If you have not heard it from Evangelists, then most likely from Jihadist Muslims, and more recently from American Democrats. Undeniably, Fascism is gaining on Socialism in the world, or rather, global humanism.

Compassion for human beings and all beings made of flesh and blood has to yield to a bureaucracy of obtaining the proper classification and documentation, issued by some opportunistic and corrupt authority. In the USA, fifteen million immigrants are rounded up, soon to be deported, and twenty million low-income people are robbed of their health insurance.

As children after World War II, we were so very convinced, it could “never” happen again. But how wrong could we be? Extreme Fascism is gaining, strongly supported by popular majorities; right and left, all over the world.

Political correctness no longer exists. Yes, say you can now say it out loud, and most likely, you will be applauded, “people are ready, eager even, to exterminate each other,” once again.

Without sounding a single word of protest, the West allowed the extermination of 6-10 million people in Congo, Central-, East and West Africa, over the last ten years; it was the dawn of a new age of Fascism.

“ Who cares! They are just black Africans. Let them kill each other. We have been trying to keep them apart since Patrice Lumumba and Kasa Vubu, in the 1960’s,” but it was a waste of money, time and effort.

And the Middle East? “ Carpet bombing with the extermination of 5-10 million people,” is Donald Trump’s only reaction. Yes, we are all equal human beings, “but some are more equal than others,” is the going joke in the streets of New York City, nowadays. With countless numbers of people killed, local Middle Eastern governments made it very clear, “those are not human beings, and they do not deserve our respect and consideration.”

Fascism has no ears for those different people, their opinions or religions, no ears for environmental issues, and no ears for globalism. It is the power of narrow-minded, myopic nationalists and racial supremacists. Logic reasoning, scientific evidence, and compassion make place, once again, for brutal force, bullying and intimidation. The age of anti-intellectualism has arrived, and the majority of people does not care.

Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and on the island, Helmien Wiels, were both socialist, fascist radicals, who left behind sharply divided communities, economies in tatters, all at the expense of the middle class. Two months of back fighting behind closed doors on the island displayed a dysfunctional, corrupt political elite, eager to benefit themselves at the expense of the island community. In Europe, Wilders and Le Pen are ready for their brutal turns. Trump will not hesitate to take advantage and exploit any division. Greed wins over gregariousness.

The cycle will take probably ten years at least before it swings back to compassion and love-thy-neighbor.

By Jacob Gelt Dekker
Opinion columnist for Curaçao Chronicle