No political category is more misunderstood and misapplied today than fascism. A true understanding of this 20th Century ideology is important for grasping our current cultural moment.
I use the term in the sense I understand (a limited understanding after reading this) Mussolini used, corporatism. That is the unholy alliance between corporations and government, a point we reached in this country decades ago.
I am a well read man in my 70s yet use the word fascist with confidence only as a synonym for “asshole”. Has anybody ever actually put up signs explicitly urging the general public to “Join the Fascist Party!” Or “Vote Fascist”?
Well, no, no one has put up such signs, but on the other hand the tenor of much thought today, particularly on the left, is that the state should have power over the individual: get your vaccine, wear your mask, do not disobey or question. Do not question our power. That's the trajectory of fascism, although of course maybe now it wears the disguise of "stay safe" or DEI.
The problem of totalitarianism/fascism is one of political power in that the entire thrust of it is that the state is supreme over all individuals, all industry, all thought, all art, etc. As Mussolini stated, “all within the state, none outside the state, none against the state.”
We're at a point now of massive technological power aligned with the power of the state, and as such it doesn't matter who is president: what matters if we want to avoid fascism is that the state is cut down to size, deliberately and consciously, and that the sovereignty of the individual-- and individual reason-- is once again placed at the center of political life. An ideal of subsidiarity, not of central governing authority, should guide governance, with that most central authority being the individual in their working toward self-determination within the broad confines of the law.
So if we want to look at the logic of the state, that logic is simply that state power naturally wants to grow and take all power unto itself, unless this tendency is deliberately checked. In America today, power is becoming arbitrary and law arbitrary, as those within the state apparatus believe they can do whatever they want, whatever they think is for the greater good.
The state wants to destroy souls-- it could care less about souls, it only cares about how individuals fit into the state machinery. But contrary to some strains of thought today, finding our souls or speaking authentically means absolutely nothing if we've let state power overwhelm all individuality. The state will simply crush us.
Government transparency, individual opacity. It irks me that some speak of the psychological roots of totalitarianism, as if its rise is something else than raw state power gathering everything unto itself, while people are distracted from countering this by false notions of how that political scheme actually arises because of our own mechanistic thinking. This notion is absurd yet unfortunately, it's also popular.
Wins a place, in my judgment, alongside the seminal treatments of Nazi ideology by Leo Strauss, "German Nihilism," Pierre Manent, "Is There a Nazi Mystery?" (in his A World beyond Politics?) and the key chapters of Alain Besascon's A Century of Horrors. I knew that both Mussolini and Hitler were enviously fascinated by Lenin/Stalin, but it's rich indeed to additionally witness Mussolini talking up relativism.
I use the term in the sense I understand (a limited understanding after reading this) Mussolini used, corporatism. That is the unholy alliance between corporations and government, a point we reached in this country decades ago.
I am a well read man in my 70s yet use the word fascist with confidence only as a synonym for “asshole”. Has anybody ever actually put up signs explicitly urging the general public to “Join the Fascist Party!” Or “Vote Fascist”?
Well, no, no one has put up such signs, but on the other hand the tenor of much thought today, particularly on the left, is that the state should have power over the individual: get your vaccine, wear your mask, do not disobey or question. Do not question our power. That's the trajectory of fascism, although of course maybe now it wears the disguise of "stay safe" or DEI.
The problem of totalitarianism/fascism is one of political power in that the entire thrust of it is that the state is supreme over all individuals, all industry, all thought, all art, etc. As Mussolini stated, “all within the state, none outside the state, none against the state.”
We're at a point now of massive technological power aligned with the power of the state, and as such it doesn't matter who is president: what matters if we want to avoid fascism is that the state is cut down to size, deliberately and consciously, and that the sovereignty of the individual-- and individual reason-- is once again placed at the center of political life. An ideal of subsidiarity, not of central governing authority, should guide governance, with that most central authority being the individual in their working toward self-determination within the broad confines of the law.
So if we want to look at the logic of the state, that logic is simply that state power naturally wants to grow and take all power unto itself, unless this tendency is deliberately checked. In America today, power is becoming arbitrary and law arbitrary, as those within the state apparatus believe they can do whatever they want, whatever they think is for the greater good.
The state wants to destroy souls-- it could care less about souls, it only cares about how individuals fit into the state machinery. But contrary to some strains of thought today, finding our souls or speaking authentically means absolutely nothing if we've let state power overwhelm all individuality. The state will simply crush us.
Government transparency, individual opacity. It irks me that some speak of the psychological roots of totalitarianism, as if its rise is something else than raw state power gathering everything unto itself, while people are distracted from countering this by false notions of how that political scheme actually arises because of our own mechanistic thinking. This notion is absurd yet unfortunately, it's also popular.
Wins a place, in my judgment, alongside the seminal treatments of Nazi ideology by Leo Strauss, "German Nihilism," Pierre Manent, "Is There a Nazi Mystery?" (in his A World beyond Politics?) and the key chapters of Alain Besascon's A Century of Horrors. I knew that both Mussolini and Hitler were enviously fascinated by Lenin/Stalin, but it's rich indeed to additionally witness Mussolini talking up relativism.