The Mass Psychology of Fascism - Anxiety Depression Self-Help

destroying the old bourgeois state machinery, the state apparatus of officials and judges. However, the still relatively low cultural
level of the broad masses, 6 the lack of administrative experience on the part of
________
6 The "still relatively low cultural level of the broad masses" is a rationalistic concept of the biopathic human structure; it does in no way comprehend the fact
that serfdom is deeply anchored physiologically, that it has become second nature, so that the masses go on reproducing their own suppression.
[217] individuals elected to posts of high responsibility, the necessity of calling on professionals of the old school in difficult
situations, and the call into the army of the most highly developed stratum of the urban workers, have led to a partial redevelopment
of bureaucracy within the Soviet order. 7
For the complete eradication of bureaucracy, the Communist party of the Soviet Union, which wages the most decisive fight
against this evil, advocates the following means:
(1) Obligatory participation of every member of a Soviet in some aspect of the work of government administration.
(2) Consistent rotation of the Soviet members in this work, so that it gradually extends to all branches of administration.
(3) Gradual participation of the total working population in state administration.
The complete realization of all these measures which represents a further step on the path on which the Paris Commune set out,
and a simplification of the administrative functions with a simultaneous raising of the cultural level of the workers, lead to the
abolition of state power.
The following points of the program characterize Soviet democracy:
1. Local and provincial self-government, without any superimposed authority.
2. Independence of the masses.
3. Deprivation of political rights and restriction of freedom as a transitory means.
4. Not formal but factual granting of all rights and freedoms to all non-capitalistic classes.
5. Simple, direct vote.
6. The right to elect and recall the deputies.
7. Voting not according to districts of domicile but according to units of production.
8. Responsibility of officials and obligatory accounting to the Soviets of workers and peasants.
________
7 Here, the close connection between bureaucracy and human incapacity for freedom is obvious.
[218] 9. Rotation of the Soviet members in the various branches of administration.
10. Gradual inclusion of the total working population in the state administration.
11. Simplification of administrative functions.
12. Abolition of state power.
In these historically decisive principles, one thought fights for clarification: that of simplifying social living in a
factual manner. It remains bogged down, however, in formal political thinking. The nature of state politics itself
is not yet clarified. True, the masses are given the framework of freedom, but they are as yet not confronted with
factual social tasks. The fact is not mentioned that the masses of people cannot take over the state and (later on)
the social administration, such as they are today. For the state-political thinking of today was originally created,
by the first hierarchic representatives of the state, against the masses. No matter how much we talk about
"democracy," politically we are still bogged down in the thought systems of the old Greek and Roman slave
states. If social self-government is to become possible, more is needed than changing the form of the state. Social
existence and its guidance must be altered according to the tasks and needs of the masses of people. Social selfregulation
must gradually replace the state apparatus or take over its rational function.
5. "THE INTRODUCTION OF SOVIET DEMOCRACY"
Now, after the 8th Party Day of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had founded the Soviet democracy in
1919, the 7th Soviet Congress in January, 1935, proclaimed the "introduction of Soviet democracy." What was
the meaning of this nonsense? Let us try to clarify this process by an illustration: