NATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE PROCEEDINGS Volume 58, #1 National Technology and Social Science Conference, 2015 Table of Contents The Enduring Influence of Fascism on Italian Social Identity Daniel Acheson-Brown, Elizabeth Self, Eastern New Mexico University 1 World Regional and Cultural Footprints and Environmental Sustainability: A Summary of Socioeconomic Determinants Ebenezer O. Aka, Morehouse College 13 Is All Politics Local? Latino Voters in Joliet, Illinois Tanya Arias, Julie Victa, University of Saint Francis 38 The Student Thinking Lens and Inquiry Moira Baldwin, Teresa LeSage-Clements, Barba Aldis Patton University of Houston – Victoria 53 Professionalism and the Internet: The Challenge of Promoting a Professional Identity and Maintaining Personal Privacy Randy Basham, The University of Texas at Arlington 56 Framing the Debate Over State Constitutional Amendment Proposals, 2014: The Case of Tennessee Christopher Baxter, The University of Tennessee at Martin 70 A King Sized Problem! Sue Burum, Minnesota State University - Mankato 80 Online Degrees Versus Traditional: Is There a Hiring Bias – How Can Higher Education Leadership Help in this Dilemma? Sandy Cortez-Rucker, Vance Cortez-Rucker, Lamar University 91 A Pre-Service Teacher’s Experience Implementing Engineering Practices in a High School Physics Class Comfort Ateh, Elizabeth DeGaray, Providence College 100 STEM in the Park: A Model Program that Provides Roots for STEM Learning Emilio Duran, Lena Ballone Duran, Bowling Green State University 108 Patenting Life: GMO’s Kelsey Gibbs, Central Washington University 116 Environmental Protection: Recovery and Development in Liuzhou City Hong He, Central Washington University 123 Sustainable Local Agriculture to Support Liuzhou’s Metropolitan Complex Xiaojie Huang 129 An Inquiry into the International Distribution of Anti-Environmentalism Sentiment Allen F. Ketcham, Texas A& M University Jeffrey T. Schulz, Central Community College 135 Opportunities for Nebraska Business in India Vani V. Kotcherlakota, Michael Lundeen, Nebraska Department of Economic Development 153 Ethics in Education: Historical influence of Religious Elementary Schools Courtney Kulcak, Barba Aldis Patton, Teresa LeSage-Clements, Moira Baldwin University of Houston - Victoria 166 Some Teacher Professional Attitudes are Ethically Treacherous: Where are the Lines Drawn in the Sand? Teresa LeSage-Clements, Moira J. Baldwin, Barba Aldis Patton, University of Houston - Victoria 169 Some Children are Left Behind: Teacher Retention & Attrition Impact on Student Achievement Education Work Experience Matters Teresa LeSage-Clements, Barba Aldis Patton, Moira J. Baldwin, University of Houston - Victoria 172 New Thinking About Urban Growth: Liujiang County Lihua Li, Central Washington University 179 By The Numbers: How Message Framing Affects Opinions of National Statistics Colleen McDonough, Maria T. de Gordon, Neumann University 186 Coastal Wetlands Landcover of New Orleans Andrew Meinhold, Independent Scholar 203 Are We Losing It? What Constitutes Ethical Behavior? Barba Aldis Patton, Courtney Kulcak, Teresa LeSage-Clements, Moira Baldwin, University of Houston - Victoria 209 Taking Vocabulary in the Classroom to a Higher Level: Not a Simple Task Barba Aldis Patton, Teresa LeSage-Clements, Moira Baldwin University of Houston - Victoria 212 Bellingham Coal Trains and the Gateway Pacific Terminal Matthew Prpich, Central Washington University 214 Governmental Responsibility for Public Health: The Road Traveled and What Lies Ahead in Disease Control and Prevention Centers System in China Zhenghao Pu, Central Washington University 217 Application and Implementation of Authentic Assessment Clinton Rau, Beverly A. Doyle, Creighton University 225 Understanding How Three Key Events Impacted the Presidential Legacy of Franklin Pierce Darrial Reynolds, South Texas College 230 A Face Lift to Teaching Science Based on the Next Generation Science Standards: Case of an Instructional Unit on Biotechnology Natalie Sabia, Comfort Ateh, Providence College 236 Vietnam and the U.S.A.: Immigration Politics Binh Vo, Central Washington University 244 An Analysis of the “Use It or Lose It” Policy in Eastern Washington Taylor Wilkinson, Central Washington University 250 A Prosperous Hispanic Population Equates to a Robust America Edgar Zamora, Central Washington University 252 Revitalization of the Urban Core Huanhuan Zeng, Central Washington University 263 The Enduring Influence of Fascism on Italian Social Identity Daniel Acheson-Brown Elizabeth Self Eastern New Mexico University 1 Introduction Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, was publicly revered as “Il Duce,” from 1922 throughout the fascist era. His execution in 1945, and the public hanging of his corpse at a petrol station in Milan, showed that he was no longer revered but despised. Italy lay in ruins. The Axis powers were soon defeated and their monstrous extermination policies were fully revealed. Yet today, in some quarters, the memory of Mussolini is once again revered. In the small town of his birth, Predappio, his grave is often visited by people who give the fascist salute. The streets are lined with vendors selling Mussolini paraphenalia. Thousands purchase calendars with a picture of Mussolini for every month (Schlamp, 2013). This provides a subtle reminder that each month, Mussolini is the hero for the present, not just a disastrous past—in fact, the past is re-interpreted as victorious rather than disastrous. During informal interviews with Italians in Pisa, Rome, and Sicily, conducted during 2013 and 2014, the first author often heard of a desire for a leader like Mussolini, “to put people back to work, but not to make war.” There was also nostalgia for the police state, which, although it had its drawbacks, ensured that “nobody had to lock their doors in the days of Il Duce.” As dictator, Mussolini ordered the invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, authorizing mustard gas to be dropped indiscriminately from the air. Internally, he sent 13,000 into exile in poverty-stricken villages in southern Italy (Evans, 2013). But public figures, such as Italy’s ex-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, seek to rewrite history by softening the memory of Mussolini and fascism. Berlusconi claimed in 2003 that “Mussolini did not murder anyone. Mussolini sent people on vacation to confine them” (Farrell, 2013). At Predappio, one can also purchase a beer mug with the slogan, “Boia chi molla.” The origins of this phrase are uncertain, but it was definitely used by the Italian soldiers known as “Arditi,” or “daring ones,” to rally each other during their front-line attacks during World War I. The slogan can be literally translated as “He’s an executioner, who desists [fighting].” In other words, if a soldier stops fighting in support of his comrades, he might as well be killing them. The verb mollare, to desist, leave off, or relax, is followed in the dictionary by the adjective molle, which means soft, effeminate, flabby, or even flaccid (Spinelli, 1965). So the guilt-inducing battle cry has connotations not only of murder, but also of failure to be masculine. It is no coincidence that Mussolini adopted this as a fascist motto. As we shall see, fascist propaganda repeatedly exhorted males to live up to a hypermasculine ideal that sacrificed their own human needs to the service of the state. Believing in the attainability of an ideal creates a psychological readiness to strive to meet impossible demands—what psychologist Karen Horney called “the tyranny of the should” (Horney, 1991, p. 64). The inevitable failure to live up to these demands keeps an individual off-balance, since they are not recognized as impossible. The fault, we think, is not in the demands, but in ourselves. In a totalitarian state, this idealization can produce a percentage of the populace that willingly conforms to the behavioral prescriptions issued by the state and modeled by state leaders—and these prescriptions can be made to serve the designs of those in power, especially their designs for expansion and empire. This was the case with the Italian fascist regime of Benito Mussolini. Fascist propaganda and policies were aimed at the creation of a “new man,” who would be an organic component of a “new Italy.” 2 And yet at the same time the new man would be a return to the natural man, a man whose natural function was to kill in war. Mussolini famously stated that “war is to man as maternity is to woman” (Benedetti, 2007, p. 58). Such a man, restored to his true bellicose nature, would be a real Italian, like the glorious soldiers of ancient Rome. Invoking a golden past (that never was) was intended to inspire Italian men to participate in the conquest of territory for the rightful return of the Roman Empire. Within fascism, the hypermasculine ideal had several components. Males should be, above all, violent, militaristic, and aggressive. The slogan “Believe, Obey, Fight,” was widespread, implying that thinking and questioning were undesirable. Instead, unquestioning, unhesitating action was needed. (This slogan is also inscribed on beer mugs in Predappio today.) Energetic action, a dynamism associated with youth, would culminate in violence whenever necessary, but it was always necessary to be prepared for it. Therefore, fascist Italy emphasized sport and physical fitness. The fascist regime nationalized the body through sports and physical fitness for imperialism, not for health or any intrinsic value, but rather in the service of the state. Sports and physical education