Eco’s 14 Characteristics Of Fascism

 

·Saturday, August 8, 2020

 ·Reading time: 2 minutes

 

In 1995 historian and writer Umberto Eco wrote an article for the New York Review Of Books in which he expressed his thoughts on eternal Fascism, or what he calls Ur-Fascism. Eco’s original article is great reading, but it is verbose and eloquent to the point of erudition. I have tried to boil down his 14 characteristics into a concise list without falling into number 14 myself. My TLDR version is thus:

1. The cult of tradition. Even if it’s a syncretic tradition they have to create themselves out of pieces of other traditions.

2. Rejection of modernism, combined with irrationalism. Other writers have said this is a rejection of Enlightenment era ideals.

3. Action for action’s sake. “Don’t think about it just do it.” This involves a rejection of intellectuals and critical thinking.

4. Disagreement is treason.

5. Fear of difference.

6. Appeal to a frustrated lower middle class.

7. Obsession with plot. Conspiracy theories.

8. Humiliation at the hands of ostentatious wealth and force of enemies, but at the same time the idea that these enemies are weak and easily defeated.

9. Permanent warfare. Deep and continuing militarism. Pacifism is seen as trafficking with the enemy.

10. Popular elitism and contempt for the weak.

11. The cult of heroism. Everyone is educated to become a hero.

12. Machismo, and the rejection of nonstandard sexual habits, often involving entrenched misogyny, and a tendency to use weapons as phallic symbols.

13. Selective populism, or qualitative populism, usually centered on the followers of a charismatic leader. Anti-democratic.

14. Impoverished language. Simplified vocabulary and syntax. Limited language limits the tools for critical thought.

Of course, much is lost in my boil-down, so if you want to get the whole set of ideas then look up the original 1995 article on the New York Review Of Books, which is, unfortunately, behind a paywall. But there seems to be a hole in that paywall for Google on Android. 

EDIT: 

Some bright person posted another summary of Eco's 14 characteristics on Wikipedia.  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur-Fascism

 

EDIT: 

A different schollar, Dr. Lawrence Britt, identified a somewhat different list of 14 characteristics. 

 

https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html