Here at TDV fascism is frequently referred to as the increasingly prevalent form of government in the West. We recognize that this conjures strong emotions and we often get a few angry emails voicing displeasure with our characterization of their homeland. We understand that the word fascism is an emotionally charged word and we do not use it lightly. We recognize, however, that we have never taken the time to define it completely nor place it within the context of our communications (although Jeff did compare the USA to the dictionary definition of "fascism" in "The Fasco-Communist Police State of America"). As such, we have fallen victim to one of our own cardinal sins; letting somebody else control the thoughts by controlling the definition of the words used to define those thoughts. To make matters worse, by default, we have relegated the responsibility of defining those words to two of the most criminally complicit estates in our society, namely the educational system and mass media. It is time to address this oversight.
THE ETYMOLOGY OF "FASCISM"
The word fascism is rooted in the Latin word fasces, a Roman object made of wooden rods tightly bound by red, overlapping straps. At the top, or occasionally in the middle, of the fasces was an axe head. The bound wooden rods represented strength through unity and the axe represented the means by which authority was exerted by the unified entity. In addition to being used as a weapon by Roman authorities, the fasces was a key symbol on government buildings of the Roman empire. The symbolism of the fasces is significant. The wooden rod represents the weak individual whose sole contribution is to provide strength to the unified object, in this case the State. The axe head, unsurprisingly, represents the force with which the State will ensure its survival.
Fascism is referred to as an ideology with numerous characteristics, the most common being fervent nationalism, virtually unlimited central authority, militarism, and state control of production. While those traits are almost universally present in fascist run societies, we take the position that fascism in, in fact, not an ideology at all. Merriam-Webster defines ideology as the “visionary theorizing of a systematic body of concepts especially about human life or culture.”
We contend that the objective of fascism is to ensure the survival and further the influence of the State. As Benito Mussolini famously stated, “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.” Fascism holds self-preservation of the State as the supreme objective, regardless of method. It is therefore difficult to envision fascism as an ideology any more than a pride of lions being governed by an ideology. Fascism is an observed organizational structure in which the State exerts unlimited and arbitrary power over all its subjects merely for its own survival.
THE CORE CHARACTERISTICS OF FASCISM
While we contend that fascism is without principles, that is not to say that it does not have core characteristics. Rather than representing a platform of principles from which to rule, however, these characteristics represents processes and tools that empower the State apparatus. As times and conditions change, a fascist State will shift message, priorities and effort, all for the purpose of self-preservation. At times the State will appear pro-market, other times it will claim national exigencies demand that it assume control of production in the economy. Commonly observed traits, however, include:
Nominal or no limit on the power of the State. Whether explicit or de facto, when the State ceases to recognize limits on its authority, it is displaying a core characteristic of fascism. This is often seen in the broad powers that are granted to the law enforcement, military and the intelligence apparatus. As a related aside, a common observation in fascist regimes is that law enforcement and military cease to be viewed as members of the community in which they serve. Their encroaching and increasingly heavy handed tactics become the source of discontent among the people which in turn results in increasingly hysterical propaganda from the State.
Significant spending on national defense. Regardless of the financial conditions of the State and its subjects, military spending is virtually unaffected by financial stress occurring in other segments of the economy. The State recognizes that political power is meaningless without the force to back it. Money goes to salaries, weapons, research and various military adventures. In Germany and Italy in the 1930s, significant production and economic benefit was bestowed upon the military and the military industry. This is still the case in some countries today.
Key segments of the economy are granted cartel status by the State. Industries including agriculture, health care, banking, energy and manufacturing find themselves submitting to the State’s plan for production or being run out of business. In a fascist regime, the State typically does not actually seek to run the enterprise, they merely dictate the conditions and stipulations under which producers must operate.
A final note on fascism. It is commonly held that fascism is a right-wing form of government. We hold that the differentiation between left and right in this context is completely meaningless. North Korea and the former Soviet Union certainly can be characterized as fascist. The key characteristic is a high degree of force and deceit that the State deploys in self preservation.
This brief article is far from an exhaustive study on the matter of fascism. Lew Rockwell of the Mises Institute and Richard Maybury, author of the Uncle Eric series of books have dedicated many years of academic research to this topic. Much of what we have captured in this short primer is a result of their pioneering work. For those interested in further study of fascism, its history and how it manifests today, we encourage you to seek the works by these two remarkable men. See "The Fascist Threat" by Lew Rockwell and the Uncle Eric books here.
For recent interviews with Lew Rockwell, Richard Maybury, and Pete Kofod on Anarchast, click on their names.
Reprinted with permission from The Dollar Vigilante.
When, Who, How and Where the Origins of American Fascism begins with the Radical Republicans and the Radical Reconstruction Era..
“Let us in this way give warning to the Southern States that if they reject the conditions now offered them, they will not be tendered a second time in the same form, and each time they are rejected they will probably have an additional exaction placed upon them, — not from revenge upon the citizens of those States, but because of the reason for stringent exaction which their defiant rejection of fair terms and their truculent disposition would demand as essential to a safe system of Reconstruction. I think, in the present crisis, it might be well for the leaders of public opinion in the South to refresh their minds with the moral contained in the ancient fable of the Sibylline Books.” -Political Discussions, Legislative, Diplomatic, and Popular, 1856-1886 – James Gillespie Blaine (Ch. THE RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEM, THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AS A BASIS OF RECONSTRUCTION, pg. 71) ______
EVERY RULED SOCIETY has some form of holy scripture. The holy scriptures of Caesarean Rome were the prophecies and ritual directions contained in the ten Sibylline gospels and Virgil’s Aeneid.
The Aeneid implied that every Roman’s duty was to sacrifice his individuality, as heroic Aeneas had done, to the greater glory of Rome and Pontifex Maximus. The Sibyllines, borrowing from Isaiah’s much earlier prophecy of Jesus Christ, prophesied that when Caesar Augustus succeeded his uncle Julius as Pontifex Max¬imus he would rule the world as “Prince of Peace, Son of God.” Augustus would issue in a “new world order,” as indeed he did.
The Sibyllines and the Aeneid were so beloved by the govern¬ment priests that they were considered part of the Roman consti¬tution. The same scriptures were made part of the United States Constitution when the mottoes “ANNUIT COEPTIS” and “NOVUSORDO SECLORUM,” taken from the Aeneid and the Sibyllines respectively, were incorporated, by the Act of July 28, 1782, into the Great Seal of the United States.1
The Sibyllines and the Aeneid were open only to priests and certain privileged persons. The people learned their sacred con¬tent by the trickle-down of priestly retelling. When the Old and New Testaments were adopted as the Empire’s official sacred writ¬ings they, too, were given to the exclusive care of the priests. And in accord with Roman tradition, the people learned sacred con¬tent from discretionary retelling. This had to be, for the sake of the Holy Empire. For should the people acquire biblical knowledge, they would know that Pontifex Maximus was not a legitimate Christian entitlement. Knowing this, they would not bow to his supremacy. The Empire could collapse. And so the monarchial Roman Church forcibly suppressed the Bible’s intelligent reading. This is why the millennium between Constantine and Gutenberg is known as “the Dark Ages.” – RULERS OF EVIL by Frederick Tupper Saussy (Chapter 3 MARGINALIZING THE BIBLE p.15-16)