JASON STANLEY How Fascism Works Trent University, Peterborough, on 28 September 2017

JASON STANLEY How Fascism Works Trent University, Peterborough, ON 28 September 2017 Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of Knowledge and Practical Interests, Language in Context, Know How and the award-winning How Propaganda Works. We’ve just witnessed in the country that gave rise to position and then suddenly you find yourself in a group national socialism an ultranationalist, far-right party, that agrees with all of them. I think that fascism is one Alternative für Deutschland, come into the parliament. such grouping. People will say, “Well, fascism is a And not just come into the parliament, but they are now movement that is so specific.” For example, it’s Giovanni the third largest party in Germany. They campaigned on Gentile in Italy, a wacky idealist philosopher, influenced restoring German national pride, on restricting by Hegel, who comes up with a particularly intricate view. immigration, on raising fears about Islam. This should That’s not how I’m going take fascism. That becomes a give us pause, because the social meaning of their victory philosophical gloss on a certain structure. And it’s that is much more powerful than, I think, what has happened in structure that I think it’s vital for all of us to have in mind. a number of other countries. It’s not their victory—I My interest here will be for the most part in the mean, they finished third—but they did much better than ultranationalist ideology that is the basis of fascist they were predicted to do in the polls, almost double their movements. The dangers, in my mind, from fascism come predictions in the polls, which is characteristic of these from this part of it. There are dangers that come also from movements. the completely authoritarian leader part, where the leader That, I think, is the latest epicycle in a rollback of is the voice of the people, as Trump has declared himself liberal democracy that we’ve seen across the world. You to be—“I am your voice”—in his RNC acceptance speech. can ask your parents about what 2004 and 2005 were like. But if we just have the ultranationalist movement that They will tell you that there were hopes for democracy. seals itself off from those who are not in the nation, that Democracy was spreading with the color revolutions in itself is responsible for much of the ills of fascism, Eastern Europe; five, six years later, the Arab Spring. It because that itself seals off our capacity for empathy. It seemed that liberal democracy was some kind of justifies harshly inhumane treatment of our fellow human unstoppable force. That moment, in hindsight, was a little beings, from mass imprisonment or mass expulsions to, in optimistic. What we have now is ultranationalist, far-right extreme cases, mass extermination. movements that have come to power in Russia, Hungary, The danger of fascism is present even if the mythic Poland, India, Turkey, Iran—there are theocracies across nation fails to be realized in a single powerful figure who the world that fit the structure that I’m going to argue is taken to be its personification. So I’m going to take fascism does—and now the United States. fascism to be this Weltanshauung, as the Germans call it, Historians always inveigh against generalizing about this ideology, that is opposed to that of liberal democracy, phenomena, and philosophers typically ignore historians. I whether or not it takes the form of a nation with an will use individual cases as examples to fit into a scheme, authoritarian leader, or a would-be authoritarian leader but I think something different is needed than what the like Vladimir Putin of Russia or Erdoğan of Turkey, both historian does. What the historian does is she takes leaders well on their way to leading classic fascist particular countries or areas about which she has expertise configurations. and tells us the story of what happened with fascist or Ultimately they lean towards the idea that genuine ultranationalist movements in those countries and invites freedom is being told what to do by the leader. Hitler calls us to generalize and make analogies. I think that is not that genuine German democracy, when the leader tells you what the time calls for. The time calls for a scheme, a what to do. And he gives a good argument for it, actually. generalization, an abstraction which we can then take to He says liberalism requires a sense of responsibility. But reach a social and political reality and see if our social and in a democracy who is responsible? Nobody is responsible political reality matches that. because everyone votes. Under true German democracy And while it’s going to result in missing out details, one person is responsible, the leader. So there is a real missing out salient and important differences between liberal responsibility. regions, it’s nevertheless going to give us, I think, a rough It’s tempting to think that left and right can be used as sense. Because I think that there are these constellations of opposite poles of measurement along some kind of linear positions that come together as family resemblances. You political spectrum, with fascism on the right and might find yourself agreeing with some elements of one communism on the left. This temptation should be 2 resisted. The words “left” and “right” are highly politics. More generally, fascism is the denial of equality. contingent social constructs that lack the kind of Fascism denies equality as a myth. And yet some version conceptual coherence that this fiction suggests. To take of equality is a goal that unifies otherwise very different one example, both Soviet Union under Stalin and Cuba leftist movements. Furthermore, if we look at the world under Fidel Castro instituted harshly repressive measures today, fascism is a position that’s emerging exclusively against homosexuals, and yet anti-gay politics is a from elements of what are now considered the political stereotypical feature of the contemporary political right right, for example, in Poland, France, Turkey, Germany, and not the contemporary political left. and the United States. Furthermore, though we think of the Soviet Union as Many of the classic books about fascism, most notably communist, Stalin introduced a decidedly nationalistic Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, do not element into Soviet politics, which is a mark of the right- theorize about fascism in isolation. They are, rather, wing structure. There are present-day examples of attempts to give an account of totalitarianism with both nationalist movements, on the other hand, so those are certain versions of communism, like Stalinism, and communist movements with what we think of from our national socialism and European fascist movements. They perspective as right-wing elements. There are present-day theorize the different species of totalitarianism. This is the examples of nationalist movements with a modicum of open versus the closed society motif. To be clear, extreme stereotypical leftist elements, a vision of a social welfare repression, mass expulsion, imprisonment, and mass state, say, but restricted to Europeans, exclusionary of our extermination have been justified by fascist and Muslim thorough citizens, or Middle Eastern immigrants. communist regimes alike, though by no means all fascist Though typically, it must be said, this is a model of a states and by no means all communist states have gone to social welfare system that’s meant to encourage those extremes. Nevertheless, especially right now, I think motherhood and encourage women to stay at home, the it is an error to discuss these movements together, under patriarchal family being an essential part of fascist one umbrella. ideology. Nevertheless, social welfare systems would be My first reason is a practical one. When you discuss considered to be characteristic elements of the political these movements together, you’re suggesting that left, from our perspective. communism is right now a serious threat in the countries Criticisms of elites arise from both the left and the that face threats from fascist movements, for example, right, so you find both Bernie Sanders supporters in the Hungary, Poland, the United States, and Russia. Fascism 2016 election and Donald Trump supporters harshly thrives only when there is a sense, often manufactured, of criticizing the elites. There are libertarians who strongly the threat of communist takeover. As Joseph Goebbels, oppose any kind of redistribution of resources and from who was to become Nazi propaganda minister, writes this perspective seem to be on the right, and yet who when ruminating about how to encourage National equally strongly reject the kind of law-and-order politics Socialist sentiment, “The middle class sees in Bolshevism that come with fascist movements as well as the not so much the subverter of national will and folkish militarism characteristic of fascism. So this simplistic instinct but mainly the thief of its property, the fiction of the linear political spectrum, with fascism on the uncomfortable disturber of peace and quiet. It also sees right and communism on the left, simply fails to do justice our National Socialist will for freedom from this point of to the complexity of social and political reality. view. We are its last consolation and last hope if The words “left” and “right” allow considerable Bolshevism is around the corner. The less Bolshevism mixing and matching of positions. I discovered this once threatens, the less the ordinary burgher cares about us, the in a debate in the Yale Political Union, a wonderful more serenely he smiles at our desperate struggle.” institution, where there’s the party of the right, the Over heightened and exaggerated fears of encroaching conservatives, the party of the left, liberals.

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