The Fascist Virus: Recognition

[Cain]

"Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death."
- Adolf Hitler

"The strategic adversary is fascism... the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us."
- Michel Foucault


Fascism.  Now there is a word which has been bandied about so much as to almost lose its meaning.  Hard to say when it began, probably before Germany was even overrun by the victorious Allied armies.  George Orwell noticed the problem, and talked about it, in his essay "Politics and the English Language", where he explained the word had literally degenerated to the point of meaning "something I don't like".

But lets turn the clock back.  Let us forget, for the moment, the pathetic name-calling that passes for political commentary, the paranoid mud-slinging that designates this ideological enemy-du-jour or that a "fascist" or next Hitler.  No, imagine its 1945, and you are in place to examine Berlin.  You serve in your nations armed forces, perhaps in charge of interrogating prisoners (back in the day before that meant torture and humiliation).  Now what does fascism mean?

I would hazard a guess, based on my own reaction, it would mean something like this: terror from above.  Racism.  Hatred.  Totalitarianism.  Intolerance beyond measure.  Messianic belief in the destiny of a chosen group.  Fealty and absolute obedience to a leader above all.  Genocide.  Conquest.  Symbology and muddled occult/religious thought.  Regimented masses.  Spying and torture and concentration camps.  A world drowning in rape and murder on a scale never seen before or since.

Is that more what you had in mind?  If so, then good.  Maybe you understand why fascism, as an ideology, scares the hell out of me.  Such hatred and irrationality is nearly impossible to reason with, for any definite period of time.  On an individual level, sure, but as you work your way up, the fascist system of power is a self-perpetuating run away train.  It either wins, or is smashed by something larger and more powerful.  Look at Hitler, for the prime example.  Groomed by the Prussian military elite, the Wall Street traders and the anti-communist working class, he proceeded to betray each in a methodological manner, through seizure of absolute power (depriving German conservatives a say in how he ran the country), through non-aggression with the Soviet Union (though he smashed the German Communist Party) and through the Night of the Long Knives.  Trust, negotiation and compromise are anathema to such a worldview.  They'll laugh at you behind your back if you think you can rely on them, and use your corpse as a stepping stone to further power.

Some of you are no doubt saying "that is all good and well, but fascism is mostly gone.  Barring a few sad sacks who run around the place screaming about secret Jewish/Muslim plots and how foreigners are stealing their jobs and so on.  They're a broken force."

The problem is, I fear that they are not.  For a while, they certainly were, its true.  But we have to first understand there are different strands of fascism, and how they fit into the larger political scheme of things.  Fascism is in many ways the disease of industrial/post-industrial society.  The conditions within are the only ones we know of which can cause Fascist groups to erupt into power.  They may have many ideological antecedents, and they make think of themselves as Romantic era counter-revolutionaries, but Fascism did not exist until industrial society had suffused the mind and soul of the most highly developed nations.  The conditions are there, they just require the right sort of spark for them to catch alight.

Fascists have their uses, as well.  As you've no doubt noticed, the hubris of our long-established political elites is for all practical purposes, limitless.  They understand fascists have to be kept on a leash to achieve their goals, their plans, but even so, they come oh so dangerously close to the mistakes von Papen and Hindenburg made in 1933.  Of course, they would deny such a thing, even when presented with the evidence, but its true.

The point I am trying to make, I guess, is that fascism never went away.  It never died.  It went quiet, for a long time, and stayed covert for even longer, caught up in the many confusing, paralysing and contradictory plots of the National Security State and Fight Against International Communism (Or Anything That Looked A Little Too Pink), it hid itself among right-wing populists and cults and mercenaries, but it never truly died the death it deserved in 1945.

And now, its becoming almost acceptable in public, once again.  If you think I'm crazy, I present Case Study 1: Italy.  In some ways it is of course unsurprising, but in others, very shocking.  Italy is the only country in modern Europe to have ever welcomed an openly fascist party into government in the post-war era.  Its leaders are corrupted by their associations with it, and the extensive Italian criminal underworld.  Now gypsies are fingerprinted and treated like criminals, while politicians direct gangs to beat up and intimidate left wing rivals and student groups.  Muslims are told to go home, and their mosques fire-bombed, while paranoid rantings that Muslims intend to take over Europe (because saying the same about Jews is, mercifully, still, beyond the pale) are in fashion. 

And its not just Italy either.  In the UK, over 100,000 people have voted for openly fascist political parties in the past decade – despite the fact that in many ways the modern British identity is based around the WWII struggle against fascism.  In France, the Front National, led by the odious Jean-Marie Le Pen, controls over 10 towns, and managed to get into the final run-off for the elections to the office of French President.  In Germany, another country that should know better, Helmut Kohl, when facing a torrent of racist violence directed against immigrant workers, took the side of the fascists who were terrorizing such people and told them to get out, then passed laws to restrict their asylum conditions.

And America.  Of course, I have talked at length about how the militias and "Patriots" of the 90s came far too close to fascism for my liking.  Unleashing a wave of terrorist attacks that, had they been Arabs, would have had the country in perpetual lockdown, they nonetheless find their activities supported by Neo-Confederates, Birchers and similar movements.  Now with a Democrat back in power, and a media industry built around conspiratorial nonsense peddling and eliminationist rhetoric, many are preparing for their crypto-Muslim-Communist leader to crack down on them by striking first.

Into the western culture, a fear of "the other" and a renewed sense of righteousness through bloodshed has come back into fashion.  The Global War on Terror has left the psychopaths back in demand, with big budgets and greater leeway than ever before.  And fascism has always attracted a certain kind of mentally deranged killer.

And now, as a financial crisis rocks the roots of the world economy, socialism is too coming back in fashion.  Some may think this is an odd thing to bring up, but it has its place.  Fascism is often a tool, fostered by the more traditionally conservative elites, to wipe out Communist and Socialist sentiment.  That this tool then turns on them is something they seem unable to recognize, but as our economical and ideological foundations continue to self-destruct, some people in high places who are feeling panicky are once again going to see the appeal in giving the Brownshirts a little bit of fun. 

That's why its so vitally important to understand the history of fascism, after the war ended.  Only by knowing its roots, how it interlocks into a larger meta-political strategy, and how the painfully short-sighted powers that be loose control of it, can we hope to stop what is, I believe, a now undeniable resurgence.

More parts to follow.

[Payne]

Good shit.

I've been thinking about a resurgence of the far-right for a while now (especially since my father joined the BNP). It's not so inconceivable as I would like that a serious far-right Party, Cult of Personality or some other form of Fascism could gain power and/or influence either here or somewhere close to here.

I'll read the other instalments with interest, as I'll be the first to admit that I am far too ignorant of the real issues to make statements on them.

[Honey]

Once again I marvel at your ability to assimilate the various threads into one coherent tapestry of meaning.  Always timely to explore meaning as it relates to the present context.  Bravo!  Looking forward to more on this.

[Kai]

I recall you wrote another piece about defining fascism.

[Reginald Ret]

This reminds me of Geert Wilders.
I hopw he is not that bad because he seems to have become a permanent part of the political landscape.

[Corvidia]

Very interesting! Looking forward to the rest.

[Requia ☣]

A much belated

[Cain]

I recall you wrote another piece about defining fascism.

I did.  Not sure where it is though.

Anyway, thanks.  First installment is in the works.  Wont be too interesting, treading on old ground, but the further parts will be, I hope.

[LMNO]

Sucks that we'll never get the rest of this.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah. It really does. Fuck.

[Epimetheus]

OR WILL WE

[Jenne]

The warning in the last part gets ya in the nutsack.  Great reading, yet again, Cain.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

That's why its so vitally important to understand the history of fascism, after the war ended.  Only by knowing its roots, how it interlocks into a larger meta-political strategy, and how the painfully short-sighted powers that be loose control of it, can we hope to stop what is, I believe, a now undeniable resurgence.

I don't think it CAN be stopped.  At least not until we soak everything in blood, just like always.

[potato]

I would hazard a guess, based on my own reaction, it would mean something like this: terror from above.  Racism.  Hatred.  Totalitarianism.  Intolerance beyond measure.  Messianic belief in the destiny of a chosen group.  Fealty and absolute obedience to a leader above all.  Genocide.  Conquest.  Symbology and muddled occult/religious thought.  Regimented masses.  Spying and torture and concentration camps.  A world drowning in rape and murder on a scale never seen before or since.

I feel inadequate to respond because I'm so completely naive when it comes to politics and sociology, yet I'm compelled to respond because reading this has given me some insight to how I lived for 20 years and makes me want to explore the connection.

I lived in a fascist... nay, extremely fascist religious cult cobbled together to support the control by a single man over every detail of the followers lives. I lived sometimes completely sequestered from outsiders, and always separate. looking back on it with this bit of perspective raises the hair on the back of my neck. there were deaths. rapes. suicides after closed-door meetings. witch-hunts. isolation. weapons training. mental conditioning to kill under certain conditions.

I need to learn more. something amorphous in my mind is beginning to take shape, finally.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

ONE OF US! ONE OF US!

Just kidding.