Fascism and Progressivism: Learning from History

***Note: I do not think that Trump and his supporters are fascists. But there is certainly a danger of true fascism being formed in nigh future.***

When there is an action, there is a reaction. This is true of laws of physics, and this is true of laws governing the human psyche also.

One might counter by saying that the two are not comparable for one cannot predict what reaction, if at all, an individual will produce. True. However, when looked upon at a macro scale, we can certainly predict what kind of reaction a group of people will produce. 

An astute student of economics will see this truth easily. An individual's spending pattern is erratic. However, at a macro scale, the spending patterns of certain demographics become predictable. An astute student of history can see also that growth of political ideologies follow a similar pattern. The current topic looms around fascism, a topic talked of in virtually every Westernized political systems. I thus talk about how we can prevent fascism, presupposing the ideology to be evil, by observing facts of history. I argue that Progressivism is causing reactions that give rise to fascism. 

Here, by "Progressive," I intentionally label it with a capital letter in hopes of distinguishing between "progressive." Progressive approaches change by overthrowing the whole of tradition. The other type, the progressive approach, seeks to change by improving upon the tradition, a position even the most conservative individual can take, e.g. figuring out how capitalism can better benefit the poor.

French Revolution

The French Revolution is unlike the American Revolution in that it was Progressive. Americans were progressive in that they built their society upon their English heritage, keeping the laws and parts of governmental customs. The French, however, sought to abolish the entirety of what was institutionally French. From the French monarchy to the Catholic Church, they sought to abolish all the traditional notion of French identity and start anew. They even went so far as to create a new cult.

After their disastrous failure, an emperor came into power: Napoelon Bonaparte. He was a militaristic nationalist who galvanized his nation into a perpetual strife toward dominance. He inspired the people who were tired of Progressivism by converting them to his nationalistic cause. 

The words "fascism" and "Progressivism" have not been in use in this instance of history, but we can see the just how close revolutionaries and the imperialists were to Progressivism and fascism respectively. 

Early 20th Century

Not many have read Mein Kampf. Reading such a document will surely put a target on one's back and veered at. But peering in to the mind of one of the most evil men existed in 20th century gives much benefit in psychoanalyzing a nation. In his book, Hitler mentions the rise of Communism, the ideology that gave birth to modern Progressivism. He viewed the violent zeal of Communists as being toxic. Sadly, behind the Communist movement in Europe were ethnic Jews (they were not religious Jews). It was Hitler's much flawed logic that, if he could eradicate a race, he can eradicate an ideology. 

Hitler was not the only one being infuriated by Communism. The German people, already exhausted through poverty and defeat, were further agitated by Communist revolutionary activities. Thus Hitler began his own brand of fascism, propelled further by the shared hatred of Communism by the German people. This appeal to hyper-nationalism and ethnocentrism appealed partly to the percieved traditional German character: Imperialistic and warlike. Indeed, Nazis went so far as to be interested in the occult and the Nordic religion. 

Notice the pattern here: Progressivism + Exhausted populous => Fascism

Current Day

In our days, fascism does not exist. Many nations have taken a nationalistic turn, but they are not close to being fascist as liberals would paint them to be. But we cannot deny the potential for true fascism from resurfacing. 

We have Progressivism, a militant one at that. There are brands of Progressiveism who are advancing Communism without calling their movement Communism. There are also brands of Progressivism who are deliberately starting metaphorical fire between party lines, making inflammatory and emotive statements, mostly through social media.

We have an exhausted populous. We may not notice for effects are subtle, but we have been dealing with terrorism and renewed outlook of nuclear hellfire. It is not unforeseeable to see Iran, who have been waging proxy-war with the U.S. throughout their occupation of Iraq by supplying terrorist factions, making closed deals with terrorists with nuclear weaponry. We further have the volatility North Korea. The world may not be perceived as being in a dire situation when looked upon individually. But when looked upon at a maco-scale, the world is in a fragile state. Being sprinkled with bad news on a weekly basis thus creates an exhausted populous. 

It seems that Progressives as we know now are not willing to start a literal fire, and that nationalists we know now are not willing to submit to an authoritarian figure. But if the Progressives were to escalate their militancy, there will be an escalated militancy from nationalists, veering ever closer to true fascism.

There are many examples I can give, the ones that are not so well-known such as Yugoslavian Crisis, early days of South Korean "Republic," etc. But for the sake of length, I omit them.

Solution?

It is a well-known fact that, when a human being is tired, one wants to stay in their niche for a while. However, it is also a well-known fact that human beings should strive to progress their state. The solution, I believe, is to switch our stance from Progressivism to progressivism. Instead of overthrowing the traditional notions and banking left so as to be out of the ballpark, we ought to improve step by step what is wrong with traditional notions. In marrying the desire to progress and the desire to stay the same we will find stability and reasoned populous.

Let's not make this happen again.