Fascism

You are currently browsing the archive for the Fascism category.

John T. Flynn on American Fascism

July 20, 2010 in Fascism by Greg | 3 comments

The growth of fascism in America was noted by Robert Higgs in the post Participatory Fascism. Prior to this, American journalist John T. Flynn – like Friedrich A. von Hayek – warned near the conclusion of WWII how this state of events might transpire:

American Fascism Fascism will come at the hands of perfectly authentic Americans, as violently against Hitler and Mussolini as the next one, but who are convinced that the present economic system is washed up and that the present political system in America has outlived its usefulness and who wish to commit this country to the rule of the bureaucratic state; interfering in the affairs of the states and cities; taking part in the management of industry and finance and agriculture; assuming the role of great national banker and investor, borrowing billions every year and spending them on all sorts of projects through which such a government can paralyze opposition and command public support; marshaling great armies and navies at crushing costs to support the industry of war and preparation for war which will become our greatest industry; and adding to all this the most romantic adventures in global planning, regeneration, and domination all to be done under the authority of a powerfully centralized government in which the executive will hold in effect all the powers with Congress reduced to the role of a debating society. There is your fascist. And the sooner America realizes this dreadful fact the sooner it will arm itself to make an end of American fascism masquerading under the guise of the champion of democracy.1

Flynn predicted the ominous effect of unlimited government spending over time:

Continuing this policy will no longer run with the great current of desire in America. Regulating business, cutting in as the partner of industry, repressing the labor unions that were encouraged to action, satisfying the aged who were lured on to dream of abundance—all this will present a problem that will call for such drastic impositions upon every section of the population that nothing short of a totalitarian government supported by the weapons of ruthless coercion and the will to use them will bring compliance from the people. We shall presently be presented with the final crisis—the necessity of taking the last few steps of the last mile to fascism in some generated crisis, of ending the prologue and running up the curtain on the swelling theme—or of calling off the whole wretched business in some costly, yet inescapable, convulsion.2

What were Flynn’s intentions? According to Ronald Radosh,

John T. Flynn on American Fascism »»

  1. As We Go Marching. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1942. 252-253.↩
  2. Ibid. 257.↩

Collectivism

August 7, 2009 in Fascism by Greg | 2 comments

A comment to the post Health Care Collectivists reminded me that the rhetoric of collectivism permeates today’s political discourse and that as long as a collectivist solution isn’t too “extreme”, some believe that individual rights can be maintained. While this certainly seems like a reasonable approach, there are a number of problems with this philosophy besides the ever present danger of a populace giving heed to the seductive call of social “gradualists.”1

History of Collectivism

Tiananmen Square The Encyclopedia Britannica traces the modern history of collectivist ideas to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Du contrat social – or “social contract” – of 1762.2 In theory, this was an actual or hypothetical compact, or agreement, between those who were ruled and their rulers, defining the rights and duties of each.

In the 19th century, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a prominent advocate of these ideals and believed that the state “has supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the State.”3 In fact, as a statist Hegel believed that submission to the state is the “highest embodiment of social morality.”

Drawing upon Rousseau and Hegel’s work, Karl Marx advocated a collectivist approach to organizing society. Moyra Grant wrote:

Collectivism is sometimes contrasted with both individualism and with statism to mean the advocacy of voluntary, cooperative and non-coercive groups and associations pursuing a common purpose; but is more commonly understood to include statist theories and systems such as fascism and Stalinism. . . .4

More broadly, however, collectivism embraces any philosophy which perceives any group, society or state as more important than the individual.5

Collectivism »»

  1. See Proposition 8, Mormons, and the New Statesman.↩
  2. “Collectivism”. Encyclopedia Britannica. 6 August 2009.↩
  3. See Hegelian Dialectic.↩
  4. This post uses this more common definition of collectivism and presupposes familiarity with political collectivism.↩
  5. Grant, Moyra. Key Ideas in Politics. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom: Nelson Thornes, 2003. 19-20. Google Book Search. Retrieved 6 August 2009.↩

Flirting with Fascism

May 4, 2009 in Fascism by Greg | 1 comment

A month or so ago, Sheldon Richman was on the Glenn Beck show discussing how the United States continues to flirt with fascism. (Note: For those who unaware, Sheldon Richman is the editor of The Freeman, serves as senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation and is a regular at the Foundation for Economic Education blog.1 This last organization may be of interest to students of J. Reuben Clark, Jr. and Ezra Taft Benson since both had association with this group.)2 Below is an excerpt of this exchange that may provide context to the fact that U.S. government leaders continue to move the country more and more to what may be termed Participatory Fascism. In any case, enjoy the video.

YouTube Preview Image

Excerpts from this video that caught my attention:

BECK: Right. OK, could you zoom in on this? Here it is — Harry, bring it forward a little bit. Zoom in right here.

This is — this is the Mercury Dime. On the back of the mercury dime — and Harry saw this earlier today. He works the gib camera that’s zooming in right now. They look familiar? This is the symbol of fascism.

Who brought this dime in? It happened in 1916, Woodrow Wilson was the president. I didn’t even put this together. We’ve have been on the road to fascism for a while.

So, let’s do something here. I looked up the definition of fascism yesterday, and I want to — I want to break it down. The first part is — where socialism sought totalitarian control of a society’s economic process through direct state operations of the means of production, fascism sought to control indirectly through the domination of nominally private owners.

Would you say that this is what’s happening with G.M. right now? And AIG?

RICHMAN: Something similar is happening with those companies. Again, to keep it in context — and this is in no way defensive that I am against all of that — first of all, it began in — back September. As you pointed out, the Republicans and the left and right had done similar things.

Read the rest of this entry »

  1. “Sheldon Richman”. The Future of Freedom Foundation. 3 May 2009.↩
  2. See for example, Benson, Ezra Taft. “Jesus Christ – Gifts and Expectations“. 10 December 1974. BYU Speeches. 3 May 2009.↩

China, Russia, and Fascism

January 25, 2009 in Fascism by Greg | 6 comments

Last week, I came across a couple of articles on China, Russia, and Fascism. I thought each one was well-written and important enough to add a short note to our blog.

China and Russia’s View of the United States

The first excerpt comes from The Richter Report and is reminiscent of Neal A. Maxwell’s statement that someday there will come a “gigantic, global collapse” as quoted in Pride and Selfishness:

The reckless expansion of credit and debt has been at the heart of all great depressions throughout history. However, our American politicians and “mainstream” economists believe that debt-spending is the key to economic recovery. That is why the perspective of  outside observers can be very helpful.

Chinese Flag A recent article published in the China Business News sent yet another warning shot in the direction  of the United States. The article would not have seen the light of day had it not been approved for publication by the Chinese government. The author, Xiang Songruo, a professor at Central China University, said that America  must “repay its debts” and “lead a more frugal life.” In the event that the United States asked China to buy more of its debts, the professor suggested that China should demand the following conditions:

1) The U.S. should cancel the limits on high-tech exports to China and allow China to acquire advanced technology and high-tech companies from the U.S.; 2) The U.S. needs to open its financial system to Chinese financial institutions, allowing all Chinese firms to open branches and develop business in the U.S.; 3) The U.S. should not prevent Europe from cancelling the ban against selling weapons to China; 4) The U.S. should stop selling military weapons to Taiwan; 5) The U.S. should loosen its limits on numbers of Chinese tourists and allow them to travel freely in the U.S.; and, 6) The U.S. should never restrain China’s exports to the U.S. and force renminbi appreciation in the name of domestic protectionism and employment.

And if we don’t do what China wants us to do? “Then China’s choice is quite simple: rationally adjust the structure of its foreign currency reserve assets and avoid the risk of U.S. national debt according to market rules.” Translation? You people are broke. We are going to make the rules from now on. If you don’t do what we want, we will dump all our US dollar foreign currency reserves and crash your economy even worse than it has already crashed.

China, Russia, and Fascism »»

Participatory Fascism

January 2, 2009 in Fascism by Greg | 18 comments

Participatory fascism is a phrase coined by Charlotte Twight. For most people, fascism in America is a difficult subject for a person to get their head around. Recently, I’ve been reading Crisis and Leviathan by Robert Higgs when Jimmy pointed me to his brief review of Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.1 As I read his post, it reminded me of this passage in Higgs’ book2:

As critics decry the pervasive governmental intrusion in the economy as “socialistic”,” it clearly has not produced an economic order resembling any standard form of socialism.

Anarchism in Spain - Poster with Fascism Snake Has it instead produced “fascism”? The term unfortunately has been abused by Americans in at least two distinct ways. On the one hand, “fascist” serves merely as a loose term of opprobrium by which radical leftists characterize anything they dislike about the present political economy. On the other hand, and more commonly, it simply brings to mind the regimes of Mussolini and Hitler, which are generally considered to have nothing in common with the postwar economy of the United States. Indeed most Americans find the mere suggestion of such similarities offensive and repellent – did Americans not spill their blood to destroy the fascist regimes? – and refuse to consider seriously the possibility that the United States may be fascist in some respects.

The term fascism, however, has a definite meaning; and one may employ it as an analytical concept independent of distasteful historical examplars. As Charlotte Twight has shown, the essence of fascism is nationalistic collectivism, the affirmation that the “national interest” should take precedence over the rights of individuals. So deeply has the presumption of individual subservience to the state entered into the thinking of modern Americans that few people have noticed – and no doubt many would be offended by the suggestion – that fascism has colored countless declarations by public officials during the past fifty years. Unfortunately, as Friedrich Hayek noted during WW II, “many who think themselves infinitely superior to the aberrations of naziism, and sincerely hate all its manifestations, work at the same time for ideals whose realization would lead straight to the abhorred tyranny.”3

Read the rest of this entry »

  1. Smith, Jimmy. “Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left”. 29 December 2008. Analytical Insights. 31 December 2008.↩
  2. Higgs, Robert. Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. 240-242.↩
  3. Twight, Charlotte. America’s Emerging Fascist Economy. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1975. Chapter 1; Hayek, Friedrich A. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944. 4.↩

« Older entries