Thursday, February 09, 2006
Am I the only one looking up and researching how Hitler came to power?
Do you find yourself looking up Gleichschaltung? Or Enabling Act?
Germany, and Italy in the 20's and early 30's is much different than America today but Fascism and other forms of authoritarianism are on the march both here and abroad.
Both Italy and Germany had strong communist movements which the fascists could use as an internal dire threat while denouncing the "weak" liberal democratic parties. There is no similar threat in America no matter how much some are trying to provoke a clash of civilizations against the evil Islamofascists.
I also looked up a German hero and note how the naked humiliation of prisoners can be traced to the Nazis.
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You might want to read *Fascism & Big Business* by Daniel Guerin.
A comprehensive study of fascism as it evolved in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.Daniel Guerin's classic work, first published in French in 1936, shows how fascism, far from being an aberration of mass psychology, arose from the specific conditions of a social system in crisis. At first covertly, then increasingly openly, layers of big business financed and promoted the fascist movements in Italy and Germany.
If not in your public library, try the inter-library lending system. Guerin was a libertarian communist (like Noam Chomsky, actually). I am not at all "leftist" but I thought Guerin's analysis of rival categories of business interests was really excellent.
I think Arendt is excellent but Guerin's ideas can't be ignored.
That's Hannah Arendt, of course.
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