What is Fascism?
Nationalism in Disguise
The Call of Youth | Vol 1. No. 5 | May 1933
By Max Rochmis
About two centuries ago, Alexander Pope wrote a jingle to the effect that vice first affects us with horror, then indifference, until finally we come to love it. Probably the same quirk is responsible for the fact that since Hitler has been attracting the world’s attention by his mad excesses, we have come to look more tolerantly upon Mussoni. In liberal ranks he is regarded rather affectionately and patted for being, at any rate, “more of a statesman” than Hitler.
And truth to tell, Mussolini has scant use for his German disciple. The Fascist principles which the White Hope of Italy has roared so often through the resounding emptiness of the coliseum have been travestied in Germany, he feels. What seems to be glorious heroics in Rome, somehow becomes burlesque in Munich. If Mussolini has become dubious about the purity of Fascism, what is the rest of the world to think?
What is this queer faction? Where has it come from? What does it stand for? It may seem rather absurd to say
there is no such thing as Fascism. Yet a casual examination will show here is nothing in this new sect hat has not existed these hundred years past. A Fascist is merely an extreme nationalist who is suffering from a Rotary Club complex. He is firmly convinced that his ountry is the greatest in the world, that every other country is its enemy, and that it must arm itself for conflict by repressing all dissent within its borders. The process whereby this ancient attiacquired a new name is soon ‘told.
“What is this queer faction? Where has it come from? What does it stand for? It may seem rather absurd to say there is no such thing as Fascism. Yet a casual examination will show here is nothing in this new sect hat has not existed these hundred years past. ”
At the outbreak of the World ‘War, the natives of Europe had jgravitated into two fairly equitable Jalignments. Of these, one group ‘was centered about England, the other about Germany. The basis jof hostility, of course, was economic rivalry. With every important ‘section of the earth apportioned off to one or another of the great
powers, new markets became impossible to procure. The simplest ‘remedy for the stalemate, therefore, ‘seemed to be war. However, the war made things worse. The sword Was profitless, for it was beaten fom the more necessary ploughshare.
If the World War had settled this ‘Problem of distribution and competition along international lines, Fascism would not exist today. But ‘nations are not governed by philosophers or economists. The victory to be changed to dollars and cents. The Allies proceded to ruin Germany and her satellites systematically. Small nations were formed buffers to large. Industrial Regions were torn this way and. Depredation, open or secret, came the order of the day.