Politics is played out within the context of a political culture. It was interesting to note that a fashion retailer named 'Hitler' opened recently in India. You can read it here. It was, and remains, an excellent starting point for the construction of an upper-middle class bracket fashion brand. (Think fcuk with more tongue-in-cheek malevolence). Nevertheless, it was closed, for obvious reasons. But more interestingly, it reflects again the need to suppress an ideology that has continued resonance and holds political dangers and pitfalls to the West in a way that is completely unimaginable, even comical, within the cultural context of India.
As an international student studying in UK, it is interesting to observe that the role that liberal dogmatism plays in this cultural context is essentially a reaction formation. Counterintuitively, it is a response not to bourgeoisie conservative ideology, but to social Darwinism, and the implicit longings of purity and supremacy, whatever institutional form it might take (individual, race, state, etc.). Love of the free market, and the success of the free market, is the counterbalancing force, and outlet, to this longing. Love of liberal ideology takes the form of faith. A sensitive and intelligent tyrant could potentially use this deep longing for the ends of an adopted messianic ideology - these possibilities exist richly, at least in my surroundings as I perceive it, in a way that is non-permitted and, more importantly, inconceivable in my home country (in Asia, not India). Here it is living flesh - facism is the repressed unconscious of my surroundings - a fundamental centrifugal force, as it were, among a plurality of competing forces - shallower, but louder, and uncensored, competing forces.
More to the point - if one desires purity, bodily transcendence and supremacy above all else, the distinction between individual and state, subject and object, that characterize superficial dichotomies in standard political discourse will prove empty. One kick and the edifice will crumble. That is why stagnating economic growth in Europe is so worrying.
One can operationalize this idea with Zizek's notion of rendering harmless through integration and humour. This is intuitively obvious. The fact that Indians may joke about Hitler shows that they have transcended Hitler in a way that the West has not. This is not necessarily a good thing.
Disclaimer: This is a obviously a highly subjective treatment, based on narrow exposure.
