On Aug 29, 8:53Â*pm, Lamont Cranston
wrote:
On 8/29/2010 4:03 PM, ∅baMa∅ Tse Dung wrote:

"Fascism [is] the complete opposite of…Marxian Socialism..." --Benito
Mussolini, the Father of Fascism

Fascism is a form of extreme right-wing ideology that celebrates the
nation or the race as an organic community transcending all other
loyalties. It emphasizes a myth of national or racial rebirth after a
period of decline or destruction. To this end, fascism calls for a
"spiritual revolution" against signs of moral decay such as
individualism and materialism, and seeks to purge "alien" forces and
groups that threaten the organic community. Fascism tends to celebrate
masculinity, youth, mystical unity, and the regenerative power of
violence. Often, but not always, it promotes racial superiority
doctrines, ethnic persecution, imperialist expansion, and genocide. At
the same time, fascists may embrace a form of internationalism based on
either racial or ideological solidarity across national boundaries.
Usually fascism espouses open male supremacy, though sometimes it may
also promote female solidarity and new opportunities for women of the
privileged nation or race.

Fascism's approach to politics is both populist--in that it seeks to
activate "the people" as a whole against perceived oppressors or
enemies--and elitist--in that it treats the people's will as embodied in
a select group, or often one supreme leader, from whom authority
proceeds downward. Fascism seeks to organize a cadre-led mass movement
in a drive to seize state power. It seeks to forcibly subordinate all
spheres of society to its ideological vision of organic community,
usually through a totalitarian state. Both as a movement and a regime,
fascism uses mass organizations as a system of integration and control,
and uses organized violence to suppress opposition, although the scale
of violence varies widely.

Fascism is hostile to Marxism, liberalism, and conservatism, yet it
borrows concepts and practices from all three. Fascism rejects the
principles of class struggle and workers' internationalism as threats to
national or racial unity, yet it often exploits real grievances against
capitalists and landowners through ethnic scapegoating or
radical-sounding conspiracy theories. Fascism rejects the liberal
doctrines of individual autonomy and rights, political pluralism, and
representative government, yet it advocates broad popular participation
in politics and may use parliamentary channels in its drive to power.
Its vision of a "new order" clashes with the conservative attachment to
tradition-based institutions and hierarchies, yet fascism often
romanticizes the past as inspiration for national rebirth.

Fascism has a complex relationship with established elites and the
non-fascist right. It is never a mere puppet of the ruling class, but an
autonomous movement with its own social base. In practice, fascism
defends capitalism against instability and the left, but also pursues an
agenda that sometimes clashes with capitalist interests in significant
ways. There has been much cooperation, competition, and interaction
between fascism and other sections of the right, producing various
hybrid movements and regimes.

http://www.publiceye.org/eyes/whatfasc.html

Excellent response. I would add that Fascism usually relies on two
additional things to get and retain control: (1) A persecution myth.
We -- pure and honest spirits -- are being persecuted by evil forces
because they hate our purity and honesty and because they are greedy
and evil and want to suppress all that is not evil and take everything
from the good people. A corollary to this is that although we are good
and compassionate we should repress our natural compasion and do
everything we can to eradicate the evil. Note: this is what Glenn Beck
was implying over the weekend and what the Teabaggers seem to be
****ed-off about. (2) Outside forces are attempting to invade and
crush us both from the outside and from fifth columnists inside. The
State must protect the good people from the threats outside and inside
the country. Hitler, Stalin, Mao and every other nutcase dictator who
has run a country uses this ruse. Bush used it to good effect as well
in justifying the Iraq war. Condi Rice played Goebbles to Bush's dime-
store Hitler. Unfortunately for the Pugs, the notion of perpetual
warfare in terms of the GWAT didn't catch fire.