While some critics of US President George W Bush have charged that his administration is pursuing policies of madness, such a charge is clinically incorrect, but it may convey an extraordinarily disturbing reality. Both an eminent psychologist and a noted political scientist perceive a particularly virulent social pathogen as the basis for much of the present global strife, with Washington at the center of the epidemic.
 
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   And noted political scientist Dr Michael Parenti told Asia Times Online that he agrees. Parenti - who received his PhD in political science from Yale and is the award-winning author of 18 books - noted that "there's a concern that we're tending towards fascism, or we're replicating fascism today". The way in which fascism is defined is key.

    Parenti sees fascism as a tool employed by ruthless power elites to achieve their ends. "And what they've learned in the more than 80 years since its [fascism's] origin is that they can achieve many of these things - more securely perhaps - while retaining a democratic veneer.

    "The essence of fascism, I believe, is in its output. And its output is a system which systematically redistributes wealth from the many to the few, and ensures the domination of giant cartels over the whole political economy," Parenti said. By eliminating the traditional fascist symbolism and mannerisms, by putting white gloves on it, if you will, Parenti sees the use of "plain old Americanism" as the "cloak around which people will rally and give the president these extraordinary powers, and surrender their own liberty and the like".