| Communism is an international doctrine which has gradually been | adjusted to differing natinal circumstances. Fascism is the exact | opposite: it is a series of non-intellectual, even | anti-intellectual national reactions artificially united and | transformed into an international doctrine by the facts of power. | The history of fascism, as an ideology, is largely the history of | this transformation. . . .
| The liberal breakthrough of the mid-nineteenth century generated | the intellectual raw material of fascism. Liberalism was largely | the work of the educated middle classes. . . .
| The liberal breakthrough of the mid-nineteenth century generated | the intellectual raw material of fascism. Liberalism was largely | the work of the educated middle classes.
| The old elites of Europe (aristocracy, landlords, churches) nursed | their wounds and meditated revenge ont he upstart bourgeoisie. . . .
| Lord Acton predicted that the organic structure of society would | become impatient with continuous laissez faire. Jacob Burckhardt | believed that the liberal, democratic juggernaut was leading to | disaster and would in the end be overtaken by very illiberal, | undemocratic drivers who alone would be able to steer it. And | these new masters, unlike the old ruling dynasties, would be | Gewaltmenschen, terrible simplifiers who would "rule with utter | brutality." . . .
| From 1917 to 1923 the Russian Communists preached not socialism in | one country but world revolution. This was the catalytic force | which gathered up the intellectual debris of the Gobineaus and the | Gongenots and rearranged it in a new, dynamic pattern. Faced by | the terrible threat of bolshevism, the European middle classes, | recently so confident, took fright. | | So, fascism as an effective movement was born of fear. . . .
| Each stage in the rise of European fascism can be related to a | moment of middle-class panic caused either by economic crisis or | by its consequences, the threat of socialist revolution. . . .
| Historically fascism was essentially nationalist. Structurally it | was always something of a coalition. | ... Behind the vague term fscism there lie in fact two distinct | social and political systems. These are both ideologically based, | authoritarian, and anti-parliamentary liberalism. | ... These two systems can be described as | | [***] clerical conservatism and | | [***] dynamic fascism. | | Every fascist movement was compounded of | these two elements in varying proportions ... . . .
| In the highly industrialized countries the middle class was not | only the effective ruling class but had also absorbed large | sections of the other classes. In these countries the landed | classes were turned into tributaries of the middle class. The | middle class in industrialized countries also drew to itself, | largely out oft he working class, a large "lower middle class" | (artisans, shopkeepers, petty civil servants, skilled workers). . . .
| The lower middle class, in fact, provided the social force | of "dynamic fascism". | | The 1890s were the incubatory period of fascism. There were at | least three prominant philosophers who became the teachers of this | new generation of fascists. The ideas of these teachers were, of | course, frequently grossly perverted by their pupils: | | 1. Georges Sorel: illusions of progress; necessity of violence; | utility of myth | | 2. Vilfredo Pareto: the iron law of oligarchy; perpetuation of the | elite | | 3. Friedrich Nietzsche: idea of the superman as a law unto himself | | Thus fascism proper, what we can call dynamic fascism, was a cult | of force, contemptuous of religious and traditional ideas, the | self-association of an inflamed lower middle class in a weakened | industrial society. This is radically different from ideological | conservatism, the traditional clerical conservatism of the older | regime, now modified and brought up to date fort he 20th century. | both are authoritarian and both are hierarchical, but that is | were the similarity stops. | | The differences were, however, confused by their common front | against communism in the 1920s and sometimes the confusion was | deliberately designed by the fascists themselves. For instance: | Hitler, the fascist, posed as a conservative to get power. General | Franco, the conservative, posed as a fascist to get power. | | This confusion was exploited by the dictators Hitler and | Mussolini: in each case the Catholic Church played a significant | and positive role. it did so because with the conservative classes | generally it supposed that dynamic fascism could be used as the | instrument of clerical conservatism. In each case the calculation | proved to be wrong. The Church by its opportunism gave itself not | a tool but a master. . . .
| It was the conservative patrons and their ideas who were | discarded, the vulgar demagogues that survived. | | This happened because neither Hitler or Mussolini were interested | in being conservative rulers. Both were revolutionaries who | relished the possibility of radical power. In both Italy and | Germany the fascist dictators saw a basis for that power - the | lower middle calss made radical by social fear. Themselves | familiar with this class, its aspirations and fears, they believed | that they culd mobilize it as a dynamic force int he state and | therby realize ambitions unattainable by mere conservative support . . .
| Little by little the conservative classes who had brought the | fascist dictators to power found themselves the prisoners of that | power. They were imprisoned because that power, in a highly | industrialized society, had another, and wider base. | | Thus the dynamism of fascism depends directly ont he existrence of | a strong industrial middle class and ont he malaise of that class. | Germany was more highly industrialized than italy and it was in | Germany that the fascist dictatorship was most complete. In Spain | there was no social basis for fascism. . . .
I love the two-handed salute. He used to do much the same thing as a young lad -- except he had a frozen shoulder, and could only raise his right arm. More here.
P
Ummm, how much gold is on that seat from which he's making his announcement? :)
