Since I already talked about Communism and Socialism. Now it's time to understand another controversial political ideology called Fascism!! Let the
excitement wear off because we're going to a long and detailed understanding of this scary word to many.
Here's a great video to get you started.
"Mute the video if you don't want to hear the music."
From
Dictionary.com we get the definition on Fascism as:
dictionary.reference.com...
–noun
1.
a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce,
etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
2.
the philosophy, principles, or methods of fascism.
3.
a fascist movement, esp. the one established by Mussolini in Italy 1922–43.
All these don't offer much. Fascism seems to be more of a form of a government control. Nationalism seems to play a big roll. As well Mussolini.
Now Fascism is a very hard word to define. Many different people have different ways to explain it to you. Some will call President Bush, President
Obama or the US. as a Fascist country. It's very confusing to say the least.
Wikipedia gives more detail to the foundlings of Fascism and the politics behind it.
en.wikipedia.org...
"Fascism, is a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives,
values, and systems, including the political system and the economy. Fascism was originally founded by Italian national syndicalists in World War I
who combined left-wing and right-wing political views, but it gravitated to the political right in the early 1920s."
Now we're getting somewhere here. Fascism has it origins in WW1. During the Great War Many different political ideologies were being widely
discussed. Democracy, Liberty, Socialism. The list goes on and on.
There were numerous political influence in Europe and around the world at the time. Nationalism was also very popular. Today many are becoming more
nationalist because of the many illegal immigrants.
There were numerous empires in Europe before the start of WW1 that many people native to countries under control by another empire were sick of
another country looking down on them. Basically a powered cage waiting to explode.
More from wikipedia:
"Fascists support a "Third Position" in economic policy, which they believe superior to both the rampant individualism of laissez-faire capitalism
and the severe control of state socialism."
Now let's understand The Third Position more.
en.wikipedia.org...
"Third Position is a revolutionary nationalist political ideology that emphasizes its opposition to both communism and capitalism. Advocates of Third
Position politics present themselves as "neither left nor right", instead combining ideas from both. Third Positionists tend to defend the interests
of the "productive" working class, seek alliances with separatists of ethnicity other than their own to achieve "separate but equal" ethnic
segregation, support national liberation movements in the least developed countries, and have recently embraced neopaganism and environmentalism."
Here's some information on the Nazi party.
en.wikipedia.org...
"The Nazis claimed that Jews were the greatest threat to the Aryan race and the German nation. They considered Jews a parasitic race that attached
itself to various ideologies and movements to secure its self-preservation, such as: the Enlightenment, liberalism, democracy, parliamentary politics,
capitalism, industrialization, Marxism and trade unionism."
"To rescue Germany from the effects of the Great Depression, Nazism promoted an economic third position; a managed economy that was neither
capitalist nor communist."
"The Nazis accused communism and capitalism of being associated with Jewish influences and interests. They declared support for a nationalist form of
socialism that was to provide for the Aryan race and the German nation: economic security, social welfare programs for workers, a just wage, honour
for workers' importance to the nation, and protection from capitalist exploitation"
Now this a lot of information which I can keep finding for hours on in.
A friend on Yahoo answers gave me a great answer to my question on Fascism.
"Of course the fascism of Franco, Mussolini, Hitler - or the fascism in japan or the fascism in the aristocratic group the circle Proudhon in France
and so on are all completely different. It is very difficult to find a common definition of fascism that suits all these people. But i think heavy
authoritarianism that hates individual freedom is the right word - and not to mention violent opposition to socialism (although the Nazis called
themselves nationalist socialists and the Italians and the Spanish were syndicalists - what they wanted wasn't really socialism by anyone's
standards, they wanted capital and labor to agree instead of being in conflict, which is very reminiscent of the new deal here in America, hence the
reason why you can see Roosevelt was an admirer of Mussolini - shocking, I know - but what these were were preventative measures to make the
socialistic movement less revolutionary, so you have put in place something like social security and the labor movement forgets about its problems,
although they'll still be heavily exploited, in other words it's making them enjoy their exploitation). And a deep hatred of democracy, Mussolini
saying: Fascism affirms the immutable, beneficial, fruitful inequality of men. And of course you have the extreme nationalism that also characterizes
fascism."
Now I hope all this is not as confusing as I see it is now. I tried my best to get what I can to explain to all my other members. Ask me any question
and I'll be sure to find it for you. I felt all the I put here would answer a lot of questions many users would already have. I hope this isn't two
much information from other websites. Fascism is very difficult to explain and I had to use outside sources.
[edit on 15-8-2010 by Romantic_Rebel]
[edit on 15-8-2010 by Romantic_Rebel]