Politics: Fascism

Book Report: "The Big Lie, by Dinesh D'Souza," Regnery Publishing, 2017.

What are the basics of Marxism, Fascism, Nazism, and Leninism?

Marx is the basis for contemporary Socialist ideologies. A useful starting point is his "Communist Manifesto," published 1848. Primary points:

-- All of human history consists of class struggle. (i.e., the exploitation of productive people by non-productive ones). In short, the victimization of the poor by the ownership class.

-- Socialism will come about when the proletariat rises up and wrests assets from private hands, making assets (capitol) state property.

What went wrong with Marxism:

-- Revolution wasn't happening in the developed nations as Marx asserted.

-- By about 1905, the leaders of the socialist parties (in Germany, Italy, France, UK) realized a different approach was needed to bring about the overthrow of the capitalist system and the rise of socialism.

New ideologies and political parties developed:

Italy

-- Giovanni Gentile, a Marxist, ideates Fascism as a system. (His "Origins and Doctrine of Fascism" was not published as such until 1929, but portions of it appeared in print under the by-line of Benito Mussolini, prior to 1914).

-- Mussolini founds a new political party, "Fasci di Combatimento," in 1919. He was widely known as a leader of the socialists in Italy and switzerland. Praised by Lenin as such.

-- In 1911, Mussolini witnessed working Italians flock to join the military as Italy wrested Libya from the Ottomans. He realizes that Marx's class struggle never got the people's attention, as did Italy's bid to build an empire. He adopts nationalism as a key element of Fascism in creating a socialist state.

-- 1922. Mussolini marches on Rome, assumes power as dictator

Germany

-- Ludwig Woltmann, a Marxist theorist, argues that there was a Darwinian struggle taking place among ethnic groups. A Rassenkampf, or racial struggle, would naturally result in the superior race eliminating the inferior ones over time. (He could see that the prosperity of the German working class would never result in a class to struggle).