You have probably noticed that online discourse has become pretty polarized recently. As such, you have probably seen at least one person throw around the F-word.
And I do not mean the versatile Germanic swear word that everyone loves to use. Nor do I mean feminism or the slur used against queer folks.
I am referring to fascism.
Everyone seems to be using it quite liberally, applying it to arguments and people on both sides of the political spectrum.
So, I thought it might be worthwhile to revisit what actually is fascism.
First, some background.
Benito Mussolini is considered the founder of fascism. In his twenties, he was a socialist, working as as a socialist journalist for the Avanti! newspaper and even taking out a membership with the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party in 1912. However, that was shortlived, after he was kicked out from the party for advocating military intervention in World War I.
He founded the newspaper Il Popolo d’Italia in 1914, shortly after losing his membership in the Italian Socialist Party. By the time he was wounded and discharged from military service in 1917, he had outright denounced the party, and his views had begun to pivot toward nationalism.
He began the fascist movement, organizing the Fasci Italini di Comattimento in 1919. Within two years, the organization had grown into the National Fascist Party. The following year, about 30,000 fascist blackshirts rallied in Rome to demand the resignation of the prime minister and the instillation of a new, fascist government.
And so began his rise to power and dictatorship.
In 1927, Mussolini wrote The Doctrine of Fascism, with help from Giovanni Gentile, an Italian philosopher. The work is considered to be the most complete articulation of Mussolini’s political views.
The text explains the various tenets of fascism, according to the founder of the movement.
Mussolini, for example, stated that fascism rejects individualism and stresses the importance of the state. In fact, the text states that “the only liberty worth having [is] the liberty of the state and of the individual with the state”.
To the fascist, the “conception of the state is all embracing; outside of it, no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value.” As a result, the author argues that fascism is “totalitarian”. In that regard, the state in fascism is not only a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values but also an interpretation, development, and potentiation of the whole life of a people.
The fascist state curtails “useless or harmful liberties while preserving those which are essential. In such matters the individual cannot be the judge, but the state only.”
Thus, “no individuals or groups” can exist outside the state. This includes political parties, cultural associations, economic unions, and social classes.
Consequently, fascism opposes socialism (and Marxism), which the text claims “sees in history nothing but the class struggle”. On that note, it opposes trade unionism as a weapon for the working class to increase their power, bargaining or otherwise. But fascism embraces trade unionism when it is “coordinated and harmonized in the unity of the state”.
As well, fascism opposes democracy of the majority. To fascists, the “purest form of democracy” is when the nation is viewed not in quantity but in quality: “the most ethical, the most coherent, the truest, expressing itself in a people as the conscience and will of the few, if not, indeed, of one, and ending to express itself in the conscience and the will of the mass”.
Fascism thinks parliamentary democracy is a sham and a fraud, that numbers cannot be the determining factor in human society and have no right to govern through periodical consultations.
It calls democracy “a kingless regime infested by many kings who are sometimes more exclusive, tyrannical, and destructive than one”.
It is the state that creates the nation—not the other way around—“conferring volition and therefore real life on a people made aware of their moral unity”. The right to national independence comes from “an active, self-conscious, political will”, not from a “literary and idealistic form of self-consciousness”.
According to fascism, the state serves not only to enforce order and keep peace but also to be a “standard and rule of conduct, a discipline of the whole person”.
The text states that fascism does not “believe in the possibility or utility of perpetual peace”—it rejects pacifism. “War alone keys up all human energies to their maximum tension and sets the seal of nobility on those peoples who have the courage to face it.” According to fascism, any doctrine that postulates peace at all costs is incompatible with the ideology. This includes “internationalistic or League superstructures” (e.g. United Nations, NATO, etc).
To the fascist, life “means duty, elevation, conquest”. The fascist state “expresses the will to exercise power and to command”. In fascism, imperial power is more than just “territorial, militarial, or commercial; it is also spiritual and ethical”.
