Name

Professor

Course

Date

Fascism Criticize the First Ideology from the Standpoint of Liberalism

Fascism is counter-evolutionary politics that emerged in Europe in the early years of the twentieth century. The system was a way of responding to social turmoil and devastation brought by the First World War. It was also a response to the Bolshevik Revolution (Kallis, (2003, 3). Fascism is a political ideology where authoritarian measures are used to empower the government, as well as deny citizens their rights. In most cases, an absolute dictator suppresses citizens through violent acts and strict laws (Ringer, 2006, 204). Rulers such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini used this system to govern their nations. Fascism may consist of characteristics such as racism, dictatorship and militarism. There are various ideologies associated with fascism such as the populist, elitist and the extreme right-wing principles. Philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, George Sorel and Georg Hegal are the philosophers whose ideologies shaped the Fascist theory. The populist ideology tries to activate the citizens as whole against enemies or oppressors, and also to enhance national unity. Fascism also takes an elitist approach because the will of the people is personified in a select group or a supreme ruler whose authority is the most significant. The system forcibly subordinates all spheres of the society to create an organic community through totalitarianism. It also uses mass organization to enhance integration and control. Organized violence helps to suppress opposition although the intensity of violence is not similar in all circumstances.

Fascism also involves the ideology of extreme right-wing. It acknowledges the nation or race as an organic society that is above other loyalties. This ideology accentuates a belief of racial or national rebirth when a region has gone through a period of destruction or decline. Fascism considers aspects such as materialism and individualism as signs of ethical decay, so its main aim is to eliminate forces that pose a threat to the organic community. Fascists believe that the decay of a society occurs naturally and the most efficient way of eliminating this decay is through violence. Violence is enhances acquirement of power in a society that is experiencing moral decay. The leaders must be willing to use violence to slow down the decay. Hegal believed that war was significant in unifying of a nation, and that peace created a weak nation (Grigsby, 2012, 127). This creates the need for military forces to enhance war. War unites a nation because citizens have to come together to fight their enemy. He also claimed that the members of a community had the responsibility of sacrificing for their nation. The duty of the corporate organization is to make the laws of the state. The system also celebrates aspects such as masculinity mystical unity, renewing power of violence and youth. The system also promotes ethnic persecution, genocide, imperialist expansion and racial superiority doctrines. These occur when a community is against authority. Internationalism in the fascists’ world is based on ideological or racial solidarity throughout the nation. Male supremacy is also dominant in the system (Flood, et.al. 2013, 188). At times, the privileged race or nation encourages female solidarity (Brock, 2009, 262). Nietzsche came up with the idea of a superman to lead the nation. This individual must be creative and also possess a high intellectual capacity. Nietzsche’s idea came from the moral codes in ancient empires that consisted of master and slave morality.

Liberalism in the political sense is when a representative government tries to preserve the rights of the citizens and also maximizes freedom of choice. People can choose what they want with their lives (Joyce, 2003, 1). Fascists deny people their rights because they practice totalitarianism. Liberalists claim that all individuals have equal opportunities before the law. Class privileges are not a common feature in this form of governance. Fascists believe that liberalism enhances materialism and individualism. They claim that individual freedom enhances the division of a nation. Liberalists believe that a human being should focus on their own interests without interference from the society. They criticize the elitist ideology when they suggest that the people have a right to choose their leaders and also to reject oppressive rule. In liberalism, there is one leader but he does not make decisions for the rest of the people. People have to vote to decide what they want. The work of the leader is to ensure that individual interests do not harm other members in a society. This is not the case for fascism because the leader in this system is has absolute authority. This means that the people have no rights. They must follow what the leader wants. The work of the leader is to ensure that people have no freedom to choose what they want. The leaders also come up with mass organizations that punish those who are against the laws of the government. In liberalists’ societies, people carry out their activities as individuals and not as groups. Liberalists claim that he society decays when individuals do not have freedom to do what they want. This leads to war and other negative occurrences. War does encourage unity in a liberalist society; it creates division since people have personal interests. It does not achieve the main objective of liberalism, instead, it causes destruction.

Liberalism encourages active participation in law making. The people have the freedom to choose the appropriate laws. This is the case for fascism because only the corporate organization has the power to create laws. Liberalist societies also have class divisions but according to the law, the upper class has no authority over the lower class. The only difference is that the upper class has more money than the lower class, so they have a more options concerning how to use their money. The fascist society has social classes, but the upper class has authority over the lower class. The people who belong to the upper class made decisions for those in the lower class. Liberalists claim that this system is oppressive because no one choses to be poor or rich. Some people are only rich because of luck. They were born in rich families, so they inherit wealth. For this reason, the rich should not oppress the poor because everyone is equal in the eyes of the creator. Liberalism also discourages racism because everyone is equal before the law (Zafirovski, 2007, 421). The criticize fascism because it encourages discrimination on racial grounds. Power belonged to the whites, so the blacks were treated unfairly because they had no representative in the government. Liberalism also encourages equal opportunities for males and females while fascism encourages a male dominated society. Women from rich organizations were the only ones who had authority. The rest followed what he males said. Liberalism encourages freedom for all. Women can perform the same tasks as men as well as govern the nation.

References

FLOOD, M. et.al. (2013). International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities. New York,

Routledge.

BROCK, R. G. (2009). Rapture and Revelation. Tate Pub & Enterprises Llc.

GRIGSBY, E. (2012). Analyzing politics: an introduction to political science. Belmont, CA,

Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

JOYCE, P. (2003). The rule of freedom: liberalism and the modern city. London, Verso.

KALLIS, A. A. (2003). The Fascism reader. New York, Routledge.

RINGER, R. E. (2006). Excel HSC modern history. Glebe N.S.W., Pascal Press.

ZAFIROVSKI, M. (2007). Liberal modernity and its adversaries: freedom, liberalism and anti-

liberalism in the 21st century. Leiden, the Netherlands, Brill.