Fascism

[Guest guest]

http://www.cursor.org/stories/fascismintroduction.php

 

Introduction

I. Projecting Fascism

II. Understanding Fascism

III. The Core of Fascism

IV. Tracking Fascism

V. Proto-Fascism in America

VI. Crossing the Lines

VII. The Transmission Belt

VIII. Official Transmitters

IX. Media Transmitters

X. Reaching the Receivers

XI. Dualist Receivers

XII. Divine Transmissions

XIII. Fascism and Fundamentalism

XIV. The War on Liberals

XV. Waiting for Godwin

Bibliography

 

1 PDF File

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction: Rush, Newspeak

and Fascism:

An exegesis

 

by David Neiwert

 

POSTED AUGUST 30, 2003 --

 

Introduction

 

Is fascism an obsolete term? Even if it resurrects

itself as a significant political threat, can we use

the term with any effectiveness?

 

My friend John McKay, discussing the matter at his

Weblog archy, wonders if the degraded state of the

term has rendered it useless. After all, it has in

many respects become a catchall for any kind of

totalitarianism, rather than the special and certainly

cause-specific phenomenon it was. Anyone using the

word nowadays is most often merely participating in

this degradation.

 

Nonetheless, I think Robert O. Paxton has it right in

his essay " The Five Stages of Fascism " :

 

We cannot give up in the face of these

difficulties. A real phenomenon exists. Indeed,

fascism is the most original political novelty of the

twentieth century, no less. ... If we cannot examine

fascism synthetically, we risk being unable to

understand this century, or the next. We must have a

word, and for lack of a better one, we must employ the

word that Mussolini borrowed from the vocabulary of

the Italian Left in 1919, before his movement had

assumed its mature form. Obliged to use the term

fascism, we ought to use it well.

 

The following essay is devoted to that idea. Its

purpose is, if nothing else, to give the reader a

clear understanding of fascism not merely as a

historical force but a living one.

 

The essay originally appeared as a series of posts at

my Weblog Orcinus, sparked by an erroneous report of

something Rush Limbaugh reportedly had told his radio

audience. The error was soon corrected, but the

remarks had in any event stirred me to write about my

concerns about the way the political climate in

America is heading, based on material and information

I'd been gathering on a variety of issues pertaining

to the radical right and its increasing ideological

traffic with mainstream conservatism.

 

Because Orcinus is generally intended as an actual

journal -- a place for me to work out writing ideas

and to post original source material on news stories

and events that interest me -- much of what appeared

on the blog was in many ways a rough draft. Moreover,

since it is a public enterprise, I obtained much

feedback during the course of writing it, some of

which affected the content and nature of the essay and

appears in the current text.

 

The version that appears before you is, of course,

considerably edited and rewritten. There is a good

deal of new material that did not appear anywhere on

the blog. Whole sections have been rearranged and

edited down, and the order of the argument is not

exactly what appears on the blog. In this respect, it

may be an instructive exercise for anyone interested

in the writing process to compare the two; but in any

event, this version is the definitive edition, since a

number of errors and repetitions, as well as logical

missteps, can be found in the rough draft, naturally.

 

While I establish early in the essay that this is an

attempt at a " scholarly " discussion of fascism, I

should however clarify that I am in fact merely a

journalist, not a scholar, nor do I pretend to be one.

The following essay is more in the way of a

journalistic survey of the academic literature

regarding fascism, and an attempt at a kind of lay

analysis of the literature's contents as it relates to

the current political context. However, none of the

ideas regarding the core of fascism, nor its many

accompanying traits, are my own. " Rush " is mostly

drawn from a body of scholarly work on fascism that's

broadly accepted as the important texts on the

subject, and I'll urge anyone interested in examining

the matter seriously to read them. There's a

bibliography at the end.

 

The core of my interest in fascism is closely

connected to my work in trying to understand the

motivations of right-wing extremists, because my

experience was that in most regards many of these

folks were seemingly ordinary people. And I was

furthermore intrigued by the historical phenomenon of

the Holocaust, particularly the problem of how a

nation full ordinary people could allow such a

monstrosity to happen. I'm interested in fascism as a

real-world phenomenon and not an abstract and distant

concept.

 

As such, I'm hoping this essay if nothing else helps

advance a wider understanding of fascism in the

general public, because I've come to understand that

this awareness is essential if we are to combat it.

 

I'd like to thank the many people who have contributed

to " Rush " both in the collection of material

beforehand as well as during the writing process:

 

* My fellow bloggers who contributed ideas and

points that became part of the text, including John

McKay at archy; James R. Maclean at The Watch (now

Pacific Views); Richard Einhorn at Tristero; Dave

Johnson at Seeing the Forest; and Gil Smart at Smart

Remarks

* The many other bloggers whose links to the essay

have contributed mightily to its seeming popularity,

and whose abiding interest in my work at Orcinus is

deeply appreciated: Atrios at Eschaton; Avedon Carol

at Sideshow; Kynn Bartlett at Shock and Awe; Ginger

Mayerson at Hackenblog; Jeralyn Merritt at TalkLeft;

Mark Woods at wood s lot; Patrick Nielsen Hayden at

Electrolite; Richard at Peking Duck; Bryant at

Population: One; Chris Woolery at Hegemoney.com; Digby

at Hullabaloo; Kevin Hayden at Reach M High Cowboy

Network Noose; John Constantine at Hellblazer; Michael

Finley at world gone wrong; Christian at Radio Free

Blogistan; Lisa English at Ruminate This; John Emerson

at Zizka; and many others who I'm sure I managed to

overlook. Many, many thanks to Jennifer at Media

Whores Online for the many links.

* A very special thanks to Paula at Stonerwitch,

who not only contributed ideas but who volunteered the

time and effort required to convert " Rush " to a PDF

file.

* The many readers who wrote in to express their

interest, and particularly those who contributed their

thoughts, many of which made their way into the text:

Matthew Davis, Christopher Skinner, John Burns, and

the pseudonymous Farmer.

* Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League,

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and

Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates for their

regular advice and contributing interviews.

* Brenda Kitterman of Not In Our Town for inviting

me to Kalispell; and Paul deArmond of Public Good for

keeping me informed about events in Bellingham.

* Last but not least: My wife, Lisa Dowling, whose

remarkable ability at keeping the ship afloat is what

enables me to write, and whose patience with my

disappearance into the shop seems endless; and my

daughter Fiona Rose, whose sweet nature often allowed

me to keep working while she played with her colors,

books and blocks, and whose smile always reawakens

that old desire to make the world a better place.

 

David Neiwert

Seattle

June 2003

 

Next: I: Projecting Fascism.

 

*. David Neiwert is a freelance journalist based in

Seattle. His reportage for MSNBC.com on domestic

terrorism won the National Press Club Award for

Distinguished Online Journalism in 2000. He is the

author of In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and

the Pacific Northwest (1999, WSU Press), as well as

the forthcoming Death on the Fourth of July: Hate

Crimes and the American Landscape (Palgrave/St.

Martin's Press, 2004) and Strawberry Days: The Rise

and Fall of the Bellevue Japanese-American Community

(publisher pending, 2004). His freelance work can be

found at Salon.com, the Washington Post, MSNBC and

various other publications. He can be contacted at

Orcinus.