Google Doc: Ur-Fascism Project
Learning Target:
Today I will be able to discuss the major tenets of fascism.
-I will be able to explain the connection between ethnicity and fascist aggression.
-I will be able to analyze the reasons that fascism requires both conformity and external enemies.
-I will be able to use the terms 'Blood and Soil,' 'fascism,' and 'Nazi/Nazism.'
Today I will be able to discuss the major tenets of fascism.
-I will be able to explain the connection between ethnicity and fascist aggression.
-I will be able to analyze the reasons that fascism requires both conformity and external enemies.
-I will be able to use the terms 'Blood and Soil,' 'fascism,' and 'Nazi/Nazism.'
Ur-Fascism Group Project
Complete Article (pdf): Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco
Complete Article (link): Eternal Fascism: 14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt
Fascism Prompt: Is Fascism Defined by Its Own Ideals or by Those That It Opposes?
Complete Article (link): Eternal Fascism: 14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt
Fascism Prompt: Is Fascism Defined by Its Own Ideals or by Those That It Opposes?
Umberto Eco was an Italian author and academic who grew up in Italy under Mussolini's regime. In the mid-1990s, Eco wrote a pair of articles trying to explain what fascism was and how it operated. We will be using Eco's work to understand the ideals, goals, and themes of fascism.
Section 1: Tradition
Under fascism "...there can be no advancement of learning. Truth already has been spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message." |
Section 2: Action!
"Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. " |
Section 3: Struggle and Authority
"Every citizen belongs to the best people in the world, the members or the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party." |
Section 4: Humiliation
"...the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation..." |
Section 5: Society
"...individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will... the Leader pretends to be their interpreter. " |
Ur-Fascism Addendum
Google Doc: Ur-Fascism Prompt