[lbo-talk] Political-biological determininsm ( US fascism awareness week)

[Jerry Monaco]

On 11/1/07, Charles Brown <charlesb at cncl.ci.detroit.mi.us> wrote:
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> > This could be the basis for some future US fascist ideologizing.
> > Watson's comments could be such a basis, as well.
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> ^^^^
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> CB: I'm not sure what you mean by "why fascist ?".



The argument goes:

Fascism is a very imprecise term, and in the current context mostly used as
a term of abuse.  "Fascism" as a self-conscious movement does not seem to
exist in U.S. society today.  Fascism was a historical mass movement from
historically contingent places and times.  To use the term fascism for U.S.
movements today, if it is not simply a term of abuse for extremists that you
don't like,  is either anachronistic or a very loose analogy.

I think those who are asking the question here "Why call X group or
political tendency fascist?"  are getting at a deeper question that they are
not addressing. To what extent are political labels more than just
ideological place holders?  To what extent are political labels "structural"
or beyond the historical moment.

For instance some in the Marxist tradition have pointed out that at least
since 1940 the U.S. "imperial presidency" has taken on the aspect of a kind
of  a quadrennially "elected Bonapartism ".  Now the term Bonapartism is a
term many Marxists have tried to use in a structural sense, to describe the
sort of "Great Leader" who balances between class forces.  No one actually
believes that the political coalitions behind Clinton or Bush are literally
enthralled by Napoleon or his nephew, Louis.   Yet if any particular
movement or system deserves to be called a form of Bonapartism you have to
_make the argument_ that this label is appropriate beyond its contingent
historical circumstances.  (Similarly, Gramsci generalized the idea of
Bonapartism to a large trans-historical idea of Caesarism, which could come
from either the "left" or the "right."  Gramsci's idea, if I understand him
correctly, Fascism was a special form of Caesarism, that cultivated a modern
mass movement based on the petty bourgeoisie.)

The only sense I can make out of the demand "Why call it fascist?" is to
demand that you give a structural-historical account of why this label
should be applied to movements we encounter today or might potentially
encounter tomorrow.

Jerry Monaco

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