Fascism - Alternative Approach

Fascism. The name of this movement alone provokes thoughts of hate, racism and evil throughout all modern western civilizations. Never before has one word created such a cultural taboo for nearly two generations. As a people, we immediately think of Fascism as Hitler's methodical destruction of nearly six million Jews during World War II, but as a movement, there is so much more to be learned. It is the aim of this paper to accurately and without judgement look at Fascism from its creation to modern day applications.

Benito Mussolini was catapulted into power in 1919 after helping create and naming his movement Fascism. Italian Fascism began on the left but stressed the dire need for strong nationalism with an urgency to industrialize. His style prized violence, idealism and anti-materialism, bonding him with the plight of the socialists of the time. As time went on in Italy, Mussolini merged with many modern corporations, luring him further and further to the right. Benito's vision of Fascism facilitated national liberation, and racism was never his political nor personal goal. Many of Mussolini's top aids and elite were Jews prior to his alliance with Hitler in 1937. In 1932 Mussolini wrote a lengthy definition of Fascism for the Italian Encyclopedia. This work shows exactly what it was Mussolini believed he was doing, creating a new wave of change. The definition is lengthy and often repetitive, however it is absolutely essential to the understanding of fundamental fascism that some of its points be explained and discussed herein.

"Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have courage to meet it. All other trials are substitutes, which never really put men into the position where they have to make the great decision -- the alternative of life or death.... "

This paragraph alone explains the reasons for nearly all modern wars in this century. Mussolini's founding ideal was that of struggle. He believed war to be the climax of human emotion, believing that peace was not, and never would be a reality. Billy Joel once wrote "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints". This best explains the motivation for Mussolini to take up struggle as his centerpiece. He believed peace to be impossible, so he claimed for himself, and the citizens of Italy the right to express themselves through the glory of war. This idea is logical, based on the rejection of perpetual peace. Benito also plants the seeds of something that no western politician had done so prominently before, connect politics with a spiritualistic sense of identity. This sense of spirituality in thinking led Mussolini to immediately regard socialism as his enemy.

"Fascism [is] the complete opposite ofÐ'...Marxian Socialism, the materialist conception of history of human civilization can be explained simply through the conflict of interests among the various social groups and by the change and development in the means and instruments of production.... Fascism, now and always, believes in holiness and in heroism; that is to say, in actions influenced by no economic motive, direct or indirect. And if the economic conception of history be denied, according to which theory men are no more than puppets, carried to and fro by the waves of chance, while the real directing forces are quite out of their control, it follows that the existence of an unchangeable and unchanging class-war is also denied "

Here, Mussolini begins to lay out his burden with socialism. Instead of economy being the driving force of mankind's struggle, he thought it to be conflicts of interest, or a clash of culture. He surrounded himself with religious ideals, art and dreams of heroism. He thought that without struggle, faith and glory would cease to be a part of the human experience. Benito rejected materialism as a counterfeit faith, and he saw it growing all over the globe. Everywhere he looked money and possessions were the only motivation for man to grow. In this way, Mussolini was very much taking his philosophical ideas, and shaping them to a new regime. It was this bitter hatred for materialism that Hitler so cunningly used to shape Mussolini as an ally and partner in the destruction of Jews.

"The German Reich Chancellor and His Majesty the King of Italy and Albania, Emperor of Ethiopia, consider that the time has come to confirm through a solemn pact the close relation of friendship and affinity which exists between National Socialist Germany and Fascist Italy.(Pact of Steel, 1939)"

The document known as the Pact Of Steel solidified the friendship between the two dictators. Shortly thereafter, anti-Semitic laws were passed and Jews ushered out of Italy. This gave rise to the type of Fascism the world is most accustomed to today, that of a racist totalitarian state. After 1939, Mussolini became basically a puppet for Hitler's ambitions in Africa and the Baltics. Nazism was introduced to the world as a radical and powerful new spin-off of Fascism.

"That is why the Jewish people, despite the intellectual powers with which they are apparently endowed, have not a culture Ð'- certainly not a culture of their own. The culture which the Jew enjoys to-day is the product of the work of others and this product is debased in the hands of the JewÐ'...No; the Jews have not the creative abilities which are necessary to the founding of a civilization; for in them there is not, and never has been, that spirit of idealism which is an absolutely necessary element in the higher development of mankind. Therefore the Jewish intellect will never be constructive but always destructiveÐ'...The life which the Jew lives as a parasite thriving on the substance of other nations and States has resulted in developing that specific character which Schopenhauer once described when he spoke of the Jew as Ð''The Great Master of Lies'. The kind of existence which he leads forces the Jew to the systematic use of falsehood, just as naturally as the inhabitants of northern climates are forced to wear warm clothes." (Mein Kampf Ch.11)

As is quite apparent, Adolf had no love for Jews. Throughout Mein Kampf, Hitler manages to convince himself, and eventually