Four men occupied a table at Haggen’s. Big men with big voices so I didn’t have to strain to catch their drift. Two Lefties vs. two Righties who took each other’s political teasing in stride until the topic swung to national health care at which point one of the Righties nearly went postal. His face turned florid and veins protruded from his neck and forehead. Sweating and spluttering, he shook a finger at one of the Lefties.

He slammed a hand on the table, attracting a good deal of attention, and announced that the fascist-liberal government is out to strangle corporate America and that those same fascist-liberals are undermining the foundations of capitalism. Or words to that effect. The Lefties laughed. He unleashed a few four-letter epithets and fell silent, glaring.

If he had been a thinking-conservative he would have understood that the Fascist label is a better fit for his type than for liberals. It has gotten to be a label that Right and Left throw about whenever they wish to vilify the opposite side of the aisle. Have we forgotten what Fascism really means? After all, it has been almost seventy years since Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler tried to forcefully impose Fascism on us. Better to let their own words explain Fascism and shed light on whether it might be active in the world today.

First, some quotes from Benito Mussolini. Even more than Hitler, Mussolini was fond of spouting off about what he took to be the virtues of Fascism.

“Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power.”

“Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity, quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace.”

“It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. That is what I shall do.”

“Let us have a dagger between our teeth, a bomb in our hands, and an infinite scorn in our hearts.”

“The Liberal State is a mask behind which there is no face; it is a scaffolding behind which there is no building.”

“The truth is that men are tired of liberty.”

“War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it.”

“War is to a man what maternity is to a woman. From a philosophical and doctrinal viewpoint, I do not believe in perpetual peace.”

“We become strong, I feel, when we have no friends upon whom to lean, or to look to for moral guidance.”

Wow! Some of those strike close to home. While Mussolini threw the Fascist label about more freely, Hitler wasn’t shy about explaining how lies and truth-bending were the cornerstones of his Fascist control over the masses:

“Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless.”

“Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice.”

“I believe that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator.”

“I do not see why man should not be just as cruel as nature.”

“I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few.”

“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”

“The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than a small one.”

“It is not truth that matters, but victory.”

“Strength lies not in defense but in attack.”

“The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.”

“The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belonged to one category.”

“The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.”

“What good fortune for governments that the people do not think.”

“Who says I am not under the special protection of God?”

“The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.”

In linking Liberals with Fascism, the big fellow at Haggen was clearly off the mark. As the quotes above suggest, Fascist-types are still with us though they hide under other labels. You can spot them by their mean-spiritedness, lies, contempt for the citizenry and love of violence.

As George Santayana warned, “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” WWII taught us what damage Fascism can do. America’s citizens should continually be asking, is it alive today? Did it die with the defeat of Nazi Germany and Italy or is it attempting to rear its ugly head again?

Sources: Mussolini’s speeches, editorials, and his book, Doctrine of Fascism. Hitler’s recorded Table Talks, Mein Kampf, speeches, letters and Albert Speer’s memoires.

Comments may be addressed to: rgraef@verizon.net.