Association With Dictatorship
Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, introduced the goose step in 1938 as the Passo Romano ("Roman Step"), but the custom was never popular in Italy's armed forces.
The goose step was especially ridiculed by Allied propaganda during the world wars of the 20th century as a symbol of blind obedience and senseless attachment to military form. In the United States and Great Britain, the custom became virtually synonymous with German militarism. During WWII, it was condemned in George Orwell's essay The Lion and the Unicorn, and proved an easy target for parody in many editorial cartoons and Hollywood movies.
The Soviet Union and other Communist countries retained the goose step after Nazi Germany's defeat. However, many of the countries that maintain the tradition today are ostensible democracies.
Read more about this topic: Goose Step
Famous quotes containing the words association and/or dictatorship:
“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“There ought to be an absolute dictatorship ... a dictatorship of painters ... a dictatorship of one painter ... to suppress all those who have betrayed us, to suppress the cheaters, to suppress the tricks, to suppress mannerisms, to suppress charms, to suppress history, to suppress a heap of other things. But common sense always gets away with it. Above all, let’s have a revolution against that!”
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)