Fascism by Madeleine Albright

SET IN THE VEGETABLE MARKETS OF CHICAGO, THE RESISTIBLE Rise of Arturo Ui is a parable of how Fascists can ascend to the top in any community. In Bertolt Brecht's play, an ambitious gangster, egged on by unscrupulous aides, blackmails a politician into appointing him to a position of power. From there, a few acts of betrayal, some finely targeted violence, a little instruction in public speaking, and a couple of threats are enough to crush all rivals. By the final curtain, the gangster has seduced the public, silenced the press, cowed the courts, and eliminated all opposition, even while admitting to "not being loved."

Written in 1941, the script parodies Hitler's rise and shows Fascism to be a vicious predator, quick to exploit-among other human frailties-timidity and greed. Brecht stresses a further point: that for Fascism to extend its reach from the streets to the high offices of state, it must secure backing from multiple sectors of society. This insight has value today because of the growing tendency in the media to portray Fascism as a logical outgrowth of populism and to attribute both allegiances to an unhappy lower middle class, as if anti-democratic sentiments were the exclusive property of one economic tier. They're not, and there is nothing inherently biased or intolerant about being a populist, which Merriam-Webster defines as "a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people. " Were I to be given the choice of sitting inside or outside that large circle of believers, my response would be, "Include me in."