It is undoubtedly in hearts of many to say that in duration of its history, the world has barely seen an atrocity more disgusting and frightening than fascism. Fascism, as a movement, as an ideology has done so much evil to this world in the relatively recent years that some of those who had to struggle from it are still alive, and can still recollect whatever horrors they have encountered, and these memories can still make one’s hair rise, and one’s breath stop.
However, it would be simply unfair to say that fascism is the worst that has ever happened to humanity, as there have been so many times in history, where people were killed violently for the good of others, without any logical and adequate reasoning. In fact, it would be so much fairer to say that humanity itself is the worst that has ever happened to humanity, if one would take the courage to make statements of such sort.
This opinion can be easily explained, if one looks closer into fascism, and sees the beauty of this movement, its intelligence, its undoubtedly powerful abilities to serve as a unifying measure, as means of aiding people to recollect their national strength and identity from the fragmented pieces it might have become. Fascism cannot, at least absolutely should not be viewed linearly, in a one-dimensioned perspective only because of what the people have done to it. Surely, “all great ideas are dangerous” (Wilde, O., 22), but their danger does never lie within the ideas themselves, and rather in the ways in which people decide to make these ideas come to life.
Thinking in this way may come across many people as unapologetic. However, there is also a great deal of danger to think that everything in the world is linear and one-sided: it is in a certain way the way of thinking related to fascism, and, if the latter is to be abhorred, then subsequently everything related to it should be abhorred as well. Therefore, the very notion of referring to fascism in one standardized manner would be following a philosophy similar to that expressed by it: there is only one correct way of thinking, and no other view or opinion neither can nor should be allowed for it is de-facto wrong and unrighteous. Even though this indeed is one of the cornerstones on which fascism was erected, and despite of the harmfulness of it, there was still indefinite beauty in its ways: particularly, because the very entity of beauty was yet another cornerstone of fascism.
It is truly fascinating to follow through the ways in which Hitler chose to build fascism in the German world. He concentrated very strongly on the idealization of German culture, and in the ways in which this culture was perfect and should have prevailed as opposed to the cultures in the rest of the world.
It was important to take the historical foundations of German nation, and to connect them with the developed ideas of fascism and Nazism. However, it would have been too obvious if these ideas were simply pressed to the national identity, or if they were, let us say, glued on top of it – in order to take place in the fullest of its power, fascism had to become the new national identity of Germany, but become in a way that would not destroy any of its base.
Therefore, Hitler chose to intertwine these new national identities, to thread new threads into the tapestry of German culture, and thus make it seem as if Germany has always been the one and only right world, and that only their art, culture and views were to be taken as the core base of the whole human civilization. All fascists, not just Hitler, used this same way of “adapting old traditions to new purposes” (Mosse, G. L., 1) in order to preserve the base and ‘perfect’ it with a new order.
Because of that, worship of the nation became of the utmost importance, and this process had to be beautiful in order to be persuasive. People were brought together to listen speeches, to take part in parades, to witness and to absorb symbolism of the new order to its fullest.
“The chaotic crowd of the ‘people’ became a mass movement which shared a belief in popular unity through a national mystique” (Mosse, G. L., 2). Union was the main necessity of fascism, its base – without people willingly uniting for the idea of their common superiority over the rest of the world, no such ideology would have ever flourished.
However, such a way of thinking would have never developed to its fullest if there was nothing to juxtapose it with. There is of course a rational explanation to it somewhere in scholar sources on psychology, but it is only needed here briefly: everything needs to have an antagonist to survive.
This is a rather simple concept – if there were no darkness, there would be no light, because the very idea of light underlines the idea of darkness (in other words, it would be impossible to differentiate one from another if a half of the notion had gone missing). It is exactly the concept used by Hitler in his plan of raising the higher nation: “Jews cannot produce culture, but they do serve a function: symbolizing all that is evil, they spur the Aryan on to struggle against them and thus to become even more conscious of their own race” (Hitler, A., 2). The greatness of German culture could have been perceived quite easily without any comparisons, but with a contrast in presence, German culture and history acquired its vibrancy, its absolute perfection.
The topic of Jews in the Nazi Germany is still incredibly sensitive, and there is nothing to admire there, there is nothing to be fascinated with. Deaths of millions of people can never be justified by anything. Nonetheless, there is an element of intelligence in the ways in which Hitler was stirring hatred.
Having one particular enemy to unite against, Germans grew much closer together, they filled up with anger and agitation, and learned very fast that because they were a supreme nation, every other nation had to be terminated immediately. Jews were simply and sadly only a tool in Hitler’s hands. They have always been a nation capable of surviving any struggles, their people have always had a very strong sense of unity, they have always felt bonded to each other by the right of birth, and therefore if a strong community of Jews is present, they are sure to help and support each other no matter what. Such unity, such means of familial relations rose a lot of jealousy in the nations who happened to host such a community.
Thus, the masses in Nazi Germany (and the word ‘masses’ is used here instead of ‘people’ because it is the crowd that is blind and stupid, rarely the individuals) only needed a hint, an idea to root for in order to go full berserk on people who sometimes (far from always) had it better than they themselves did.
Such hint was given to them on the base of cultural identity. Hitler had stated clearly, that there was nothing authentic in the Jewish culture, nothing they could truly call theirs: “The Jewish people is without any true culture, especially without a culture of its own. For the sham culture which the Jew possesses today is the property of other peoples, and is mostly spoiled in his hands” (Hitler, A., 7).
Of course, this not the only way in which he was cultivating fascism. Now, it is very important to state, that despite being undeniably persuasive (at the very least by the prospects of being the highest strongest nation dominating the world) the ideas of fascism were still terrifyingly wrong and coercive.
In its realization, fascism required constant encouragement and, even more importantly, prevention of people’s ability to think freely. Therefore, it was a dominant idea, that there should never be half-tones in the fascist orchestra, and that everything had to be done fast and with complete and utter devotion (here is where the idea of Blitzkrieg came from).
People had to be reminded constantly that they were still the supreme nation fighting for the right cause, and, noticeably, their studying of exact sciences should have been reduced as not so important, and substituted with the art subjects. This can also be easily explained: facts from math and physics bear little space for ‘improvement’ or change, as they are constant, whereas facts from history can be bent to the speaker’s liking – after all, history is written by the victors.
With education based on ideas instead of facts, it would have been so much easier to control the Nazi youth and therefore to prolong the life of Nazi Germany, as its ideology would start to flourish through the generations. Without means of constant positive reinforcement, Nazism would have definitely failed, as hatred is in fact alien to the human nature, because people are not meant to kill and to be filled with rage at all times. It is a real wonder that Hitler had managed to hold his crowds intact for that long.
In conclusion, it is important to state once again: nothing ever in the whole white world can justify the terror of fascism; nothing ever can justify millions of dead people who gave their lives in battles for the purpose of preserving their countries and nationalities. Nothing can ever apologize for the horror of Holocaust, for hundreds of thousands lost men, women and children.
The aim of this essay was not to justify fascism and by any means, its purpose never laid in a desire to say that whatever people did under the flags of Nazi Germany was right and proper. The idea of it was rather show that fascism by itself, as a bare minimum was only an incredibly clever way of uniting large numbers of people under one aim, and to present the brilliance of Hitler as of a clever psychologist and leader.
Ideas are never evil, they in fact are most of the time aimed to help people and make their lives better. It is however, vital to remember when evaluating them, that ideas have different ways of coming to life, and the choice of such ways always, always lies in the hands of people.
Works Cited
Hitler, A. "Hitler Sets the Tone", in G. L. Mosse, Nazi Culture. New York, 1966. 1-16. Print.
Mosse, G. L. “The New Politics”, in The Nationalization of the Masses. Cornell UP, 1-20. Print.
Wilde, Oscar. De Profundis. New York: Modern Library, 2000. Print.
