[lbo-talk] three faces of fascism

Devine, James jdevine at lmu.edu
Wed Dec 24 06:49:31 PST 2003


Yeah, Nolte. I found the details to be quite useful, but the basic analysis pretty weak. But my memory is fading... Jim

-----Original Message-----

From: Brad DeLong [mailto:delong at econ.berkeley.edu]

Sent: Tue 12/23/2003 12:00 PM

To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org

Cc:

Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] three faces of fascism

It's the title of a very good book by... Ernst Nolte? called _Fascism

in Its Epoch_ in German, the title of which was changed to _Three

Faces of Fascism_ in the English translation. (As an echo of _Three

Faces of Eve_?)

The book is great, but largely because the author understands fascism

a little too well, if you know what I mean... looking into abysses

and all that...

Brad DeLong

>for the life of me, I can't understand the old subject line of this

>thread (which was RE: [lbo-talk] Fwd: (Carrol Cox: Trotskyist!)).

>

>Anyway, I agree that the word "fascist" has been over-used. There

>are at least three different meanings.

>

>1) specifically referring to Mussolini and his followers, or to a

>more general type of social movement that's Mussolini-like. (Often

>Nazism is seen as a sub-type of fascism, but it's often seen as

>separate from fascism.)

>

>2) referring to a general type of socio-economic system.

>

>3) referring to a psychological type or a personality structure.

>This originated, I think, with Wilhelm Reich, but became very

>popular with the New Left in the US (and elsewhere?)

>

>

>------------------------

>Jim Devine jdevine at lmu.edu & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine

>

>

>

>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: Michael Pugliese [mailto:debsian at pacbell.net]

>> Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 10:13 AM

>> To: lbo-talk

>> Subject: [lbo-talk] Fwd: (Carrol Cox: Trotskyist!)

>>

>>

>> ------- Forwarded message -------

>> From: John Earl Haynes <haynes at mail.h-net.msu.edu>

>> To: H-HOAC at H-NET.MSU.EDU

>> Subject: essay on McWilliams in JAH (Schwartz)

>> Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 08:32:45 -0500

>>

>> > From: "Stephen Schwartz" <karastjepan at yahoo.com>

>> > To: "H-Net Network on American communism and anticommunism"

>> > <H-HOAC at H-NET.MSU.EDU>

>> > Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 11:33 AM

>> > Subject: McWilliams and Fascism

>> <SNIP>

>>

>> > Trotsky's main contribution to political science in our

>> time consisted,

>> > in

>> > my view, in the insistence on not confusing the ordinary

>> conditions of

>> > capitalism with the extraordinary nature of fascism as a system of

>> > domination. To confuse conservatives with fascists is to confuse a

>> > situation of political conflict within the system of

>> bourgeois law, and

>> > continuing institutionalization of the labor movement, with

>> a situation

>> > of

>> > lawless repression and the complete destruction of the

>> labor movement.

>> >

>> > Regarding Trotsky, it is worth noting that the period in

>> which McWilliams

>> > handily referred to "farm fascism" in California was also

>> that in which

>> > Trotskyists were routinely denounced as "fascists." For

>> myself, I think

>> > the

>> > nadir of the "fascism" trope in California was reached in

>> the Hitchcock

>> > film

>> > SABOTEUR where it is suggested that the entire wealthy class in

>> > California,

>> > as well as the whole local system of law enforcement,

>> consisted of Axis

>> > agents and sympathizers. That is pretty ridiculous. But I

>> also recall

>> > that

>> > when cinema writers were asked why the Hollywood version of

>> FOR WHOM THE

>> > BELL TOLLS did not identify the enemy as "ther fascists"

>> they answered

>> > that

>> > "the fascists" prevented it. This was a situation in which anything

>> > including college football could be labelled fascist.

>> >

>> > Of course, we see similar abuse of the term "fascist"

>> today. But that is

>> > another matter entirely.

>> >

>> > Stephen Schwartz

>> >

>>

>>

>>

>> --

>> Michael Pugliese

>> American imperialism has been made plausible and attractive

>> in part by the

>> insistence that it is not imperialistic.

>> Harold Innis, 1948

>> http://www.monthlyreview.org/sr2004.htm

>>

>> ___________________________________

>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

>>

>

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____________________

J. Bradford DeLong

Department of Economics

U.C. Berkeley, #3880

Berkeley, CA 94720-3880

(510) 643-4027

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