What is Fascism ?

Background

There has been a misconception about Fascism that it is mindless ,uncultured and a criminal political movement purely based on brute force ,that might be a half-truth because fascists loved and promoted art and philosophy. For instance Hitler was an artist. He loved to paint. The National Socialist German workers Party ; the Nazis were inspired by the political thought and philosophy of German Philosopher Frederick Nietzsche.

Furthermore during  1920 and 1930 Nazis gathered an enormous electoral support being the largest party in the German Parliament. Though Fascism remained a popular movement yet it  is the naked authoritarianism. The word "Fascism" is of Latin language ,spoken in ancient Rome that means bundle of rods or sticks, this word was created by Benito Mussolini of Italy.

The bundle of rods and sticks in the times of Rome were used to punish people to maintain law and order. At times the rod had blades on it to execute people. The bundle of rods which are often seen in Italy is the emblem of Roman State Authority.

Fascism is usually characterized as radical nationalism. The term radical means to depart from the mainstream either to left or right wing of politics. Therefore Fascism is the radical authoritarianism and ultra nationalism that leads to dictatorship and despotism.

Italian-Fascism

When World War I (1914-1918) broke out ,the government of Italy specially the Italian Socialist Party, the party of Italian Antonio Gramsci  did not want to go to War. Benito Mussolini was the member of Italian Socialist Party disagreed with his own party and said ,"Italy must not be deprived of the opportunity to get into War and conquer other lands and colonies to become a great civilization".

As the disagreement erupted Mussolini started opposing Marxism ,Liberalism, Egalitarianism and Humanism which he thought were obstacles for Italy to rise to power.

Antonio Gramsci's Explanation

Gramsci was the pioneer member of Socialist Party of Italy. He offered an explanation that," In the south of Italy the workers became much organized, trade unions were strong against capitalists". The land lords and capitalists smelt rats i.e Bolshevik type of revolution so they started cooking conspiracies and made groups called "Black Shirts". Hence" Black Shirts Movement" started to crush trade unions ,beat workers ,peasants black and blue ,destroy their offices and printing presses.

Feudal lords of Italy supported Mussolini against socialists and he remained successful to get into power.  

German-Fascism

Germany was known as,"Wiemar Republic" during the years 1919 to 1933.It was spearheaded by liberals. Hitler started organizing his Nazi party against liberals. His team used to wear "Brown shirts" which later morphed into Brown Shirt Movement. They would beat workers and liberals everywhere. 

Hitler with his team along gathered strength and support to get into German parliament with party name" Nazi Party" which turned out to be second largest party after getting  decent vote ,later Nazi party became the largest party in German Parliament in 1933.

It is pertinent to discuss an unfortunate  incident in Germany where German Parliament was burnt to ashes and the opposition benches in Parliament, the Communist party was allegedly held responsible. This incident led Chancellor of Germany to resign and devolve powers to Hitler.

Hitler when sworn in crushed Communist party. His manifesto was to expand throughout Europe. Therefore he started working with feudal lords to achieve his goal of expansion across Europe. Hitler and most of the members of Nazi party were apparently inclined towards Nietzsche and his philosophy, even Hitler paid a visit to Nietzsche's home.

Nietzsche: God father of Fascism

Nietzsche a German Philosopher gave his own aggressive Philosophy of fascism that drew attention of fascists. He was antagonistic to slave morality. He destroyed the idea of right and wrong given by God. He was also known as madman because he writes without any care. He asserted," Christianity created a slave mentality in Europe. Christianity is the religion of slaves. Due to enlightment and science there was a dire need of another mentality to address the  challenges of that time. Therefore the mentality of superman came forward.

Nietzsche  was power hungry so he wrote in his book "God is Dead" and the will to power which he meant ,the truth is dead because there is no absolute truth and the things which make the society powerful should be opted. Religion should not be prioritized as it weakens human beings.

He added, the purpose of life is to strive , grow ,spread, seize and become pre-dominant not from any morality or immorality but because it is living and because life simply is will to power. Knowledge and values that enhance life are what life strives for.

The illustration can be, one must fight the challenges of life. When a child is born, he has to breathe to survive ,he has to fight with all the diseases to become a healthy and grown up. Similarly a plant has to break out the seed to grow and to fight the hostile environment.

Fascists, the Nazis in Europe more often were anti conservatives .They weren't promoting religion, family structure because both erode strength inside out.

Europe's Liberals' Policy of Appeasement

At first Liberals didn't want confrontation with fascists ,which mustered up fascists' courage. Eventually fascists grew and Hitler started sending troops to colonize other lands. He attacked France to take over, then he send troops to Britain and even Soviet Union.

During these operations he killed fifty million people but failed in the end because Soviets allied with the people of Germany and France who were against Hitler and his brutal policies.

New Consensus and Pledge

A consensus was built post World War II (1939-1945) that Fascism is oppression and fascists would never be allowed to accentuate and expand. Think tanks around the world substantiated that fascism was the reason of World War II.

There was a new pledge that prevailed in Europe that two catastrophic Wars ,World War I and World War II disrupted the world peace and economy. Therefore various institutions like United Nations ,International Labor Organization, World Bank, International Monetary Fund were established by the winners of World War II i.e US,UK and Soviets to make this planet a better place to live in.