There are two notable fascist behavioural traits: one is the readiness to deny that one is a fascist because one does not share every single characteristic of a follower of Hitler or Mussolini; the other is the propensity to accuse one’s enemies of being like fascists when they do not resemble fascists at all.
We can see how easily such talk can deflect from the need to warn society of political leaders who will use demagogic appeals to secure enough power to carry out their oppressive designs. To cut through the obfuscation, we would do well to remind ourselves of Umberto Eco’s concept of ‘Ur-Fascism’, which he put forward back in 1995 to describe what is the essence of fascist political culture. ‘Ur’ is the German prefix for ‘archetypal’. In other words, Eco wants to draw out, not the many different aspects of different fascist leaders, but the core features of the fascist archetype. He listed 14 of them:
1. The cult of tradition
2. Rejection of all that the Enlightenment stands for
3. Distrust of the intellectual world
4. Hostility to the critical spirit in discussions
5. Intolerance of difference
6. Appeal to anger and frustration
7. Group identity defined through common enemies
8. Hatred of those to be defeated
9. The Armageddon complex of absolute confrontation
10.Contempt for the weak
11.The glorification of heroic death
12.Disdain for women and non-standard sexuality
13.The Leader embodies the Divine/General Will
14.A restriction of the vocabulary for expression
A glance down that list will show that the nationalistic, anti-liberal stance of the likes of Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro, along with backers of far right parties across Europe, and many self-styled National Conservatives in the US and the UK, all thrive on those 14 features:
1. Celebrating the chauvinistic ‘good old days’
2. Despising open-mindedness and evidence-based discourse
3. Dismissing experts and scholars
4. Snarling and mocking instead of discussing issues
5. Demonising immigrants, minorities, and people with different faiths
6. Stirring up rage at every opportunity
7. Uniting followers against anyone targeted as the ‘enemies’
8. Weaponising hate through all communication channels
9. Glorifying the refusal to compromise
10.Cutting support for the vulnerable
11.Championing sacrifices for some great cause (though not sacrificing themselves)
12.Displaying anti-feminist views and rejecting non-standard sexuality
13.Positioning the leader as one who can do no wrong
14.Attacking concerns with racism, climate change, fairness as ‘woke’ or whatever term designating ideas that should be silenced.
Eco’s warning should be heeded more than ever:
Ur-Fascism is still around us, sometimes in plain clothes. It would be so much easier, for us, if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, `I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Black Shirts to parade again in the Italian squares.' Life is not that simple. Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances - every day, in every part of the world. (Eco, 1995)
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Eco, U. `Ur-Fascism', in The New York Review of Books, June 22, 1995.
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