Sedition in Berkeley

Fascism is an expression of the anti-liberty, anti-individual Right -- not the Left. It's the masculine Father State versus the Left's smothering Big Mother. It's a form of collectivism for sure, but that's only its genus. Left and Right don't become differentiating features until you've gone one level of resolution further, to the level of species. Fascism is collectivus fascistus whereas socialism/communism is collectivus socialistus. One is on the left, the other is on the right. Just because fascism shares its hive mentality with the Left doesn't mean it's an invention of the Left or that it's leftist.

Mussolini was a Marxist when he was young -- but he changed. His Fascist party rose to power by cracking the skulls of the radical proletariat, signalling rather clearly that he was no Marxist. His appeal was precisely his opposition to socialism, as well as his nationalism and his promise to restore law and order and dignity to Italy -- all characteristics and goals we normally associate with the Right. How one can think of Mussolini as either a Marxist or a left-winger is puzzling to me.

" His appeal was precisely his opposition to socialism, as well as his nationalism and his promise to restore law and order and dignity to Italy -- all characteristics and goals we normally associate with the Right."

I will look into that. I recall seeing an article on Fascism authored by Mussolini somewhere. Will have to find it.

I have a question, however. Nazi Germany was clearly a socialist state. How is it then, if Mussolini was so opposed to socialism, that he allied himself with Hitler and his National Socialist cult?

Mussolini and Hitler got along famously because they were cut from the same cloth. Don't be fooled by the fact that National Socialism has the word "socialism" in it. Today's "liberals" call themselves liberal and yet we know there's nothing liberal about them. Same sort of thing with the National Socialists. Actions, not just words, need to be considered when establishing identity, and the National Socialists did not act like socialists. They liked cracking socialist skulls just as much as Mussolini's Fascists did. Hitler and Mussolini both rose to power by promising to stamp out the socialists. And both rejected socialism's central dogma -- the bottom-up revolution and subsequent rule of the international proletariat.

Now, it's certainly true that Naziism and Socialism overlap in certain important areas. They're both anti-liberal, anti-individual, hive-mentality expressions of the megastate. But one is Right-wing in character, while the other is Left-wing. Look at our Republicans and Democrats. There are broad areas of overlap between the two, but we don't try to argue that they're the same. It's the same thing with Nazis and Socialists. We see what they have in common but we also see where they're different. As I put it earlier, we see that they're of the same genus but of a different species.

If you really want to get down to it, the problem is with the word "socialism". It's an ambiguous term.

Mussolini was editor of a socialists newspaper The Class Struggle and was secretary of the local socialist party in Forli. He got the job as editor of the large and influential socialist paper Avanti and moved to Milan. He believed that the proletariat should unite "in one formidable fascio" (bundle)and thus seize power. When WWI broke out he switched his belief from the official socialist anti war position to be a pro war one. Where the Left were internationalists he suddenly became staunchly nationalist. In late 1914 he left the newspaper and started his own Il Popolo d'Italia, and the prowar group Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria. He was wounded in the war and returned to his paper and went into politics getting elected to Parliament.

As for the argument of Left wing/Right wing one should realize that unlike in America where the Right (grassroots anyway but maybe not the leadership) believes in maximum liberty and the free market the European parties are all socialist. Their Right and Left only vary in degree of state power. Getting back to Mussolini he realized that the key to power was to get the industrialists on one's side and once in power the Fascists formed an all powerful state that worked closely with corporations but did not own them like in the Soviet Union. Socialists and communists made great efforts to hammer the differences between themselves and the Fascist and the Nazis and that dialog was imported to America but America historically never could compare to Europe in the scope or level of state interference in life and commerce so our left/right comparisons are not analogous to theirs.

In summation the European Right and Left only differ on the degree of State power and on nationalism vs. internationalism but both are socialist to the core. Now one could make a case that the American Right has become more Fascistic as it has moved leftwards using the national defense as an excuse for corporate welfare and government control on industry and trade but one has to emphasize the leftist movement behind this phenomenon even if it is wrapped in a flag.

I've done some looking. Found the mussolini document (www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.html). Also found a couple of other docs (Who did Mussolini's fascism appeal to?) and The Mystery of Fascism by David Ramsay Steele. Haven't read the Steele article and since it is long, I will put it off until tonight.

The "who did..." article makes the point that "Fascism was a strange, convoluted mixture of right-wing symbolism (nationalism, respect for figure of authority) with a left-wing execution (totalitarian rule, view that elites have an enlightened dedication to the common good."

I agree with this.

In Mussolini's article, he makes the point that fascism is not concerned with class warfare, but the State is everything. "The foundation of Fascism is the conception of the State, its character, its duty, and its aim."

I fail to see how Mussolini can say that Fascism "believes... in actions influenced by no economic motive, direct or indirect." Fascism has to be concerned with economics, because if the State is everything, it controls economics too.

AFA Nazism goes, it was a form of socialism gussied up with Fascism. Although Hitler hated the communists and actively persecuted them, that didn't stop him from making that famous pact with Stalin.

I don't have the book in front of me but Ominous Parallels by Peikoff contains many quotes that buttress my case. I encourage you to read it. 'Pod.

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