Blogora Classic, Aune on Fascisms, 2006-08-11

Fascisms

Staying on message, both POTUS and Santorum used the term "Islamo-fascism" this week. I've posted on this before, but here again is a summary of Umberto Eco's classic essay on Ur-Fascism, for purposes of comparison:

1. Cult of tradition: there is some original wisdom (pre-philosophical) that we have lost:
a. Either "pure" (non-Jewish) Christianity or pre-Christian Indo-European mythology
b. Occult elements (hostility to science)

2. Rejection of modernity:
a. Rejection of science and technology (except as tools for warfare)
b. Suspicion of capitalism, especially big business, for destroying traditional communities
c. Rejection of liberty and equality as fundamental values (rejection of the Enlightenment)

3. Cult of Action for Action's Sake:
a. Hostility to intellectuals and intellectual life as subversive of traditional values AND as unconnected to the "real" world of toughness and action
b. Thinking is a form of emasculation

4. Dissent is betrayal: science proceeds by testing all hypotheses, liberal democracy by opening public issues to discussion and debate; no fascist can accept criticism.

5. Fear of difference (racial, cultural, ideological): everyone must think alike (or be eliminated from the community)

6. Springs from individual or social frustration: especially targets the frustrated middle class, envious of the rich but afraid of social pressure from below. The old "proletariat" or working class, having improved its lot in Europe and the U.S. post-WWII is now perhaps the greatest potential audience for a new Fascism, as it feels its economic gains slipping away.

7. Obsession with conspiracies: both outside the nation (xenophobia) and within (the perennial Jewish conspiracy from the inside).

8. Disciples must feel humiliated by the enemy's strength and power; paradoxically, the enemy is at once too strong and too weak.

9. Life is a permanent war; there must be a "last battle," "Armageddon," "final solution" after which an era of peace is created.

10. Scorn for the weak; "popular elitism": the people belong to the best people in the world, but there must be leaders, because the masses are like children, needing to be led.

11. Cult of death: the final reward for a heroic life.

12. Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Fascist transfers his will to power onto sexual questions. This is the origin of machismo: contempt for women plus an intolerant condemnation of nonconformist sexual habits, especially homosexuality.

13. Populism: the "people" are no longer represented by the courts, the executive, and the legislature. Politics-as-usual is rotten.

14. Use of Newspeak (George Orwell, 1984): use of language to prevent critical and complex reasoning. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.

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Part of the original essay, with references, is here:

http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/Umberto_Eco_-_Eternal_Fascism.html