Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Friday, May 22, 2020
Monday, December 2, 2019
181 What is fascism?
Fascism is a hard ideology to define because nearly every modern government or political movement has been called 'fascist' by somebody. I contend that fascism was a political movement unique to the early 20th century, especially in Europe, because its worldview was shaped by events and philosophical ideas from the late 19th century until the interwar period. Some people have called states like Saddam Hussein's Iraq 'fascist', but I believe that there is a big difference between authoritarian dictatorship and genuine fascism.
So how did fascism originally develop? It grew out of a European intellectual movement which criticized the alienating effect that industrial society had on modern man, as well as late 19th century critiques of Liberalism and Positivism. They believed that industrial society robbed men of their individuality; however they wanted to assert it at the same time. These ideas were adopted by many young people, especially young, middle-class socialists, because they wanted to rebel against what they perceived as pointless and archaic bourgeois morality and conformity. This is why in the 1930s, fascism looked like it might actually take over Europe: it successfully harnessed people’s dissatisfaction with modern society and directed it into political channels.
Fascists were influenced by philosophers like Gustav Le Bon who wrote about the need for a strong leading figure to lead the masses against social ills. He believed that people were fundamentally irrational, and should embrace their irrationality. This was taken up by fascist ideologues who thought that their members’ irrationality should be harnessed by the leader and directed into political action, which was mostly comprised of beating up socialists, communists and trade unionists (or Jews in the case of Nazism). Fascism was a fundamentally violent ideology which praised war and conflict. Both Hitler and Mussolini believed that war was the highest expression of human ability and society, and sincerely thought that life was a continual conflict between people for limited resources (hence the title of Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf). To fascists war was a good thing because it let nations or races decide who was the strongest and who deserved the planet's resources.
Fascism’s insistence on embracing irrationality is one thing that makes it hard to comprehend; although Hitler and Mussolini wrote their respective handbooks about fascist beliefs, they ultimately rejected concrete doctrines and always acted in response to current events. This is why a lot of fascist rhetoric and actions seem to be contradictionary.
The First World War gave fascism its mass base. Veterans across Europe felt alienated in civilian society after the war, which could not understand their experiences on the frontline. A lot of them wanted to return to an idealized comradeship and hierarchy of the front line, which fascist organizations like the SA and the Blackshirts offered. A lot of them didn’t actually care about the nuances of fascist ideology, they just felt like they didn’t belong in civilian society and needed order and comrades. Instead of a real enemy opposing army, fascism offered them a frontline against post-war society which was especially attractive in revisionist countries like Germany and Italy, where many wanted to destroy the existing Liberal order which they blamed for their countries’ humiliations.
Unlike socialists and communists, fascists wanted to cure modern society’s alienation through the creation of a hierarchal state made up of different social classes working together for the benefit of the nation. This is called ‘corporatism’ and is fascism’s only real contribution to economic thought. The competing segments of industrial society would be united by the leader act entirely through the state, which incidentally would preserve existing capitalist hierarchies and strengthen them. Fascists were for a sort of inverted social-democracy which would give social services to its members but not to anyone else. If you were not a member of the nation or the Volksgemeinschaft - tough luck. This is why many people participated in Fascist and Nazi organizations like the DAP or Hitler Youth; if you did not actively participate in the national or racial community, you were not a part of it and would be socially ostracized (or worse) and denied state benefits. They didn't necessarily believe in fascist ideology, and many opposed it, but the fascist state required them to participate in it.
The major difference between fascism and socialism is that the former was all about preserving hierarchy and bourgeois society, while getting rid of industrial alienation through the creation of a totalitarian society. Mussolini thought that by giving up your individuality to the totalitarian state, you could have your energies and efforts multiplied by its services. Paradoxically, by surrendering individuality, alienation would somehow disappear. In industrial societies, fascism was popular with the middle class because it offered a cultural and social revolution which would keep hierarchies and fortify them through corporatism. Unlike conservatism, fascism wanted a cultural revolution that would create a “New Fascist Man” who had no individuality separate from the state. This is why it was appealing to the middle class; it let them vent their frustrations about modern society and be little revolutionaries while simultaneously protecting their property and position in the social hierarchy.
The emphasis on maintaining private property and hierarchy was what made fascists hate socialists and communists. Fascism marketed itself as the “Third Way” between Liberalism, which was responsible for alienation and the post-war Wilsonian order, and Socialism, which threatened to take bourgeois property in an economic revolution. Conservatives and fascists usually got along because they both hated the same things, but most conservatives failed to understand the revolutionary aspect of fascism and believed they could be controlled to curtail workers’ rights and revise the Paris Treaties, which didn't really work out.
EDIT: I've got to go to class right now, and I'll try to answer all your questions ASAP!
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/22ox1w/what_is_fascism/cgoz902?context=3
So how did fascism originally develop? It grew out of a European intellectual movement which criticized the alienating effect that industrial society had on modern man, as well as late 19th century critiques of Liberalism and Positivism. They believed that industrial society robbed men of their individuality; however they wanted to assert it at the same time. These ideas were adopted by many young people, especially young, middle-class socialists, because they wanted to rebel against what they perceived as pointless and archaic bourgeois morality and conformity. This is why in the 1930s, fascism looked like it might actually take over Europe: it successfully harnessed people’s dissatisfaction with modern society and directed it into political channels.
Fascists were influenced by philosophers like Gustav Le Bon who wrote about the need for a strong leading figure to lead the masses against social ills. He believed that people were fundamentally irrational, and should embrace their irrationality. This was taken up by fascist ideologues who thought that their members’ irrationality should be harnessed by the leader and directed into political action, which was mostly comprised of beating up socialists, communists and trade unionists (or Jews in the case of Nazism). Fascism was a fundamentally violent ideology which praised war and conflict. Both Hitler and Mussolini believed that war was the highest expression of human ability and society, and sincerely thought that life was a continual conflict between people for limited resources (hence the title of Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf). To fascists war was a good thing because it let nations or races decide who was the strongest and who deserved the planet's resources.
Fascism’s insistence on embracing irrationality is one thing that makes it hard to comprehend; although Hitler and Mussolini wrote their respective handbooks about fascist beliefs, they ultimately rejected concrete doctrines and always acted in response to current events. This is why a lot of fascist rhetoric and actions seem to be contradictionary.
The First World War gave fascism its mass base. Veterans across Europe felt alienated in civilian society after the war, which could not understand their experiences on the frontline. A lot of them wanted to return to an idealized comradeship and hierarchy of the front line, which fascist organizations like the SA and the Blackshirts offered. A lot of them didn’t actually care about the nuances of fascist ideology, they just felt like they didn’t belong in civilian society and needed order and comrades. Instead of a real enemy opposing army, fascism offered them a frontline against post-war society which was especially attractive in revisionist countries like Germany and Italy, where many wanted to destroy the existing Liberal order which they blamed for their countries’ humiliations.
Unlike socialists and communists, fascists wanted to cure modern society’s alienation through the creation of a hierarchal state made up of different social classes working together for the benefit of the nation. This is called ‘corporatism’ and is fascism’s only real contribution to economic thought. The competing segments of industrial society would be united by the leader act entirely through the state, which incidentally would preserve existing capitalist hierarchies and strengthen them. Fascists were for a sort of inverted social-democracy which would give social services to its members but not to anyone else. If you were not a member of the nation or the Volksgemeinschaft - tough luck. This is why many people participated in Fascist and Nazi organizations like the DAP or Hitler Youth; if you did not actively participate in the national or racial community, you were not a part of it and would be socially ostracized (or worse) and denied state benefits. They didn't necessarily believe in fascist ideology, and many opposed it, but the fascist state required them to participate in it.
The major difference between fascism and socialism is that the former was all about preserving hierarchy and bourgeois society, while getting rid of industrial alienation through the creation of a totalitarian society. Mussolini thought that by giving up your individuality to the totalitarian state, you could have your energies and efforts multiplied by its services. Paradoxically, by surrendering individuality, alienation would somehow disappear. In industrial societies, fascism was popular with the middle class because it offered a cultural and social revolution which would keep hierarchies and fortify them through corporatism. Unlike conservatism, fascism wanted a cultural revolution that would create a “New Fascist Man” who had no individuality separate from the state. This is why it was appealing to the middle class; it let them vent their frustrations about modern society and be little revolutionaries while simultaneously protecting their property and position in the social hierarchy.
The emphasis on maintaining private property and hierarchy was what made fascists hate socialists and communists. Fascism marketed itself as the “Third Way” between Liberalism, which was responsible for alienation and the post-war Wilsonian order, and Socialism, which threatened to take bourgeois property in an economic revolution. Conservatives and fascists usually got along because they both hated the same things, but most conservatives failed to understand the revolutionary aspect of fascism and believed they could be controlled to curtail workers’ rights and revise the Paris Treaties, which didn't really work out.
EDIT: I've got to go to class right now, and I'll try to answer all your questions ASAP!
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/22ox1w/what_is_fascism/cgoz902?context=3
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
052 Rubicon
Defying Gravity S01E05
Episode Script Rubicon
Point of no return.
It sounds simple. You step across the line, and you focus only on the way ahead. No going back. Sounds like a good way to live life. Look only ahead. Put the bad stuff behind you and move on. But that's impossible. Your past always finds you. During the days of the Roman republic, crossing the Rubicon river with an army was considered an act of war. In 49 B.C., Julius Caesar ignored that law. He made the choice to cross the river, leading to civil war, the end of the republic and his own deification. I'd say Caesar won.
==========
There are no promises of a positive outcome, no guarantees, that, like Caesar, we'll wind up with an empire. All we can really count on is that things will change and that we'll have to live with the results. And that's the hard part. Because we're defined by our past. We can rethink our choices a million times. But what we decide, we own. It becomes a part of who we are. And while we may be crossing the river, our footprints will always remain on the other side.
Source: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tvshow=defyinggravity&episode=s01e05
Episode Script Rubicon
Point of no return.
It sounds simple. You step across the line, and you focus only on the way ahead. No going back. Sounds like a good way to live life. Look only ahead. Put the bad stuff behind you and move on. But that's impossible. Your past always finds you. During the days of the Roman republic, crossing the Rubicon river with an army was considered an act of war. In 49 B.C., Julius Caesar ignored that law. He made the choice to cross the river, leading to civil war, the end of the republic and his own deification. I'd say Caesar won.
==========
There are no promises of a positive outcome, no guarantees, that, like Caesar, we'll wind up with an empire. All we can really count on is that things will change and that we'll have to live with the results. And that's the hard part. Because we're defined by our past. We can rethink our choices a million times. But what we decide, we own. It becomes a part of who we are. And while we may be crossing the river, our footprints will always remain on the other side.
Source: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tvshow=defyinggravity&episode=s01e05
010 El ahora es el principio del final
El ahora es el principio del final...
... y este caso no es una excepción. Todo lo que realmente merece la pena en esta vida
reune dos condicionantes... es difícil de conseguir... y no es para siempre. Los
acontecimientos, las necesidades, las circunstancias... en definitiva, el momento vital
de cada uno, determina el cómo y el cuándo. Y a partir de ahí... la honestidad manda...
La honestidad de saber que las ideas flaquean y que las fuerzas escasean, la honestidad
de asumir que cada vez es más difícil cumplir las expectativas más importantes y que
quizás nos hemos equivocado al elegirlas y al ponderarlas; la certeza de percibir que la
frescura se pierde - quien sabe si momentáneamente - y que se ha transformado en
vértigo y el convencimiento de que, como diría Napoleón, "Quien abarca todo acaba no
abarcando nada..."
En este preciso momento, me retiro... retirada que debe entenderse, si no como victoria,
si como un éxito por cuanto sirve de punto de partida para nuevos desafíos, relacionados
pero diferentes, que deberían servir para que volvamos a coincidir en breve,
seguramente en las librerías y con total certeza en la red. De ambas empresas informaré
en este sitio, en el momento en que la luz las ilumine por completo y os invitaré a
disfrutarlas, por supuesto, como no podía ser de otro modo.
Solo queda agradecer a todos, no ya los comentarios y salutaciones, sino la absoluta
deferencia en pasar por aquí y sacrificar unos minutos de cada día en leer conmigo sobre
aquellos acontecimientos que motivaron que el hoy sea precisamente el nuestro y no
otro, regalándome lo más valioso que tenemos por cuanto es lo único que no se
recupera... el tiempo. Espero pagaros con el mío y ofreceros algo ilusionante en en
futuro cercano para seguir ejerciendo de seres humanos... leyendo... preguntándonos...
y compartiendo...
"El mar dará a cada hombre una nueva esperanza..." Cristobal Colón
LUIS CABOBLANCO
ROMA VICTRIX
Source: http://romavictrix.blogspot.com/
... y este caso no es una excepción. Todo lo que realmente merece la pena en esta vida
reune dos condicionantes... es difícil de conseguir... y no es para siempre. Los
acontecimientos, las necesidades, las circunstancias... en definitiva, el momento vital
de cada uno, determina el cómo y el cuándo. Y a partir de ahí... la honestidad manda...
La honestidad de saber que las ideas flaquean y que las fuerzas escasean, la honestidad
de asumir que cada vez es más difícil cumplir las expectativas más importantes y que
quizás nos hemos equivocado al elegirlas y al ponderarlas; la certeza de percibir que la
frescura se pierde - quien sabe si momentáneamente - y que se ha transformado en
vértigo y el convencimiento de que, como diría Napoleón, "Quien abarca todo acaba no
abarcando nada..."
En este preciso momento, me retiro... retirada que debe entenderse, si no como victoria,
si como un éxito por cuanto sirve de punto de partida para nuevos desafíos, relacionados
pero diferentes, que deberían servir para que volvamos a coincidir en breve,
seguramente en las librerías y con total certeza en la red. De ambas empresas informaré
en este sitio, en el momento en que la luz las ilumine por completo y os invitaré a
disfrutarlas, por supuesto, como no podía ser de otro modo.
Solo queda agradecer a todos, no ya los comentarios y salutaciones, sino la absoluta
deferencia en pasar por aquí y sacrificar unos minutos de cada día en leer conmigo sobre
aquellos acontecimientos que motivaron que el hoy sea precisamente el nuestro y no
otro, regalándome lo más valioso que tenemos por cuanto es lo único que no se
recupera... el tiempo. Espero pagaros con el mío y ofreceros algo ilusionante en en
futuro cercano para seguir ejerciendo de seres humanos... leyendo... preguntándonos...
y compartiendo...
"El mar dará a cada hombre una nueva esperanza..." Cristobal Colón
LUIS CABOBLANCO
ROMA VICTRIX
Source: http://romavictrix.blogspot.com/
009 Vinieron primero por...
En Alemania vinieron primero por los comunistas,
No dije nada porque yo no era comunista.
Después vinieron por los judíos,
No dije nada porque yo no era judío,
Después vinieron por los sindicalistas,
No dije nada porque yo era independiente.
Vinieron por los católicos,
Y no dije nada porque yo era protestante.
Después vinieron por mí,
Y no quedaba nadie que dijera algo.
Martin Nemoer
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