Background to Fascism

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Background to Fascism
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Although this ideology emerged in the 1920s, we
have to delve a bit more deeply to find its
intellectual roots.
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• Fascism has roots in the counter-enlightenment.
  Some of the Enlightenment ideas that fascists
  reject include
• Humanism-that human beings are the source of
  value, with human life valuable in and of itself.
  Or as Kant argued that individuals should be
  treated as ends rather than means.
• Reason- the idea that human beings can use reason
  to understand the universe and each other.
• Universalism- the idea that all human beings
  possess a single nature, characteristics, or a
  moral worth that transcends race, culture, or
  religious affiliation.

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The counter enlightenment contains a diverse
group of thinkers

• We will look at just a few of the individuals
  from this mix.
• We should also note that many of them would never
  have intended for their theory to be put to the
  use Fascism makes of it.
• However, some of them might have been ok with
  this

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What links all of these individuals together is
their rejection of human universalism.

• Instead, they argue that human beings are not
  alike, that people are distinguishable by very
  important characteristics.

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the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814)
For de Sade the big difference is gender. He
believes that men and women are fundamentally
unequal and calls for men to lead women. In his
books, powerful men use women as objects for the
ends that men have.
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Johan Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803)
For Herder a peoples' linguistic and cultural
differences are what count. He claimed that some
peoples are more advanced than others and that we
can rank them in order. The moral worth of these
cultures corresponds to their level of
advancement.
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Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882)

• For de Gobineau, race is the explanation of what
  makes people what they are.

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• Counter enlightenment figures dismiss the idea of
  relying on reason as a fantasy.
• For them, individuals do not use reason, but act
  on the basis of superstition, prejudice, habit,
  or custom.
• Most of these figures see individuals using
  reason simply to justify or rationalize what they
  want to do.

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• The core position that emerges is that
  individuals are not reasonable but often
  irrational creatures.
• Individuals are fundamentally different from one
  another, and they are often in conflict because
  of these permanent, uneraseable differences.

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Other influences

• Nationalism the idea is that what constitutes
  much of what we are is connected to our national
  identity.
• According to nationalists, we should not think of
  ourselves as individuals but as part of a larger
  organic community.

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• For some nationalists, all nations contribute
  something distinct and important to the world.
• However, most argue that some are more important
  than others.
• All nationalists tend to argue for the need of
  nation states so that a nation can defend itself
  and preserve its identity.
• These ideas became very important in 19th
  Century Europe as Italy and Germany attempted to
  unify themselves politically.

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Elitism

• A group of thinkers here, notably Gaetano Mosca
  (1858-1941), Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923), and
  Robert Michels (1876-1923) argued that equality
  or democracy ignores the fact of leadership by an
  elite.

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Michels Iron Law of Oligarchy

• That in any effective organization some must lead
  with others following.
• An attempt to make power completely equal will
  lead to an ineffective organization.

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Irrationalism in human life

• Here the dominant figure is Freud (1856-1939)
  with his study of the unconscious mind.

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• However, more to the point of fascism was the
  observation of William James (1842-1910).
• He argued that people have a will to believe.
• What they believe he thought mattered less than
  that they believed in something.
• Individuals cannot abide a life that appears to
  lack some larger purpose or meaning.

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• Gustav Le Bon (1841-1931) studied the psychology
  of mobs and crowds in The Crowd 1895.
• Acting collectively and thus anonymously, people
  will engage in violence and actions that they
  would never do as individuals.

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• People acting as a mass are not as restrained by
  individual conscience or moral concerns.
• Le Bon thought this was due to a herd instinct
  that takes over in these situations.

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• Georges Sorel (1847-1922) also wrote about how to
  lead people into action.
• He argued that the best way to motivate people
  toward action was to create political myths
  rather than appeal to their reason.
• What counts is not the reasonableness of the
  myth, but its emotional power.

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The point of this intellectual history.

• Despite what we want to believe, the roots of
  Fascism are found in European thought.
• Thus, we should be aware of the philosophic
  thinking that led to catastrophic political
  results.