a Fascist by any other name

a Fascist by Any Other Name

Name calling is as old as language. The latest pejorative buzz word is “fascist”. It is a wonderfully effective one – it conjures up images of Mussolini and his black-shirts, the terror of secret police and stokes our fears with hints of a possible descent into the hell of Hitlerism.

But as I said last time, I suspect the old terms left-wing, right-wing, fascist, communist have developed a life of their own quite independent of their historical meaning. So I decided to check up on what the Italian Fascist party of the early to mid 1900's actually believed, and what policies they implemented to at least tried to implement when they were in power.

What I found was quite surprising.

The real Fascist platform was much more like the policies of the people now throwing this epithet, than those it is aimed at! Weird, but true! So I developed a 20 point check-list based on the main themes of Giovanni Gentile, who was the 'Karl Marx' of fascism, and what Mussolini tried to implement when he had the chance (he didn't achieve all of them because … well he was Italian! And he was up against a powerful Catholic Church which, much as he despised them, had to be “bought off”, and lastly he was appointed by and could be dismissed by the king.)

So here is a check-list that I think accurately describes historic fascism. Try it on politicians you know: – how do they rate.

Fascist check list – how many of these statements do you AGREE with

1. individuals should give up their freedom for the good of the state
2. the state should be like an extended family – providing for everyone and with everyone contributing according to their ability.
3. People can't manage to form genuine communities unaided – they need to be mobilised
4. socialism is the bedrock of social justice
5. the individual trying to live for themselves and their family is selfish and bad. The good, fully actualised citizen willingly puts themselves at the behest of community and state.
6. Corporations should serve the public welfare, not just the welfare of their owners and shareholders
7. Marxism is “internationalist” this is wrong, we need to be nationalistic.
8. Morality and religion should be subordinated to the laws of the state
9. Society and the state are one and the same
10. there needs to be ideological conformity and this should be brought about by law and education
11. legislating for worker participation in industrial management would be good
12. stopping religious instruction is schools would be good
13. the state should control all industrial activity and finance.
14. Unions should be part of the governing assembly
15. In an ideal world we would abolish all private property
16. “Our work as teachers is at an end when our students speak our language”
17. “everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state”
18. Tax rates should be much higher for the rich
19. Marxism had everyone equal, this is wrong – we need leaders and for the nation a strong charismatic Supreme Leader.
20. The state and the individual are one.

I think the answer to the bigger question is that politicians who live in glass houses shouldn't throw epithets.