The Essence of Fascism (1941)

The term F. covers various things
(a) a movement;
(b) a social system; and
(c) a philosophy of life which inspired the movement and is fulfilled by the system

My subject is the philosophy of life.

I. Historical Background

The origin of F. must be sought in the deep seated crisis of our industrial civilization with its two main institutions: political democracy and industrial capitalism.

At a definite point of their development these two came into conflict, notably in Europe. The post-War situation developed into an imminent danger to society as a whole: the danger of a deadlock of the political and economic system. The threat was expressed in the danger of permanent mass unemployment on the one hand; the failure of leadership by the party ridden democratic representative bodies.

The reasons for such a situation need no keep us here. Many people would put it down to the tension of the classes, and describe the crisis as one of class war. It is more probable that the tension itself resulted from a more general cause underlying the unsatisfactory working of the social system as a whole and closely linked with the very foundations of our industrial civilization.

In the consciousness of the masses it took the form of an impending crisis resulting from the untenable nature of the situation. The conflict between capitalism - the industrial system based on the private ownership of the means of production - and democracy, a system of representative institutions giving a preponderant influence to the masses of the working people, was the order of the day.

Obviously, it was an essential feature of such a situation that If there should be a crisis, democracy would tend towards socialist solutions, irrespective of the actual moral, intellectual and therefore effective political force at its disposal. The traditional ruling classes had the support of the lower middle classes in withstanding the claims of the working classes to a leadership for which they lacked the power and the programme, and ultimately even the working classes stood aside when the fascists made their bid for power. It is a fast of the utmost importance that the fascist movement succeeded without any serious resistance on the a{ge} (?) of democracy and the more radical the parties had been, the less resistance did they offer. No surer sign of a general spiritual crisis than the self-effacement of the democratic forces in the 1930ies could be imagined.

References

Reference:
Original Manifestation: Union Theological Seminary, August 4th, 1941.
KPA: 12/07, 6-8