How to Spot a Fascist

It seemed a good idea this weekend to remind myself of Umberto Eco's excellent essay 'Ur-Fascism' in How to Spot a Fascist.

After some interesting reflections on his own childhood experiences during WW2 and some remarks distinguishing fascism in general from the systematic ideologies of Nazism and Diamat, he identifies 14 distinguishing marks of Ur-Fascism.

Theoretically, he claims that 'Fascism' is a family-resemblance term as identified by Wittgenstein, where there is no common feature shared by every member of the class, but each member shares some relevant features with some others, connecting them together "by virtue of a sort of illusory transitiveness" (15). However, Eco introduces his list with a slightly different, rather more dynamic idea:

"All you need is one of [these characteristics] to be present, and a Fascist nebula will begin to coagulate" (16)

This suggests that we can use the characteristics to give the following definition.

For present purposes, a political culture can be defined as the beliefs promoted by an organisation or association or even individual who is seeking to acquire or maintain political power.

On this definition, in its early stages Fascism is identified as much by its direction of travel as by what it has got its supporters to accept. It would be unhelpful to think that this results in degrees of Fascism in the sense of being more or less Fascistic, for a situation in which those leading the political movement have as yet achieved few of the characteristics but are very actively striving for others is not obviously any less Fascistic. However, it is clear that as the political culture acquires more of these characteristics, the Fascism becomes more stable and entrenched, harder to shift, and it promotes a political situation in which the people are less free.

So, to Eco's list, which I have abbreviated. It seems to be in no particular order.

1. Cult of tradition which tolerates contradictions and denies advancement in learning (especially in humanities and social sciences)
2. Rejection of enlightenment values (rationalism and modernism) while willing to exploit technology
3. Action for action's sake: critical reflection is an impediment to getting things done
4. Dissent is betrayal
5. Fear of difference
6. Appeal to the frustrated sections of society
7. Obsession with conspiracies
8. The enemy is at once too strong (to be dismissed) and too weak (to be respected)
9. Pacifism is collusion
10. Scorn for the weak or socially excluded ('popular elitism')
11. Cult of death (or more generally, physical heroism)
12. Machismo (misogyny and hate of non-traditional sexuality)
13. Qualitative populism (the ill-defined 'will of the people' trumps democratic process and status of parliament)
14. Newspeak - simplified language (soundbites) used to limit possibilities of nuanced criticism or discussion

On this definition, it is hard not to think that Fascism has become increasingly strong in the UK since 2016. I would be pretty confident in identifying 9 out of 14 of these characteristics in the political culture of successive Conservative governments, both their actions and their rhetoric.