Ur-Fascism (1995)
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Ur-Fascism (1995)
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Re: Ur-Fascism (1995)
#2The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.
Ironically, totalitarianism is itself a product of modernism: the idea that you can premeditate a "perfect" society and then bring it about at scale, by force. The theme of mastery over nature is extremely modernist, where nature in this case is humanity.
Re: Ur-Fascism (1995)
#3The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism. Ironically, totalitarianism is itself a product of modernism: the idea that you can premeditate a "perfect" society and then bring it about at scale, by force. The theme of mastery over nature is extremely modernist, where nature in this case is humanity.
Sort of having an esthetic and being willing threaten people, throw them in prison, to exile, or kill them over it.
Re: Ur-Fascism (1995)
#4Foucault's Pendulum also contain a great (fictional, but clearly autobiographical somehow) account of life in rural Italy during the Resistance.
Re: Ur-Fascism (1995)
#5it's odd that they characterise ur-fascism with irrationalism given the level of scientific innovation present in Nazi Germany (even though that innovation was entirely directed at more efficiently killing people). I'd more characterise it as anti-intellectual, as from reading this article the scorn seemed to be more directed at academics, bourgeois artists and armchair thinker types than science or rationality in general.
Re: Ur-Fascism (1995)
#6The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism. Ironically, totalitarianism is itself a product of modernism: the idea that you can premeditate a "perfect" society and then bring it about at scale, by force. The theme of mastery over nature is extremely modernist, where nature in this case is humanity.
True. He mentions throughout that fascism is littered with internal contradictions that it has no interest in reconciling rationally.
Re: Ur-Fascism (1995)
#7it's odd that they characterise ur-fascism with irrationalism given the level of scientific innovation present in Nazi Germany (even though that innovation was entirely directed at more efficiently killing people). I'd more characterise it as anti-intellectual, as from reading this article the scorn seemed to be more directed at academics, bourgeois artists and armchair thinker types than science or rationality in ge…
Irrational is accurate. The "syncretism" that is mentioned can only be achieved through ignoring contradictions.
Science can be employed by irrational people, and scientists themselves can be irrational.
There's been lots of people who note that engineers are disproportionately represented among terrorist groups.
You have Nobel prize winners like Kary Mullis who take copious amounts of psychedelics and deny that HIV causes AIDS.
Re: Ur-Fascism (1995)
#8it's odd that they characterise ur-fascism with irrationalism given the level of scientific innovation present in Nazi Germany (even though that innovation was entirely directed at more efficiently killing people). I'd more characterise it as anti-intellectual, as from reading this article the scorn seemed to be more directed at academics, bourgeois artists and armchair thinker types than science or rationality in ge…
The amount of scientific innovation in Nazi Germany is incredibly overhyped. In reality outside of rockets they made very few major advances. And even in Rocketry there were major scientific breakthroughs, just improved engineering. The medical experiments inflicted on prisoners were useless scientifically, just pure sadism. The "experiments" to test hypothermia for instance often did not record the patience weight, the temperature and volume of the water, and other factors. Not to mention that the experiments were being conducted on people who were often on the verge of starvation and in terrible health. They provide no useful data.
Not to mention their rejection of "Jewish Physics", science in Nazi Germany was incredibly politicized and if your research didn't conform to the dogma you had to change it or risk your life.
Re: Ur-Fascism (1995)
#9The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism. Ironically, totalitarianism is itself a product of modernism: the idea that you can premeditate a "perfect" society and then bring it about at scale, by force. The theme of mastery over nature is extremely modernist, where nature in this case is humanity.
True. He mentions throughout that fascism is littered with internal contradictions that it has no interest in reconciling rationally.
It most certainly is, how can a group they disparage simultaneously be weak and subhuman, while also having lots of power and "controlling the world"?
Re: Ur-Fascism (1995)
#10it's odd that they characterise ur-fascism with irrationalism given the level of scientific innovation present in Nazi Germany (even though that innovation was entirely directed at more efficiently killing people). I'd more characterise it as anti-intellectual, as from reading this article the scorn seemed to be more directed at academics, bourgeois artists and armchair thinker types than science or rationality in ge…
The amount of scientific innovation in Nazi Germany is incredibly overhyped. In reality outside of rockets they made very few major advances. And even in Rocketry there were major scientific breakthroughs, just improved engineering. The medical experiments inflicted on prisoners were useless scientifically, just pure sadism. The "experiments" to test hypothermia for instance often did not record the patience weight,…
Yep, Nazi Germany was coasting off the pre-eminent position in the sciences it had prior to the rise of Nazism.
If it had somehow survived WWII it would have had a rapid and persistent decline in leading edge research.