Posted on 10/24/2024 8:35:34 AM PDT by abigkahuna
Like all sound political conceptions, Fascism is action and it is thought; action in which doctrine is immanent, and doctrine arising from a given system of historical forces in which it is inserted, and working on them from within. It has therefore a form correlated to contingencies of time and space; but it has also an ideal content which makes it an expression of truth in the higher region of the history of thought. There is no way of exercising a spiritual influence in the world as a human will dominating the will of others, unless one has a conception both of the transient and the specific reality on which that action is to be exercised, and of the permanent and universal reality in which the transient dwells and has its being. To know men one must know man; and to know man one must be acquainted with reality and its laws. There can be no conception of the State which is not fundamentally a conception of life: philosophy or intuition, system of ideas evolving within the framework of logic or concentrated in a vision or a faith, but always, at least potentially, an organic conception of the world.
Thus many of the practical expressions of Fascism such as party organization, system of education, and discipline can only be understood when considered in relation to its general attitude toward life. A spiritual attitude. Fascism sees in the world not only those superficial, material aspects in which man appears as an individual, standing by himself, self-centered, subject to natural law, which instinctively urges him toward a life of selfish momentary pleasure; it sees not only the individual but the nation and the country; individuals and generations bound together by a moral law, with common traditions and a mission which suppressing the instinct for life closed in a brief circle of pleasure, builds up a higher life, founded on duty, a life free from the limitations of time and space, in which the individual, by self- sacrifice, the renunciation of self-interest, by death itself, can achieve that purely spiritual existence in which his value as a man consists.
The conception is therefore a spiritual one, arising from the general reaction of the century against the materialistic positivism of the 19th century. Anti- positivistic but positive; neither skeptical nor agnostic; neither pessimistic nor supinely optimistic as are, generally speaking, the doctrines (all negative) which place the center of life outside man; whereas, by the exercise of his free will, man can and must create his own world.
Fascism wants man to be active and to engage in action with all his energies; it wants him to be manfully aware of the difficulties besetting him and ready to face them. It conceives of life as a struggle in which it behooves a man to win for himself a really worthy place, first of all by fitting himself (physically, morally, intellectually) to become the implement required for winning it. As for the individual, so for the nation, and so for mankind. Hence the high value of culture in all its forms (artistic, religious, scientific) and the outstanding importance of education. Hence also the essential value of work, by which man subjugates nature and creates the human world (economic, political, ethical, and intellectual).
This positive conception of life is obviously an ethical one. It invests the whole field of reality as well as the human activities which master it. No action is exempt from moral judgment; no activity can be despoiled of the value which a moral purpose confers on all things. Therefore life, as conceived of by the Fascist, is serious, austere, and religious; all its manifestations are poised in a world sustained by moral forces and subject to spiritual responsibilities. T h e Fascist disdains an “easy” life.
The Fascist conception of life is a religious one, in which man is viewed in his immanent relation to a higher law, endowed with an objective will transcending the individual and raising him to conscious membership of a spiritual society. “Those who perceive nothing beyond opportunistic considerations in the religious policy of the Fascist regime fail to realize that Fascism is not only a system of government but also and above all a system of thought.
In the Fascist conception of history, man is man only by virtue of the spiritual process to which he contributes as a member of the family, the social group, the nation, and in function of history to which all nations bring their contribution. Hence the great....
I would argue that democrats do not know what they are talking about when it comes to fascism, because they have constructed the girders of that building...
Mussolini would recognize the Democratic Party easily.
In terms of “labeling people whom you don’t like” it is literally true that this began in Moscow about 100 years ago. Anyone to the Right of Joseph Stalin is a “fascist”. You can be a good Communist, or you can be a Fascist. Those are the two options. There is no in-between.
Certainly Fascism has a real philosophy and a well-rounded worldview, and people are free to either agree or disagree with it. But for daily usage, none of that matters in the least. Today, it’s really just a label. It’s an insult. It’s a box you can put people into. Kamala Harris is awesome (because she’s a communist) and anyone who doesn’t think she’s awesome is a fascist.
Mussolini and FDR were mutual admirers in the 1920s and 1930s, IIRC.
Communists never use the word “Nazi”, because Nazi was short for “National Socialist”.
A long quote that bears on that, that was an epiphany for me. By a contemporaneous observer:
Although our modern socialists’ promise of greater freedom is genuine and sincere, in recent years observer after observer has been impressed by the unforeseen consequences of socialism, the extraordinary similarity in many respects of the conditions under “communism” and “fascism.” As the writer Peter Drucker expressed it in 1939, “the complete collapse of the belief in the attainability of freedom and equality through Marxism has forced Russia to travel the same road toward a totalitarian society of un-freedom and inequality which Germany has been following. Not that communism and fascism are essentially the same. Fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion, and it has proved as much an illusion in Russia as in pre-Hitler Germany.”
No less significant is the intellectual outlook of the rank and file in the communist and fascist movements in Germany before 1933. The relative ease with which a young communist could be converted into a Nazi or vice versa was well known, best of all to the propagandists of the two parties. The communists and Nazis clashed more frequently with each other than with other parties simply because they competed for the same type of mind and reserved for each other the hatred of the heretic. Their practice showed how closely they are related. To both, the real enemy, the man with whom they had nothing in common, was the liberal of the old type. While to the Nazi the communist and to the communist the Nazi, and to both the socialist, are potential recruits made of the right timber, they both know that there can be no compromise between them and those who really believe in individual freedom.
— F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
I would add that Hayek’s “liberal of the old type” is what we now call a conservative, or perhaps a patriot, as the Left has stolen the term “liberal” to hide their totalitarianism.
I would agree that the old “liberal” of say Jefferson’s day, would be considered a “conservative” today.
I agree and this is why labeling Trump as a Fascist is ludicrious. Trump would like to see less regulation of life at least on the Federal level, less government in total—quite the opposite of total government that the bureaucratic encompasses. This is why the Chevron decision is the most sweeping overturn in recent history.
The Influence of Marxism in the United States Today:
https://hardonsj.org/influence-of-marxism-in-united-states-today/
A century before Kamala, Mussolini was already coming up with word salads...
You know who DID admire Mussolini back in the 30s? The Business plotters in the 1933 Putsch attempt that Smedley Butler saved America from. They planned to overthrow FDR and install a fascist dictatorship. That Prescott Bush bankers crew was the epicenter.
So I binged watched the HBO series “Plot Against America” which was an alternative history novel by Philip Roth which had Lindbergh run against FDR in 1940 and winning and aligning with Nazi Germany and the increased attacks against Jews in America—
Of course this 2019 series was made to show us how Trump was going to lead us to a dictatorship —but the alternative history was interesting and the series well acted...The Same with Bush et al back in the day....
“as the Left has stolen the term “liberal” to hide their totalitarianism”
Progressives stole the word “liberal” almost a century ago.(1930’s) I really wish we would take it back and restore it. They certainly do not deserve it.
As an aside, you mentioned Hayek so if you haven’t already seen this you might find some interest in it:
New audiobook release: The Use of Knowledge in Society, by Friedrich Hayek
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4246661/posts
"Fascism; A centralized system of government which exercises absolute control over industry, and advocates strong national policies, regulates all news and suppresses opposition."
The definition was updated in the 1960s, probably to make it a more useful debate tool against "The Right".
1968 Websters New World College Dictionary
"Fascism; A system of government characterized by rigid one party dictatorship, forcible suppression of opposition, private economic enterprise under centralized government control, belligerent nationalism, racism, and militarism, etc."
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Orwell reading from 1984 "’In our world, there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement. The sex instinct will be eradicated. We shall abolish the orgasm. There will be no loyalty except loyalty to the party.
But always, there will be the intoxication of power. Always, in every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face, forever.’
Nice, thanks.
This reads like one of Que Mala’s word salads.
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