Just what is Fascism? Part 1.

[ambitious_wench]

This is my attempt to formulate an articulation of what fascism is historically, and how it seems to be re-emerging in modern or neo-conservatism.

Zack runs the Frontier Cafe, home of the longest running poetry reading series in Rhode Island.  Zack has said in the past that Fascism "has gotten a bad rap", and has stopped just short of describing himself as a Fascist.

That and another couple of people I've known online have expressed ideas and concepts related to Fascism that have stirred me to outrage and horror.  Meeting such thought with gut-driven emotional response is not the way to rebutt such comments. 

So, first things first:  Just what is Fascism? 

Fascim comes from "fasces", a symbolic impliment carried by attendants to the Roman emporer.  It is comprised of a bundle of birch rods with an axe head protruding along the length of the rods.

The Mercury/Fasces dime was replaced with the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Dime in 1947

This was a sybol of the emporer's power of life and death over the subjects.  The rods can be construed to represent the combined strength of the body politic.

Remember the story of the old man with many sons?  They all bickered over who would win the inheritance.  The father said "whoever breaks this bundle of sticks will get everything!"  In vain they all tried to break the bundle.  Finally, the father took the bundle apart and broke each stick individually as a lesson that as individuals they were weak, but as a group they were strong.

Was the fasces ever used as a weapon in war?  I have no clue.  But it's a weapon none the less for all its symbolism.  In an entry of disputed authorship in The Italian Encyclopedia is the following definition:

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. It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism -- born of a renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice. 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....

(Either written by Giavanni Gentile or Roberto Mussolini)

Zach is an advocate of the Iraq war.  He feels that it's our duty and right (by right of superior firepower, apparently) to attack them and to destroy thier "culture".  He feels that it's a show of strength, and that it's a sign of moral and cultural weakness to oppose the war. 

More on this later.

Comments

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

If you haven't already, I strongly recommend you go over to Orcinus and have a look at Dave Neiwert's series "Rush, Newspeak and Fascism". It's a long, dense read, but he does a really good job with it. There's links to HTML and PDF versions on the sidebar.

[trucking-witch.livejournal.com]

two question:

What is "Culture"? And you have it when living under a ruthless dictator?

And a Comment:

I don't believe that we are there purely by Right of Might. And I don't believe the all the "reasons" given to us pre-war. But I do believe Saddam was a terrorist (i.e. paying families of suicide bombers, gassing his own people, etc) and sooner rather than later would have become bold (crazy) enough to attack us. And I believe that we (the US Government and be default it's people) have the responsibility to clean up the messes we made (i.e. we know he had weapons of mass destruction because we furnished him with the means during his war with Iran).

When will we learn to keep our bad toys at home?!

[malloc1024.livejournal.com]

That isn't quite true, the fasces predate the roman emperors. The fasces is simply the bundle of reeds, the axe being optional and not part of the original symbol anyway. It was carried by the tribunes. The tribunes being the representatives of the plebian citizenry (all the regular folks) as opposed to the senators, who were elected for life from the patrician (wealthy landowning) class by other senators.

The tribunes were created as an attempt to appease the rest of the roman citizenry by giving them a role in their government. Each tribune was elected by the tribal assemblies and served a 2 year term, during which they could veto any legislation the senate tried to pass. There were 5 tribunes, I think, at any given time. They carried the fasces as a symbol of their tribuneship. The symbolism is fairly obvious, it's a bundle of reeds, bound up. One reed can be broken easily, but when you gather them together, it's much more difficult.

Now Fascism as a political movement, didn't begin until Mussolini came to power in Italy in the 1920's at which point he appropriated an earlier symbol with historical signifigance for his country. Thus endeth the lesson.