7 Reasons Why Is Fascism So Damn Hard to Define (Portrait of a Fascist: Volume 2)
Fascism is complicated. It’s full of paradoxes. It doesn’t operate like other like political systems. There is no single ideology or doctrine to tell us what fascism really is. In short, as Umberto Eco writes in Ur-Fascism:
“Fascism had no quintessence. Fascism was a fuzzy totalitarianism, a collage of different philosophical and political ideas, a beehive of contradictions.”
Below I highlight 7 reasons why fascism is so damn hard to define.
1. The Language Used to Discuss Fascism is Often Difficult to Understand
Fascist scholars include philosophers, historians, social theorists, and many others. Each has their own jargon. Attempting to move through their difficult language is not easy.
2. Fascism is More than Symbols and Imitation
It’s very easy to sew a Swastika onto a jacket or wave the Nazi flag. In fact, we’ve seen the Alt-Right doing this all across America. But Nazism will never succeed in America because it was a German phenomenon. Nazism is more than the Swastika or a flag; it is a moment in German history that cannot be exported to other countries.
Imitating Nazism does not make one a fascist; it makes one a terrible human being, but not a fascist. True fascism can occur only through the full mobilization of the masses behind the State. As the old saying goes, “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
3. No Single Fascist State is the Same as Another
Americans, Germans, Italians, and other nations are unique. Not only are they separated in space, the people have their own distinct culture (religions, politics, social structures, economic systems, ways of talking, manners of walking, etc.).
Nazi Germany succeeded because it used the culture of the people as propaganda. The same is true of Fascist Italy. A fascist leader propels his party together by bringing people together through their shared cultural connection. Because the direction of all fascist regimes to gain power, there are some common features like imperialism, militarism, nationalism, and the belief that war is virtuous. But the "cultural particularity" of each fascist regime means that we must look deeper than just the similarities.
4. Ambiguous Relationship Between Doctrine (Ideology) and Practice (Political Action)
Fascists often define some sort of doctrine, but they rarely follow through on it. In Fascist Italy, Mussolini eventually violated almost every piece of doctrine outlined in his first Fascist program of April 1919.
The fascist’s true intention is the seizure and exploitation of State power through war and violence. If this means acting against the principles they define for themselves, then so be it: in the pursuit of power, the fascist cares not how power is gained only that it is gained to the fullest degree possible.
5.Misuse and Overuse of the Terms “Fascism” and “Fascist”
Everyone and everything has been called “fascist” by someone. Some scholars have even argued that it would be best to just do away with the word “fascism” because it has been so overused.
But the world's leading expert on fascism Robert Paxton disagrees. In his essay "The Five Stages of Fascism," he writes, “…fascism is the most original political novelty of the twentieth century” (9).
Though difficult to understand, fascism does exist and cannot just be thrown away because it has been misused. On the contrary, we must work even harder to understand fascism to avoid this misuse.
6. Failure to Recognize Both Macro and Micro-Political Dimensions of Fascism
As earlier stated, the language used to discuss fascism is often difficult to understand. Giles Deleuze and Felix Guttari prove this better than anyone in their text A Thousand Plateaus. Their observations are keen contributions to the discussion. They write that “What makes fascism dangerous is its molecular or micro-political power, for it is a mass movement: a cancerous body…” (215).
There are two dimensions of fascism: 1) the macro-political dimension of the State as a totalitarian government and authoritarian regime (i.e. macro-fascism), and 2) the micro-political dimension of the individual who forsakes his individuality in order to belong to the State (i.e. micro-fascism).
Micro-fascists are nihilistic. Nihilism is the belief that nothing has meaning or value; it is the attempt at the annihilation of the world. Such annihilation can only occur through suicide because it destroys that which perceives the world (i.e. the self).
But weaker attempts at nihilism are found in fascism where the individual willingly represses his most inner desire for freedom in order to be controlled by a higher authority. He annihilates his will in order to accept the will of the State as his destiny. The fascist trades his human rights for duties to the State.
Each individual belongs to the State as a cog and loses their individuality. More attention is typically paid to the macro-fascist State by fascist scholars. But the State is only a symbol of national identity and unity. It represents the irrationality, emotionalism, and repressed violent instincts of the people.
But these people are the mass, and fascism is a mass movement. Neither Hitler nor Trump rises to power without a racist, sexist, and bigoted mass pushing them forward.
7. Studying Fascism as a Static Essence Rather than a Dynamic Mass Movement
Because fascism is a mass movement, it moves. Paxton states, “Most authorities treat generic fascism in a static manner” (9). Something that is static does not move, grow, or evolve. A doctrine is static because all of its principles are outlined and defined in way that they never change. You can always go back to the United States Constitution to understand American political doctrine.
But fascism is more than a doctrine applied to political activity. It is a contradiction between doctrine and political activity. And these contradictions develop through a series of five stages that Paxton outlines five stages of fascism in the Introduction of his text, “The Five Stages of Fascism.”
Each stage represents a moment in a fascist movement where the fascists become more powerful and gain greater control over the State and its mass. The movement of fascism is toward the accumulation of State power, the repression of individual rights, and colonial imperial expansion.*
Conclusion: How to Stop Fascism
Paxton states that fascism “was poorly understood at the beginning because it was unexpected.” During and after the European Enlightenment, new political doctrines emerged. Liberalism, socialism, Marxism, and others defined beliefs, ideas, and assumptions. Many of the liberal theories made their way into the constitutions of "Western" nations like France and the United States. But fascism appeared as a mass movement which overtook Germany and Italy with first stage fascists starting parties in France, the United Kingdom, and throughout Europe.
However, with Paxton's five stages of fascism we can identify early stage fascism before the fascists seize political party. And Deleuze and Guattari's theories of micro- and macropolitics, we can observe how the election of Trump represents second, if not fourth, fascism in America. Fascism is coming alive right before our eyes, but we can only stop it if we understand it. After World War I, the tools were not there to predict what was coming. The Holocaust, the German invasion of its neighbors, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, and the millions of lives that were lost came as a shock. Now we can look back with Paxton, Deleuze, and Guattari and stop fascism from seizing complete control over the American State. We must remember that knowledge is power and the knowledge they and others have given us are our strongest weapons against the fascist enemy, In my next article, I will examine Paxton's five stages consciousness through the lens of micro- and macropolitics. If you enjoyed this article, please take a look at the first volume in The Portrait of Fascist. And don't forget to like us on Facebook!
(Article by Alexander Fred; Edited by Lessa Leigh)