Here is historian Robert Paxtons list of the mobilizing passions that lead societies into fascism, taken from his 2004 book, The Anatomy of Fascism. -- a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of any traditional solutions; the primacy of the group, toward which one has duties superior to every right, whether individual or universal, and the subordination of the individual to it; -- the belief that ones group is a victim, a sentiment that justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against its enemies, both internal and external; -- dread of the groups decline under the corrosive effects of individualistic liberalism, class conflict, and alien influences; -- the need for closer integration of a purer community, by consent if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary; -- the need for authority by natural chiefs (always male), culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the groups historical destiny; -- the superiority of the leaders instincts over abstract and universal reason; -- the beauty of violence and the efficacy of will, when they are devoted to the groups success; -- he right of the chosen people to dominate others without restraint from any kind of human or divine law, right being decided by the sole criterion of the groups prowess within a Darwinian struggle.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 04:37:48 +0000