THE FATHER OF AMERICAN FASCISM

Giovanni Gentile

 Educated people know that Adam Smith is considered the father of free market capitalism and that Karl Marx is the father of Communism. It is also safe to say that most educated people do not know who the father of Fascism is. They might say Benito Mussolini or Adolph Hitler. Actually the father of Fascism is Giovanni Gentile. His last name sounds like Gentilly. He was an Italian philosopher who was born in 1875 and died in 1944. He would live almost long enough to see the downfall of the two most famous fascist states that were founded from his philosophy. Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy.  Gentile believed that all private action should be oriented to serve society. He was against the ideal of individualism. In his view there was no distinction between private and public interest. Gentile defended compulsory state corporatism.   He advocated for a state that would not be self sufficient. The basic aspect of Gentile’s logic is that liberal democracy was harmful because it was focused on the individual which led to selfishness. Gentile claimed that “true democracy” is a society in which the individual should be subordinated to the state. He promoted planned economies in which the government would determine what, how much, and how to produce. Fascism would also nationalize the arms industry. Unlike traditional socialism, it did not consider that the state should own all the means of production but it should dominate them. The owners of industries could “keep” their businesses, as long as they served the directives of the state. These business owners would be supervised by public officials and pay high taxes. The idea of “private property” would no longer be a thing. It would also establish a tax on capital, and the confiscation of goods belonging to religious congregations. Fascism would oppose free market capitalism and Marxism offering an alternative "third way". 

Leftist historians have successfully sold the narrative that Fascism is a right wing movement. This could not be farther from the truth. Fascism is a form of socialism and anti-capitalist. socialists like Gentile hated free market capitalism. Yet there was division among socialists about the best way to spread socialism around the world. By the time of the early twentieth century many were beginning to realize Marxism was not making much headway. Marx predicted that the quality of life for the worker would become so bad that the workers of the world would unite to overthrow capitalism. The reality was that because of capitalism the quality of life for the worker steadily improved and the result was that Marxism was not as popular as the worlds Communists hoped it would become. When WW1 broke out the workers of Europe rushed to the enlistment centers to enlist based on nationalistic impulses. German workers enlisted in the German army, Italians enlisted in the Italian army, Englishmen enlisted in the British army, Austrian-Hungarian men enlisted in the Austria-Hungarian army and Russians enlisted in the Russian army. Instead of the workers unifying to destroy Capitalism they decided to fight each other in one of the bloodiest wars of the Twentieth century. A war that came to be called The Great War and later WW1. Socialists like Gentile began to realize that people were more inclined to be nationalists than internationalists or globalists. People tend to take pride in their country. The same holds true today. In addition Communism was unable to generate wealth. If the means of production is controlled by the state the state cannot generate wealth. This is why the Soviet Union went out of business. China discovered Fascism after president Richard Nixon opened China to trade in the early 1970's. It quickly became a corporate state and abandoned pure Marxism. They allow corporations to thrive as long as the corporations allow themselves to be controlled by the Chinese Communist party. It was Nixon's hope that China would become more like us once they were introduced to capitalism and free trade. Instead America is becoming more like the Chinese and moving toward Fascism.. 

Hitler and Mussolini hated Communism but philosophically they were not that much different from the Communists in their hatred of capitalism. Stalin believed in the Marxist model of international socialism. Hitler and Mussolini believed in national socialism. That was the main difference between the two ideologies. The struggle that historians have incorrectly identified as a struggle between left and right has actually been an internal struggle between two forms of socialism. It kind of resembles the struggle between the Sunni or Shiite Muslims. Or the historical struggle in Europe between Catholics and Protestants. Fascists have been misidentified for so long even Neo-Nazi groups will identify with the right. They have more in common with the left, however. Hitler differed with the Communists in one respect. The Communists preached class hatred but Hitler preached race hatred. Historically race hatred has not been a characteristic of the right or the left. In recent years the Democrat party has been preaching race hatred against straight white people. They are also displaying hostility against Christians and Jews as they become more Fascistic. Modern Fascism in America and throughout the Western world is not only driving a socialist revolution based on class but on culture. They have worked to destroy American and Western European culture. American culture has been the firewall between Communism and Democracy. The nuclear family, religion, our work ethic and cherished traditions have all been under assault. The Communist/Fascists have made tremendous strides towards accomplishing their goal. The election of Donald Trump may be all that stands between maintaining our freedom and a complete Fascist takeover of our government. 

Hitler with Mussolini