Sunday, October 27, 2019

QUORA: ‘Is fascism a capitalist ideology?‘



No. Fascism and capitalism are ideological antipodes. Here are some excerpts from THE DOCTRINE OF FASCISM by Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile, published in 1932:  

REJECTION OF INDIVIDUALISM AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STATE

Fascism is therefore opposed to all individualistic abstractions based on eighteenth century materialism [i.e., Enlightenment liberalism].

Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal, will of man as a historic entity [i.e., mysticism]. 

No individuals or groups (political parties, cultural associations, economic unions, social classes) outside the State (15). Fascism is therefore opposed to Socialism to which unity within the State (which amalgamates classes into a single economic and ethical reality) is unknown, and which sees in history nothing but the class struggle. Fascism is likewise opposed to trade unionism as a class weapon. But when brought within the orbit of the State, Fascism recognizes the real needs which gave rise to socialism and trade unionism, giving them due weight in the guild or corporative system in which divergent interests are coordinated and harmonized in the unity of the State (16).

8. Conception of a corporative state
(16) We are, in other words, a state which controls all forces acting in nature. We control political forces, we control moral forces, we control economic forces, therefore we are a full-blown Corporative state. We stand for a new principle in the world, we stand for sheer, categorical, definitive antithesis to the world of democracy, plutocracy, free-masonry, to the world which still abides by the fundamental principles laid down in 1789. (Speech before the new National Directory of the Party, April 7, 1926, in Discorsi del 1926, Milano, Alpes, 1927, p. 120)
The Ministry of Corporations is not a bureaucratic organ, nor does it wish to exercise the functions of syndical organizations which are necessarily independent, since they aim at organizing, selecting and improving the members of syndicates. The Ministry of Corporations is an institution in virtue of which, in the centre and outside, integral corporation becomes an accomplished fact, where balance is achieved between interests and forces of the economic world. Such a glance is only possible within the sphere of the state, because the state alone transcends the contrasting interests of groups and individuals, in view of co-coordinating them to achieve higher aims. The achievement of these aims is speeded up by the fact that all economic organizations, acknowledged, safeguarded and supported by the Corporative State, exist within the orbit of Fascism; in other terms they accept the conception of Fascism in theory and in practice. (speech at the opening of the Ministry of Corporations, July 31, 1926, in Di­scorsi del 1926, Milano, Alpes, 1927, p. 250). [All emphasis is added]

Fascism thus rejects the very essential values that form the core of capitalism, Enlightenment liberalism. Capitalism emerged out of the ideals of individualism, including individual rights, and the autonomy of each individual to use his own reason to govern his own life. Fascism rejects individualism. Capitalism holds that government is the individual’s agent whose powers are constitutionally limited to protecting his liberty rights, which protect intellectual, political, and economic freedom based on rights including speech, religion and conscience, assembly, property, and laissez-faire economics—the separation of economics and state, under which government polices the markets for force and fraud, but otherwise doesn’t interfere in voluntary market activity. Fascism subordinates all individuals to the state, which allows no individuals or groups to freely operate “outside the state,” which “controls all forces acting in nature [including] political forces, moral forces, [and] economic forces” by the state. 

In every fundamental respect, fascist and capitalist ideologies are antipodes. So why do some people so often equate the two?

For one thing, many people equate capitalism with capitalists. The existence of capitalists—business, corporations, etc.—is not definitive proof of a capitalist system. Private enterprise must also be free of government interference or “partnership” (cronyism) to qualify as capitalist. Capitalists narrowly defined as a business corporation can exist under certain forms of statism. Capitalism in the broader ideological (or philosophical) sense cannot. 

More fundamentally, unlike fascism’s ideological cousin, communism, fascism “allows” a veneer of private ownership. But it is not genuine private ownership. A system by which ownership of enterprise is nominally private but over which total control is exercised through the state is in no essential respect private ownership. Genuine private ownership of business or property such as is sanctioned under capitalism implies not just a name on a document but the owner’s right of voluntary acquisition, control, use, disposal, and management. Clearly, fascism features control, use, disposal, and management only through or by permission of the state, allowing private individual action “only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State.” Marxists seize on this superficial equivocation to link capitalism with fascism. And they have been quite successful at this ruse. This helps communism set itself apart from its chief socialist rival, fascism. 

But in fact, communism and fascism are ideological cousins. Fascism is guild socialism expanded to include all groups as identified by the state, all of which can operate only  “within the sphere of the state.” Fascism differs from communism only superficially. Essentially, there is no difference. Both are virulently anti-individualist. Both are collectivist, or group supremacist (Fascism actually derives from fascio, which literally means “group”). Both are mystical, believing in the collective as a kind of deity separate from and supreme over the individual, for whom the state carries out what it says is the deity’s will. They merely define the deity differently—to the communist, it’s the “proletariat”, for the Italian fascist, the” universal”, for the German national socialist (NAZI), the race. For any kind of socialism, a deified collective is fundamental. Both fascism and communism are uncompromisingly totalitarian statist. Both are variants of socialism; communist socialism is internationally oriented, fascist socialism is nationalist. The fascist is merely more “practical”, seeking to tailor its socialism in a way that makes it more palatable to specific national and cultural realities. For example, to avoid total economic collapse, the fascist preserves some semblance of private initiative. Fascism is socialism with a capitalist veneer--that is, nominal private ownership of business but controlled by the government. A fascist, to put it simply, is essentially a pragmatic communist, packaging its socialism to fit a Western culture that reveres private property rights and private enterprise. 

Communism and fascism are akin to rival underworld crime families fighting a turf war. Just as crime families are united in their antipathy to the rule of law, fascism and communism are united in their hatred of capitalism. The only opposite to both fascism and communism, and all variants thereof, is the system whose government recognizes and protects individual rights equally and at all times. That system is capitalism. So, “Is fascism a capitalist ideology?” Capitalism derives from Enlightenment liberal ideology. Fascism explicitly rejects Enlightenment values—derided by Mussolini and Gentile as “all individualistic abstractions based on eighteenth century materialism.” So the answer is obviously no, Fascism is not a capitalist ideology.

For a more thorough understanding, I recommend reading THE DOCTRINE OF FASCISM in its entirety, including all footnotes. As to capitalism as a system of political/economic social organization, I recommend Andrew Bernstein, The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic, and Philosophic Case for Laissez Faire and Capitalism Unbound: The Incontestable Moral Case for Individual Rights. And The Declaration of Independence, the United States of America Founding document, which states in highly essentialized form, especially in the second paragraph, the basic Enlightenment principles that enable capitalism to emerge.
Related Reading:




Individualism vs. Collectivism: Our Future, Our Choice—Craig Biddle for The Objective Standard

Related Listening:


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