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hey what's up
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everyone so today's video is going to be
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answering one question and one question
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only and that is what is fascism fascism
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has to be a strong Contender for one of
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the most loosely understood words in the
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political lexicon and in my opinion
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that's probably not going to be changing
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anytime soon but if you're someone that
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wants to develop a tighter understanding
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of it this video is going to be targeted
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for you to date there have only ever
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been two governments that have even
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remotely uncontroversially been
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considered fascist and those are the
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governments of Italy and Germany
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established between World War I and
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World War II calling Germany fascist is
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slightly controversial but I'm not going
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to get into that here in my opinion Nazi
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Germany was fascist and I think that
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will become clear as I talk about it in
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the video but either way it shouldn't
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change my conclusions you should be able
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to theoretically drop Germany from my
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analysis here and my conclusions should
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still hold up but I will talk about
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Germany in this video so I'm going to
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mostly cover Italy first and Germany
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second but I will to some extent go back
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and forth between the two for the sake
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of comparison to the surprise of no one
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this video will get dark I'm not going
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to show anything very graphic but I'm
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also not going to intellectually shy
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away from the subject matter either and
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the subject matter will get dark
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especially when we cover Germany so if
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you're trying to I don't know go on a
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picnic or something after this this
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might not be the video for you but for
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the rest of us we're going to cover
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Italy first and Germany second and then
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at the end we're going to circle out and
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see what we can say about fascism based
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on that and yeah that's the
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[Music]
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plan so we're going to go back to the
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time and the place where fascism was
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invented which was interwar Italy after
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the March on Rome in 19 19 22 Bonito
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musolini came into power and became the
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face of fascism known around the world
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musolini had a background in Academia
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and considered himself something of a
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philosopher we're going to get into
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melini's ideas but first I think we
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should get into some of his influences
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and a good place to start with that is
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Gustav Leon whose book The Crowd was of
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a special interest to musolini by the
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end of the 1800s the nature of politics
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seemed to be changing and Leon beli
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believed that civilization was at a
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turning point as he wrote while all our
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ancient beliefs are tottering and
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disappearing while the old pillars of
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society are giving way one by one the
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power of the crowd is the only force
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that nothing menaces and of which The
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Prestige is continually on the increase
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the age we're about to enter will in
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truth be the era of crowds what Leon is
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describing is the beginning of mass
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politics it was a time when politics
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were getting less elitist and more
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populistic so to gain political power in
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that context people would have to spend
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less time targeting educated people and
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Elites and more time trying to win the
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support of everyday people who would
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then Express their support in a crowd so
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he argued that that was making politics
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more simplistic and more homogeneous
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Leon believed that there was something
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like a psychological law of the mental
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Unity of crowds which is this idea that
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when individuals identify with crowds
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they to some extent lose their ability
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to think for themselves and they instead
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think with the crowd so then you have a
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crowd of like-minded people which can
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then be directed and influenced so in
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this analysis crowd psychology acts as a
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hypnotizer and individuals in the crowd
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are hypnotized so if an individual
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becomes swept up in a crowd then all
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feelings and thoughts are bent in the
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direction determined by the hypnotizer
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Leon believed that to sway a crowd
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didn't require telling the crowd the
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truth what it required was telling the
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crowd what they wanted to hear and
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appealing to the crowd's emotions as he
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put it the masses have never thirsted
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after truth they turn aside from
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evidence that is not to their taste
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preferring to deify error if error
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seduced them whoever can supply them
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with Illusions is easily their Master
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whoever attempts to destroy their
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Illusions is always their victim so to
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gain power in the era of mass politics
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ICS it was thought that you would have
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to simplify your political ideas and win
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over a crowd of like-minded people that
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would then Express support for them the
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best way to do that wouldn't be to be
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concerned with truth but rather to
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emotionally charge your ideas that can
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get the crowd excited to tell them
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illusions that they want to hear so this
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is already describing the core
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assumptions behind fascism musini
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believed that if the 19th century was
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the century of individualism then the
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20th century would be the century of
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collectivism musolini thought that
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anyone who wasn't thinking in terms of
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collectivism and mass politics was going
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to be left behind in the 20th century so
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by that he mostly meant liberals who
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thought individualistically and
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conservatives who thought
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aristocratically so musolini described
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that as dead energy one thinker he
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thought did get it right at least in
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that regard was Carl marks which I know
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is a name that most of us were probably
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not expecting to hear in this video but
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but there it is by the beginning of the
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20th century both of the original
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founders of classical Marxism had died
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and adaptations of Marxism began to
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flourish one major path of adaptations
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went from Marx to Lenin to Stalin and
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Mao which is the path that we refer to
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as Marxism leninism and the other major
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path went in a very different direction
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and that began with George sell sell was
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a heterodox Marxist who thought that it
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was too narrow to to interpret the world
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through the lens of class and economics
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and he thought that we should also look
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at sociology so he thought that
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sociology would have an effect on the
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revolution so he specifically thought
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that in order to create the ideological
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Unity needed for the revolution people
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would have to create mobilizing myths
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these myths are stories that are
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supposed to contain all the strongest
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inclinations of a people stories that
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people are inspired by and cherish and
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hold a above criticism the myth that
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sell chose was the myth of strikes so
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sell tried to build up this mythology
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around the idea of strikes to get people
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to Rally around the idea and to start
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the revolution Italian fascists liked
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sell's ideas but they adapted them so to
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finish sketching out this path of
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adaptations you have Marx then sell then
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musolini and Hitler which is the path of
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fascism although unlike the path of
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Marxism leninism by the time you get to
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melini and Hitler their ideas don't
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really resemble Marxism at all and
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Hitler was even violently anti-marxist
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which is to say this is a messy chain of
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influences and a lot of adaptation
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happened here so to finish up the
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Marxist influence fascists thought that
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Marxist movements correctly tapped into
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the spirit of mass politics they told a
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simple story of a binary struggle
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between good and evil where regular
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people were good and Elites were evil in
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particular Financial Elites and within
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that good people were deserving
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especially deserving of political power
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Hitler even tipped his hat to Marxism in
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that regard saying no movement has
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operated with such a thorough knowledge
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of the characteristics of the masses as
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the Marxist movement a point he
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elaborated on in mind comp saying the
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strong attractive power of the social
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democracy yes of the whole Marxist
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movement rested in large part on the
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homogeneity and hence one-sidedness of
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the public it addressed the more
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seemingly limited indeed the narrower
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its ideas were the more easily they were
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taken up and assimilated by a mass whose
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intellectual level corresponded to the
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material offered which in the context of
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Mind comp is actually kind of a
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backhanded compliment he was arguing
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that this is a necessary component for a
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successful populist movement but
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fascists thought that Marxist movements
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were fatally flawed and therefore likely
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to fail to name a couple reasons why
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they were inherently divisive they
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turned one part of the population
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against the other working class against
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property owners and they also tended to
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be dogmatic they tended to rigidly
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adhere to Marx's ideas whether they
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worked in practice or not so fascists
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thought that thinking that that would
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work was wishful thinking and they
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thought that something new had to be
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thought up as musolini said in his
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autobiography it was necessary to
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imagine a wholly new political
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conception adequate to the living living
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reality of the 20th century overcoming
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at the same time the ideological warship
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of liberalism The Limited Horizons of
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various spent and exhausted democracies
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and finally the violently utopian Spirit
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of bolism so they needed a galvanizing
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idea an idea that crowds could rally
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around something that excites people and
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binds them together something they
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thought wasn't doing that was
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internationalism as musolini put it I
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saw that internationalism was crumbling
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the unit of loyalty was too large so he
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thought that internationalism wasn't an
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idea that people could feel passionate
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about and rally around and here he is on
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the next page following that to his
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conclusion facing this new situation
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every political man including myself
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began to examine his conscience the mere
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mention of this problem was sufficient
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to make clear and evident the hidden
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travail of national Consciousness I was
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transformed in my thought so National
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Consciousness replaced class
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Consciousness and became fascism's
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selian myth as musolini said in a speech
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we have created our myth the myth is a
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faith a passion it is not necessary for
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it to be a reality it is a reality in
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the sense that it is a stimulus is Hope
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is Faith is courage our myth is the
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nation our myth is the greatness of the
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nation so what became the bottom of
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fascism the mobilizing idea that became
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the bottom of fascist ideology was a
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passionate nationalism so musolini
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collaborated with a circle of Italian
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intellectuals notably around the
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magazine Lao and notably with the
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philosophy Professor Giovani Gentile and
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they worked to develop a language and
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theory of fascism around nationalism to
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turn nationalism into their mobilizing
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myth
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and they did it by encouraging people to
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have a kind of mystical attitude about
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it they said if you close your eyes and
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you feel deep inside you you can feel
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your nation down in your bones you can
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feel the spirit of your country inside
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you here's Giovani GTI using that
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language history is not a past that is
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of interest only to the aerod it is
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present alive in the soul of us all
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those who are Italians feel themselves a
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part of this Italy
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they find themselves not only in the
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blue of its sky in its Hills and its
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water nor only in the desolate or
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mountainous land that alternates with
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its fruitful Plains and its smiling
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Gardens we close our eyes let us make
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abstraction from the horizons of its
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Landscapes so varied in Beauty and light
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and Italy remains in our soul in fact it
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enlarges and expands in the glory of
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that which it is so they they created
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this myth around the nation and treated
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it not just as a territory but something
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spiritual and then they talked about the
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nation in as passionate language as they
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possibly could to give a shorter example
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look at musolini describing his national
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identity here he doesn't just call
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himself Italian he says I am desperately
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Italian I don't know about you but I
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think that's about as emotional as you
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can get when you're talking about your
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country national identity is something
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that all citizens of a country
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technically sh so what fascism tries to
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do is it tries to stir up the emotions
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of the public to get them to unite and
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rally behind the idea it tries to sway
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the crowd using the myth of the nation
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something that's distinct about fascism
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something that separates it from other
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versions of nationalism is that for
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fascists their nationalism is an
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overriding principle it overrides all
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other traditional or moral or political
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concerns going back to this musolini
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quote our myth is the nation our myth is
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the greatness of the nation and then
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look what he says next and to this myth
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this greatness which we want to
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translate into a total reality we
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subordinate everything else that's
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actually an accurate description of
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fascism if the question is what does a
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fascist say or do and we're talking
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about Italian or German fascism here the
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answer is whatever brings about the
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greatness of the nation they say
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whatever they need to say and they do
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whatever they they need to do in order
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to bring about the greatness of the
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nation at least in their minds here's
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musolini describing the common goal
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between German and Italian fascism the
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objective which both wanted to achieve
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and have achieved is the same the unity
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and greatness of the people so this is a
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two-part objective part one is to unify
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the people using the myth of the nation
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and part two is to bring about the
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greatness of the People by bringing
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about the greatness of the nation so
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then I think it's natural to ask what do
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they mean by making the country great
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and fascists tended to leave that answer
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pretty vague here's melini saying the
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nation is great when it translates into
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reality the force of its spirit so this
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is a hegelian idea the idea that history
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is marked by stages and those stages are
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defined by the human spirit and going to
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Hegel now spirit is the director of the
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events of the world's history so Spirit
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directs the world's history and drives
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it forward so Italian fascists aspired
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to use the force of the Italian people
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to make an impact on the history of the
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world if they did that they would be
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translating into reality the force of
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the Italian Spirit which was supposed to
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make history which was supposed to make
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Italy great and the Italian people great
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to understand exactly how to do that
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again Italian fascists looked to Hegel
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who musolini called the Phil philosopher
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of the state Hegel argued that in the
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history of the world the only people
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that get noticed are the people that
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form a state and that the state is the
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embodiment of the human spirit it's the
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external manifestation of the will of
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people so therefore changes in the
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stages of world history are attached to
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the concept of the state and if you
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haven't noticed I have to edit Hegel a
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bit to make his writing clearer because
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red as is it's not so anyway so Hegel
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argued that you need a strong state in
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order to manifest the will of the people
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and embody the spirit of the nation and
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to drive history forward so then you
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might ask what makes a state powerful
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and here's hegel's answer a state is
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well-constituted and internally powerful
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when the private interest of its
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citizens is one with the common
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interests of the state so if the
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citizens and the state have identical
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interests that makes the state powerful
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which Hegel calls a desired Harmony he
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then says the Epic when a state attains
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this harmonious condition marks the
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period of its Bloom its virtue its Vigor
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and its Prosperity so according to this
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philosophy the goal is to create a Unity
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of interests between individuals and the
00:16:19
state so there's no conflict between
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individuals and the state and if there
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is a conflict then the State wins as
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Hegel put it this unified state State as
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an ultimate end possesses the highest
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right in relation to individuals whose
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highest duty is to be members of the
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state so Italian fascists were directly
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inspired by that philosophy they saw the
00:16:43
state as a means to their end of making
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a nation great and thought that
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individuals should be subordinated to
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the needs of the state what those needs
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were were determined by fascists since
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it was a fascist state so here's them
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saying that the found of fascism and by
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the way the capital F here means Italian
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fascism is the conception of the state
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its character its Duty and its aim
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fascism conceives of the state as an
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absolute in comparison with which all
00:17:14
individuals or groups are relative only
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to be conceived of in their relation to
00:17:19
the state what we're seeing here is a
00:17:22
justification for
00:17:24
totalitarianism having a powerful state
00:17:26
with absolute right over the individual
00:17:28
a powerful state that subordinates the
00:17:30
individual to it so totalitarianism was
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a word that Italian fascists openly used
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look at how musolini talked about the
00:17:39
rise of Nazi Germany in relation to
00:17:41
Italy here is another great country in
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the process of creating a unitary
00:17:47
authoritarian totalitarian state I.E a
00:17:51
fascist one okay so fascists wanted to
00:17:54
unite the people using the myth of the
00:17:56
nation and then once the fascist
00:17:58
movement came into power they wanted to
00:18:00
create a unitary totalitarian state a
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state with absolute power over its
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citizens with no political opposition
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and then from there they wanted to
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assert the spirit of their people on the
00:18:11
world's stage and therefore make history
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both Italy and Germany thought that
00:18:17
process would create a new glorious
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civilization which Italy referred to as
00:18:22
the Third Rome and Germany referred to
00:18:25
as the Third Reich that being said
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Italian fascism is often referred to as
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Hollow Italy had the language of fascism
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but the execution wasn't really there as
00:18:36
one Italian historian put it fascist
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Italy was something of a police state
00:18:41
but of an idiosyncratic kind one where
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tyranny was Tangled with compromise and
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then later saying for all its proclaimed
00:18:50
totalitarianism fascist Italy was soon
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shown to be unable to fully mobilize its
00:18:56
civilians or its ordinary soldiers
00:18:58
number numers of whom were unconvinced
00:19:01
that their identities sprang from
00:19:02
Italian nationality okay so the Italian
00:19:05
people didn't buy into fascism very
00:19:07
heavily and musolini was something of an
00:19:10
impotent dictator but we still have some
00:19:12
loose ends here namely what exactly the
00:19:15
fascists do once they get into Power
00:19:18
what exactly are their policies and
00:19:20
again in a nutshell the answer is
00:19:22
whatever they thought would bring about
00:19:24
the greatness of the nation one thing
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Italian fascists were consistent about
00:19:28
in in both Theory and in practice was
00:19:31
their attitude about violence and War
00:19:34
which again took inspiration from George
00:19:36
sell they saw violence as a legitimate
00:19:39
political expression and extensively
00:19:41
used violence on their way into Power
00:19:44
which is something they shared with
00:19:45
German fascists they also glorified War
00:19:48
they saw War as something that would
00:19:50
bind a country together an attitude
00:19:52
largely shaped by their experiences in
00:19:54
World War I they were also expansionist
00:19:57
they saw the expansion of the
00:19:59
as an expression of Vitality and
00:20:01
strength which led them to go around
00:20:03
conquering weaker countries notably
00:20:06
Ethiopia and Libya much to the detriment
00:20:10
of the people living there in terms of
00:20:13
Economic Policy Italy took a hybrid
00:20:15
approach musolini theorized about
00:20:17
something that he called a corporate
00:20:19
state which was supposed to create a
00:20:21
synthesis between liberalism and
00:20:24
Socialism or in other words he wanted to
00:20:26
create an alliance between capital
00:20:28
capital and labor under fascist rule
00:20:31
which Italian fascists claimed abolished
00:20:34
class conflict in Italy although how
00:20:36
exactly that worked was far from Clear
00:20:39
regardless it didn't do the Italian
00:20:41
economy any favors and while musolini
00:20:43
was in power Italy's economic growth
00:20:46
fell further behind the powerful
00:20:48
countries of Europe on that note there's
00:20:50
been something of an ongoing war of
00:20:52
categorization when it comes to Fascism
00:20:55
in that regard people that are
00:20:56
sympathetic to socialism try to push our
00:20:59
understanding of fascism towards
00:21:01
capitalism and vice versa people that
00:21:03
are sympathetic to capitalism try to
00:21:05
push fascism towards socialism I think
00:21:08
neither side ends up being very
00:21:09
convincing because both sides are only
00:21:11
partially looking at the subject it's
00:21:13
true that fascists campaigned on
00:21:15
socialist language and with socialist
00:21:18
policies but it's also true that fascism
00:21:20
came out of capitalist economies but the
00:21:23
idea that fascism can only come out of
00:21:25
capitalism I think comes from a partisan
00:21:27
mindset moreover once fascists came into
00:21:31
office they pursued hybrid economic
00:21:33
policies they weren't cleanly
00:21:35
capitalistic and they weren't cleanly
00:21:37
socialistic they had elements of both so
00:21:39
for example they might nationalize
00:21:41
certain industries and Implement a
00:21:44
certain amount of welfare but then also
00:21:46
cozy up to big businesses and allow them
00:21:48
a high degree of autonomy so I think
00:21:50
this aspect of fascism is sort of a
00:21:53
conceptual culdesac I don't think it's
00:21:55
an Illuminating way to be able to
00:21:57
categorize fascism if anything I think
00:21:59
they were categorized by pragmatism so
00:22:01
they weren't dogmatic once they came
00:22:03
into office they pursued the policies
00:22:05
they thought they needed to pursue to
00:22:07
make the economy work I think in
00:22:09
particular that was true for Germany so
00:22:11
on that note I think it's time to turn
00:22:13
our attention away from Italy and
00:22:15
towards
00:22:22
Germany the major contribution of Nazi
00:22:25
Germany to the subject of fascism I
00:22:27
believe is is that they showed the world
00:22:29
what fascism looks like when it quote
00:22:31
unquote works unlike musolini Hitler was
00:22:35
largely able to bridge the gap between
00:22:37
fascist rhetoric and reality he was able
00:22:40
to make fascism come alive in Germany
00:22:43
before Hitler came into Power Germany
00:22:46
was suffering from hyperinflation and
00:22:48
was being economically and militarily
00:22:51
constrained by the Treaty of Versailles
00:22:53
Hitler believed that the German people
00:22:56
needed confidence in their ability to
00:22:58
break out of these constraints and rise
00:23:00
up again and he believed that the only
00:23:02
way to achieve that was through Mass
00:23:05
Politics as he wrote what will raise the
00:23:08
German people up again is confidence in
00:23:11
the possibility of regaining its freedom
00:23:13
and this conviction can only be the
00:23:15
final product of the same feeling in
00:23:18
millions of individuals German fascists
00:23:21
had their own set of influences like n's
00:23:23
idea of Will To Power and Francis
00:23:26
galton's social Darwinism so that was a
00:23:29
source of difference between the two
00:23:30
fascism another source of difference I
00:23:33
believe can be understood through this
00:23:34
quote in mine the psyche of the great
00:23:37
masses is not receptive to anything that
00:23:40
is half-hearted and weak the Nazis ended
00:23:42
up actually embodying that they embodied
00:23:45
a full commitment to their ideology and
00:23:48
they meticulously crafted an image of
00:23:50
maximal strength but we're getting ahead
00:23:52
of ourselves like musolini Hitler was an
00:23:55
avid nationalist so he fashioned a Nazi
00:23:58
Doctrine around populism and nationalism
00:24:02
as he wrote for me and all true National
00:24:05
socialists who are Nazis there is but
00:24:08
one Doctrine people and Fatherland so
00:24:12
Hitler explicitly set out to nationalize
00:24:15
the masses and this wasn't a weak
00:24:17
nationalism this was a strong
00:24:19
nationalism with a fighting spirit and
00:24:22
this was all for the purpose of changing
00:24:24
the quote unquote Destiny of Germany to
00:24:26
lift Germany out of its trouble and to
00:24:29
make it great again to bring on the new
00:24:31
glorious Third Reich so like Italian
00:24:34
fascists Hitler's plan was to
00:24:36
nationalize the masses and also like
00:24:39
Italian fascists Hitler framed his
00:24:42
nationalism as something mystical
00:24:44
something you can feel deep inside you
00:24:47
the way Hitler put it was that
00:24:49
nationality isn't just a language but
00:24:52
rather it's something that lays in your
00:24:54
blood so the Nazis described this quote
00:24:57
unquote German blood BL as a kind of
00:24:59
living thing that thinks a certain way
00:25:02
and behaves a certain way and within
00:25:04
that it was the role of Germans to get
00:25:07
in touch with it and conform to it as a
00:25:09
high-ranking Nazi explained individuals
00:25:12
are to be subordinated to the greater
00:25:15
idea of the people so when Nazis are
00:25:18
referring to the people they're not
00:25:20
referring to just everyone living within
00:25:21
the territory of the Reich but rather
00:25:25
only those who within this Mass profess
00:25:28
loyalty to their German blood and to a
00:25:31
duty to their germanness which means
00:25:33
that the people in the eyes of Nazis
00:25:36
were those who had subordinated and
00:25:38
professed their loyalty to the idea of
00:25:41
thinking with their German blood so they
00:25:44
wanted to create a community of
00:25:46
psychically homogeneous creatures as
00:25:49
Hitler put it that again like Italian
00:25:52
fascists would be directed by a state
00:25:55
and again like Italian fascists for the
00:25:57
Nazis
00:25:58
nationalism was an overriding principle
00:26:01
whatever they thought would make the
00:26:02
nation great for them was the correct
00:26:05
course of action here's Hitler
00:26:07
essentially saying that so this is right
00:26:09
after saying for the Nazis there's one
00:26:11
Doctrine people and Fatherland what we
00:26:14
must fight for is to safeguard the
00:26:17
existence and reproduction of our race
00:26:19
and our people the sustenance of our
00:26:21
children and to the purity of our blood
00:26:24
the freedom and Independence of the
00:26:26
Fatherland so that our people May mature
00:26:29
for the Fulfillment of the mission
00:26:31
allotted it by the creator of the
00:26:33
universe every thought and every idea
00:26:36
every Doctrine and all knowledge must
00:26:39
serve this purpose and everything must
00:26:41
be examined from this point of view and
00:26:44
used or rejected according to its
00:26:46
utility so Hitler does plug his
00:26:48
Catholicism here but in practice for
00:26:50
Hitler nationalism was his overriding
00:26:53
principle if his Catholic principles
00:26:55
conflicted with his nationalist
00:26:57
principles the nationalist principles
00:26:59
one which gave Hitler a complicated and
00:27:02
often strained relationship with
00:27:04
Catholics of his time also like Italian
00:27:07
fascists this led German fascists to
00:27:09
glorify and advocate for violence war
00:27:13
and
00:27:14
expansionism but in the German
00:27:16
vocabulary they argued that the German
00:27:18
people were Superior and therefore
00:27:20
deserved more quote unquote living space
00:27:23
so that was largely their justification
00:27:25
for trying to conquer Europe they argued
00:27:28
that the German people were Superior and
00:27:30
therefore deserved more living space now
00:27:33
the major quote unquote modification
00:27:36
that Nazis made to this theory was they
00:27:39
said not all those living within the
00:27:41
German borders share the German blood
00:27:45
and of course primarily by that they
00:27:47
targeted Jewish people Hitler
00:27:49
stereotyped Jewish people as Marxist
00:27:52
internationalists and believed that they
00:27:54
were hurting Germany which sent him
00:27:56
violently in the opposite Direction
00:27:59
which led him to declare that Jews
00:28:01
despite living in Germany do not share
00:28:04
the German blood since they believed
00:28:06
that whatever made the nation stronger
00:28:08
was the correct course of action it was
00:28:10
soon arrived at that Eugenics and
00:28:13
genocide would make the nation stronger
00:28:15
and therefore should be done which in
00:28:17
their language was quote unquote
00:28:19
purifying the German blood so this
00:28:22
brought an incredible mean-spiritedness
00:28:24
to Nazi ideology that went beyond just
00:28:27
Target targeting Jewish people so to
00:28:30
illustrate that I'm going to read one
00:28:31
passage so this is a memo from a
00:28:34
high-ranking Nazi official that details
00:28:37
ideas on how to make the stock of the
00:28:39
nation stronger I'm going to read it but
00:28:42
I should warn you that the next minute
00:28:43
or so is going to be
00:28:46
disturbing all right here we go all
00:28:49
Germans are unequal that is the starting
00:28:52
point the first logical conclusion to be
00:28:55
drawn from inequality is the inequality
00:28:58
of value some Germans are more valuable
00:29:01
than others a logical consequence of
00:29:04
this inequality must be the principle of
00:29:06
unequal treatment that is unequal share
00:29:10
of state power property culture all
00:29:14
these must be distributed to people on
00:29:16
the basis of how valuable they are and
00:29:19
then he gives criteria to determine
00:29:20
value and then says no pity is to be
00:29:24
shown to those who occupy the lower
00:29:26
categories of the ior groups cripples
00:29:30
epileptics the blind the insane deaf and
00:29:34
dumb children born in sanoria for
00:29:37
alcoholics or in care orphans criminals
00:29:42
the sexually Disturbed Etc
00:29:46
everything done for them not only means
00:29:48
taking resources away from more
00:29:49
deserving causes but counteracts the
00:29:52
breeding selection process nor should we
00:29:54
mourn the dumb the weak the SP mindless
00:29:59
the apathetic those with hereditary
00:30:01
diseases the pathological because they
00:30:04
go under innocently this bottom category
00:30:08
means destruction and death weighed and
00:30:11
found wanting trees which do not bear
00:30:14
fruit should be cut down and thrown into
00:30:17
the fire okay moving on so in order to
00:30:20
make their movement work the Nazis
00:30:22
needed broad support among the German
00:30:24
public and they didn't have it early on
00:30:26
but by the late 30s they did have it and
00:30:29
they largely won it by turning around
00:30:30
the economy and by conquering and
00:30:33
annexing countries like Austria and
00:30:35
Czechoslovakia without going into war
00:30:37
but they also notably won it through
00:30:39
heavy-handed use of propaganda Hitler
00:30:42
discusses propaganda at length in minec
00:30:44
conf but his basic philosophy is that
00:30:47
propaganda exists in order to convert
00:30:49
people to your cause that are not
00:30:51
already the True Believers and the way
00:30:53
to do it is to project simple strong
00:30:56
messages and to relent LLY repeat them
00:30:59
over and over so that's what he did he
00:31:01
bombarded the German public relentlessly
00:31:04
with propaganda to get a sense of what
00:31:06
that looked like let's look at William
00:31:08
sher's account who was a journalist that
00:31:10
lived in Nazi Germany until 1940 and who
00:31:13
wrote the rise and fall of the Third
00:31:15
Reich here was his experience I myself
00:31:17
was to experience how easily one is
00:31:20
taken in by a lying and censored press
00:31:22
and radio in a totalitarian state it was
00:31:25
surprising and sometimes constating to
00:31:27
to find that not withstanding the
00:31:29
opportunities I had to learn the facts
00:31:32
and despite one's inherent distrust of
00:31:35
what one learned from Nazi sources a
00:31:38
steady diet over the years of
00:31:40
falsifications and distortions made a
00:31:43
certain impression on one's mind and
00:31:45
often misled it no one who has not lived
00:31:48
for years in a totalitarian land can
00:31:51
possibly conceive how difficult it is to
00:31:53
escape the dread consequences of regimes
00:31:56
calculated and Inc
00:31:58
propaganda often in a German home or
00:32:01
office or sometimes in a casual
00:32:03
conversation with a stranger in a
00:32:05
restaurant a beer hall a cafe I would
00:32:09
meet with the most outlandish assertions
00:32:11
from seemingly educated and intelligent
00:32:13
persons it was obvious that they were
00:32:16
paring some piece of nonsense that they
00:32:17
had heard on the radio or read in the
00:32:20
newspapers sometimes one was tempted to
00:32:22
say as much but on such occasions one
00:32:24
was met with such a stare of incredulity
00:32:27
such a shock of vience as if one had
00:32:29
blasphemed the almighty that one
00:32:31
realized how useless it was to even try
00:32:33
to make contact with a mind which had
00:32:36
become warped and For Whom The Facts of
00:32:38
Life had become what Hitler and Geral
00:32:41
with their cynical disregard for the
00:32:43
truth said they were so unlike fascist
00:32:46
Italy much of the German public ended up
00:32:48
buying into Nazi ideology and many of
00:32:50
them took it up ravenously particularly
00:32:53
young people a demographic Hitler
00:32:55
specifically targeted given our time
00:32:57
constraints I think the best thing I can
00:32:58
do here is to just give you a snapshot
00:33:00
of what that looked like and I think the
00:33:02
best way to do that is to show you
00:33:04
another passage so this is a passage
00:33:06
from another history of Nazi Germany on
00:33:08
Student Activity and book burning on
00:33:10
April 12th 1933 the Nazi German students
00:33:13
association's office for press and
00:33:15
propaganda announced a nationwide action
00:33:18
against the ungerman spirit which was to
00:33:21
climax in a literary Purge a cleansing
00:33:24
by fire the students presented their
00:33:26
action as a response to a worldwide
00:33:28
Jewish smear campaign against Germany
00:33:31
and an affirmation of traditional German
00:33:34
values they published a black list of
00:33:36
ungerman authors then the authors are
00:33:39
listed and then he talks about how the
00:33:40
students were influenced by Martin
00:33:43
Luther burning the paper bowl and then
00:33:45
it continues for the students the
00:33:47
tradition of book burning was Associated
00:33:50
not with reactionary impulses but with
00:33:52
Defiance against Authority and with
00:33:54
strong nationalist sentiments placards
00:33:56
publicized the 12 thesis
00:33:58
which attacked Jewish intellectualism
00:34:01
asserted the need to purify German
00:34:03
language and literature and demanded
00:34:05
that universities be centers of German
00:34:07
nationalism Germany's most dangerous
00:34:10
adversary is the Jew the document read
00:34:13
if a Jew writes in German he is lying
00:34:15
the German who writes in German but
00:34:17
thinks in an unerman way is a traitor we
00:34:20
want to eliminate the LIE we want to
00:34:22
Brand the treason we demand from the
00:34:24
German student the will and ability to
00:34:26
overcome Jewish intellectual ual ISM and
00:34:28
all the liberal manifestations of Decay
00:34:31
associated with it students and
00:34:33
professors should be selected on the
00:34:34
basis of their thinking in the German
00:34:37
spirit so this is the type of thinking
00:34:40
that Hitler and the Nazi party were able
00:34:42
to spread in Germany so to recap in
00:34:45
Italy you had the creation of the theory
00:34:47
and in Germany you had a modification of
00:34:49
the theory and you had the theory work
00:34:51
in practice you had the theory coming
00:34:54
alive the last thing I want to cover is
00:34:56
what would have happened if Nazi Germany
00:34:58
hadn't been defeated what was their
00:35:00
vision for the world and the best answer
00:35:03
I could find is again with William Shyer
00:35:06
who based his answer on a captured Trove
00:35:08
of Nazi documents so I'm going to read
00:35:10
what he found no comprehensive blueprint
00:35:13
for the New Order was ever drawn up but
00:35:16
it is clear from the captured documents
00:35:18
and from what took place that Hitler
00:35:20
knew very well what he wanted it to be a
00:35:23
Nazi ruled Europe whose resources would
00:35:25
be exploited for the profit of Germany
00:35:28
whose people would be made the slaves of
00:35:30
the German Master race and whose
00:35:33
undesirable elements above all the Jews
00:35:36
but also many Slavs in the East
00:35:38
especially the intelligency among them
00:35:41
would be exterminated the Jews and the
00:35:43
Slavic people were the unter mention
00:35:45
subhumans to Hitler they had no right to
00:35:48
live except as some of them among the
00:35:50
Slavs might be needed to toil in the
00:35:52
fields and the mines as slaves of their
00:35:56
German Masters not only were the Great
00:35:58
cities of the East Moscow Leningrad and
00:36:01
Warsaw to be permanently erased but the
00:36:03
culture of the Russians and poles and
00:36:06
other Slavs was to be Stamped Out and
00:36:08
formal education denied them their
00:36:11
thriving industries were to be
00:36:12
dismantled and shipped to Germany and
00:36:15
the people themselves confined to the
00:36:16
Pursuits of Agriculture so that they
00:36:18
could grow food for Germans being
00:36:20
allowed to keep for themselves just
00:36:22
enough to subsist on Europe itself as
00:36:25
the Nazi leaders put it must be made Jew
00:36:28
free he goes on to summarize the planned
00:36:31
and actual Devastation done to civilians
00:36:35
and prisoners of War who were considered
00:36:37
to be of the wrong blood or to have
00:36:40
thought the wrong way and who had the
00:36:42
misfortune of living within the grasp of
00:36:44
the Nazis it includes details from the
00:36:47
concentration camps and medical
00:36:49
experiments done by Nazi doctors the
00:36:51
result I think is the most harrowing 57
00:36:54
Pages I've ever personally read but if
00:36:58
you need any more reason to be glad that
00:36:59
the access powers Lost World War II
00:37:02
Shy's chapter on Germany's New Order
00:37:04
might be worth reading and on that note
00:37:07
I think that's enough said about
00:37:08
Hitler's
00:37:15
Germany okay now we're finally at the
00:37:17
question what is fascism to me this
00:37:20
entire video has been answering that
00:37:21
question so far it's been answering what
00:37:24
fascism looks like in theory and it's
00:37:26
been giving glimpses into what it looks
00:37:27
like in practice but now we're looking
00:37:29
for something shorter we're looking for
00:37:31
something that resembles a definition
00:37:33
the most popular approach I see tries to
00:37:35
Define fascism by going into the details
00:37:38
of fascist movements so they might talk
00:37:40
about a say a charismatic leader or a
00:37:43
democracy being in trouble or maybe
00:37:45
something about late stage capitalism
00:37:47
things like that and at the risk of
00:37:49
being rude to me that's obviously the
00:37:52
wrong approach we don't Define any of
00:37:54
the other major isms that way we don't
00:37:57
Define liberalism based on say details
00:37:59
of liberal movements or socialism by
00:38:02
details of socialist movements so to me
00:38:05
we should obviously Define it based on
00:38:06
its core idea and not the details of the
00:38:09
movements and for me the gold standard
00:38:11
here is Karl Marx's definition of
00:38:13
communism in The Communist Manifesto
00:38:16
where he says the theory of the
00:38:18
Communists may be summed up in the
00:38:20
single sentence abolition of private
00:38:22
property which then makes me ask is
00:38:25
there an idea or a set of words where if
00:38:28
you heard them you would recognize them
00:38:31
as distinctly fascist since the 20th
00:38:34
century those words cannot be anything
00:38:36
other than fascism because if that's the
00:38:39
case then I think that's a good starting
00:38:40
point and in my opinion those words do
00:38:43
exist and those are the words blood and
00:38:46
soil if we accept that blood and soil is
00:38:49
fascist and cannot be anything other
00:38:51
than fascist then we can test out the
00:38:53
idea that fascism is the ideology of
00:38:56
blood and soil
00:38:58
it's the idea that people are bound
00:39:00
together by Blood and bound to the soil
00:39:02
of the nation in my opinion that does a
00:39:05
pretty good job of covering the
00:39:06
essentials but then at this point you
00:39:08
might respond well yeah but we associate
00:39:10
blood and soil with fascism because it
00:39:13
was a Nazi slogan but I would argue that
00:39:16
you're looking at it the wrong way
00:39:17
around yes it was a Nazi slogan but it
00:39:20
was a Nazi slogan because it captured
00:39:22
the essence of fascism so well I think
00:39:25
calling fascism the ideology of blood
00:39:27
and soil is serviceable but it requires
00:39:30
a lot of unpacking to understand which
00:39:32
made me wonder if I could find something
00:39:34
better and I do think I found something
00:39:36
but before I say it I think I should
00:39:38
show you the academic Trail I followed
00:39:40
to get there there's a famous definition
00:39:42
by Roger Griffin who said fascism is a
00:39:45
political ideology whose Mythic core in
00:39:48
its various permutations is a penic form
00:39:51
of populist ultranationalism
00:39:53
penic means rebirth like The Rebirth of
00:39:56
the nation
00:39:58
to me this is a good definition but it's
00:40:00
also complicated I don't think it's a
00:40:02
definition that people can really walk
00:40:03
away with and remember also I think
00:40:06
there's some components here that could
00:40:07
be dropped and I would still consider it
00:40:10
fascism namely the penic part so we're
00:40:13
going to try to get something closer to
00:40:15
what Karl Marx did I specifically want
00:40:17
phrasing that's less clinical I want
00:40:19
phrasing that captures the mass
00:40:21
enthusiasm and the Demonic energy of
00:40:23
fascism as Robert Paxton put it
00:40:26
something closer to what Jonathan height
00:40:27
said when he described fascism as Hive
00:40:30
psychology scaled up to grotesque
00:40:32
Heights and the phrasing that did do it
00:40:35
for me was Carl Popper's phrasing in the
00:40:37
open society and its enemies when he
00:40:40
used the phrases we think with our blood
00:40:43
and we think with our National Heritage
00:40:45
to me if you roughly combine those two
00:40:47
ideas together you have a good essence
00:40:49
of fascism and that would look something
00:40:51
like we think with the blood of our
00:40:54
nation the blood of our nation runs
00:40:56
through our veins and it is through that
00:40:58
blood that we think it's when you have a
00:41:01
hive of people imagining themselves
00:41:03
bound together by the blood of their
00:41:05
nation and surrendering their critical
00:41:07
thinking skills and instead dutifully
00:41:09
thinking whatever they're told the
00:41:11
nation thinks in my opinion that's
00:41:13
fascism which means if you don't have
00:41:16
that then you don't have fascism it
00:41:18
could be something that resembles
00:41:20
fascism but then there's other words out
00:41:22
there that can describe it it could be
00:41:24
authoritarianism it could be a military
00:41:26
dictator ship it could be demagogy maybe
00:41:30
racism there's plenty of other words out
00:41:32
there like I said in the beginning
00:41:35
fascism being used Loosely probably
00:41:37
isn't going away anytime soon but among
00:41:40
those of us who care those of us who
00:41:42
want to be able to identify it correctly
00:41:45
in my opinion this is fascism the
00:41:47
ideology that we think with the blood of
00:41:50
our
00:41:51
nation thank you
