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Years of teaching a course on the roots of the major modern ideologies has taught me that even most highly educated Americans have no idea how to define fascism's "leader principle" or how it worked historically.
Here is a definition from one of the best introductory texts:
Here is a definition from one of the best introductory texts:
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Most Americans conception of fascism comes from Steven Spielberg & Hollywood. They expect black & white images of concentration camps or it's not fascism yet.
They have rarely considered that it fuses Nietzsche / Schmitt on leader w/ Rousseau on popular will.
Most Americans conception of fascism comes from Steven Spielberg & Hollywood. They expect black & white images of concentration camps or it's not fascism yet.
They have rarely considered that it fuses Nietzsche / Schmitt on leader w/ Rousseau on popular will.
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As Tony Judt noted most Americans (I add: even many historians like Samuel Moyn) default to fascism as an historical singularity. A one-off that must reach absolute zero or it doesn't exist at all.
They rarely consider fascism poorly done. Fascism farcical & incompetent.
As Tony Judt noted most Americans (I add: even many historians like Samuel Moyn) default to fascism as an historical singularity. A one-off that must reach absolute zero or it doesn't exist at all.
They rarely consider fascism poorly done. Fascism farcical & incompetent.
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The specifically fascist conception of the political rally is built around the leader principle.
Fascist leaders favor rallies that put them directly in touch with the *real* people & eliminate intervening institutions (party elites, journalists, opposition leaders, etc)
The specifically fascist conception of the political rally is built around the leader principle.
Fascist leaders favor rallies that put them directly in touch with the *real* people & eliminate intervening institutions (party elites, journalists, opposition leaders, etc)
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I wrote about US fascism in Aug 2016 for @TheAtlantic . At the time I did not appreciate enough the extent of paramilitarization or the intensity of a culture of "the leader" as absolute (more absolute than party, publications, rival leaders etc). https://bit.ly/3lxrkUJ
I wrote about US fascism in Aug 2016 for @TheAtlantic . At the time I did not appreciate enough the extent of paramilitarization or the intensity of a culture of "the leader" as absolute (more absolute than party, publications, rival leaders etc). https://bit.ly/3lxrkUJ
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Another factor I didn't appreciate enough in 2016 was the role of political theology & a Christian form of fascism (which I take to be heretical). I explain in this video.
(n.b. above excerpts from Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies: An Introduction)
Another factor I didn't appreciate enough in 2016 was the role of political theology & a Christian form of fascism (which I take to be heretical). I explain in this video.
(n.b. above excerpts from Andrew Heywood, Political Ideologies: An Introduction)
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The leader principle is now ascendant on much of the American Right.
This is one reason the election outcome poses such a ferocious dilemma for many. If the leader has a monopoly on ideological wisdom but lost election EITHER: he has no such wisdom OR did not in fact lose
The leader principle is now ascendant on much of the American Right.
This is one reason the election outcome poses such a ferocious dilemma for many. If the leader has a monopoly on ideological wisdom but lost election EITHER: he has no such wisdom OR did not in fact lose
