[SFPOM] Principles of Fascism and The People's Response I

Day 4,472, 11:23 • Published in USA USA • by Max Tse Tung


MUSIC

(SFP Update) Principles of Fascism and The People's Response I

*Corrections have been made to this article*[/b]


Fellow party members,

Before we get into the meat of this article I have a couple of updates for the party.

The Revolutionary Committee has been opened and the active membership has been included. If you don’t have access to the group message please let me or another party official know and we will be sure to update it.

And lastly, you can sign up for our congressional primary here: http://sfp-erep.forumotion.com/t1520-congress-call-february-march#16372





So we will begin this article with an analysis of the characteristics of Fascism. In 2003 Lawrence Britt, a Political Scientist (Writer), Published in Free Inquiry a list of 14 characteristics of Fascism that were shared amongst Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Francoist Spain, Suhartoist Indonesia, and Pinochet’s Chile. (In his opinion)

This is by no means an all-encompassing list and in truth, there are far more characteristics than this, which we will attempt to cover in later articles.

Here’s his list:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections


We will start at the top.

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Fascist governments will attempt to use aspects of a country like national identity to perpetuate itself and will use public gatherings, military parades, and social norms such as mandatory pledges and salutes to give its citizens a sense of exceptionalism that can then be used to start wars of territorial conquest and exploitation, or domestic atrocities without much dissent from the citizenry. This usually works in tandem with racist and imperialist justifications that the citizens begin to accept over years of attacks on democratic institutions.



2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

Fascist governments generally have a disdain for the concepts of human rights, this can come from a variety of philosophical maxims, some being racist maxims, but it can also come from nihilism, religious beliefs, anti-communist beliefs, and anti-democratic beliefs. This has led to violations of the Genocide Convention of 1948,  the Geneva Conventions of 1929 and 1949, and the International Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948. What this usually entails on the ground is widespread detentions of political, religious dissidents, as well as immigrants and the mass murder of those not ideologically aligned with the particular Fascist government.



3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

Often times a Fascist government will demonize a particular community in an attempt to unify their base of supporters or in an attempt to bring new supporters into the movement. This is also used to push opposition figures out of government for a full government takeover and to prevent the demonized group from taking part in the political process.



4. Supremacy of the Military

Fascist governments will use concepts like loyalty to the nation, strength, and national pride to get its population to believe there is a virtue in military service and that those who oppose the military and military service are traitors. Usually, they will offer material benefits and higher social stratification for those who serve that are not afforded to the general public. These governments often prioritize military and strategic spending over the needs of their own populace. Usually, military supremacy can take the form of the use of the military in domestic affairs such as to break up protests, conscription, or even the militarization of the police.



5. Rampant Sexism

Fascist governments are usually sympathetic to the idea of “traditional family values” and hierarchy. This means that they believe the fundamental unit of society to be the nuclear family and that each one should be a patriarchy. This means that children and women are to be the personal property of the father. It also means that families that don’t adhere to this model are disbanded and eliminated by the government in power and that women are unable to become professionals or to hold office through discrimination by employers and government policy. Often times these governments will issue child-rearing quotas that families must meet or they risk forced sterilizations, court hearings, enslavement or imprisonment.



6. Controlled Mass Media

A Fascist government will take control of the free-press, eliminating media outlets that express or allow for dissenting viewpoints and stories. This is to maintain their political control and to make the populace feel powerless. It is the attempt to hinder the flow of ideas and news stories into and out of the nation so that foreign and domestic influencers can’t put pressure on the populace or government.



7. Obsession with National Security

These governments are usually obsessed with “national security”. This is because they see other nations as threats to their sovereignty and territorial goals and domestic populations as enemies of the state. Often times their definition of what a secure nation looks like extends beyond what democracy can allow, such as the total deportation of immigrants, and the elimination of religious, cultural, or ethnic minorities.



8. Religion and Government are Intertwined

Fascist governments usually welcome a toxic mixture of the state and the church. In the 1930s and 1940s Nazi Germany had an open alliance with the catholic church in which they attempted to co-opt Christianity with a sort of Neo-Pagan-Nazism. This gave rise to strange rituals in which masses of torch holding supporters would march in the formation of a swastika around large burning effigies. This also allowed them to hold state-sanctioned rituals inside Christian temples and in the streets. After the Axis fell in 1945 prominent Nazis, Ustashis, and other fascist figures escaped to Argentina and other places in South America but what is not commonly talked about is the fact that some of these men were given refuge in the Vatican -Some living out the rest of their lives there.-

Correction:(Nazi Germany was predominately Protestant and President Paul von Hindenberg was the German signatory to the concordant.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichskonkordat



9. Corporate Power is Protected

Usually, Fascist governments see corporate and national power as one and the same. This is because they rely on corporations to produce the products needed for them to fight large scale wars and to keep a content population. They also have it in their interests to quell workers’ rights movements, unions, and socialism and so, therefore, they make a natural ally with corporations.  This is because if a government can have undue power over its corporations it is far easier for it to control the workers. (Keep in mind some fascist governments utilize nationalization of industry)



10. Labor Power is Suppressed

Fascist governments will move to suppress the rights of the workers and will use violence to prevent various forms of direct action from occurring. This is due to the government’s extremist belief in nationalism and an inability to separate the agenda of the state with that of the populace. They also stand to lose a lot of money, power, and assets if the workers seize control of production and private property.



11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Fascist governments hate intellectuals and artists because their entire philosophy is based on easily disproved falsehoods and traditionalist views of the world. In a world where science makes new discoveries every day in sociology, archaeology,  linguistics, physics, and political sciences this ideology does not adapt well. Here is an example: When special and general relativity first came out it was considered to be Jewish Physics by the ideologically tainted institutions and professors of the time. There was so much animosity for these theories that it would culminate in the mass burning of Einsteins’ books and lectures and Albert Einstein himself had to flee the country. Both the German state and the universities promoted a distorted neo-classical, pseudoscientific version of the universe called Aryan Physics.



12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment

These Governments are obsessed with crimes and the punishment of those crimes. This is noted by their propensity to militarize the police and to give then full discretion in their interactions with the public. This usually takes the form of extra-judicial killings, and the violation of citizens’ rights.



13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

Fascist governments are usually rife with cronyism and nepotism in which positions of power are delegated to military figures, arista, family members, and political in-groups. This has to do with the consolidation of power and the need to retain such power. It’s also a protection against accountability.



14. Fraudulent Elections

And lastly, Fascist governments will hold fake and fraudulent elections and usually practice widespread electioneering. The more extreme examples eliminate electoral politics entirely.






Before I go I’d like to share a story about one of my intellectual heroes. The man I’d like to talk about today is none other than Professor Max Planck. Max Planck was a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Munich and was the theoretician behind the solution of the black body problem in physics. In short, he discovered the relationship between the temperature of a light bulb used in streetlights in Berlin and the color of the light it emitted thus paving the way for the formulation of quantum mechanics and the identification of a new constant of nature Plancks Constant.



Max Planck was one of the men who brought Einstein back to the university after his job at the patent office and was a close friend and colleague. Often playing the piano while his friend Albert would fiddle along on his violin these two giants of scientific discovery, Jewish and German could find common ground in an era of hatred and division in Germany.



One day, after Albert Einstein was forced to flee the country, the Nazi party had taken control of a particular lecture hall -the one in which professor Planck was scheduled to speak at.- At the threat of the loss of his own life and career, Max Planck was forced to open his lecture with a salute to the Fuhrer. This haunted Planck for years and it only hurt him more when he was given the news about his son.



Max Plancks’ son Erwin was found to be involved with the July 20th plot to kill Adolf Hitler. He would be tried and executed by the Nazi State for his actions. Surprisingly Max himself would never lose his position in the university for these actions but it left him with a burning hatred for Fascism and a hole in his heart that he could never truly repair.



In summary -Fascism is a toxic and dangerous ideology that infects every aspect of the citizen’s life. It has many strains and many different philosophical underpinnings. Next time we will discuss who fights against fascism and the various ways that can take shape.

I want to hear from my readers on this, what aspects of Fascism do you think should be covered in this series? Let me know!


(This list is often used by the Pop-Left as a sort of gotcha-point, this list is unrigorous and unwieldy and no scholar, historian, or political scientist uses it in their work so we will no doubt need more entries into this serious to fully understand fascism.)


~Chairman Max Planck~

*Corrections accredited to NoTie112*