong Party authority that can override or even replace the leader would ensure both (mostly) peaceful transitions of power and enough conflict to keep the government sharp. In the absence of such mechanisms, the best solution is for the leader to simply rule for as long as he is capable and then be replaced by
coup d'etat. Allowing him to designate his own successor will lead to a weak or inept political crony replacing the strong leader who initially seized power.
2. That depends on why they are considered "lesser" people. If they are aliens or lesser for objective reasons, it is a feature in that it upholds the purity and vitality of the nation. If they are lesser for arbitrary reasons, it leads to the nation cannibalizing itself and squandering its own intellectual and cultural potential, which is a definite bug. It is a difficult balance to maintain, as it is hard to establish objective criteria by which to differentiate between assimilated immigrants and aliens. That is my primary objection to the BNP and other right-wing movements; they tend to focus too much on external measures of identity rather than cultural affinity.