I don't want to create dissent for its own sake or upset anyone's sense of security... anyway, I think I said a "form of fascism"---but perhaps I should have said "brings to mind the intimidation-to-conform-to-a-community-aesthetic by a self appointed body and the pitting of neighbor against neighbor for that result that amongst other developments it characterizes fascism.
Fascism, it should be made clear, is not tantamount to genocide---in the least if anything, it is a middle-class temperament to finding social stability through forceful regimental and oppressive means; while at its worst it can become a hateful or murderous aggression towards non-conformists. In the case of NAZI Germany this was directed towards more than just the millions of Jews that were targeted, it was unleashed upon all those that were outside of the image of aryan magnificence: Gypsies, homosexuals, the infirm or mentally underdeveloped and anyone that challenged the temperament of uniformity and national sovereignty. And one did not have to belong to a marginalized group to be amongst the resistance either.
Feb 2, 2013:
in brief response to a concern that the use of the term "fascist" is distasteful in that it brings to mind the Holocaust.
Firstly, racial hatred fueled NAZISM. A fundamental greed for power fuels fascism. NAZISM was a nationalist movement which sought the literal extermination of the Jews. While Fascism is a violent means to gaining and maintaining control of a populace for private gain; it is not equivalent to genocide.
Orderly Nazi Germany rallies, for example, heralded beautiful and athletic bodies--- while at the same time the city streets saw real chaos as physical violence was unleashed on those who did not conform to the "Aryan" image of beauty, and also competed for earnings in a seriously damaged consumer economy.
Fascism utilizes what ever moves a people, whatever works most effectively and stealthily to symbolize a general dissatisfaction or desire--- Fascism gives its colluding mass of perpetrators the illusion of stability through a focus on the appearance of order and its associative promise of prosperity; while beneath its facade of collective action is only the greed for more power for those few who already wield it through hidden intimidation and "legal" enforcement.
It is in this sense that I claim that Housing Associations are a "form of fascism." I do not make the claim that HAs are necessarily comprised of racists nor genocidal murderers. It can, however, appear to perpetuate class differentiation.
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