So far, I’ve described some of the ideas of fascism and how it related (usually negatively) to the other philosophies of government and society of the 1920s and 1930s. In this post I’d like to examine some of fascism’s core beliefs that most fascist movements shared. I hope that fascism’s belief in the importance of […]
Category: European History
Fascism and Economics Examined
Fascism and economics is one of the more complex aspects of fascism. The purpose of the nation’s economy, fascists agreed, was to serve the state. Economic power increased national power. How to make this happen most efficiently, however, was the question. Philosophically, fascism and capitalism had disagreements, at least on the surface. As I wrote […]
Comparing Fascism to Other Philosophies
It is now time for comparing fascism to other styles of government. With the bogus idea that fascism was a leftist political movement dispelled in the last post, let us examine the aspects of fascism that make it different from other political movements. I will do so by discussing the ways that it differed ideologically […]
Fascism is Not a Left-Wing Movement
In recent years I’ve seen a few attempts by some confused conservative commentators to reclassify fascism from a right-wing political movement to a left-wing one. In reality, fascism is not a left-wing movement. Actually, I shouldn’t call the commentators confused. They know exactly what they are trying to accomplish with this subterfuge. After discarding all […]
Fascism’s Characteristics
Recently, I’ve noticed that plenty of commentators in the press and in politics have found it fashionable to label political figures they do not like as fascists. One consequence is that the meaning of the word has morphed to the extent that many people have no real idea what fascism’s characteristics are. Most of us […]
George Orwell and the Spanish Civil War
Today I was reminded of one of my favorite stories from history, George Orwell and the Spanish Civil War. In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began. On one side were the forces of the slightly left-of-center elected Spanish government, on the other, the hard-right fascist rebels of general Francisco Franco. After the war began, various […]