In a celebrated essay entitled Ur-Fascism Umberto Eco reflected on fascism in the Italy of Mussolini and asked the question: are there common features to fascist regimes?
He wrote: ‘the term ‘fascism’ fits everything because it is possible to eliminate one or more aspects from a Fascist regime and it will always be recognisably Fascist. Remove the imperialist dimension from Fascism, and you get Franco or Salazar; remove the colonialist dimension, and you get Balkan Fascism. Add to Italian Fascism a dash of radical anti-Capitalism (which never appealed to Mussolini), and you get Ezra Pound. Add the cult of Celtic mythology and the mysticism of the Grail (completely extraneous to official Fascism), and you get one of the most respected gurus of Fascism, Julius Evole.’ Citing Wittgenstein on ‘games, Eco emphasises that we are talking about ‘family resemblances’ here.
Having prepared his ground in this way, Eco suggests fourteen ‘characteristics’. ‘These cannot be regimented into a system; many are mutually exclusive and are typical of other forms of despotism or fanaticism. But all you need is one of them to be present, and a Fascist nebula will begin to coagulate.’
- First in his list is the ‘cult of tradition’. Tradition is older than Fascism and was born in the late Hellenic period as a reaction to classical Greek rationalism. In the Mediterranean basin people of different religions began to dream of a revelation received at the dawn of history. This revelation was long concealed under a veil of languages now forgotten. This new culture was to be ‘syncretic’, and therefore tolerant of contradictions. ‘All the original messages contain a grain of wisdom, and when they seem to be saying different or incompatible things, it is only because they all allude, allegorically, to some original truth.’ It follows that ‘there can be no advancement of learning’. The truth has been declared.
- Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernity. ‘Both the fascists and the Nazis worshipped technology, while traditionalist thinkers usually reject technology as the negation of traditional spiritual values. Nevertheless, although Nazism was proud of its industrial success, its praise of modernity was only the superficial aspect of an ideology based on ‘blood and soil’.’ The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason were viewed as the beginning of modern depravity. ‘In this sense, Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.’
- Irrationality depends on the cult of ‘action for action’s sake’. Action is beautiful in itself, thinking a form of emasculation. Culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. ‘The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly committed to accusing modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia of having abandoned traditional values.’
- No form of syncretism can accept criticism. ‘For Ur-Fascism ‘dissent is betrayal.’
- Dissent is also a sign of diversity. Fascism seeks consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural ‘fear of difference’. Fascism is a call against intruders and is therefore racist by definition.
- Fascism springs from individual or social frustration, which is why one of the characteristics of typical historic Fascist movements was ‘the appeal to the frustrated middle classes’, disquieted by economic crisis or political humiliation and frightened by social pressure from below. ‘In our day, in which the old ‘proletariat’ are becoming petit bourgeois (and the lumpen proletariat has excluded itself from the political arena), Fascism will find its audience in this new majority.’
- ‘To those with no social identity at all, Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common privilege of all, that of being born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism.’ At the root of Fascist psychology lies the ‘obsession with conspiracies’, and the easiest way to construct a conspiracy is to appeal to ‘xenophobia’. ‘But conspiracies must also come from the inside: the Jews are usually the best target because they offer the advantage of being at once inside and outside.’
- The disciples of Fascism must feel humiliated by the enemy’s wealth and power, but feel nonetheless that they can defeat the enemy. The enemy is both too strong and too weak.
- For Fascism there is no struggle for life, but rather a ‘life of struggle’. ‘Pacifism is therefore collusion with the enemy.’ Life is permanent struggle. No fascist leader has as yet resolved the contradiction here, namely, between the necessity for finding a ‘final solution’ and the principle of permanent war.
- Historically, all forms of aristocratic and militaristic elitism have shown a ‘scorn for the weak’. Fascism doesn’t need to preach ‘popular elitism’ because every individual belongs to the best people in the world. ‘But you cannot have patricians without plebeians.’ The leader takes power by force and this power is based on the weakness of the masses. The weak need/deserve a dominator. Each subordinate leader looks down on each of their inferiors, which reinforces the sense of a mass elite.
- In Fascist ideology heroism is the norm, and the cult of heroism is closely connected to the ‘cult of death’. The Fascist hero aspires to death. ‘In his impatience, it should be noted, he usually manages to make others die in his place.’
- ‘Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power onto sexual questions.’ This is the origin of machismo (which implies contempt for women and an intolerant condemnation of non-conformist sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). ‘Since war games are also a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero plays with weapons, which are his ersatz penis: his war games are due to a permanent state of penis envy.’
- Fascism is based on a ‘qualitative populism’. Unlike in democracies, where people have a political impact from a quantitative point of view (the decisions of the majority are followed), individuals have no rights and ‘the people’ comprise a monolithic entity that expresses the ‘common will’. The people is a theatrical presence. As a result of its qualitative populism, Fascism has to oppose ‘rotten’ parliamentary governments.
- Fascism uses ‘newspeak’ (as in Orwell’s 1984). The aim is to use slogans and to limit the instruments available to complex and critical reasoning. ‘But we must be prepared to identify other types of newspeak, even when they take the innocent form of a popular talk show.’
Fascism, Eco, concludes, is all around us, often wearing civilian clothes, and it can return in the most innocent of guises.
There is much here to chew over, most especially with regard to contemporary financialised or rentier capitalism, and in light of an abundance of excellent historical, political and sociological studies of fascism, but this must wait for another occasion.