A long time ago, the Frankfurt school folk wrote about the "authoritarian personality" that was attracted to the Nazis and similar groups (including the CP, I believe). An ex-girlfriend of mine did research that indicated that those with authoritarian personalities were attracted to the Hare Krishnas and similar cults. I haven't the slightest idea how valid that research was. Jim
-----Original Message----- From: Chris Doss [mailto:itschris13 at hotmail.com] Sent: Wed 12/24/2003 5:13 AM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Cc: Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] three faces of fascism
Speaking of the F word and our wonderful Nazi interloper, does anyone know
of any sociological data on who actually joins such groups in the
contemporary West? It would seem to be a pretty whacked-out kind of person
who's going to identify with the most reviled political regime in history. I
don't mean Fascism, I mean Nazism (which are different but related
phenomenon in my opinion; I think Arendt was right on this). I can imagine a
rational person in Italy, say, positively appraising Mussolini as a figure
who made the trains run on time, but Hitler has no plusses at all. (I read
somewhere that the Italian Fascists only executed 13 people for political
purposes; Hitler whacked 400 just on the Night of the Long Knives).
I mean, are these typically uneducated types? What class to they generally
come from? I'm sure Chip has reams of material on this.
>
>One of the best books -- if not the best -- I've seen on the rise of
>fascism
>in Europe is:
>
>Fascism and Big Business
>by Daniel Guerin, Francis Merrill, Mason Merrill
>Pathfinder Press (1994)
>
>Orig. publ. in 1936 and reads like it was written yesterday. Guerin was a
>French Trot who later became an anarchist and gay rights activist.
>
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