Emphasis mine:
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 World War 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.”
Robert Higgs (Crisis and Leviathan)
Much of our politics has the Left calling the Right “fascists” and showing a complete lack of knowledge of what they are saying. They are always yammering about “our community” and “our democracy” and calling those of us quoting the Constitution and the individual Rights it enumerates, along with the fact that it protects individuals AGAINST the “collective” (i.e., Government) extremists as well as fascists.
I get called such all the time over at Treehugger simply because of the above. That is both an example of not knowing what they are talking about as well as yet another example of our redefining our common language for their political gain.
So ANY time, make sure to point out WHAT the differences are.
There is also Economic Fascism which, simply stated, in where there is private ownership of the means of production but where the Collective (Government) seizes “control” over that private means by dint of Law, regulations, and rules. Thus proving that old saw of “why bother to own a cow when you control the production and distribution of milk?”.
Last century’s Italian dictator, Mussolini, states the actual definition:
And that part was true, but where true Western Liberalism (and the democracies that philosophy gave birth to) were all about the Rights and emphasis on the Individual, Mussolini’s Fascism was all about the primacy of The State over the Individual. In fact, as with Socialism and Communism, Fascism’s aim is the complete absorption of the Individual into the collective:
- “Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual. Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual.”
- “It is a question of organizing the state to ensure the greatest individual and social well-being.”
- “We demand the right and proclaim the duty to transform Italian life,”
- The Fascist conception of the State is all embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State — a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values — interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people.
And of course his most famous quote:
Everything Within the State, Nothing Against the State, Nothing Outside the State
So as we see the American scene, isn’t it the Left that is assuming the mantle of Fascism now in its emphasis and “urgency” in transforming (thanks, Obama!) Americans into their own image instead of just leaving the rest of us alone? More and more we see their emphasis on “community” where the Individual becomes just a cog in their social machine. Only groups matter, no longer the individual within such a group.
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
