In concluding our series in examining fascism, its roots, its concrete manifestations, and its legacies, we have noted what is fascism and what is not fascism. The common threads of fascist thought include: the synthesis of the people with the state for militaristic and warring ends (since conflict defines life through and through), that fascism’s … Continue reading The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, VII: Islamism
History
The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, V: Spain, Vichy, and the Nazi Allies
As we complete our tour and analysis of “historical fascism,” or what German scholar Ernst Nolte called “fascism in its epoch” (Der Faschismus in seiner Epoche, 1963), we turn to the more contentious historical movements that have sometimes been associated with fascism but scholars have generally regarded as not having been fascist (though certainly benefiting … Continue reading The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, V: Spain, Vichy, and the Nazi Allies
The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, III: Italian Fascism and Julius Evola
To understand fascism, it was necessary to begin with the Romantic Movement, otherwise one will not have a solid familiarity with the ideas that fascism sought to emulate, restore, and implement, as well as distort. In the history of fascism, especially in the 20th century, there are three key specters to examine: Italian fascism, German fascism, … Continue reading The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, III: Italian Fascism and Julius Evola
The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, II: Romantic Antecedents
In-of-itself, Romanticism is not a fascist movement or philosophy. But fascism drew upon the rich intellectual traditions of Romanticism, even if it distorted it some very important and meaningful ways. So what is Romanticism? Philosophical Romanticism was a counterrevolutionary intellectual and artistic movement that arose in the late Enlightenment. It was starkly opposed to Enlightenment … Continue reading The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, II: Romantic Antecedents
The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, I: Origin and Circumstances
“Fascist!” To be called a fascist is to have one of the worst derogatory epithets hurled at you. It invokes brown shirted thugs, swastikas, racism, demagoguery, and of course—the Nazis. The usage of the word, sadly, has lost all culpable meaning because it is merely hurled at opponents who “don’t play by the rules” established … Continue reading The Anatomy and Specters of Fascism, I: Origin and Circumstances
Puritanism and the Origins of American Progressivism
It might be shocking, indeed scandalous, to assert that the heirs of America’s Pilgrim and Puritan founders are not Christian conservatives but American progressives. Sure, the theology of progressives has evolved dramatically from the restless orthodox Calvinism of the Pilgrims and Puritans, but the underlying groundwork of creating a morally just, liberty-loving, and universal community … Continue reading Puritanism and the Origins of American Progressivism
Michel Foucault, Homosexuality, and Capitalism
Michel Foucault is a famous French postmodernist. He is derided by opponents as a thorough-going Marxist. He is derided by Marxists for not being a Marxist. He started out on the revolutionary left, politically, but pivoted to being the godfather of the sexual revolution in the 1960s and 1970s before dying of AIDS. What few … Continue reading Michel Foucault, Homosexuality, and Capitalism
Are we all Augustinians? A Review of William Connolly’s “The Augustinian Imperative”
William Connolly is one of the great contemporary scholars in Augustinian engagement—that is, he constantly contests, utilizes, or criticizes the philosophy and theology of Saint Augustine in formation of his own work, themes, or beliefs. In The Augustinian Imperative, Connolly engages Augustine in relationship to modern politics. Although Connolly could be seen as an Augustinian … Continue reading Are we all Augustinians? A Review of William Connolly’s “The Augustinian Imperative”
The Suicide of Conservatism: Jonah Goldberg’s “Suicide of the West”
Jonah Goldberg is the most recent of a cadre of popular writers and academics, all of a decisively neo-Whig orientation and consciousness, who has written a defense of the greatest myth ever told since the publication of Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum. Goldberg’s tale of the “suicide of the West” is nothing new. It is just … Continue reading The Suicide of Conservatism: Jonah Goldberg’s “Suicide of the West”
Giambattista Vico and the Conceit of “History”
Giambattista Vico was a 17th and 18th century Italian lawyer and philosopher. He produced the work The New Science in 1725, one of the most influential and important works of philosophy in the modern Western tradition. In his work, Vico lays out a comprehensive rebuke of Enlightenment philosophy and historicism, and his commentary on psychological, … Continue reading Giambattista Vico and the Conceit of “History”
