FASCISM February 11, 2014
INTELLECTUALANTECEDENTS
19 CENTURY NATIONALISM
Racial nation states despite religious differences
Debate between nationalism and liberalism
Nationalism formed by conservatives (force) = authoritarian Germany
Liberals ideas left behind in favour of state power
Feelings of insecurity
RACISM AND RACIAL “SCIENCE”
Darwinism distorted
Idea that natural selection applies to races and individual communities
Eugenics and worries of degeneration
Improved health care
- Healthy young men essential to the defense of British Empire
Eugenics
- Idea that people need to be weeded out from the gene pool in order to protect humanity in
the long run
ANTI-INTELLECTUAL NIHILISM
Rejection of reason and rationalism
Mien Kamft
- No rational argument
- Simple, not organized
Impatience with intellectualism
University professors talk badly about Hitler in class
- Students in back (brown shirts) throw things at them or beat them up
End of individualism
REPLACING CLASS WITH NATIONS
Connected to anti-Semitism 2
- Nazis blame Jews for the failing economy and communism
- Dealing with racial enemies and national enemies
o Inside and outside the country
TRADITIONAL RELIGION
Religion as a recruiting tool
Traditional views on morality between Church and Nazis
- Women in the house and childbearing
Disagreement especially with Christianity
Nazis do not agree with “Love thy neighbor as love thy self”
- Nazis willing to use aggression
- Nazis try not to emphasize qualms with the Church until their power is certain
PERCIEVED CRISES OF LIBERALISM
FAILURE OF PARLIAMENTS
Economic recovery
- Many jobless people
o Even in prosperous areas
- Economic revival in 1920’s and 30’s
o Only for untraditional areas
Automobiles, consumer supplies
Not coal etc. No international trade
Failure of traditional policies
Cutting taxes is too passive for the extreme situation
SPLIT ELECTORATES
Ideological division between international socialism and surrendering of private ownership 3
Political dithering
- Inability to form a majority gov’t
o Failure to fulfill needs of the people
o Some see as the need to do away with liberal democracy altogether
Think about authoritarianism
THREAT OF SOVIET COMMUNISM
Fear of socialist revolutions
- Combined with racial differences creates fear
DISCONTENTAFTER 1918
ECONOMIC DISLOCATION
Rebellion of the middle class
People who have a house, profession, and investments not interested in socialism
- Middle class feels anxious and are willing to sacrifice civil freedoms to get security
People feel patriotic
- Communist and socialists taking orders from Moscow
- Conflicts with patriotic ideology
NATIONAL SELF-PITY
Blaming others
- External and internal enemies
o EG. Propaganda that Germany defeated due to socialism, not on the field of battle
MIDDLE CLASS SUPPORT
90% of German boys belong to the Hitler youth
Small businessmen and big businesses
- Form the basis for Fascist support 4
- Afraid of socialism and small business owners afraid of big business
o Many large businesses owned by Jews
o Jews overrepresented in professional fields
Internal separation
Non-Jewish Germans feel like they are being sidelined
- Things are bad when the middle class starts revolting
CHALLENGING THE LIBER
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