Understanding and Defeating Resurgent
Fascism
by Robert J.
Burrowes
October 23, 2014
As fascism
is being intruded more widely and deeply into key areas of
world politics, it is important to identify this trend, to
explain the psychology of fascism and to nominate key
elements of any strategy to defeat it.
Fascism is best
known for its rise in Italy under Benito Mussolini and its
Nazi manifestation in Germany under Adolf Hitler. However,
despite the enormous cost in human lives it took European
and other peoples to defeat Nazism in World War II, fascism
remains a prevalent, persistent and growing problem in world
politics. In fact, while we like to think that modern
leaders oppose fascism and the violent behavioral outcomes
that arise from it, the reality is that many political and
corporate leaders are fascists themselves and support other
fascists when elite interests require it. They just don't
use the word 'fascist' to identify themselves and modern
political analysts rarely use it either.
One manifestation
of fascism is occurring in eastern Ukraine (and now Kiev)
where the United States elite is sponsoring the ongoing
genocide of Russian-speaking peoples in support of fascist
groups that are directly descended from Nazi groups in World
War II. For a taste of the extensive documentation of this
point, see Robert Parry 'Ukraine's
Neo-Nazis Demand Respect', Michel Chossudovsky 'America's
Neo-Nazi Government in Kiev. Towards a Scenario of Military
Escalation', Michel Chossudovsky 'Ukraine
and the "Politics of Anti-Semitism": The West Upholds
Neo-Nazi Repression of Ukraine's Jewish Community' as
well as this video 'Ukraine
Crisis: What You're Not Being Told', this video 'Neo-Nazis
in Ukraine' and this video compilation: 'US support
of violent neo-Nazis in Ukraine' Moreover, in a recent
video report which also referred to the earlier
US-orchestrated genocides in Rwanda and Libya, it becomes
clear that 'Genocide is just another foreign policy tool for
the US' fascist elite. See 'Genocide in
Eastern Ukraine'
Do you think that this description
sounds too extreme? Here is the response of the eminent
Norwegian peace research scholar Professor Johan Galtung:
'US Fascism? Yes, indeed; if by fascism we mean use of
massive violence for political goals. US fascism takes three
forms: global with bombing, droning and sniping all over;
domestic with military weapons used across race and class
faultlines; and then NSA-National Security Agency spying on
everybody.' See 'The
Fall of the US Empire - And Then What?'
But the
ongoing prevalence of fascism reaches well beyond the United
States. The eminent Burmese scholar Dr Maung Zarni notes
that fascism 'is not encoded genetically or culturally in
any people. The word "fascism" is not exclusive to
historical discussion of the Germans, Italians, Japanese or
for that matter any group with a brutally fascist past....
Just as there were the good Germans and the Nazi Germans, I
would argue, there are "Nazi Jews", based on the available
evidence of popular and legalized racism in Israel towards
ALL Arabs.... What else would we call the Jews of Israel who
demand "death to Arabs"?' See 'Stop
Playing the Anti-Semitism Card Get Real about the Rise of
Fascism in Israel'
Moreover, as long-time Middle East
analyst Dr Franklin Lamb notes, 'many Jews feel that the
world is against them, and view criticism of Zionist
apartheid Israel as a mask for animosity towards Jews' but,
he argues, any 'rejection' is 'not at all about Jews, but
only about Zionism as a fascist, racist creed'. See 'A Nail
in Zionism's Coffin?'
Elsewhere in the world, Dr Maung
Zarni has warned about the rise of Buddhist fascism against
the Muslim Rohingya in Burma. See 'Myanmar's
new Nazis: Wirathu's "Buddhist" Vision, 969 Islamophobia,
strategies and 969 Rakhine-China-connections' and 'Burmese
Neo-Nazi Movement Rising Against Muslims'. Other
examples could be cited.
There have been many attempts to
understand fascism, starting with the early work of Wilhelm
Reich 'The Mass Psychology of Fascism' http://www.relatedness.org/Mass_Psychology_of_Fascism.pdf.
So what is fascism and what is the underlying psychology of
individuals who are fascists?
Usually, fascism is
described as a form of authoritarian nationalism in which a
dictator has complete power and violently suppresses
opposition and criticism while emphasizing an aggressive
nationalism and racism. (If you want to read a 14 point
characterization of fascism, see Professor Lawrence Britt's
'Fascism
Anyone?') More generally, however, the above definition
of Galtung's highlights its essence. But the psychology of
fascists – those who believe in, and use, 'massive
violence for political goals' – is complex and is a direct
outcome of the nature of the extraordinary violence to which
they were subjected as children.
Let me briefly identify
the psychological profile of fascists and the specific
violence that generates a person with this psychology. For a
thorough explanation and elaboration of this point, see 'Why Violence?' and
'Fearless
Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and
Practice'
First, fascists are terrified and they are
particularly terrified of those individuals who perpetrated
violence against them when they were a child although this
terror remains unconscious to them. Second, this terror is
so extreme that fascists are too terrified to consciously
identify to themselves their own perpetrator (one or both
parents and/or other significant adults who are supposed to
love them) and to say that it is this individual or
individuals who are violent and wrong.
Third, because they
are terrified, they are unable to defend themselves against
the original perpetrator(s) but also, as a result, they are
unable to defend themselves against other perpetrators who
attack them later in life. This lack of capacity to defend
themselves leads to the fourth and fifth attributes – a
deep sense of powerlessness and a deep sense of self-hatred.
However, it is too terrifying and painful for the individual
to be consciously aware of any of these
feelings/attributes.
Sixth, because they are terrified of
identifying that they are the victim of the violence of
their own parents (and/or other significant adults from
their childhood) and that this violence terrified them,
fascists unconsciously delude themselves about the identity
of their own perpetrator. They will unconsciously identify
their 'perpetrator' as one or more individuals of whom they
are not actually afraid from an existing 'legitimised
victim' group, such as people from a different race,
religion or class. This is also because their unconscious
terror and self-hatred compels them to project onto
something (that is, people and/or resources) that is
'controllable' (because their original perpetrators never
were). For this reason, their victims are (unconsciously)
carefully chosen and are always relatively powerless by
comparison.
This is easy to do because, seventh, children
who become fascists have been terrorised into accepting a
very narrow-minded and dogmatic belief set that excludes
consideration of those in other social (including racial,
religious or class) groups. The idea that they might
open-mindedly consider other beliefs, or the rights of those
not in the 'in-group', is (unconsciously) terrifying to
them. Moreover, because they have been terrorised into
adopting their rigid belief set, fascists develop an intense
fear of the truth; hence, fascists are both bigoted and
self-righteous. In addition, the belief set of fascists
includes a powerful and violently reinforced 'lesson':
'good' means obedient; it does not mean intrinsically good,
loving and caring.
Eighth, and as a result of all of the
above, fascists learn to unconsciously project their
self-hatred, one outcome of their own victimhood, as hatred
for those in the 'out-groups'. This 'justifies' their
(violent) behaviour and obscures their unconscious
motivation: to remain unaware of their own suppressed terror
and self-hatred.
Ninth, fascists have a compulsion to be
violent; that is, they are addicted to it. Why? Because the
act of violence allows them to explosively release the
suppressed feelings (usually some combination of fear,
terror, pain, anger and powerlessness) so that they
experience a brief sensation of delusional 'relief'. Because
the 'relief' is both brief and delusional, they are
condemned to repeat their violence endlessly.
But the
compulsion to be violent is reinforced by another element in
their belief set, the tenth characteristic: fascists have a
delusional belief in the effectiveness and morality of
violence; they have no capacity to perceive its
dysfunctionality and immorality.
And eleventh, the extreme
social terrorisation experience to which fascists have been
subjected means that the feelings of love, compassion,
empathy and sympathy, as well as the mental function of
conscience, are prevented from developing. Devoid of
conscience and these feelings, fascists can inflict violence
on others without experiencing the feedback that conscience
and these feelings would provide.
In theory, of course,
fascists can heal from the terror and self-hatred that
underpins their psychology. Unfortunately, they are unlikely
to have the courage to seek the appropriate emotional
support to do so. In the meantime, those of us so inclined
must resist their violence and this can be done
strategically. See 'The
Strategy of Nonviolent Defense: A Gandhian
Approach'
If you wish to join the worldwide movement
to end all violence, fascist or otherwise, then you are
welcome to sign online 'The
People's Charter to Create a Nonviolent World'
In
summary: Fascists are terrified and self-hating. But, rather
than feel their own cowardice and self-hatred, they
unconsciously project this as fear of, and hatred for, the
people in one or more 'legitimised victim'
groups.
Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment
to understanding and ending human violence. He has done
extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why
human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist
since 1981. He is the author of 'Why Violence?' His
website is at http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com