Ur-Fascism - was Re: CNN - asking the right questions

Zenaan Harkness zen at freedbms.net
Wed Nov 23 22:39:55 PST 2016


Authority indeed. Thank you :)


On Thu, Nov 24, 2016 at 04:55:00AM +0000, Razer wrote:
> 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).



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