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What Is Fascism?
What Is Fascism?
What is fascism, really? This video breaks down the core ideas and strategies behind fascist movements, revealing how they rose to power and helped ignite World War II.
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
What is the origin of the word "fascism"?
Why is it useful to define fascism as a political behavior?
How do fascists gain and maintain power?
Why did fascists see internationalism as a threat?
What makes total war important to fascist ideology?
: (music playing)
: In this unit, we need to go into some difficult territory.
: We are going to talk about fascism.
: Fascism was probably
: the most explosive and damaging political phenomenon
: of the 20th century,
: and it is also an explosive and misunderstood word.
: Have you heard people use this word?
: It is often thrown around as a way of denouncing
: a political system, movement, or leader
: one fears or doesn't like.
: Fascism is a definable thing.
: And in some places-- most notably Italy and Germany--
: it was a system of government.
: It is extremely important
: to understand the meaning and history of fascism,
: so that we can all notice when it is beginning to appear
: and when fascists are beginning to acquire power.
: The word "fascism" comes from the Italian word "fascio,"
: which just means a bundle or sheaf.
: It had long been used as a political image in Europe.
: Because a bundle of sticks is hard to break,
: this image was used
: by late-19th-century Italian revolutionaries
: to symbolize their commitment to each other
: and to militant action.
: Then, in 1914,
: a copy editor and former socialist
: named Benito Mussolini,
: having turned his back on socialism,
: was looking for a name for his new political group.
: He chose Fascio Rivoluzionario d'Azione Interventista--
: Revolutionary League for Interventionist Action.
: Later, in 1919,
: Mussolini created the Fasci di Combattimento,
: or Fraternities of Combat.
: In this simple name, he managed to capture
: the sense of exclusive community they were trying to create,
: the male-dominated nature of the organization,
: and the glorification of aggression
: that lies at the heart of fascism.
: Eventually, Mussolini founded the National Fascist Party.
: And this was its symbol.
: So, now we have a better understanding
: of where the word "fascism" came from.
: But what is fascism?
: Historian Robert O. Paxton,
: in his book "The Anatomy of Fascism,"
: came up with this definition.
: That's a long paragraph,
: so let's take it one bit at a time.
: First, Paxton calls fascism
: a "form of political behavior."
: He is telling us that it is important to pay attention
: to what fascists do, and not just what they say.
: Fascist leaders like Mussolini and Adolf Hitler
: gave dramatic speeches and produced manifestos,
: but these do not tell us much
: about how they actually acquired and used power.
: Fascist behavior aims to bring together
: different groups of angry, discontented extremists
: and to figure out how to get them to work with each other.
: Fascists have to form alliances
: with existing elite groups and individuals
: and to figure out how to get ordinary people's cooperation.
: How can they convince people
: to let them change society and commit atrocities?
: Or at least get them to not resist?
: One answer, Paxton says, is that fascists spin messages
: about "community decline, humiliation, or victimhood,"
: and say that they can
: "unify, energize, and purify" this community.
: But in order to benefit
: from people's anger or sense of victimhood,
: they must first tell a story
: about who is a member of the "community"
: and who is not.
: In late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe,
: ideas about "race" provided the easiest--
: you might say laziest--
: way to think about who could belong to a community.
: Once fascists had defined the "nation" in terms of race,
: they could claim to know how
: to "purify" and "strengthen" the nation,
: and justify radical violence
: to exclude or eliminate those perceived as "outsiders."
: Of course, in order to convince the public
: that their stories about race and nation were right and true,
: fascists had to challenge other stories.
: In the 1920s, Mussolini's National Fascist Party
: and Hitler's National Socialist Party
: both tried to push Italian and German workers and artisans
: into extreme forms of nationalism.
: But to do this, they had to pull people away
: from international movements
: like socialism, communism, pacifism, and feminism.
: Socialism, which used class, rather than nation or race,
: to define community,
: was especially hated by fascists.
: So the emphasis in the Nazis' formal name
: should be more on the "national" than the "socialist."
: But neither party fits neatly into ideas of right and left.
: Hitler and Mussolini claimed
: that they would eliminate class conflict,
: but not through international cooperation or worker control.
: They thought that it would happen
: through national unification, racial cleansing,
: a return to "traditional" roles and values,
: and state-controlled, or corporatist, economies.
: Fascists believed in elevating a "pure" state above all else.
: "Everything for the state, nothing outside the state,
: nothing against the state,"
: Italian fascists liked to say.
: In theory, this elevation of the state
: was supposed to pull a country together
: for la razza-- the people, or the folk.
: In practice, fascism generally ended up benefiting
: capitalist owners and industries,
: while capitalist industries supported the state.
: As Paxton said,
: fascism worked "in uneasy but effective collaboration
: with traditional elites."
: In the process, democracy was sacrificed
: to benefit those economic elites
: and the fascists themselves.
: Lastly, Paxton states that fascism
: "pursues with redemptive violence
: "and without ethical or legal restraints
: goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."
: In short, fascism glorifies violence, conquest, and war,
: and disdains existing legal restrictions
: on their exercise.
: Total war is the only kind of war for fascists.
: Early fascist violence was in fact rooted
: in the devastation and confusion after World War I.
: And then, war-making in the 1930s and '40s
: helped fascist regimes solidify their rule.
: As Hitler said to Joseph Goebbels,
: his minister of propaganda,
: "War made possible for us
: "the solution of a whole series of problems
: that could never have been solved in normal times."
: Terribly, the "problems"
: that Hitler and other fascists wanted to solve
: often included the very lives of people
: they considered to be outside the nation.
: One last thing that did not make it into Paxton's definition,
: but that is prevalent in all fascist movements,
: is the use of symbolic imagery, staged events, and propaganda.
: Fascist movements always use local symbols and myths
: in order to increase their appeal.
: In order to make this more clear,
: we will leave the well-known cases of Italy and Germany
: and consider one other example:
: the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s United States.
: You might think of the United States as a country
: that fought fascism in World War II.
: But fascism has come in waves inside the U.S., too,
: starting in the late 19th century.
: Some Americans admired Mussolini,
: and, for a while, even Hitler.
: "The Ku Klux Klan," wrote Charles Edward Jefferson,
: a pro-Klan minister in 1920s New York,
: "is the Mussolini of America."
: 1920s Klan members believed
: that white Protestant Americans were victims
: of a rapidly changing and diversifying United States.
: They formed militias, advocated a white nationalism,
: and claimed that they could cleanse the United States
: of immigrants and other "un-American" elements.
: They were anti-Catholic, anti-black, and anti-Semitic,
: believing that those groups were "outside of the nation."
: Their symbols were both political and religious.
: In their rallies,
: they flew American, not Confederate, flags,
: and they burned crosses
: both as a threat and as a symbol of their militant Christianity.
: Okay, so now we've learned
: where the term "fascism" came from,
: some ways that fascism grew under Mussolini and Hitler,
: and we've seen another-- maybe unexpected-- example
: of a local fascist movement.
: Now let's talk about what fascism is not.
: Fascism is sometimes used interchangeably
: with the terms "authoritarianism"
: and "populism."
: Fascism includes elements of both,
: but they are not identical.
: Authoritarianism is a basically conservative political stance
: concerned with maintaining order.
: Authoritarian rulers often use existing institutions,
: like the military, the monarchy, or the church,
: in order to do this.
: 1930s Spain under Francisco Franco
: is often called fascist,
: but many historians disagree with this label.
: When it came to ruling,
: Franco was authoritarian and extremely conservative,
: rather than fascist.
: He was a military general who ignored the demands
: of his radical fascist allies,
: and instead worked closely with the existing monarchy,
: capitalist businessmen, and landowners.
: His brutal tactics during the Spanish Civil War
: were used against political and ideological enemies,
: but not so much racial or national "others."
: Populism is a political stance that is critical of elites
: and that claims to fully represent "the people."
: Populists can easily dismiss their opponents
: by claiming that they do not truly
: understand or represent the people in an authentic way.
: But populism does not typically rest
: on the kinds of obsessive ideas
: about national or racial purity and aggression
: that fascism promotes.
: Juan Perón's rule in Argentina from 1946 to 1955
: is an example of a populist dictatorship
: that was not fascist.
: Perón used personal popularity with the people
: to take and wield power,
: often against political enemies,
: but not by singling out a national or racial enemy.
: Fascism, in contrast, embodies a dangerous spiral
: between conservatism on the one hand
: and radicalism on the other.
: It proclaims the value of "tradition,"
: using local and sometimes invented images and traditions
: to represent a "pure" nation,
: and it hurtles headlong into "modernity"
: using new technologies
: and proclaiming the need for radical change
: at one and the same time.
: It is often more about power
: than any real political philosophy.
: That's why it is attractive to people
: who want to take and hold power--
: individual, national, or racial--
: and also why it is so dangerous.