Fascism

Fascism was an authoritarian political movement that developed in Italy and other European countries after 1919 as a reaction against the political and social changes brought about by World War I and the spread of socialism and communism. Its name was derived from the fasces, an ancient Roman symbol of authority consisting of a bundle of rods and an ax.

Fascist ideology, largely the work of the neoidealist philosopher Giovanni GENTILE, emphasized the subordination of the individual to a "totalitarian" state that was to control all aspects of national life. Violence as a creative force was an important aspect of the Fascist philosophy.

The intellectual roots of fascism can be traced back to voluntaristic philosophers such as Arthur SCHOPENHAUER, Friedrich NIETZSCHE, and Henri BERGSON and to SOCIAL DARWINISM with its emphasis on the survival of the fittest. Its immediate roots, however, were in certain irrational, socialist, and nationalist tendencies of the turn of the century that combined in a protest against the liberal bourgeois ideas then holding sway in Western Europe. Gabriele D'ANNUNZIO, Georges SOREL, and Maurice BARRES were particularly influential.   From Fascism

  Songs referenced: 

Precious Things