We’re All Fascists Now

8 Comments

1. 

   BooMan on February 15, 2009 at 1:18 pm

   The funniest part is that Ledeen has ties to the modern-day fascist movement in Italy and has maintained those ties for over thirty years.

   • 

     corvus on February 15, 2009 at 4:17 pm

     Well, what do you expect from people whose tactics include the Big Lie?

     On the positive side, perhaps more people on the left will now educate themselves about Italian fascism, which is, as far as I can tell, the operating model for the neo-conservative movement. German fascism was an altogether more complicated beast, where fascism as such was merely a vehicle for German imperialism and racism, and when studying it, it is difficult to determine where fascism ends and other, long-established evils begin.

     Mussolini and the Italian fascist intellectual circles that revolved around him, on the other hand, are the real deal in a relatively pure form. Reading their writings is like, well, reading the neocon writings of the past twenty years, only with fewer weasel words: the novelty of 20th century fascism allowed it to operate much more openly than 21st century fascism, now that we’re wise to their tricks.

     It’s fortunate for us that our fascists were just as incompetent as Italy’s fascists, and not like the German fascists, who were ultimately hamstrung only by their impatience and tendency to overreach. (That, and the Red Army, which also helped keep the Republicans from trampling all over the Bill of Rights by presenting a negative example that American civil libertarians could point to whenever the GOP got out of hand.)

     The key thing to remember about fascists is that they never, ever give up. And barring some change in human nature, we will always have to maintain eternal vigilance to keep them from taking over again.

2. 

   BooMan on February 15, 2009 at 1:21 pm

   Here’s a lengthy excerpt from the American Conservative about Ledeen’s ties to Italian Fascism.

   Ledeen has gained notoriety in recent months for the following paragraph in his latest book, The War Against the Terror Masters. In what reads like a prophetic approval of the policy of chaos now being visited on Iraq, Ledeen wrote,

   Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our own society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture, and cinema to politics and the law. Our enemies have always hated this whirlwind of energy and creativity, which menaces their traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for their inability to keep pace. Seeing America undo traditional societies, they fear us, for they do not wish to be undone. They cannot feel secure so long as we are there, for our very existence–our existence, not our politics–threatens their legitimacy. They must attack us in order to survive, just as we must destroy them to advance our historic mission.

   This is not the first time Ledeen has written eloquently on his love for “the democratic revolution” and “creative destruction.” In 1996, he gave an extended account of his theory of revolution in his book, Freedom Betrayed — the title, one assumes, is a deliberate reference to Trotsky’s Revolution Betrayed. Ledeen explains that “America is a revolutionary force” because the American Revolution is the only revolution in history that has succeeded, the French and Russian revolutions having quickly collapsed into terror. Consequently, “[O]ur revolutionary values are part of our genetic make-up. … We drive the revolution because of what we represent: the most successful experiment in human freedom. … We are an ideological nation, and our most successful leaders are ideologues.” Denouncing Bill Clinton as a “counter-revolutionary” (!), Ledeen is especially eager to make one point: “Of all the myths that cloud our understanding, and therefore paralyze our will and action, the most pernicious is that only the Left has a legitimate claim to the revolutionary tradition.”

   Ledeen’s conviction that the Right is as revolutionary as the Left derives from his youthful interest in Italian fascism. In 1975, Ledeen published an interview, in book form, with the Italian historian Renzo de Felice, a man he greatly admires. It caused a great controversy in Italy. Ledeen later made clear that he relished the ire of the left-wing establishment precisely because “De Felice was challenging the conventional wisdom of Italian Marxist historiography, which had always insisted that fascism was a reactionary movement.” What de Felice showed, by contrast, was that Italian fascism was both right-wing and revolutionary. Ledeen had himself argued this very point in his book, Universal Fascism, published in 1972. That work starts with the assertion that it is a mistake to explain the support of fascism by millions of Europeans “solely because they had been hypnotized by the rhetoric of gifted orators and manipulated by skilful propagandists.” “It seems more plausible,” Ledeen argued, “to attempt to explain their enthusiasm by treating them as believers in the rightness of the fascist cause, which had a coherent ideological appeal to a great many people.” For Ledeen, as for the lifelong fascist theoretician and practitioner, Giuseppe Bottai, that appeal lay in the fact that fascism was “the Revolution of the 20th century.”

   Ledeen supports de Felice’s distinction between “fascism-movement” and “fascism-regime.” Mussolini’s regime, he says, was “authoritarian and reactionary”; by contrast, within “fascism-movement,” there were many who were animated by “a desire to renew.” These people wanted “something more revolutionary: the old ruling class had to be swept away so that newer, more dynamic elements–capable of effecting fundamental changes–could come to power.” Like his claim that the common ground between Nazism and Italian fascism was “exceedingly minimal”–Ledeen writes, “The fact of the Axis Pact should not be permitted to become the overriding consideration in this analysis”–Ledeen’s careful distinction between fascist “regime” and “movement” makes him a clear apologist for the latter. “While `fascism-movement’ was overcome and eventually suppressed by `fascism-regime,'” he explains, “fascism nevertheless constituted a political revolution in Italy.

3. 

   DaveW on February 15, 2009 at 2:31 pm

   So is he trying to attack FDR, Obama et al or is he trying to spin them as being on his side? Only the voices in Ledeen’s head know for sure.

   These people really are hilarious as they struggle to gild wingnuttery with a plastic coating of what they imagine to be intellectual penetration. Between him and Lowry and Goldberg, what we end up with is a nonstop Three Stooges marathon as performed by 5th graders. Cute as hell, but it would a more gratifying spectacle if people would just quit giving the kids guns.

4. 

   public takeover on February 15, 2009 at 4:01 pm

   As all the Reactionary Fascist Regimes showed, mass media are the keys to modern mass movements.  And, unfortunately, the Fascists now control the mass media, thanks to capitalism and consolidation.

   Once upon a time, campaign finance reform would have been sufficient to restore the possibility of a resurgent “American Revolution.”  Now, however, public media control, total deconsolidation, and thorough media democratization are necessary to block the threat of the Masters of the Mind.

   The only reason flaks like Ledeen and the Fox News lineup of lackeys, as well as the radio ranters are able to disseminate their lies is that very wealthy people are paying a lot of money to clog the airwaves with bigotry, fascism, and economic royalism.

   Get the money out of politics and media and the fascists will collapse.

5. 

   Roodster on February 15, 2009 at 6:14 pm

   Wow.  Domestic wiretapping, torture, rendition, Guantanamo, Abu Gharib, black site prisons, corporate de-regulation, massive wealth transfer to the elite, secret Gov’t meetings (e.g. US Energy Dept), the unitary executive privilege, racism (overt = middle easterners and sublime = Obama), religious intolerance (of Islam), patronage, political hirings, political jurisprudence, the “redneck shirts” for Sarah Palin, etc., etc. is the norm.  But public/ private collaboration on things like education, infrastructure, healthcare, etc is fascism?  What massive takeover of democracy did I miss?  Are Goehring and Goebels now the language architects of right wing thought?
   Oh wait a minute, Jonah has that job.  Nevermind.

6. 

   wilderness wench on February 15, 2009 at 6:20 pm

   Just fyi, Steven: ‘Michael Ledeen’ in your first graf links back to your post.
   EIther you’ve made a mistake or we’ve finally crashed the cosmic doughnut-hole.

7. 

   rhetoricus on February 15, 2009 at 6:56 pm

   ..to encourage them to look up American neo-nazi and neo-fascist sites and organizations, and urge them to join the message board or email the founder, and ASK the self-proclaimed nazis and fascists WHO THEY VOTE FOR and WHY.

   Because, you know, self-proclaimed fascists and Nazis don’t vote for progressives, and they sure as hell don’t vote for black presidents.

   They vote Republican. Every time. Oh, and know what else? They’ll profess their love for Michael Ledeen.