The Futurist Manifesto

F. T. Marinetti, 1909

1. We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and rashness.
2. The essential elements of our poetry will be courage, audacity and revolt.
3. Literature has up to now magnified pensive immobility, ecstasy and slumber. We want to exalt movements of aggression, feverish sleeplessness, the double march, the perilous leap, the slap and the blow with the fist.
4. We declare that the splendor of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath ... a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.
5. We want to sing the man at the wheel, the ideal axis of which crosses the earth, itself hurled along its orbit.
6. The poet must spend himself with warmth, glamour and prodigality to increase the enthusiastic fervor of the primordial elements.
7. Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man.
8. We are on the extreme promontory of the centuries! What is the use of looking behind at the moment when we must open the mysterious shutters of the impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We are already living in the absolute, since we have already created eternal, omnipresent speed.
9. We want to glorify war — the only cure for the world — militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman.
10. We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice.
11. We will sing of the great crowds agitated by work, pleasure and revolt; the multi-colored and polyphonic surf of revolutions in modern capitals: the nocturnal vibration of the arsenals and the workshops beneath their violent electric moons: the gluttonous railway stations devouring smoking serpents; factories suspended from the clouds by the thread of their smoke; bridges with the leap of gymnasts flung across the diabolic cutlery of sunny rivers: adventurous steamers sniffing the horizon; great-breasted locomotives, puffing on the rails like enormous steel horses with long tubes for bridle, and the gliding flight of aeroplanes whose propeller sounds like the flapping of a flag and the applause of enthusiastic crowds. 

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The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

by Lawrence Britt, Spring 2003, Free Inquiry magazine

Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy. 

The 14 characteristics are: 

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc. 
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc. 
4. Supremacy of the Military Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized. 
5. Rampant Sexism The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy. 
6. Controlled Mass Media Sometimes the media are directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media are indirectly controlled by government regulation or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions. 
9. Corporate Power is Protected The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite. 
10. Labor Power is Suppressed Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed . 
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts. 
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations. 
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders. 
14. Fraudulent Elections Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections. 

Copyright © 2003 Free Inquiry magazine. Reprinted for Fair Use Only. This article was based upon the article "The Hallmarks of Fascist Regime" by Skip Stone, at www.hippy.com/php/article-226.html.
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html (hypertext) 
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.txt (text only) 
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.pdf (print ready)

from Here is New York

“The city, for the first time in its long history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger than a wedge of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers, cremate the millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now: in the sound of jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition.”

E.B.White, 1948

Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for History in My Lifetime (so far)

1954: A Stillness at Appomattox by Bruce Catton
1955: Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History by Paul Horgan
1956: The Age of Reform by Richard Hofstadter
1957: Russia Leaves the War: Soviet-American Relations, 1917–1920 by George F. Kennan
1958: Banks and Politics in America by Bray Hammond
1959: The Republican Era: 1869–1901 by Leonard D. White and Jean Schneider
1960: In the Days of McKinley by Margaret Leech
1961: Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference by Herbert Feis
1962: The Triumphant Empire: Thunder-Clouds Gather in the West, 1763–1766 by Lawrence H. Gipson
1963: Washington, Village and Capital, 1800–1878 by Constance McLaughlin Green
1964: Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town by Sumner Chilton Powell
1965: The Greenback Era by Irwin Unger
1966: The Life of the Mind in America by Perry Miller
1967: Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West by William H. Goetzmann
1968: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn
1969: Origins of the Fifth Amendment by Leonard W. Levy
1970: Present At The Creation: My Years in the State Department by Dean Acheson
1971: Roosevelt: The Soldier Of Freedom by James MacGregor Burns
1972: Neither Black Nor White by Carl N. Degler
1973: People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization by Michael Kammen
1974: The Americans: The Democratic Experience by Daniel J. Boorstin
1975: Jefferson and His Time by Dumas Malone
1976: Lamy of Santa Fe by Paul Horgan
1977: The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861 by David M. Potter (Completed and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher)
1978: The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.
1979: The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics by Don E. Fehrenbacher
1980: Been in the Storm So Long by Leon F. Litwack
1981: American Education: The National Experience, 1783–1876 by Lawrence A. Cremin
1982: Mary Chesnut's Civil War by C. Vann Woodward
1983: The Transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790 by Rhys L. Isaac
1984: no award given
1985: Prophets of Regulation by Thomas K. McCraw
1986: ...the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age by Walter A. McDougall
1987: Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution by Bernard Bailyn
1988: The Launching of Modern American Science, 1846–1876 by Robert V. Bruce
1989: Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson
1989: Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–1963 by Taylor Branch
1990: In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines by Stanley Karnow
1991: A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
1992: The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties by Mark E. Neely, Jr.
1993: The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood
1994: no award given
1995: No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin
1996: William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic by Alan Taylor
1997: Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution by Jack N. Rakove
1998: Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion by Edward J. Larson
1999: Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace
2000: Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945 by David M. Kennedy
2001: Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis
2002: The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand
2003: An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942–1943 by Rick Atkinson
2004: A Nation Under Our Feet by Steven Hahn
2005: Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer
2006: Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky
2007: The Race Beat by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff
2008: What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 1815–1848 by Daniel Walker Howe
2009: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
2010: Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed

Historians Reassess Battle of Agincourt

NYTimes.com
"No one can ever take away the shocking victory by Henry and his 'band of brothers,' as Shakespeare would famously call them, on St. Crispin’s Day, Oct. 25, 1415. They devastated a force of heavily armored French nobles who had gotten bogged down in the region’s sucking mud, riddled by thousands of arrows from English longbowmen and outmaneuvered by common soldiers with much lighter gear. It would become known as the Battle of Agincourt...."