
Ur-Fascism (1995) - aaronbrethorst
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/06/22/ur-fascism/
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_bxg1
_The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern
depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism._

Ironically, totalitarianism is itself a product of modernism: the idea that
you can premeditate a "perfect" society and then bring it about at scale, by
force. The theme of mastery over nature is extremely modernist, where nature
in this case is humanity.

~~~
nwah1
True. He mentions throughout that fascism is littered with internal
contradictions that it has no interest in reconciling rationally.

~~~
mercurysmessage
It most certainly is, how can a group they disparage simultaneously be weak
and subhuman, while also having lots of power and "controlling the world"?

~~~
coldtea
One obvious answer (not ascribing to the theory, just playing devil's
advocate) is through deception and manipulation.

A group is weak, so it resorts to manipulation and deceiving , and thus gains
power over stronger more "pure" groups don't stoop down to these tactics.

~~~
jonhendry18
"A group is weak, so it resorts to manipulation and deceiving"

And yet the "superior" group isn't smart enough to evade or detect this
effectively.

~~~
coldtea
Well, superior could mean morally better, more hardworking, etc - so could be
equally smart or even more, but might not be cynical enough to even think
someone could do this kind of thing.

The superior group is not meant to be "superior" in every aspect -- only to
the aspects that matter for the values of those defining it.

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lou1306
_Foucault 's Pendulum_ also contain a great (fictional, but clearly
autobiographical somehow) account of life in rural Italy during the
Resistance.

~~~
justin66
Also an exemplar for a lot of more recent novels of... ahem... varying quality
from people like Pérez-Reverte or Dan Brown.

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woodandsteel
This is a brilliant article. I would just like to add that it seems to me you
can summarize what fascism is by saying it is the attempt to impose premodern,
tribalistic social forms and ways of thinking on a modern, industrial society.
This is not workable, and so I think it accounts for the many ideological
contradictions that Eco points out.

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beaconstudios
it's odd that they characterise ur-fascism with irrationalism given the level
of scientific innovation present in Nazi Germany (even though that innovation
was entirely directed at more efficiently killing people). I'd more
characterise it as anti-intellectual, as from reading this article the scorn
seemed to be more directed at academics, bourgeois artists and armchair
thinker types than science or rationality in general.

~~~
neaden
The amount of scientific innovation in Nazi Germany is incredibly overhyped.
In reality outside of rockets they made very few major advances. And even in
Rocketry there were major scientific breakthroughs, just improved engineering.
The medical experiments inflicted on prisoners were useless scientifically,
just pure sadism. The "experiments" to test hypothermia for instance often did
not record the patience weight, the temperature and volume of the water, and
other factors. Not to mention that the experiments were being conducted on
people who were often on the verge of starvation and in terrible health. They
provide no useful data.

Not to mention their rejection of "Jewish Physics", science in Nazi Germany
was incredibly politicized and if your research didn't conform to the dogma
you had to change it or risk your life.

~~~
beaconstudios
hm, I did not know that. I'd picked up a perception that the Nazis were
innovative in quite a few scientific disciplines, at least partially due to
their complete disdain for ethics, but it sounds like that belief is
unfounded.

~~~
neaden
It's the whole mad science angle that we have in our culture I think. But that
ignores that ethics are tied to things like oversight, methodology, and being
objective which are all important for research.

~~~
evgen
It is also worth noting that a lot of those mad-science projects that we look
back at and consider potentially visionary were often stabs in the dark by
scientists who saw a ministry picking up their project as a way to avoid
conscription into the army. They were seldom backed up by any real science and
frequently had little chance of success, but they somewhat resemble something
that was developed later so we assume the project leads knew what they were
doing...

~~~
jonhendry18
Also, perhaps they were adept at playing on the misconceptions or weird
beliefs of those in powerful positions.

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coldtea
The perfect example of faux-deep, but ultimately shallow work Eco was made
famous for.

