What is Facsism
Uploaded by Nelle on Jan 15, 2005
Danielle McDonald Mr Auld
What is Fascism?
Fascism is a word with no objective definition. How do you define something based so heavily on opinions? Each person has their own opinion on the issue and they vary so distinctly from one to another we cannot pin-point an exact meaning for the term. We can only take into account many opinions and combine them to draw an appropriate conclusion. To do such a task we must start at the very beginning.
Luckily for us, “fascism is very much a product of the modern age.” Therefore we only have to retrace our steps for about a hundred years. Beginning with Mussolini fascism took on a very powerful role. The Italian leader combined ultra nationalism with hostility to establish a new form of conservatism. However, fascism is not that simple; it is also associated with totalitarianism, fanaticism, social engineering and brainwashing. The more we study fascism the more we realise; no matter what its goals are it uses coercion to fulfil them. Fascism “preaches violence in the name of order.” How is this possible? A fascist leader will use state terror to produce the opposite of his actions. In short, the leader scares the people so thoroughly they will not turn against him, if indeed they would want to. If they do, however, it is violence that restores the order. The concept of fascism is linked extremely closely with nationalism; the whole ideology of a superior race is reflected. In fact, fascism takes those dangerous nationalistic feelings and amplifies them. Making the whole regime one of terror, hate, control and dangerous objectives. It would be simpler just to say that fascism is an extreme wing of nationalism, this however would be unacceptable due to the fact that fascism incorporates socialism and other ideologies also. As we can read in the Oxford Reader, fascism uses “true socialism” we can derive this by the fact that both involve “commitment to corporatist economics, national syndicalism, and a high degree of state planning.” This is still not enough however to define fascism. There are far too many ideas involved for it to be an ideology in its own right. Fascism is though, one of the most powerful and dangerous systems of the 20th century.
In addition, the aims and goal of the fascist state also have slight tendencies to vary; the overall idea, however, is one of pure blood and a...