CNN - asking the right questions

[Razer]

I refer to Umberto Eco as the (snigger) "Authority"

It doesn't take much to understand fascism. 9 pages and 14 ways of
looking at a Blackshirt is plenty.

http://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf

z9wahqvh:
> a more reasonable right-wing definition of fascism is one offered by the
> guy who invented it, Benito Mussolini (actually mostly by his court
> philosopher Giovanni Gentile). Here's just one important part (more here:
> http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/mussolini-fascism.asp):
> 
> For Fascism, the growth of empire, that is to say the expansion of the
>> nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign
>> of decadence. Peoples which are rising, or rising again after a period of
>> decadence, are always imperialist; and renunciation is a sign of decay and
>> of death. Fascism is the doctrine best adapted to represent the tendencies
>> and the aspirations of a people, like the people of Italy, who are rising
>> again after many centuries of abasement and foreign servitude. But empire
>> demands discipline, the coordination of all forces and a deeply felt sense
>> of duty and sacrifice: this fact explains many aspects of the practical
>> working of the regime, the character of many forces in the State, and the
>> necessarily severe measures which must be taken against those who would
>> oppose this spontaneous and inevitable movement of Italy in the twentieth
>> century, and would oppose it by recalling the outworn ideology of the
>> nineteenth century - repudiated wheresoever there has been the courage to
>> undertake great experiments of social and political transformation; for
>> never before has the nation stood more in need of authority, of direction
>> and order. If every age has its own characteristic doctrine, there are a
>> thousand signs which point to Fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our
>> time. For if a doctrine must be a living thing, this is proved by the fact
>> that Fascism has created a living faith; and that this faith is very
>> powerful in the minds of men is demonstrated by those who have suffered and
>> died for it.
>>
> 
> notice all that emphasis on "decadence," on the expansion of Empire, on the
> "strength" of "the nation," on militarism? it's pretty hard to make that
> work with the creation of social security and welfare programs (aka The New
> Deal), or FDR's patent lack of interest in the kind of militaristic
> nationalism that -- oh, he eventually went to war against, but only after
> being dragged kicking and screaming, mostly through the US being attacked
> directly.
> 
> but what did Mussolini know about fascism (despite being the leader of the
> actual movement that gave us the word)?
> 
> 
> On Wed, Nov 23, 2016 at 8:26 PM, z9wahqvh <z9wahqvh at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 23, 2016 at 2:37 PM, juan <juan.g71 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>         I wonder what an 'updated' new deal is considering that the
>>>         Original New Deal was chemically pure fascism...
>>>
>>>
>> in which Juan-who-swears-he's-not-an-authoritarian-right-winger
>> demonstrates that he gets his analysis of fundamental political categories
>> from authoritarian right wingers (the only people--especially Hayek himself
>> and National Review editor Jonah Goldberg--who describe the New Deal as
>> having anything whatsoever to do with fascism, which it did not).
>>
>>
> 

-- 
RR
"You might want to ask an expert about that - I just fiddled around with
mine until it worked..."