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AN ANALYSIS OF 20TH CENTURY
FASCISM - (4)
Fascism's Policy
of Conquest
Another feature without which fascism
cannot survive is its policy of expansion by conquering other countries.
The basis of this policy of conquest is racism, and the concept of "the
struggle for survival between the races," a legacy of Darwinism. Fascist
states believe that in order to develop as a nation, they have to conquer
weaker nations, and grow by absorbing them.
According to fascist thinking, man can
only progress by engaging in war. Therefore, "militarism" is fascism's
most defining characteristic. In order to encourage this martial spirit,
fascist parties attempt to impress their citizens with their uniforms
and pompous ceremonies. In Mussolini's words, "Fascism... believes neither
in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. War alone brings
up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility
upon the peoples who have courage to meet it."52
Mussolini expressed his opposition to
peace in another speech, saying, "I do not believe in peace, but I find
it depressing and a negation of all human virtues of man."53
Mussolini inflicted great suffering,
both on his own people and on those in the countries he occupied, in
the name of his ideology. He occupied Ethiopia(Abyssinia) in 1935, and
15,000 innocent Muslims were killed towards his dreams of "reviving
the Roman Empire." He had no compunction about ordering civilians who
tried to fight the occupation to be shot. He was also responsible for
terrible atrocities through the use of poison gas against civilians.
The most grievous example of fascism's
politics of occupation is, of course, Nazi Germany. The Nazis claimed
that the Germans, "the master race," needed "room to live" beyond the
frontiers of Germany, and for that reason sparked World War II. Within
a very short time, the German Army had occupied Poland, Belgium, the
Baltic countries, France, the Balkan peninsula and Northern Africa,
invaded Russia as far as Moscow, and headed from there to the Caspian
Sea. This murder, which ultimately culminated in a disaster for the
German people as well as for those of other countries, left 55 million
dead, and was the bloodiest legacy of fascism in the 20th century. .
The Fascist System's
Attack on Art
Another disturbing aspect of fascism
is that people living under such a regime are unable to develop their
artistic talents, and that their scientific research fails to produce
any productive results.
In order to determine the reason for
this, we must first define what art is. Art is found in people taking
pleasure in beauty and wanting to express it. Therefore, it first of
all requires a soul capable of appreciating beauty. For instance, an
artist who possesses feelings such as love and affection can see beauty
in an animal, a landscape, or a plant. He experiences a feeling of joy,
which he then tries to depict. A composer, in the presence of such beauty
produces beautiful music, because his soul, feeling that beauty, longs
to express it. The same applies to every other type of art, from literature
to music.
However, it is impossible for those with
a dark and cold soul, who are used to oppression and cruelty, and who
have lost all semblance of humanity, to produce art. It is impossible
for a person who believes in aggression and the superiority of force,
who considers that bloodshed is necessary, who sees the world as a battleground,
a kind of arena where only the strong have the right to live, to be
affected by the beauties of nature or human beings, and influenced by
their intricacies.
Those are the characteristics of fascists,
and therefore, it is impossible for a fascist to possess any artistic
feeling. The fascist soul is utterly debilitated and ignorant, and lacks
all understanding, and considers art "unnecessary."
Actually, the fascists' hostility to
art goes back to ancient Sparta, that ancient city which they took as
a model. At a period when art was greatly prized in Athens, Sparta saw
art as unnecessary, and raised its citizens instead to become warriors
from an early age. It was virtually forbidden for Spartan children to
take an interest in subjects such as reading and writing or art in their
education.
In 20th century fascist states, works
of art, if any, were prepared and controlled by the state to serve as
propaganda. These were the products of a soulless and mechanical "art
to order." No real works of art emerged. For instance, only those subjects
that the state allowed could be painted, such as war. Subjects disliked
by the state were forbidden. The same applied to the written word, only
those things the fascist state permitted could be written about, and
nothing else. As a result, art totally unrelated to true art emerged,
that, aesthetically, rendered art, architecture and literature rigid,
soulless and dull.
The most obvious examples of this were
seen in Hitler's Germany. Because of his racist views, Hitler boycotted
certain art forms. For example, because he looked on Africans as an
"inferior race," the playing of jazz was forbidden in Germany, for it
was regarded as "black man's music." In 1935, Eugen Hadamowski, the
head of German radio, announced that by order of Hitler, he prohibited
the playing of Negro jazz on German radio.
At the beginning of the 1940s, at the
height of Hitler's power, jazz began to be used as a propaganda tool
in radio broadcasts directed at Great Britain and America. At that time,
and in most countries, jazz was one of the most popular forms of music.
Europe's greatest jazz musicians were brought together. The first thing
done was to translate all the English names of the famous jazz songs
into German. The lyrics of these songs were altered to conform with
Nazi propaganda, and was played only on programs aimed at the West,
and completely forbidden on domestic German radio.
The lyrics of the songs were entirely
fascist in content. Here is one example.
You're the greatest� You're a German
pilot� You're machine gun fire� You're a heroic submariner� You're the
greatest� You're a German bomber�54
That was the Nazis' idea of art and music.
Paintings, song lyrics, music and literature were all expected to include
subjects approved of by the state. Painters could only paint subjects
that encouraged the spirit of war. For instance, when the above-mentioned
"state controlled jazz group" produced a record that did not consist
of Nazi propaganda, they were immediately accused of being "degenerate"
and warned never to try such a thing again.
And, that was not the end of Hitler's
measures against artists. After the race laws of 1933, the Reichsmusikkammer
(Reich Music Chamber) required a registry of all German musicians. As
a result, hundreds of talented composers had their work deliberately
suppressed and careers ended simply because their race or style of music
offended the Third Reich. Famous works by Mendelssohn, Mahler and Schoenberg
were used as examples of unacceptable music.55
According to Hitler, the role of art
was to carry political messages in order to shape the mind of the public.
What to Hitler was true art was that which portrayed life in the countryside,
the healthy, and the Aryan race. In one speech, he offered his views
on art and artists:
We shall discover and encourage the
artists who are able to impress upon the State of the German people
the cultural stamp of the Germanic race... in their origin and in the
picture which they present they are the expressions of the soul and
the ideals of the community.56
As can be discerned from all that has
been mentioned, the artistic talents and scientific endeavor of people
living under fascist regimes are ultimately fruitless. On the other
hand, however, a society which lives by true religion sees great progress
and development in the arts. Since religious people know that the universe
and all living things in it were created by God, they look at everything
around them with the intention of recognizing their beauty. They see
the art in God's creation and are in awe of it. They see people, animals,
plants and everything in nature as God's creations, and both love and
appreciate them, realizing their beauty and detail. In fact, the greatest
works of art in history arose out of inspiration artists have found
in religious subjects.
Fascism's Hatred
of Women
There is another little known but exceedingly
important aspect of fascism. It has an inimical attitude towards women,
and sees them as inferior to men.
This fact is recognizable in words and
statements of 20th century fascist leaders. For instance, Mussolini's
statement to Maurice de Valeffe, a reporter for the French publication
Journal, on Nov. 12, 1922, openly belittled women:
There are those who say that I intend
to limit the right to vote. No! Every citizen will keep his right to
vote for the Rome Parliament� Let me also admit to you that I am not
thinking of extending the vote to women. There would be no point. My
blood opposes all kinds of feminism when it comes to women participating
in state affairs. Naturally a woman shouldn't be a slave, but if I conceded
her the vote, I'd be laughed at. In our state, she must not count.57
During the serious economic crisis beginning
in 1930, Mussolini ordered that women should leave their places of work.
Because he saw women as "thieves who reach out to steal men's bread,
and responsible for men's unproductiveness."58
The Duce's views on women are strikingly
apparent in an interview he granted the French journalist H�l�ne Gosset
in 1932:
Women must submit� Even if they have
an analytical power, they have no synthetic one. Have they ever put
up an architectural structure? I am not talking about a temple: a woman
could do no better than erecting a hut. Women are strangers to architecture,
the synthesis of all the arts: and their destiny ends at this point.59
Through various measures, restrictions
on women in the workplace were also imposed in education. For instance,
a decree of Jan. 30, 1927 forbade women in high school from taking classes
in literature and philosophy. A decree passed in 1928 resorted to legal
measures to oppose women's education, and women were prevented from
becoming directors of middle schools. Female students were required
to pay double the fees in schools and universities.
A decree which Mussolini put before
Parliament on Nov. 28, 1933 declared, "State bodies are empowered to
impose conditions excluding women in advertisements for exams to take
on new employees.. They must impose limits against a rise in the number
of female workers in public offices�"60 According to a decree instituted
by force of law on Sept. 1, 1938, women could only make up 10 percent
of the workforce in public offices.
In Nazi Germany the status of women as
"second class citizens" was even more pronounced. The German Education
Ministry decided that women should make up no more than 10 percent of
high school graduates. In 1934, only 1,500 out of every 10,000 female
high school graduates were allowed to proceed to higher education. In
1929, there were 39 National Socialist education bodies. Only two of
these were for women. Laws were passed banning women from taking Latin
classes in middle school: before having even finished high school, they
were prevented from going on to university.61
These decrees did not just represent
a social ideology or merely imposed regulations to foster a division
of labor, they were actually the implementation of the biological dogma
of Nazism. Maria A. Macciocchi, author of El�ments pour une Analyse
du Fascisme comments that in the eyes of the Nazis, women were a kind
of animal.62 According to such a philosophy, women were a primitive
race, at a lower level in biological terms.63
The Darwinist
Roots of the Hostility to Women
The root of this prejudice among fascists
towards women was, as in so many other matters, Darwinism. Fascists
did not merely appropriate the idea of the inequality between the races
from Darwinism, they also adopted the idea that men were superior to
women.
In The Descent of Man, Darwin wrote that
women some of whose "powers of intuition, of rapid perception, and perhaps
of imitation are characteristic of the lower races, and therefore of
a past and lower state of civilisation."64 According to Darwin, evolution
meant "a struggle of individuals of one sex, generally males, for the
possession of the other sex."65
In the Descent, Darwin also wrote, "Man
is more powerful in body and mind than woman, and in the savage state
he keeps her in a far more abject state of bondage than does the male
of any other animal; therefore it is not surprising that he should have
gained the power of selection."66 Evolution was in the hands of men,
and women were basically passive. As a result, women had evolved less
and were more primitive, for which reason women were dominated by instinct
and emotions, which was their "greatest weakness."67
Darwin maintained his views on the superiority
of men and its importance for evolution throughout his life. He had
this to say about this issue also by referring to his cousin Francis
Galton's theories:
The chief distinction in the intellectual
powers of the two sexes is shewn by man's attaining to a higher eminence,
in whatever he takes up, than can woman-whether requiring deep thought,
reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands. If
two lists were made of the most eminent men and women in poetry, painting,
sculpture, music (inclusive both of composition and performance), history,
science, and philosophy, with half-a-dozen names under each subject,
the two lists would not bear comparison. We may also infer, from the
law of the deviation from averages, so well illustrated by Mr. Galton,
in his work on Hereditary Genius, that if men are capable of a decided
pre-eminence over women in many subjects, the average of mental power
in man must be above that of woman.68
Darwin's views could also be recognized
in his personal outlook towards women. He described a woman's role in
marriage as "constant companion, (friend in old age) who will feel interested
in one, object to be beloved and played with-better than a dog anyhow-Home,
and someone to take care of house ..."69 It is evident that Darwin looked
at women and the institution of the family from a materialistic standpoint.
There was not a trace of love, respect, loyalty, affection or compassion
in his outlook.
The evolutionist and materialist Carl
Vogt, a contemporary of Darwin and a Geneva scholar of the mid nineteenth
century, also held disparaging views regarding women. "We may be sure
that wherever we perceive an approach to the animal type the female
is nearer to it than the male" he wrote. "Hence we should discover a
greater [apelike] resemblance if we were to take a female as our standard."70
Many evolutionists, following Darwin,
have continued to maintain that women are inferior to men, both biologically
and intellectually. Some evolutionists have even classified men and
women as two distinct psychological species: males were homo frontalis,
females homo parietalis.71 One evolutionist, Elaine Morgan, noted that
Darwin had motivated men into researching the reasons why women were
"manifestly inferior and irreversibly subordinant".72
Paul Broca (1824-1880), an evolutionist
physicist and anthropologist, was particularly interested in the differences
in intelligence and brain size between men and women, ascribing their
inferior intelligence to the smaller size of their brains.
Another follower of Darwin, the evolutionist
social psychologist Gustave Le Bon, wrote; In the most intelligent races
... are a large number of women whose brains are closer in size to those
of gorillas than to the most developed male brains. This inferiority
is so obvious that no one can contest it for a moment; only its degree
is worth discussion. ... Women ... represent the most inferior forms
of human evolution and ... are closer to children and savages than to
an adult, civilized man. They excel in fickleness, inconsistency, absence
of thought and logic, and incapacity to reason. Without a doubt there
exist some distinguished women ... but they are as exceptional as the
birth of any monstrosity, as, for example, of a gorilla with two heads;
consequently, we may neglect them entirely.73
Therefore, at the basis of fascism's
disparagement of and contempt for women lies the theory of Darwinism.
Mussolini's taking away of women's social rights, and Hitler's building
of "breeding farms" to reproduce the superior race and obliging young
girls to sleep with SS officers, are all reflections of fascists' attitudes
to women. Both Darwinists and fascists are enemies of women. They see
them as an inferior and backward species, and both despise them, as
well as employing discriminatory and oppressive methods against them.
This fascist perspective is completely
at odds with the ethics of the Koran. God has commanded in the Koran
that women should be cherished, respected, and protected. In addition,
He has shown examples of women with superior morals, such as Mary and
the wife of Pharaoh. In the eyes of God, superiority does not lie in
race, sex or rank, but in closeness to Him and strength of belief. In
a number of verses of the Koran, God has revealed that all believers
will receive their reward without discrimination between men and women.
Their Lord responds to them: "I will
not let the deeds of any doer among you go to waste, male or female-you
are both the same in that respect�" (Koran, 3:195)
Anyone, male or female, who does right
actions and is a believer, will enter the Garden. They will not be wronged
by so much as the tiniest speck. (Koran, 4:124)
Anyone who acts rightly, male or female,
being a believer, We will give them a good life and We will recompense
them according to the best of what they did. (Koran, 16:97)
However, as religion was abandoned, these
truths were abandoned with it, and in their place were provided superstitions
such as fascism and Darwinism, in which all forms of discrimination
based on sex or race are seen as justified.
Fascism's Sexual
Deviations
The hostility to women that we have
so far examined is actually the manifestation of a dark subconscious
tendency. Fascism equated feelings such as love, compassion and affection
with womanhood, and thus regarded it as despicable. On the other hand,
tendencies such as the love of war, bloodlust and ruthlessness were
seen as typically "male," and for that reason "manliness" was elevated
to the point of being sacred.
When fascism's myth of "manliness" is
examined a bit closer, however, there we find homosexuality hidden within
it. This little known but important connection between fascism and homosexuality
dates back as far as ancient Sparta.
In earlier chapters of this book, we
saw that fascism was founded on pagan culture, and that it emerged together
with claim of re-awakening paganism. The most defining characteristic
of paganism is that it lacks the moral criteria and laws revealed by
God. In the pagan world, therefore, sexual deviance of all kinds was
able to flourish. It was the city-states of ancient Greece that brought
these to their highest point. In Athens and Sparta, homosexuality was
seen as quite normal, an acceptable relationship, and even a virtue.
In Sparta especially, the ancestor of
fascism, a special importance was attributed to the concept of "manliness,"
and under the name of "love of man," homosexuality was widely accepted.
Spartan soldiers believed that they increased their strength by having
sexual relations with each other. The historian Plutarch of Chaeronea,
who lived around 50-120 A.D., wrote of "the sacred battalion" of Thebans
made up of 150 male homosexual pairs.74 In Sparta, all healthy male
children were taken into the army at the age of 12, and were immediately
raped by experienced soldiers. It was believed that these perverted
relations were the greatest source of strength for the Spartan army,
with its "warrior" culture and passion for bloodshed.
Such a debased and deviant culture raised
its head again with the neo-pagan movement of the 19th century. And,
the major center of this deviancy was Germany. The leader of the movement,
Adolf Brand, founded the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen (Community of the
Elite) in 1902, together with Wilheml Jansen and Benedict Friedlander,
both of whom were known for their deviant sexual tendencies. Friedlander
published a book called Renaissance des Eros Uranios (Renaissance of
Uranian Erotica) in 1904. On the cover was a picture of a naked Greek
youth. Friedlander explained the aim of the book in these words:
The positive goal...is the revival of
Hellenic chivalry and its recognition by society. By chivalric love
we mean in particular close friendships between youths and even more
particularly the bonds between men of unequal ages.75
The aim of the community was to transform
Germany from a Judeo-Christian society to a Greco-Uranian one.76 This
deviant organization was also known for its racism. Referring to the
ideas of the Community of the Elite, Kurt Hildebrandt, the leader of
the Society for Human Rights established in 1923, wrote in his book
Norm Entartung Verfall (Ideal, Degeneration, Ruin) that the superior
race was that composed of homosexuals. In his view, relations with women
were only necessary for "reproductive reasons," but that in order to
achieve an "ultramasculine" race, sexual "love" between men was essential.
These ideas were none other than those
of the Nazi Party, which was basically a "homosexual club."
This fact was set out by Scott Lively
and Kevin Abrams in their book The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the
Nazi Party, a wide-ranging study. The book examines both pre-Nazi movements
and organizations, as well as the Nazi Party leadership, and reveals
that there was a large number of homosexuals within it. It explains,
with historical documentation, how the Nazis' policy of rounding up
homosexuals and sending them to concentration camps was all for show,
and that by doing so, senior Nazi leaders were trying to cover up their
own practices. Among the known Nazi homosexuals were SA chief Ernst
R�hm, Gestapo chief Reinhard Heydrich, Luftwaffe chief Herman Goering,
Rudolf Hess, leader of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) organization
Baldur von Schirach, Nazi Germany's Finance Minister Walther Funk, and
Hitler's land Forces commander Freiherr Werner von Fritsch. There is
also evidence to suggest that SS chief Himmler and Hitler himself also
had homosexual tendencies.77
The Pink Swastika also demonstrates that
this tendency was not restricted to Nazis in Germany, and that there
are many homosexuals in neo-Nazi movements and racist organizations
active in the United States, and shows that such deviance is a regular
feature of fascism. Fascist pagans indulge in the sin as related in
the Koran, that of the people to whom the prophet Lot was sent.
However, those who engage in these practices
must not forget what happened to the people of Lot. The disaster visited
on them is described in the Koran in this way:
And Lot, when he said to his people,
"Do you commit an obscenity not perpetrated before you by anyone in
all the worlds? You come with lust to men instead of women. You are
indeed a depraved people." The only answer of his people was to say,
"Expel them from your city! They are people who keep themselves pure!"
So We rescued him and his family-except for his wife. She was one of
those who stayed behind. We rained down a rain upon them. See the final
fate of the evildoers! (Koran, 7:80-84)
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