Fascism: outline/objectives

1. Fascism: outline/objectives • Enlightenment thought • Counter-Enlightenment • Counter-Enlightenment and Fascism • Fascism – Italian and German • Fascism and freedom • Fascism and democracy • Fascism as ideology

2. Fascism defined • More negative than positive • What it is against, opposed to • Reactionary ideology • Reaction against other ideologies • Eighteenth-century Enlightenment • Liberalism and Socialism (Enlightenment ideologies)

3. Enlightenment thought • Humanism – humans source and measure of value; human life valuable in and of itself • Kant – sovereign "kingdom of ends"; unjust to use another human being as means to one’s own end or goal • Rationalism – humans are rational; reason (especially scientific inquiry) will solve mysteries, reveal solutions to problems • Secularism – religion not absolute, unquestionable truth; where science and scripture conflict, science trumps • Progressivism – history story of progress and improvement (perhaps even inevitable improvement) in human condition • Universalism – single, unified, universal human nature binds whole human race together, despite differences of race, color, or religious creed; human beings equal, share same essential nature

4. Origins of Fascism • 18th and 19th Counter-Enlightenment • Reactionary intellectual current • linguist Herder • royalists de Maistre and Bonald • libertine and pornographer, Marquis de Sade • racial theorist, Arthur Gobineau • According to Keynes, these “intellectual scribblers” supplied themes for 20th Century fascists

5. Contrary to Humanism • Differences – sex, race, language, culture, creed, and nationality – run very deep • Define who and what people are, how they think of themselves, of other people, and interrelationships • Contrary to Kant, people do treat one another as means to their own ends

6. Contrary to Rationalism • Prevalence of superstition, irrational prejudice shows reason is weak • Most people, most of the time, cherish and cling to unexamined beliefs • Do not want to allow themselves, or anyone else, to examine them closely, much less criticize them

7. Contrary to Secularism • Religious beliefs are socially necessary and useful • Good that people believe there is heaven to reward good and hell to punish wicked • To question or criticize these beliefs is to endanger social stability • If people came to doubt existence of afterlife, all hell (so to speak) would break loose on earth

8. Contrary to Progress • Faith in inevitability of progress is misplaced or mistaken • Innate human limitations make substantial progress impossible and illusory • Imperfect human beings live in, and perpetuate, imperfect human practices and institutions • “Progressive” move would be regressive; return to earlier, better, condition than decadent, corrupt, or perverted present

9. Contrary to Universalism • No universal human nature to transcend and override differences of race, religion, and creed • Differences define who and what we are – Jew or Aryan, Catholic or Protestant, man or woman, master or slave, child or adult, black or white • Our natural predilection is to associate with people like us, and to shun those who are different • Between those who are different in race, religion, language, nationality, etc., conflict is inevitable and cannot be eliminated

10. Counter-Enlightenment and Fascism • Taken together, Counter-Enlightenment ideas form backdrop for 20th Century Fascism • Italian Fascism (Benito Mussolini) reflects all aspects of Counter-Enlightenment • Natural for strong to dominate weak, men to dominate women, superior nations (like Italy) to dominate weak and inferior nations (like Ethiopia) • Other differences – especially class – subordinated to nation • Nation’s embodiment is the state; symbolic/emotional embodiment is all-powerful Duce, or leader • Focus of love, loyalty, and authority • Democracy unnatural and unworkable

11. Fascist freedom (Italian) • Agent = nation • Goal = national power and glory • Unquestioning loyalty of citizens; nation's power over other nations • Obstacles = Enlightenment ideas – especially liberal notions of individual “rights” against the state and Marxists notions of divisive class struggles • Not overcome by rational debate or “parliamentary bickering” • Overcome by sheer force and powerful propaganda, which appeals to people's patriotism and love of country • Force supplied by Black Shirts and propaganda by state ministry of propaganda

12. Italian Fascism • Mussolini believed Italians had deep-seated need to believe in and to follow all-knowing and all-powerful leader • Innate “will to believe” once vested in God and religion • Now more likely to be directed toward political leaders like himself • History is story of a few Great Men – Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, and now Mussolini – able to mobilize myths and tap sentiments which inspire and motivate particular peoples in particular times and places

13. German Fascism • Adolf Hitler believed Fuhrerprinzip (leadership principle) bound masses to all-knowing leader • Became obedient body, and he the head and heart • Just as body follows head and heeds the heart, so must people or Volk follow their Fuhrer blindly, unquestioningly, obediently • Democracy is dangerous delusion • Fuhrer thinks and acts as Volk would if they were racially pure, free of “foreign” ideas and ideals, and bent on realizing innate racial destiny • Volk need Fuhrer to represent and act on behalf of their racially higher selves

14. Nazi freedom • Agent = Volk, essence/spirit represented by Fuhrer • Goal = Volk to realize its destiny; volkishor racial purity and supremacy • Aryan Volk – blond, blue-eyed Teutons of Germany, northern Europe destined (if they have the “will”) to dominate other, lesser peoples or races – particularly Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, and other “inferior” races or nationalities • Obstacles = Jews and other “inferior” peoples; “Jewish” ideas about equality • “Jewish” ideas include Liberalism and Marxism, Enlightenment ideas • “Soft” ideas about equality, humanity obstacles to Aryans bent on destroying enemies of racial purity • Hitler and Nazis used propaganda to deadly effect • Ideas led to burning of books; burning of temples and synagogues; arrests and deportations; and, finally, burning of people by the millions

15. Death of Fascism? • Hitler and Mussolini are dead • Legacy lives on in various white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups in U.S. • Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation, gangs of “Skinheads,” and Neo-Nazi militia groups • Some are inspired by The Turner Diaries, chilling fictional portrait of white supremacist revolution that produces racially “pure” America • Fascism hardly relic of bygone era; still with us, unfortunately

16. Key terms • Fascism • Reactionary ideology • Enlightenment • Counter-Enlightenment • Nationalism • Elitism • Irrationalism • Italian fascism • German fascism • Fascism as ideology • Fascism and democracy

17. Discussion questions • What are the main features of Enlightenment thought? • What are the main features of the Counter-Enlightenment? • What is the connection between the Counter-Enlightenment and the several varieties or variants of twentieth-century fascism? • What are the main tenets of fascism as found in the Italian and German variants? • What is the view of human nature and freedom found in the several variants of fascism? • What is the fascist conception of, and attitude toward, democracy? • How does Fascism operate as an ideology? (explanation, evaluation, orientation, program)