us_ch8_webquest-italy

=**Fascism**=

This ideology favors glory to the nation over the individual. It was a combination of state corporatism (government run businesses and industry), nationalism, and socialism. Under Fascism, there was no free market, but rather the illusion of a group of independent corporate leaders who acted as extensions of the government and who could keep their salaries as a payoff. It's a myth that Fascism is close to far right wing conservatives. In reality, Fascism is close to communism, but since most recognized the dangers of communism, Fascists claimed to be the opposite. Under his Fascist control, Mussolini censored the press, eliminated opposition, manipulated voting laws, and combined all power into his hands making him dictator. Mussolini promised to restore the Roman Empire and began by invading Ethiopia in 1935 (the League of Nations did nothing).

The founder of Fascism (philosopher of Fascism) was Giovanni Gentile. Gentile embraced much of what Karl Marx wrote but differed a bit over pure socialism. Mussolini was a socialist through his early years. Many of the Italian Fascists were at first, socialists. What happened? They embraced national identity. Rather than class warfare, which is a doctrine of pure socialism, they felt national unity and total government with that basis was a more perfect form of socialism. Many today believe that fascism and socialism are polar opposites because socialists opposed Mussolini when he took power. This was because the socialists wanted the power. Plus, after WWII and after Mussolini aligned himself with Hitler, American Progressives had to distance themselves from the fact that Mussolini praised the New Deal and vice versa (FDR advisors traveled to Italy and came back having embraced fascism...Joseph Kennedy was ambassador to Britain and favored it...he had a lot of money and power). It's not out of the question for similar ideologies to rival each other for power (like the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks in early Communist Russia - both were socialist and communists, both wanted power, but they opposed each other for that power). It's like Nazi Germany - Hitler blamed the Jews as greedy capitalists for the problems in Germany...he blasted American capitalism...yet railed against the communists (who were his chief rival for power). Hitler even labeled the Jews as communists....see the irony??? He called the Jews greedy capitalist bankers responsible for the Depression yet also called the socialists and communists...and people believed it!!! But, hey, people believe a lot of "stuff" today! It's propaganda (whole different topic). The American Progressives have a very sympathetic media and academia (colleges) who have successfully convinced America of a lie that Fascism is more in line with conservatives, not liberals/progressives. Keep in mind conservatives favor limited government and smaller government. Fascism, like socialism, favors more centralized power and bigger government at the expense of individual freedom...that is more in line with Progressivism and the New Deal.

There were actually some in the U.S government who approved of Mussolini. Breckinridge Long, the ambassador to Italy, called it "the most interesting experiment in government since our Constitution." George Kennan, a diplomat, said the U.S. needed to move towards an authoritarian style of government. When Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, Long called it the "fruitful harvest of Mussolini's enterprise."

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