Understanding And Defeating Resurgent Fascism
By Robert J. Burrowes
22 October, 2014
Countercurrents.org
As fascism is being intruded more widely and deeply into key areas of
world politics, it is important to identify this trend, to explain the
psychology of fascism and to nominate key elements of any strategy to
defeat it.
Fascism is best known for its rise in Italy under Benito Mussolini and
its Nazi manifestation in Germany under Adolf Hitler. However, despite
the enormous cost in human lives it took European and other peoples to
defeat Nazism in World War II, fascism remains a prevalent, persistent
and growing problem in world politics. In fact, while we like to think
that modern leaders oppose fascism and the violent behavioral outcomes
that arise from it, the reality is that many political and corporate
leaders are fascists themselves and support other fascists when elite
interests require it. They just don't use the word 'fascist' to identify
themselves and modern political analysts rarely use it either.
One manifestation of fascism is occurring in eastern Ukraine (and now
Kiev) where the United States elite is sponsoring the ongoing genocide
of Russian-speaking peoples in support of fascist groups that are
directly descended from Nazi groups in World War II. For a taste of the
extensive documentation of this point, see Robert Parry 'Ukraine's
Neo-Nazis Demand Respect'
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/10/15/ukraines-neo-nazis-demand-respect/ ,
Michel Chossudovsky 'America's Neo-Nazi Government in Kiev. Towards a
Scenario of Military Escalation'
http://www.globalresearch.ca/americas-neo-nazi-government-in-kiev-towards-a-scenario-of-military-escalation/5380384 ,
Michel Chossudovsky 'Ukraine and the "Politics of Anti-Semitism": The
West Upholds Neo-Nazi Repression of Ukraine's Jewish Community'
http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-and-the-politics-of-anti-semitism-west-upholds-neo-nazi-repression-of-ukraines-jewish-community/5370790
as well as this video 'Ukraine Crisis: What You're Not Being Told'
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=81d_1403227131 , this video 'Neo-Nazis in
Ukraine' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LKFptM7oOk and this video
compilation: 'US support of violent neo-Nazis in Ukraine'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-RyOaFwcEw Moreover, in a recent video
report which also referred to the earlier US-orchestrated genocides in
Rwanda and Libya, it becomes clear that 'Genocide is just another
foreign policy tool for the US' fascist elite. See 'Genocide in Eastern
Ukraine' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JFY6Xug6X8
Do you think that this description sounds too extreme? Here is the
response of the eminent Norwegian peace research scholar Professor Johan
Galtung: 'US Fascism? Yes, indeed; if by fascism we mean use of massive
violence for political goals. US fascism takes three forms: global with
bombing, droning and sniping all over; domestic with military weapons
used across race and class faultlines; and then NSA-National Security
Agency spying on everybody.' See 'The Fall of the US Empire - And Then
What?'
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2014/09/the-fall-of-the-us-empire-and-then-what/
But the ongoing prevalence of fascism reaches well beyond the United
States. The eminent Burmese scholar Dr Maung Zarni notes that fascism
'is not encoded genetically or culturally in any people. The word
"fascism" is not exclusive to historical discussion of the Germans,
Italians, Japanese or for that matter any group with a brutally fascist
past.... Just as there were the good Germans and the Nazi Germans, I
would argue, there are "Nazi Jews", based on the available evidence of
popular and legalized racism in Israel towards ALL Arabs.... What else
would we call the Jews of Israel who demand "death to Arabs"?' See 'Stop
Playing the Anti-Semitism Card & Get Real about the Rise of Fascism in
Israel'
http://www.maungzarni.net/2014/08/stop-playing-anti-semitism-card-get.html
Moreover, as long-time Middle East analyst Dr Franklin Lamb notes, 'many
Jews feel that the world is against them, and view criticism of Zionist
apartheid Israel as a mask for animosity towards Jews' but, he argues,
any 'rejection' is 'not at all about Jews, but only about Zionism as a
fascist, racist creed'. See 'A Nail in Zionism's Coffin?'
http://www.countercurrents.org/lamb020814.htm
Elsewhere in the world, Dr Maung Zarni has warned about the rise of
Buddhist fascism against the Muslim Rohingya in Burma. See 'Myanmar's
new Nazis: Wirathu's "Buddhist" Vision, 969 Islamophobia, strategies and
969 Rakhine-China-connections'
http://www.maungzarni.net/2013/07/wirathu-and-his-hate-crimes-background.html
and 'Burmese Neo-Nazi Movement Rising Against Muslims'
http://www.asiasentinel.com/society/burmese-neo-nazi-movement-rising-against-muslims/
Other examples could be cited.
There have been many attempts to understand fascism, starting with the
early work of Wilhelm Reich 'The Mass Psychology of Fascism'
http://www.relatedness.org/Mass_Psychology_of_Fascism.pdf . So what is
fascism and what is the underlying psychology of individuals who are
fascists?
Usually, fascism is described as a form of authoritarian nationalism in
which a dictator has complete power and violently suppresses opposition
and criticism while emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and racism.
(If you want to read a 14 point characterization of fascism, see
Professor Lawrence Britt's 'Fascism Anyone?'
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/2710 ) More generally,
however, the above definition of Galtung's highlights its essence. But
the psychology of fascists – those who believe in, and use, 'massive
violence for political goals' – is complex and is a direct outcome of
the nature of the extraordinary violence to which they were subjected as
children.
Let me briefly identify the psychological profile of fascists and the
specific violence that generates a person with this psychology. For a
thorough explanation and elaboration of this point, see 'Why Violence?'
http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence and 'Fearless Psychology and Fearful
Psychology: Principles and Practice'
http://anitamckone.wordpress.com/articles-2/fearless-and-fearful-psychology/
First, fascists are terrified and they are particularly terrified of
those individuals who perpetrated violence against them when they were a
child although this terror remains unconscious to them. Second, this
terror is so extreme that fascists are too terrified to consciously
identify to themselves their own perpetrator (one or both parents and/or
other significant adults who are supposed to love them) and to say that
it is this individual or individuals who are violent and wrong.
Third, because they are terrified, they are unable to defend themselves
against the original perpetrator(s) but also, as a result, they are
unable to defend themselves against other perpetrators who attack them
later in life. This lack of capacity to defend themselves leads to the
fourth and fifth attributes – a deep sense of powerlessness and a deep
sense of self-hatred. However, it is too terrifying and painful for the
individual to be consciously aware of any of these feelings/attributes.
Sixth, because they are terrified of identifying that they are the
victim of the violence of their own parents (and/or other significant
adults from their childhood) and that this violence terrified them,
fascists unconsciously delude themselves about the identity of their own
perpetrator. They will unconsciously identify their 'perpetrator' as one
or more individuals of whom they are not actually afraid from an
existing 'legitimised victim' group, such as people from a different
race, religion or class. This is also because their unconscious terror
and self-hatred compels them to project onto something (that is, people
and/or resources) that is 'controllable' (because their original
perpetrators never were). For this reason, their victims are
(unconsciously) carefully chosen and are always relatively powerless by
comparison.
This is easy to do because, seventh, children who become fascists have
been terrorised into accepting a very narrow-minded and dogmatic belief
set that excludes consideration of those in other social (including
racial, religious or class) groups. The idea that they might
open-mindedly consider other beliefs, or the rights of those not in the
'in-group', is (unconsciously) terrifying to them. Moreover, because
they have been terrorised into adopting their rigid belief set, fascists
develop an intense fear of the truth; hence, fascists are both bigoted
and self-righteous. In addition, the belief set of fascists includes a
powerful and violently reinforced 'lesson': 'good' means obedient; it
does not mean intrinsically good, loving and caring.
Eighth, and as a result of all of the above, fascists learn to
unconsciously project their self-hatred, one outcome of their own
victimhood, as hatred for those in the 'out-groups'. This 'justifies'
their (violent) behaviour and obscures their unconscious motivation: to
remain unaware of their own suppressed terror and self-hatred.
Ninth, fascists have a compulsion to be violent; that is, they are
addicted to it. Why? Because the act of violence allows them to
explosively release the suppressed feelings (usually some combination of
fear, terror, pain, anger and powerlessness) so that they experience a
brief sensation of delusional 'relief'. Because the 'relief' is both
brief and delusional, they are condemned to repeat their violence
endlessly.
But the compulsion to be violent is reinforced by another element in
their belief set, the tenth characteristic: fascists have a delusional
belief in the effectiveness and morality of violence; they have no
capacity to perceive its dysfunctionality and immorality.
And eleventh, the extreme social terrorisation experience to which
fascists have been subjected means that the feelings of love,
compassion, empathy and sympathy, as well as the mental function of
conscience, are prevented from developing. Devoid of conscience and
these feelings, fascists can inflict violence on others without
experiencing the feedback that conscience and these feelings would
provide.
In theory, of course, fascists can heal from the terror and self-hatred
that underpins their psychology. Unfortunately, they are unlikely to
have the courage to seek the appropriate emotional support to do so. In
the meantime, those of us so inclined must resist their violence and
this can be done strategically. See 'The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense:
A Gandhian Approach'
http://www.sunypress.edu/p-2176-the-strategy-of-nonviolent-defe.aspx
If you wish to join the worldwide movement to end all violence, fascist
or otherwise, then you are welcome to sign online 'The People's Charter
to Create a Nonviolent World'
http://thepeoplesnonviolencecharter.wordpress.com
In summary: Fascists are terrified and self-hating. But, rather than
feel their own cowardice and self-hatred, they unconsciously project
this as fear of, and hatred for, the people in one or more 'legitimised
victim' groups.
Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding
and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in
an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a
nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of 'Why Violence?'
http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence His email address is [email protected]
and his website is at http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com
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