The perfect word for this psychological state is nostalgia - yearning for utopia, either in the distant past or in the distant future. Fascism originated in Italy, and Eco stresses that to understand fascism, one must first understand that fascism "was a fuzzy [original emphasis] totalitarianism, a collage of different philosophical and political ideas, a beehive of contradictions," [run by men where] "few of them had the intellectual equipment to control it." Syncretism is not only, as the dictionary says, the combination of different forms of belief or practice; such a combination must tolerate contradictions. Besides, disagreement is a sign of diversity. However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. This revelation, according to the traditionalist mystique, had remained for a long time concealed under the veil of forgotten languages in Egyptian hieroglyphs, in the Celtic runes, in the scrolls of the little known religions of Asia. In the Mediterranean basin, people of different religions (most of them indulgently accepted by the Roman Pantheon) started dreaming of a revelation received at the dawn of human history. Ionesco once said that only words count and the rest is mere chattering. Linguistic habits are frequently important symptoms of underlying feelings. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. See the full definition. Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters. Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. Stanley Payne: Historical Fascism and the Radical Right. Consider the following sequence: Suppose there is a series of political groups in which group one is characterized by the features abc, group two by the features bcd, and so on. Umberto Eco Ur-Facism The great Italian author Umberto Eco wrote an essay in 1995 reflecting on his youth in fascist Italy. Strategies of Class Hatred, A Sociological Autobiography: 106 Serendipity + Reflexivity + Happenstance = Career + CV, First in his list is the cult of tradition. The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life, but it mainly concerned the rejection of the Spirit of 1789 (and of 1776, of course). This new culture was to be syncretic, and therefore. Fascism was a fuzzy totalitarianism, a collage of different philosophical and political ideas, a beehive of contradictions. This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). They ate more frequently than the poor but sober Italians. Fascism is hard to define as it changes shape constantly, but Eco was able to outline 14 core features of all fascist movements. It would be so much easier, for us, if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Black Shirts to parade again in the Italian squares. Life is not that simple. What Eco describes is broader than just Mussolini's Italy or Hitler's Germany. All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning, Eco told us. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Peace gave me a curious sensation. The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In 1995 he wrote the essay "Ur-Fascism". Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weaponsdoing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise., Eco notes the prevalence of what he calls selective populism, where citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People., And he concludes by warning against what George Orwell called Newspeak, the language of totalitarianism that the author of 1984 identified most closely with Stalinism but was and is common to all brands of fascism. In the same vein, even though I am much concerned about the various Nazi-like movements that have arisen here and there in Europe, including Russia, I do not think that Nazism, in its original form, is about to reappear as a nationwide movement. There was only one Nazism. They were cryptic and poetic at the same time (The sun also rises, The roses will bloom) and most of them were messaggi per la Franchi. Somebody whispered to me that Franchi was the leader of the most powerful clandestine network in northwestern Italy, a man of legendary courage. In Umberto Eco's Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt, Eco contemplates on what fascism is. If you browse in the shelves that, in American bookstores, are labeled as New Age, you can find there even Saint Augustine who, as far as I know, was not a fascist. In our time, when the old proletarians are becoming petty bourgeois (and the lumpen are largely excluded from the political scene), the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority. Truth has been already spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message. At night I put my wad in a water glass, so it would be fresh for the next day. Mein Kampf is a manifesto of a complete political program. In April 1945, the partisans took over in Milan. The followers must feel besieged. This reinforces the sense of mass elitism. 14. They were African Americans. In the Mediterranean basin, people of different religions (most of them indulgently accepted by the Roman Pantheon) started dreaming of a revelation received at the dawn of human history. Tradition is older than Fascism and was born in the late Hellenic period as a reaction to classical Greek rationalism. Wherever a politician casts doubt on the legitimacy of a parliament because it no longer represents the Voice of the People, we can smell Ur-Fascism. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights As one of the most explicit modern accounts of eco-fascism, Richard Walter Darre coined the Nazi slogan "blood and soil", meaning to capture a mystical link with their homeland, making it their duty to take care of the land. Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology, insofar as it is fundamentally aristocratic, and aristocratic and militaristic elitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak. A rejection of modernism (cultural, rather than technological). But there cannot be patricians without plebeians. Whether he comes to power by military means (like the caliph) or through elections (as Hitler did) the Leader knows that his force is based upon the weakness of the masses; they are so weak as to need and deserve a ruler.. Fascism doesnt need to preach popular elitism because every individual belongs to the best people in the world. The term also comes from the fasces (rods bundled around an axe), which . Let me finish with a poem by Franco Fortini: Select individual parts for the bookbuilder. It is not by chance that a motto of the Falangists was Viva la Muerte (in English it should be translated as Long Live Death!). His comic books were brightly colored and smelled good. The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life, but it mainly concerned the rejection of the Spirit of 1789 (and of 1776, of course). But fascism in Italy, as Eco recognizes, had no solid ideology: its ideology was whatever its leader said it is, and was enforced by the state. Both Fascists and Nazis worshiped technology, while traditionalist thinkers usually reject it as a negation of traditional spiritual values. Mimo spoke in a hoarse voice, barely audible. For that, see Umberto Ecco's essay popularly known as "Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt.". As a consequence, there can be no advancement of learning. Definition of FASCISM. I spent two of my early years among the SS, Fascists, Republicans, and partisans shooting at one another, and I learned how to dodge bullets. The great Italian author Umberto Eco wrote an essay in 1995 reflecting on his youth in fascist Italy. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. The most influential theoretical source of the theories of the new Italian right, Julius Evola, merged the Holy Grail with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, alchemy with the Holy Roman and Germanic Empire. By contrast, the Ur-Fascist hero craves heroic death, advertised as the best reward for a heroic life. But combining Saint Augustine and Stonehenge that is a symptom of Ur-Fascism. By the same token, the followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. Thus, for instance, we hear today that America is weak, that Russia is better led, that the Chinese take the United States to the cleaners on trade deals. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. Thus the People is only a theatrical fiction. 6. At its beginning fascism was republican. Umberto Eco OMRI (1932 - 2016) was an Italian novelist, literary critic, philosopher, semiotician, and university professor. Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. He began the list with this caveat: These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. I specifically love this paragraph: Has this dude even studied Mussolini? Umberto Eco (born 5 January 1932) is an Italian novelist, medievalist, semiotician, philosopher, and literary critic. Why was an expression like fascist pig used by American radicals thirty years later to refer to a cop who did not approve of their smoking habits? "Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, reflection. 3. Post-Scarcity and the Unbreaking of the World. We must keep alert, so that the sense of these words will not be forgotten again. In: JCH 35, 2000. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason. A game can be either competitive or not, it can require some special skill or none, it can or cannot involve money. PARIS Here in Europe, people know a thing or two about fascism. Feedback on all items is welcome. 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. The Premio Cremona was controlled by a fanatical and uncultivated Fascist, Roberto Farinacci, who encouraged art as propaganda. "These features," writes the novelist and semiotician, "cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. In seinem Essay Urfaschismus von 1995 listet der Kulturtheoretiker Umberto Eco vierzehn allgemeine Eigenschaften der faschistischen Ideologie auf. The fact that you can't diagnose a fascist government from a list of characteristic didn't stop philosopher and semiotician Umberto Eco from compiling his own list. Franklin Roosevelts words of November 4, 1938, are worth recalling: I venture the challenging statement that if American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land. Umberto Eco (born 5 January 1932 . "In this sense," Eco wrote, "Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism. One might think it would have been considered an instance of entartete Kunst, along with Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. 1. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/SubscribeRevandIdeology Support Us: https://www.patreon.com/revo. Two mass killings . But such a final solution implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war. Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it. At first glance, this is as remote from the far left as you can imagine. The notion of fascism is not unlike Wittgensteins notion of a game. But elements of Ur-Fascism are common to different forms of dictatorship. It is not by chance that a motto of the [Spanish] Falangists was Viva la Muerte (in English it should be translated as Long Live Death!). For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. 6. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. Truth has been already spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message. Sticking close to the radio, I spent my nights the windows closed, the blackout making the small space around the set a lone luminous halo listening to the messages sent by the Voice of London to the partisans. Grasset a t bien inspir de republier . Eco-fascism does not have that problem, but the solutions that extend from its ideological routes are chilling. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. 10. I was a smart boy. The 14 characteristics are: Powerful and Continuing Nationalism. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. "[] one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. He was a militant atheist at the beginning and later signed the Convention with the Church and welcomed the bishops who blessed the Fascist pennants. I was waiting for his speech because my whole childhood had been marked by the great historic speeches of Mussolini, whose most significant passages we memorized in school. Newspeak was invented by Orwell, in 1984, as the official language of Ingsoc, English Socialism. It wasn't until 1943 when Fascism began to crumble in Italy that Eco became aware of any other political views. This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Because of its qualitative populism Ur-Fascism must be against rotten parliamentary governments. 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