The idea of a "Post-Christian" period may strike many readers as odd,
because Christianity is still by far the majority religion in European
society. But Christianity is no longer a dominant aspect of European
culture: all that remains is lip-service paid to it. The real ideologies
and concepts that now direct society have been formed, not by the dictates
of religion, but from the materialist philosophy. This anti-religious
current began in the 18th century, and came to dominate science and
the realm of ideas in the 19th. And, it was the 20th century when the
catastrophic results of materialism were finally witnessed.
In regards to these three periods, we can see that fascism belongs
to the first and third. In other words, fascism is a product of paganism,
and was later reinforced with the rise of materialism. Fascist ideology
or practice was non-existent throughout the thousand or so years when
Christianity dominated Europe. The reason being that Christianity is
a religion of peace and equality. Christianity, which calls people to
love, compassion, self-sacrifice, and humility, is the complete antithesis
of fascism.
Christianity is originally a divine religion, incepted by the Prophet
Jesus. After Jesus, it departed from its original form with some applications
and interpretations. Nevertheless, it has managed to maintain certain
aspects of the essence of the true religion, with concepts such love,
compassion, sacrifice, and humility, as set out above.
Let us now have a brief look at pre-Christian Europe and examine the
roots of fascism.
Fascists in the Pagan World
Essentially, as a pagan culture, religion in pre-Christian Europe was
polytheistic. Europeans believed the false gods they worshipped represented
various forces or aspects of life, and most important were the gods
of war, much like those who have appeared in just about every pagan
society.
This prestige the gods of war enjoyed in pagan belief was the result
of these societies' regarding violence as sacred. Pagan peoples were
essentially barbaric and lived in a state of permanent warfare. To kill
and spill blood in the name of their nation was seen as a sacred duty.
Savagery and violence of almost every kind could find justification
in paganism. There was no ethical foundation to forbid violence or brutality.
Even Rome, thought of as the most "civilized" state in the pagan world,
was a place where people were made to fight to the death or torn to
pieces by wild animals. The Emperor Nero came to power by having countless
numbers of people killed, including his own mother, wife, and stepbrother.
He had Christians devoured by wild animals in the arena, and tortured
thousands of people simply because of their beliefs. An example of his
cruelty was his setting the city of Rome on fire, as he played the lyre
and watched the horrible scene from a window in his palace.
Though Rome was immersed in a culture of violence, the barbarian and
pagan nations of the north, such as the Vandals, Goths, and Visigoths,
were still more savage. They strove to wreak devastation on each other,
as well as plundering Rome. The pagan world was a place where violence
prevailed, where the use of brutality of every kind was encouraged,
and where there was no consideration at all for ethics.
The best example in the pagan world of a "fascist" system, in the modern
sense, was the Greek city-state of Sparta.
Sparta: A Model for All
Fascists
Sparta was a military state, dedicated to war and violence, and alleged
to have been founded by Lycurgus in the 8th century BC. The Spartans
implemented highly regimented system of education. Under the Spartan
system, the state was very much more important than the individual.
Peoples' lives were measured according to whether or not they would
be of use to the state. Strong, healthy male children were dedicated
to the state, while unhealthy babies were abandoned to the mountains
to die. (This Spartan practice was taken as an example by the Nazis
of Germany, and it was claimed, under the further influence of Darwinism,
that the sickly needed to be eliminated to maintain a "healthy and superior
race.") In Sparta, parents were responsible for raising their sons until
the age of seven. From then, until the age of 12, children were placed
in teams of 15, and those who stood out for their abilities were selected
to be leaders. Children spent their time strengthening their bodies
and preparing for war by practicing sports.
Literacy was not considered important, and there was little interest
in music or literature. The only songs children were allowed to sing
and learn were those of war and violence. (The education of children
from the age of four under the fascism of Mussolini and Hitler was very
similar). The Spartan custom was to indoctrinate people in the spirit
of war, at the expense of art, literature, and education.
One of the most important thinkers to have offered detailed statements
about Sparta was the famous Greek philosopher Plato. Although he lived
in Athens, which was governed democratically, he was impressed with
the fascist system in Sparta, and in his books portrayed Sparta as a
model state. Because of Plato's fascist tendencies, Karl Popper, one
of the foremost thinkers of the 20th century, in his famous book, The
Open Society and Its Enemies, describes him as the first source of inspiration
for oppressive regimes, and an enemy of open society. In support of
his contention, Popper refers to how Plato calmly defended the killing
of infants in Sparta, and describes him as the first theoretical proponent
of "eugenics":
...[I]t is important that the master class should feel as one superior
master race. 'The race of the guardians must be kept pure', says Plato
(in defence of infanticide), when developing the racialist argument
that we breed animals with great care while neglecting our own race,
an argument which has been repeated ever since. (Infanticide was not
an Athenian institution; Plato, seeing that it was practised at Sparta
for eugenic reasons, concluded that it must be ancient and therefore
good.) He demands that the same principles be applied to the breeding
of the master race as are applied, by an experienced breeder, to dogs,
horses or birds. 'If you did not breed them in this way, don't you think
that the race of your birds or dogs would quickly degenerate?' Plato
argues; and he draws the conclusion that 'the same principles apply
to the race of men'. The racial qualities demanded from a guardian or
from an auxiliary are, more specifically, those of a sheep-dog. 'Our
warrior-athletes .. must be vigilant like watch-dogs', demands Plato,
and he asks: 'Surely, there is no difference, so far as their natural
fitness for keeping guard is concerned, between a gallant youth and
a well-bred dog?'3
These views of Plato, who regarded human beings as a species
of animal, and proposed that they should be "evolved" through "forced
mating," came to the fore once again with the advent of Darwinism in
the 19th century, and were implemented by the Nazis in the 20th. We
shall be examining this in the pages that follow.
While defending the Spartan model, Plato also advanced another aspect
of fascism, the state use of repression to administer society. In Plato's
view, this pressure should be so comprehensive that people should be
unable to think of anything apart from the orders of the state, and
behave in complete adherence to state policy, forsaking the use of their
intelligence and free will. The following words of Plato, quoted by
Popper as a complete statement of the fascist mentality, describe the
structure of fascist order:
The greatest principle of all is that nobody, whether male or female,
should be without a leader. Nor should the mind of anybody be habituated
to letting him do anything at all on his own initiative; neither out
of zeal, nor even playfully. But in war and in the midst of peace-to
his leader he shall direct his eye and follow him faithfully. And even
in the smallest matter he should stand under leadership. For example,
he should get up, or move, or wash, or take his meals .. only if he
has been told to do so. In a word, he should teach his soul, by long
habit, never to dream of acting independently, and to become utterly
incapable of it.4
These ideas and practices, promoted by the Spartans, as they
were by Plato, exemplify the fundamental characteristics of fascism-the
perception of human beings as mere animals, fanatical racism, the promotion
of war and conflict, state-sponsored repression, and "formal indoctrination."
Similar fascistic practices are also discoverable in other pagan societies.
The system set up by the pharaohs, the rulers of ancient Egypt, is in
certain aspects comparable to Spartan fascism. The Egyptian pharaohs
built up state systems founded on ideals of military discipline, and
used them to oppress even their own people. Rameses II, the tyrannical
Egyptian ruler, who is believed to have lived in the time of the Prophet
Moses, ordered that all male Jewish children be killed, a cruelty reminiscent
of the infanticide in Sparta, and the psychological forms of oppression
he inflicted on his own subjects also recalls the fascistic system described
by Plato. As God revealed in the Koran, Pharaoh offered his subjects
the following tyrannical ultimatum: "...I only show you what I see myself
and I only guide you to the path of rectitude." (Koran, 40:29) And he
threatened those magicians who rejected his pagan beliefs and led to
the true religion by following Moses, "...Have you believed in him before
I authorized you to do so?...I will cut off your alternate hands and
feet and then I will crucify every one of you." (Koran, 7:123-124)
Fascism's Retreat in
the Face of Religion
The fascistic pagan culture which dominated Europe disappeared in stages
with the spread of Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, first
to Rome, and then to all of Europe. Christianity carried to European
society the basic ethical characteristics of the true religion revealed
to man by the Prophet Jesus. Europe, which had once encouraged violence,
conflict and bloodshed as sacred, and been composed of different tribes,
races and city-states constantly at war with one another, underwent
an important change.