Fascism Defined

Some background about “Fascism” is in order. The best, and classic, definition of Fascism says it is a combination of the forces of big business (or more precisely, big capital) together with the forces of big government operating against the interests of the poor, working and entrepreneurial classes, and using the tools of modern science to control the minds and culture of the people.

Let’s go a little deeper to understand this definition.  Mussolini and the Fascists rose in Italy in the early Twentieth Century as an offshoot of Marxism.  Basically, the Fascisti (a term derived from the idea of gaining strength through bundling, standardizing and collectivizing) called for a form of Marxism that would leave much of the small business economy alone, and collectivize only the major industries, or in Marxist parlance, the major means of production.  In addition, Mussolini introduced the idea that this new form of Marxism should be advanced by using modern science to mold the minds and the culture of the masses, to as he termed it, be a totalitarian government, designed to control the total life of the populace. 

That basic concept of Fascism was changed during World War Two, when the tail of government found itself not capable of wagging the dog of the major capitalists, and the relationship reverted back to its historic arrangement with big money directing the government’s policies purportedly for the good of the masses but in reality for the good of the upper classes.  They nonetheless retained the Fascist image of populism and its tools of cultural molding and mind control.   In other words, the business and political elites joined together to rule over the masses like traditional despots, and used psychological control to keep themselves in power.  That’s what fascism has become in the modern real world. 

The real world small-f fascism is one, not of a particular political party, but rather it is the most accurate description of the real mode of government America has had for the last ninety years or so.  The way this American fascism has grown has not been so much a smooth creeping as a ratcheting between the big business party, and the big government party, mostly at the times of presidential elections.  While this process started with FDR in the 1930's, think of the following in terms of the transition to Kennedy from the Republicans in 1960, Nixon from the Democrats in 1968, Carter from the Republicans in 1976, Reagan from the Democrats, Clinton from the Republicans, Bush from the Democrats, Obama from the Republicans, Trump from the Democrats, Biden from the Republicans, and now, once again Trump from the Democrats.

            Say the Republicans are in power, giving the store away to the big business greedhead types.  We get sick of it, and the Democrats say “elect us and we’ll roll back the excesses of big business."  So we elect them, and we are perennially disappointed when they mightily increase the amount of government regulation and involvement with our personal lives and don’t manage to beat back corporate greed a bit (it might, in fact, get a little worse).

            Then, every four to eight years or so, after we are getting sick of the new governmental controls, the Republicans say, “elect us and we’ll get government off your backs”.  So we elect them, and they concentrate on increasing corporate profits. deregulating big business and ensuring that the already wealthy get even wealthier.  Big government intrusion into and regulation over our lives diminishes not a whit, but in fact grows a little.  Then, after we once again get sick of the runaway greed, along come the Democrats, repeating their promise of, ”elect us and we’ll roll back the excesses of big business”. 

And so it goes, on and on, back and forth, left and right.  At each election, there is a seemingly permanent national division around the issues of morality, peace, justice and the like.  These issues, which should mostly be settled between neighbors in community, have been nationalized by dubious court rulings or non rulings.  Consequently, those of us who care about them almost all feel compelled to vote for one side of the dichotomy or the other.  Then, when elected, the authorities of either party deliver just enough on the issues we care about to keep us passionately divided from our neighbors, and for the rest of their term advance the fascist agenda of more power and money to big business and big government.

Every one of these times of change acts like a social/ political ratchet, a sudden change that moves only in one direction, and stops at a new political equilibrium for a few years.  At every move of the ratchet, toward big business or big government, the combined centralizing forces of big capital and big government gain increasing power over our lives. 

This is why it is accurate to call modern America a fascist country, because even though “Fascism” per se, isn’t in the platforms of either major political party, the real world results of the interplay of the actions of both parties, when considered together, has tended to centralize and combine the powers of big government with the powers of big business, and use them to act against the interests of the working, entrepreneurial, and poor classes.  One can easily imagine the leaders of the two sides getting together over drinks in their private clubs and toasting one another's success at keeping this bamboozle going.

In addition, the aspect that makes this system distinct from old fashioned “despotism” is that the political and economic power over us is used, ala classic Fascism, to shape our minds and culture.  This involves the education system, the media, corporate advertising, and any number of culture changing court decisions. Mussolini originally proposed using the power of modern media and psychology to mold the minds of the people.  The idea was that humanity could be perfected by the strict enforcement of well conceived laws and the use of modern technology to mold minds. Sadly, the goals of this program of indoctrination seems not to be general enlightenment of the populace, but rather a general dumbing down of the people, with the aim of ensuring their continued compliance.

This culture molding can be seen in action in all the schools of fascism, from the Hitler youth of the Nazis to the Young Pioneers and Cultural Revolutions of the Marxists in China and Russia, to the social engineering advanced by the educators and social workers in the liberal welfare state started by FDR. The assertion here is that fascism is at the center of all the “isms”, and that communism, socialism, Nazism, and FDR’ism are all, when seen in light of being combinations of the power of the state with big capital against the people, just schools of fascism.

"Hold on," some will shout.  "Marxism/ Socialism want to end capitalism, not make alliances with it."  That naive sentiment is easily debunked, because it is impossible for any society to eliminate capitalism.

The definition of capitalism is the holding and accumulation of the proceeds of one venture, the profits, and applying that to some other venture.  The most elemental instance of capitalism is a farmer holding back some seed grain from one harvest so as to be able to plant next years crop.   When seen in that light capitalism has an organic, unbreakable connection to human culture.

Even in the most socialistic, planned economy it can't be escaped.  Say, for instance, some Marxist nation wanted to build a hydroelectric dam to generate electricity.  This is a worthy project which will yield great benefits to society, but to get it built will require a great deal of wealth, capital, which has to be derived from previous ventures.  Even if volunteers (slaves) are used, they will still have to be fed, and clothed, and housed, for the many years it will take to build the huge dam.  Tools will have to be provided, along with the materials, like steel and concrete, needed for the project.  All of the wealth to accomplish this huge, beneficial project must be gathered before any sane managers would start digging the first foundation.

Consequently, it must be conceded that even the most pure and fervent socialist nation has to engage in capitalism.  G.K. Chesterton saw this and called socialism merely "state capitalism."  With that insight let's revisit that original definition, that Fascism is the combination, or alliance, of big capital with big government against the interests of the people.  In that light it is clear that socialist and Marxist governments have only to turn against the people to become full blown fascist regimes, and that seems to always happen. 

In America's case, our particular form of fascism is best explained by looking at the symbol of American Fascism at the head of this post.  On the left face of our Fascist beast we see the big government types who want to control everyone (for their own good don't ya know) and are more that willing to join together with big capital to make that happen.  On the right face of our Fascist  beast is represented the big capital type of people, the big business folks who want to control everyone in the name of a "free," feudalism like, market, and are happy to form common cause with the big government types to make that happen.

Once we realize and agree that “Fascism” means a combination of big business and big government operating against the interests of the poor, working and entrepreneurial classes which also uses modern science to mold the hearts and minds of the people, we might become equipped to find an antidote.  But we had better get after it soon, because we can now see that a fascist oligarchy is certainly what we have today in America.  For that matter, a similar power structure is taking root over most of the planet; a growing and terrifying international fascist oligarchy with slaveship earth as its' goal.  It can be stopped, if we really want to stop it.