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The word fascism conjures up all the atrocities of World War II: the SS guard, concentration camps, and the millions of human beings who died defending their country against Nazi Germany. But when the question is asked, "What is fascism?" many of us cannot fathom an answer. Worse yet, many of us cannot distinguish when our own elected officials are leaning towards nationalistic and fascist policies. According to unabridged dictionaries, fascism is any centralized autocratic national regime with severely nationalistic policies. The most common nationalistic policies include exercising regimentation of industry, commerce, and finance for nationalistic goals, rigid censorship, and forcible suppression of any and all opposition to the state. Nationalism always precedes fascism and is the essential component of fascism.
Nationalism is defined as an attitude or beliefs characterized by exalting one's own nation above all others at the expense of all others nations, regardless of whether the actions of a state are just or not. This socio-political environment causes the individual to derive their self-worth from the actions of the state as a whole and/or from what the individual can contribute to the perpetuation of state. This socio-political environment also encourages the generation of the worst form of humanity, the authoritarian personality. This type of personality favors a blind submission to authority as opposed to the individual freedom to examine their actions before acting them out. The authoritarian personality is extremely hostile and some times deadly to those who question the policies of those who are in power or are not like them. In short, the primary concern of the individual in a fascist state is the well being of the state, not an individual's well being or the well being of their family and friends.
According to Philip Cannistraro (Professor of History, Florida State University, Tallahassee), "Fascist ideology, largely the work of the neoidealist philosopher Giovanni Gentile, emphasized the subordination of the individual to a "totalitarian" state that was to control all aspects of national life. Violence as a creative force was an important aspect of the Fascist philosophy .... The intellectual roots of fascism can be traced back to voluntaristic philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Henri Bergson and to Social Darwinism with its emphasis on the survival of the fittest. Its immediate roots, however, were in certain irrational, socialist, and nationalist tendencies of the turn of the century that combined in a protest against the liberal bourgeois ideas then holding sway in Western Europe. Gabriele D'Annunzio, Georges Sorel, and Maurice Barres were particularly influential."
Adolf Hitler was born into a Roman Catholic family on April 20, 1889. He is the most infamous fascist in history. Contrary to popular fiction, Hitler never became an atheist but remained a Roman Catholic until the day he died. In 1919, he joined a small political faction and within the next year formed his fascist party under the name of the "National Socialist German Workers' Party." He ran the organization with an iron fist and used its meetings to deliver forceful rhetorical assaults on what Hitler perceived to Germany's enemies (Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, communist, and any one who opposed his philosophy). In 1923 he led the party into the ill-fated Munich Putsch which resulted in his imprisonment. While in prison at Landsberg, Hitler dictated his book, "Mein Kampf" (in English "My struggle") to a Catholic Priest. This book became the standard work of fascist political philosophy during Hitler's tyrannical rule over Germany and is now use by extreme right-wing extremist to further their philosophy of hate and domination. By political subterfuge, he became dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death. Under the ideological banner of National Socialism, Hitler established a brutal totalitarian regime that nearly destroyed the German people. He committed suicide on April 30, 1945. For more information visit the "History Place's" article on The Rise of Adolf Hitler
The "History Place" offers the following biographies on infamous fascist of the past.
The "Jewish Student Online Research Center" offers these additional biographies of infamous fascist.