Fascism/totalitarianism

 --- Andreas Johansson wrote:

> [...] So, if I were trying to uphold some meaningful definition of
> "Fascism" more narrow than "totalitarianism", I would say that Stalin was no
> Fascist.
>
> Surely, utilizing nationalism for strengthening the ruling group doesn't by
> itself make you Fascist?
... which would clear make Stalin a fascist. And not only Stalin, but also -
for example, a very large portion of the Polish Communist Party during the
1960s and 1970s.

But this does not mean that I advocate the use of the term "fascist" for
anything else than Mussolini's ideology. Even Hitler's national-socialism lacks
some of the very basic characteristics of this narrow definition of fascism.

Totalitarian are, in my definition, those systems in which every layer of
public (and in many cases even private) life are forcibly soaked with ideology
(which in practice excludes most military dictatures from the category).

Jan

=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones

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