Fascism: The Logical Climax Of Monopolistic Capitalism?

[Era Might]

[quote name='Socrates' timestamp='1345588512' post='2471508']Statist totalitarianism in its various forms is not compatible with a truly traditional society.
[/quote]
Of course not. Neither is capitalist democracy.

But European fascism did depend on the lionization of a conservative and traditional facade (hence the propaganda of race, of the family, of culture, etc). Bolshevism was the mortal enemy of Hitler and Mussolini because it did not keep this facade...Bolshevism had truly "revolutionary" intentions, whereas fascism wanted to whip society into shape from its bourgeois decadence, but fascism depended on the old bourgeois categories remaining in place.

Of course, fascism is not "conservative" because it is a political philosophy that attempts to actually reorder power, not to continue with bourgeois society. But capitalist democracy is no more conservative than fascism or socialism...America overthrew its king before Russia overthrew its tsar.

As far as contemporary American politics, I don't think fascism has much parallel. The American left is just the late stages of American progressivism (which goes all the way back to the country's founding). The American right has more in common with the old European empires than it does with fascism.

Edited August 22, 2012 by Era Might

[Era Might]

[quote name='Socrates' timestamp='1345588512' post='2471508']I you mean by "capitalism" a free market economy, it is in itself simply an economic system. Those who participate in a free market economy may or may not adhere to traditional societal values.
[/quote]
Capitalism is already a repudiation of traditional societal values (monarchy, aristocracy, communal living, etc). That's why Russia couldn't "modernize" before the Revolution, it was too much of a traditional peasant society and couldn't develop the middle class needed to change everything. Socialism and capitalism are both incompatible with traditional societies (hence why the Russian peasants couldn't be bent to either system).

Edited August 22, 2012 by Era Might