When Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross - Attributed to Sinclair LewisWhile the author of It Can't Happen Here
may not have actually said this, the spirit of the quotation is more poignant today than it was even in the 1930s when fascism really was on the rise. While everyone should read the cautionary tale of how fragile democracy can be, how the masses can be manipulated by would be dictators, and how difficult it can be to distinguish a real dyed-in-the-wool fascist from a dangerous but ineffectual bully, praising this story is not the primary goal of this essay. So many words have been written about the bad ideologies; authoritarianism and its offshoots, fascism, Nazism, totalitarianism, communism, and so many images placed in popular memory about them that so many people are guarding the wrong gates. The first misconception to address is that fascism does not equal Nazism. Being on the lookout for fascism in America, you can more or less safely ignore the occasional skinhead. While they may be dangerous in person, in close proximity, someone in a Neo-Nazi uniform is not likely to attract a mass following. A real fascist in America is likely to be the one denouncing the skinhead louder than anyone else, and public racism, government spying, censorship, etc. because words and actions in fascism are inherently out of joint. This is a chameleonic philosophy that can say or do anything because the end is what is important. Fascism is intolerant of everything except its own contradictions and that is why Orwellian doublethink functions so well in fascism and its enablers.
Before the mass rallies, before the book burnings, before the violence, fascism creeps in among the disaffected as an underlying second layer behind the words. Like a virus slips in undetected to take control of a cell, fascism waits under conscious thoughts until the time is right for it to ignite. This is the eternal fascism as analyzed by Umberto Eco. Ur-fascism is very difficult to spot because it mutates so readily within a culture, but any one of the fourteen features Eco identified is enough to allow undiagnosed fascism to fester until it strikes. The reason guarding against Nazism, as so many on the American Right do to the point of absurdity, is practically useless is that ur-fascism is exactly that, eternal. Eco noted that ur-fascism is not grounded in any historical expression but is obsessed with a primordial truth that was revealed and then lost. There are no empirical examples that ur-fascism needs for expression, it is both new and ancient at the same time and thus tolerates contradictions because any document or myth can only reveal a sliver of that truth.
For the common American fascist, that truth is revealed in his understanding of our foundational documents. The Constitution is a part of that primordial truth, it exists outside of history alongside that other ahistorical document, the Holy Bible, and they both contain the elementary essence of humanity. No thinking or understanding needed. As these documents are interpretations of truth larger than any mortal author can grasp, the "mistakes" that do not say what he wants to hear can be explained away by his superiors who possess the gift of divining the secret truth. That the secrets just happen to line up exactly with what he wants to believe simply confirms the universality of his beliefs.
The leader who can convincingly preach the truth will earn a following of true believers who will defend his every horrible action and attack the unbelievers who dare question his motives. Adorno and his colleagues may have been criticized for many of their findings and conclusions in The Authoritarian Personality
but it is undeniable that fascists exist, both leaders and followers. It is also undeniable that their ranks swell during periods of upheaval and/or shock. The great irony is that American fascists scream the loudest about freedom and liberty but are the most willing to submit and obediently surrender their freedom. The freedom most dear to the American fascist is the freedom to conform. Second is the freedom from worry that comes with thinking. Perhaps not unique to American fascism but vitally important is the freedom from responsibility towards your fellow citizens; in other words the freedom to be selfish. Eco characterizes many features of ur-fascism as cults, the cult of tradition, the cult of action, the cult of technology, the cult of heroism, and of permanent war. These contradictory ideals are never settled but as Bob Altemeyer discovered during decades of research on the authoritarian personality is that fascists are okay with that. The secret to accepting so many contradictions is in compartmentalized thinking, and this is a feature the American system excels in. We are taught from kindergarten that there is a time for everything, play time, learning time, nap time. Later this is expanded in school and bells chime when it is time to drop everything and switch subjects. It is a short leap for the mind to start putting conflicting concepts in separate mental boxes and only draw on one at a time. Thus can the fascist hold racist views and react with violent anger when witnessing racism, because another box tells him that racism is bad.
There is no way around the another very important point of applying Eco to American fascism, contempt for the weak. Fascism is both popular as a mass political movement and elitist as a hierarchical system. This is what differentiates fascism from simple authoritarianism, it must originate in a democratic or parliamentary system where voters can choose their government. Similarly, that government must be perceived as rotten. It does not matter that the system was broken by the fascist leaders themselves. The government is so broken that we need a strong leader who will unite us and purge the degenerates and filth from the land. It is simply amazing how strongly the myth persists that government taxes the productive, sober, white men and gives to "them." How often does the bumper sticker slogan "work harder, millions on welfare are depending on you" appear? American fascists are so angry at the poor while claiming to be good Christians. In recent years this hatred and contempt has expanded to government workers, especially teachers. Why?
It would be best to simply end this essay with Eco's words verbatim.
The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life. The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.3. Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action's sake.Everything that has come out of the American Right in recent years has been witnessed by history before. We simply need to understand it for what it is and stop reinforcing their frames by pretending the radical reaction coming from national GOP leaders, traitorous industrialists like the Koch brothers, all the way down to your angry uncle who screams about welfare cheats and illegal immigrants is "conservatism" because it is not.
Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Hermann Goering's fondness for a phrase from a Hanns Johst play ("When I hear the word 'culture' I reach for my gun") to the frequent use of such expressions as "degenerate intellectuals," "eggheads," "effete snobs," and "universities are nests of reds." The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values.
4. The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism.
In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason.
5. Besides, disagreement is a sign of diversity.
Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.
