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Why Fascism Stems From Ordinary People, Not Monsters
e too often think of people brainwashed by propaganda and fear and tyranny and the desire to conform with their neighbors. But that's not what happened. This was a bottom-up, real, thoughtful, self-justifying movement with true, powerful, convincing, fundamental roots. That's what you have to think through to understand the core of fascism.
What we're interested in is the fascist core — the fascist heart, spirit or soul. Maybe in a way, I like to think of myself like a cooking channel. I want to show you the ingredients. These ingredients might go by other names in history. Factors, conditions, drivers, historical forces, or simple causes. But I quite like ingredients because, like a cooking channel, I've tried to show you the core basics and it's up to you how you interpret them, the weights you give them, the things you think I've missed. It's up to you to put it all together with everything else you know in your head.
But the ingredients at the heart of fascism, the fascist minimum as it's been called — fascism has been endlessly debated by historians. Let's quickly go through our ingredients.
The spiritualizing or heightening of violence. Anti-rationalism, a reaction to the Enlightenment. Heroism and action over religious debate or thought. Myth and story over rationalism and materialism. Vulgar or Social Darwinism, the scientism of struggle. Ultra-nationalism and Völkisch thought as a crisis of capitalism and liberalism. Authority and order over freedom and chaos. Anti-Bolshevism or anti-universalism. Paramilitarism. The reality and shock of World War One. And establishment support from big money and big politicians.
This becomes quite a list, and it risks fascism becoming that thing that you can't define, but you know when you see it.
Why Fascism Stems From Ordinary People, Not Monsters (77 pages)
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