Fascism is a little-understood and overused word. It derives its name from the Roman fasces carried by magistrates as a symbol of authority. A fasces is a group of rods bound around an ax. It’s strength symbolized group unity in Mussolini’s eyes, and thus became the symbol of his Fascist Party.
Fascism was a new word invented by Mussolini to identify his organization. There is no single definition of fascism, which makes it easy for people to throw the term around quite readily. Even Mussolini had difficulty in explaining it consistently. He began the movement as a socialist, and fascism evolved to mean government control, but not ownership, of all commercial activity. That is because people could not be trusted to run their own businesses to serve all:
“Fascism, now and always, believes in holiness and in heroism; that is to say, in actions influenced by no economic motive, direct or indirect.”
And
Fascism repudiates the conception of “economic” happiness.
Ownership did not fall into the hands of government, because that would be socialism, and Mussolini wanted to break from the Marxists in Europe. The appeal of Fascism and its nationalistic fervor inspired Hitler to add some facets of the ideology to his own National Socialist Party to counter the socialist influence of the Soviet Union.
What I know of fascism is its desire to control not only commerce, but society and culture. People equate strong nationalism as the definition of fascism, yet that was simply a rallying point for Mussolini. As with any dictator, the leader was more important than the country. The nationalism both he and Hitler espoused was race-oriented rather than bound by geography.
Mussolini wrote his manifesto in 1919. Which political party in the US does this sound like?
* The nationalization of all the arms and explosives factories.
* A strong progressive tax on capital that will truly expropriate a portion of all wealth.
* The seizure of all the possessions of the religious congregations and the abolition of all the bishoprics, which constitute an enormous liability on the Nation and on the privileges of the poor.
* The formation of a National Council of experts for labor, for industy, for transportation, for the public health, for communications, etc. Selections to be made from the collective professionals or of tradesmen with legislative powers, and elected directly to a General Commission with ministerial powers.
* A minimum wage.
* The participation of workers’ representatives in the functions of industry commissions.
Is fascism really right-wing?
Like I said earlier, yes it does sound like a party I know. But it has changed.
I think of the political spectrum as a circle. Go far enough to the Left and you come up on the Right…and vise-versa. Fascism goes both ways.
Comment by rfidtag — July 7, 2004 @ 2:17 pm
Post got screwy…I think of the political spectrum as a circle. Go far enough to the Left and you come up on the Right…and vise-versa. Fascism goes both ways.
Comment by rfidtag — July 7, 2004 @ 2:18 pm
We agree.
Comment by Bunker — July 7, 2004 @ 4:48 pm
And given that its ally, National Socialism, shared many of the same positions and policies, we know where that puts Mr. Hitler on the political spectrum as well.
It is no accident that the Soviets insisted that the Nuremburg Court use “Nazi Party” rather than “National Socialist Party” in all proceedings, given that the USSR was the leading proponents of spreading the international socialism.
Comment by TexasTeacher — July 11, 2004 @ 2:11 pm