"In the life of nations, what in the last resort decides questions is a kind of Judgment Court of God... Always before god and the world the stronger has the right to carry through what he wills."
— Adolf Hitler, 13 April 1923
“The essence of fascism is to make laws forbidding everything and then enforce them selectively against your enemies.”
—John Lescroart When religion is interpreted literally, and used for political purposes, sometimes it can become something else entirely... Unification Church Exposition of the Divine Principle Part II Chapter 5 Section 4.3.2 The Nature of Fascism
What, then, is fascism? Fascism denies the fundamental values of modern democracy, including respect for the individual and his basic rights, freedoms of speech, the press and association, and the parliamentary system. Race or nationality is the ultimate value, to be upheld by a strong nation-state. Individuals and institutions exist only for the benefit of the state. Under fascism, individuals cannot claim freedom as their inviolable right; they are to sacrifice their freedom in their duty to serve the state. The guiding political principle of fascism holds that all power and authority should be entrusted in one supreme leader rather than distributed among people. The personal will of the leader dictates the governing ideology for the entire nation. Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany, and the leaders of Japan's militaristic government were dictators of the fascist type.
Examples of Fascism:
Fascism - a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism)
Most fascist movements portrayed themselves as defenders of Christianity and the traditional Christian family against atheists and amoral humanists ... called for "faith in God" and "love for each other."
"The Nazis presented themselves not as a political party, but as a movement with a worldview that claimed every aspect of life. In this, they made essentially religious claims."
"You carry in your blood the holy inheritance of your fathers and forefathers...You carry in it the secret of creation itself. Your blood is holy, for in it God's will lives." "blackmail letter to a black art...outward moral indignation while inside its own ranks the most shameless practices" — from The Munich Post: Its undiscovered effects on Hitler "Life comes from God and returns to God. All life and all races follow God's ordinances. No people and no race can ignore them. We want the German youth to again recognize the religious nature of life. They must realize that God wants the individual as well as the whole people, and that they lose contact with life when they lose contact with God! God and nation are the two foundations of the life of the individual and the community. We want no shallow and superficial piety, but rather a deep faith that God guides the world, that he controls it, and a consciousness of the relationship between God and each individual, and between God and the live of the people and the fatherland." "You take an oath to a man whom you know follows the laws of providence, which he obeys independently of the influence of earthly powers, who leads the German people rightly, and who will guide Germany's fate. Through your oath you bind yourselves to a man who - that is our faith - was sent to us by higher powers. Do not seek Adolf Hitler with your mind. You will find him through the strength of your hearts!" "... rituals of birth, marriage, and death ... Life ceremonies have become a decisive, essential matter, an aspect of the battle of worldviews, of the great spiritual struggle. They are the final and critical step if the movement is to implement and realize its total political-worldview leadership." (The) 1939 ... "Rally of Peace" ... was to reiterate the German will to peace ... The primary aspect of the Nuremberg Rallies was to strengthen the personality cult of Adolf Hitler, portraying Hitler as Germany's saviour, chosen by providence. The gathered masses listened to the Führer's speeches, swore loyalty and marched before him ...The visitors of the rallies by their own free will were subordinate to the discipline and order in which they should be reborn as a new people.
— from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (referenced in 2008) See Also: The German Propaganda Archive
Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers the individual subordinate to the interests of the state, party or society as a whole.
Fascists seek to forge a type of national unity, usually based on (but not limited to) ethnic, cultural, racial, religious attributes. The key attribute of fascism is intolerance of others: other religions, languages, political views, economic systems, cultural practices, etc.
Various scholars attribute different characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually seen as its integral parts: nationalism, statism, militarism, totalitarianism, anti-communism, corporatism, populism, collectivism, autocracy, and opposition to political and economic liberalism.
"The Victory of Faith "
1933 German Propaganda Film (Internet Film Archive)
Adolf Hitler Quotes on Religion
We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out. — Baynes, Norman Hepburn (1969). The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939 The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God's will, and actually fulfill God's will, and not let God's word be desecrated. For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will.— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 1 Chapter 10 Faith is harder to shake than knowledge, love succumbs less to change than respect, hate is more enduring than aversion, and the impetus to the mightiest upheavals on this earth has at all times consisted less in a scientific knowledge dominating the masses than in a fanaticism which inspired them and sometimes in a hysteria which drove them forward.— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 1 Chapter 12 All in all, this whole period of winter 1919-20 was a single struggle to strengthen confidence in the victorious might of the young movement and raise it to that fanaticism of faith which can move mountains.— Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. 1 Chapter 12 Parallel to the training of the body a struggle against the poisoning of the soul must begin. Our whole public life today is like a hothouse for sexual ideas and simulations. Just look at the bill of fare served up in our movies, vaudeville and theaters, and you will hardly be able to deny that this is not the right kind of food, particularly for the youth...Theater, art, literature, cinema, press, posters, and window displays must be cleansed of all manifestations of our rotting world and placed in the service of a moral, political, and cultural idea. — Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 10 In the Bible we find the text, "That which is neither hot nor cold will I spew out of my mouth." This utterance of the great Nazarene has kept its profound validity until the present day. — Adolf Hitler, speech in Munich, 10 April 1923 We are a people of different faiths, but we are one. Which faith conquers the other is not the question; rather, the question is whether Christianity stands or falls... We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity ... in fact our movement is Christian. We are filled with a desire for Catholics and Protestants to discover one another in the deep distress of our own people.— Adolf Hitler, speech in Passau, 27 October 1928 Let us pray in this hour that nothing can divide us, and that God will help us against the Devil! Almighty Lord, bless our fight!— Adolf Hitler, address to the SA in 1930 I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work. — Adolf Hitler, speech before the Reichstag, 1936 I believe in Providence and I believe Providence to be just. Therefore I believe that Providence always rewards the strong, the industrious, and the upright. — Adolf Hitler, 11 September 1936 I say that they can be solved; there is no problem that cannot be, but faith is necessary. Think of the faith I had to have eighteen years ago, a single man on a lonely path. Yet I have come to leadership of the German people... Life is hard for many, but it is hardest if you are unhappy and have no faith. Have faith. Nothing can make me change my own belief.— Adolf Hitler, speech in Nuremberg, 12 September 1936 The National Socialist Movement has wrought this miracle. If Almighty God granted success to this work, then the Party was His instrument.— Adolf Hitler, proclamation to the German People, 1 January 1939 I may not be a light of the church, a pulpiteer, but deep down I am a pious man, and believe that whoever fights bravely in defense of the natural laws framed by God and never capitulates will never be deserted by the Lawgiver, but will, in the end, receive the blessings of Providence.— Adolf Hitler, speech, July 5, 1944 God the Almighty has made our nation. By defending its existence we are defending His work... — Adolf Hitler, speech, recorded radio address, 24 February 1945 Even today I am not ashamed to say that, overpowered by stormy enthusiasm, I fell down on my knees and thanked Heaven from an overflowing heart for granting me the good fortune of being permitted to live at this time. — Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol 1 Chapter 5 - The World War Today Christians ... stand at the head of [this country]... I pledge that I never will tie myself to parties who want to destroy Christianity .. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit ... We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press - in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past ... (few) years. — Adolf Hitler, quoted in: The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1922-1939, Vol. 1 (London, Oxford University Press, 1942), pg. 871-872 Sooner will a camel pass through the eye of a needle, than a great man be found by an election. — Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 3 The great masses of people do not consist of philosophers; precisely for the masses, faith is often the sole foundation of a moral attitude. The various substitutes have not proved so successful from the standpoint of results that they could be regarded as a useful replacement for previous religious creeds. But if religious doctrine and faith are really to embrace the broad masses, the unconditional authority of the content of this faith is the foundation of all efficacy. — Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Vol. 1 Chapter 10 (quotes referenced from about.com, en.wikiquotes.com and en.wikipedia.com)
Links:
Some Interesting Educational Videos:
"Don't be a Sucker"
1947 US War Department public service announcement warning about the rise of fascism in America. (Internet Film Archive)
"Prelude to War" 1943 US War Department
"Chapter I of Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series,describes World War II as a battle between the "slave world" of fascism and the "free world" of American liberty. In the "slave world," the entire populations of Germany, Italy and Japan have been hoodwinked by madmen, opportunists who capitalized on their people's desperation and weakness to rise to power. These demagogues promised revenge for past losses, and in the process convinced their people to give up their rights and accept dictatorship. In the "free world," the principles of equality, freedom, and liberty characterize the greatest leaders,embodied in the works and words of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln.This freedom is a threat to the fascist dictators of the Axis powers,who claim that democracy is weak and must be eradicated." (Internet Film Archive)(or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single political person, faction, or class, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible.[2] Totalitarianism is generally characterized by the coincidence of authoritarianism (where ordinary citizens have less significant share in state decision-making) and ideology (a pervasive scheme of values promulgated by institutional means to direct most if not all aspects of public and private life).[3] Totalitarian regimes or movements stay in political power through an all-encompassing propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single party that is often marked by personality cultism, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of speech, mass surveillance, and widespread use of state terrorism. — from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism Fascism is a term used to describe authoritarian nationalist political ideologies or mass movements that are concerned with notions of cultural decline or decadence and seek to achieve a millenarian national rebirth by exalting the nation or race, and promoting cults of unity, strength and purity. Fascists promote a type of national unity that is usually based on (but not limited to) ethnic, cultural, national, racial, and/or religious attributes. — from the Unificationist "New World Encyclopedia" Ryoichi Sasakawa (May 4, 1899 - July 18, 1995) was a Japanese businessman, politician and philanthropist born in Minoh, Osaka. He was accused but acquitted of being a Class A war criminal after World War II, was a self-proclaimed fascist, kuromaku (political power-broker), and the founder of The Nippon Foundation. While he is widely known throughout Africa and much of the developing world for the wide-ranging philanthropic programs that he established, he is at the same time viewed with hostility by many intellectuals for his right wing ideals and ties to Japan's motorboat racing industry and support for the Unification Movement. — from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Duck Test
The duck test is a humorous term for a form of inductive reasoning. The duck test can be explained this way:
If a bird looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's probably a duck. A person can figure out the true nature of an unknown subject by observing this subject's readily identifiable traits. It is sometimes used to counter abstruse arguments that something is not what it appears to be.
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Sunday, September 18, 2011
"What, then, is fascism?" (FYI)
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