I really enjoyed our drawn out talk about fascism the other day. I feel like we hit on most of the key components of fascism, but I just wanted to reexamine them. I think that the charismatic leader is the most important component to fascism. The charismatic leader knows how to rally people to a cause, knows how to arouse their emotions, and knows how to turn a problem to his advantage. The second most important component is the "intangible threat." This threat could come in many forms, such as Socialism (with Mussolini), or a disease (like in V for Vendetta). The most important feature about this threat is that it cannot be seen or touched. Its effects may be seen, but the fact that it is impossible to see the threat itself makes it that much more dangerous and volatile. The charismatic leader is able to distort this threat and alter the public's perception of it in his favor. The leader can create panic, chaos, or a multitude of other issues, and use all of these to get the people to rally behind him.
Overall, fascism seems like an incredibly well-oiled machine. Without all of the limitations that most forms of government create, fascism allows a leader to enact swift reform for the benefit of the people. However, I believe that there is a saying, "absolute power corrupts absolutely." So I would have a hard time believing that any fascist leader could maintain their ethics (if that was their intention in the first place). While at first they may have been looking out for the interest of the people (and the people probably believed him), he most certainly would slip into the quest for self gain, etc. The people would eventually realize this, and then the fascist government would really be forced to oppress the dissidents, and violence in the state would drastically increase.
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I am taking a class on Milton this summer and right now we are reading Paradise Lost. What you mentioned about a charismatic leader in a fascist society brought to mind something we talked about in class earlier: the fact that Satan is cunning enough to suggest insidious actions and the good folk of hell up and agree with him because he convinces him that they come up with the ideas he proposes (and these ideas are in his favor, not theirs). I think you are correct in comparing fascism to a well-oiled machine, but it is particularly frightening to me that within such a system, with the clever coaxing of a charismatic leader, the general population could end up voting for and agreeing to things said leader has put into their heads. This is especially disturbing given the examples of fascism in practice that we have to go on. As if it is not bad enough for people to live in a police state, as if it is not bad enough for people to blindly agree to things they can’t understand the repercussions of, on top of all this they are often convinced that they came up with the notions they are agreeing to themselves. Obviously this is not the case every time or every way that you look at it, but I think it is interesting in the fact that it happened at all, and it certainly did with Mussolini, especially in the beginning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that a fascist leader probably wouldn't maintain their ethics. We didn't mention it in class, but while these fascist leaders were "making decisions for the good of the people," they were also living like kings. Hitler had his retreat Kehlsteinhaus or "Eagle's Nest" and lived a lavish lifestyle, despite his people slowly losing luxuries as the war progressed. Coming from a working class background, it's hard to believe he would've relinquished all this even if it had been good for Germany. Unfortunately by the time he gets to this point, most people who could've done something had left or were in concentration camps.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that a charismatic leader is the most important part of a fascist revolution, and the second being an "intangible threat". One of the scariest things can be something never seen or able to be encountered because you never know when it will attack. Manipulative people know how to ask certain questions or say certain things to certain people to get them do what the manipulator wants. This also helps them come to power. The manipulator may say he will help the people until he gets to power, but it all may be a lie.
ReplyDeleteI think your are correct to point to the importance of both a charismatic leader and an intangible threat (although I think you could argue that Socialism/ Communism did represent a true and plausible threat to the fragile democracies of both Italy and Germany) but do these two characteristics alone constitute fascism? Would they alone propel a fascist leader to power or do you need other components as well?
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