Fascism

Fascism - the ideology for stupid people (is that offensive?)


Mussolini's quote edited for important parts:

If it is admitted that the nineteenth century has been the century of Socialism, Liberalism and Democracy, Political doctrines pass; peoples remain. It is to be expected that this century may be that of authority, a century of the "Right," a Fascist century. If the nineteenth was the century of the individual it may be expected that this one may be the century of "collectivism" and therefore the century of the State. - Mussolini

so is the 20th century really the century of the state?

well, this century of the state would really be from 1932-2032 bc thats when it started but nevertheless...

In this state run world, the government has control over everything. Erin made a lovely reference to the welfare estate where the government plays the key role in protecting and promoting the social and economic well-being of its citizens.

Some people argue against Mussolini and say that the 20th century was the century for the people, where people gained more rights and liberties (aka UNIVERSAL MANHOOD SUFFRAGE in some places at least), basically did everything against fascism, so its a disputed concept.

so, how did we go from hereditary monarchs in 19th century to fascism?

WORLD WAR I IS THE ANSWER!!!

Fascism was born for socialism and liberalism which had promised to make things better and make people more free yet these political ideologies brought about the worst war in history.

according to lily, "let's change to something without reason because world war i had no reason either"

Yarn then asked if we would feel the same way if we were german... most of us agreed we would say different if we were german.

the germans to us (also shoutout to this poor red-haired kid) 

But how we got to fascism begs the question... WHAT EVEN IS FASCISM 

well i finally wikipediad it (yes i made wikipedia a verb) and fascism is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that wants society under a totalitarian one party system in order to succeed economically and such. 

in class we talked about how its everything going towards the state, losing your individuality... 

so can we get this confused with communism? 

i mean we are totally going to get this stuff confused because its just really confusing, but maybe if we compare and contrast it will make more sense. 

Yarn asked if they were similar by means or by motive. they are similar in means because both used violence to get their plan accomplished (aka spanish civil war for fascism and stalin for communism) 

but they are different as erin pointed out because fascism is more focused on nationalism while communism is internationalism (workers of the world remember??) 

fascism was about blood wars and certain races being better than another. (hitler) Making the state the best was the ultimate goal. 

but is statism the same thing as nationalism? 

statism is the state has centralized control over economic and social affairs in the nation. its basically putting the state above everything, which sounds similar to fascism and nationalism. so no they aren't the same thing but they are related. 

so was hitler a fascist? 

Well, He was definitely a fascist in terms of propaganda... as mentioned before with the race wars and such... we all know that story. 

Hitler was a statist right? I mean he controlled most of everything in germany by the end of his dictatorship or whatever he called it... 

besides for political turmoil, there was also religious turmoil like the question: WHO KILLED GOD?

Well Nietzsche is the famous guy who wrote that... he asks a lot of questions and never really answers them (how socratic of him lol) 

At first we thought it was the people of this century, then Nietzsche mentioned how science and technology did it (in his title) and we realized that it was WWI that killed God. 

After such an irrational war with so much damage, people lost their faith in their nation, and then eventually lost their faith in God. The age of anxiety was them trying to find reason. 

BUT IS TRYING TO FIND REASON THE SAME THING AS DECLARING THERE IS NO PURPOSE/REASON? 

Finally, moving from religious, there is the economic aspect.

public 

KEYNESIAN ECONOMICS 

John Maynard Keynes created Keynesian economics (shocker) and this was the idea of priming the pump. This means that the government should start spending money to give the citizens spending money and jobs. This will increase the economy. 

The opposite of this is the trickle down theory that says that the rich should get tax breaks so they have more money to spend in the economy. 

Keynes said that the treaty of versailles was bad because it was all about revenge and not about fixing the economy of europe and making europe strong again. 

quick point: remember the weimar republic and why germany didn't become communist and remember who rosa luxemburg is. 

if you don't remember this, germany didn't become communist because the leaders weren't communist enough for it to survive (remember the whole pink not red thing) and rosa luxemburg was a polish communist who became a german citizen.