Anyone with a brain would understand that.
God does not exist—religion in science is an absurdity, in practice an immorality and in men a disease. …Looks a lot like the political (and social) left, yes? All from when Mussolini was in power as a fascist.
— Mussolini, 1924
Fascism establishes the real equality of individuals before the nation… the object of the regime in the economic field is to ensure higher social justice for the whole of the Italian people… What does social justice mean? It means work guaranteed, fair wages, decent homes; it means the possibility of continuous evolution and improvement. Nor is this enough. It means that the workers must enter more and more intimately into the productive process and share its necessary discipline… As the past century was the century of capitalist power, the twentieth century is the century of power and glory of labor.
— Mussolini, 1935
When the war is over, in the world’s social revolution that will be followed by a more equitable distribution of the earth’s riches, due account must be kept of the sacrifices and of the discipline maintained by the Italian workers. The Fascist revolution will make another decisive step to shorten social distances. …
— Mussolini, 1941
bkmk
Roughly one out of 3 people are your enenmy.
Not sure if this article is trying to remove T. S. Elliot from conservative ranks but it should not happen.
“The world is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time; so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and to save the world from suicide.”
T.S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture
Distaste with, dissent from, and reaction against the crudity and shallowness of modern culture is a common feature of conservative and traditionalist thought. It can easily be compatible with pro-free market and pro-capitalist political views.
Fascism began when certain socialists became disillusioned that the Revolution could or would happen. They woke up from Marx’s fairy tales but still wanted what Marx promised. Whet the socialists may call them killing the landlord’s butts was just them moderating in hopes of getting more of the well heeled chattering classes on board and with that get some of the goodies.
Fascism is the Left. It always shared the same underlying assumptions. It still does even though the real fascists, all still Leftists, want to call anyone they disagree with fascists.
Fascism compares with Gramsci’s efforts, for he too gave up on Marx’s proletariat and changed his focus onto the commies in the chattering classes, who Stalin called useful idiots, hoping for the top down crap we are presently fighting.
The introductory paragraph:
“During a seminar on Modernism, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, I delivered a presentation linking modernist ideas with fascism; communism; and other anti-democratic, authoritarian political systems. My presentation was not well received by the seminar’s director, a left-wing professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. What he especially objected to was my evidence that Modernism is an inherently reactionary, anti-modern cultural movement and that deathly figures such as Hitler and Mao were modernists in their cultural tendencies.”
Diseased minds reject this responsibility and rely on a totalitarian government to provide the goods and services that their careless and nonproductive lifestyles would otherwise deny them. This is, of course, accomplished at the expense of the productive.
Whether seen in a fascistic or socialistic light, it's all totalitarianism to me.
Late modernity rejects early modern liberalism but not its rationalism, so they seek a hyper-rational illiberal state, of either a leftwing or a rightwing variety. The leftists believe in a cosmopolitan, universal class structure that justifies any action to combat it including eliminating any "bourgeois" rights. The right believes that society can be perfected only through ethno-nationalism that also justifies any action including the suppression of "bourgeois" rights.
What's happening in the US is that the left has seized on "racism" as a useful cudgel to create an all powerful state while the oligarchs have realized that funding social communism gives them cover to continue looting the country. So the US has a confusing mix where the left appeals to ethnicity while the oligarchy is rewarded with monopolies and corporate fascist public-private cooperation like the Big Tech censorship programs.
Modernism, in the form of modern architecture and abstract expressionist art wasn’t hostile to modern capitalism.
The modernism of Eliot may have picked up on some of the weaknesses of modern secular “bourgeois” capitalism, which led to what we have now.