Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: February 21, 2021 at 9:16:05 AM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Socialisms]: Cohen on Finchelstein, 'A Brief > History of Fascist Lies' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Federico Finchelstein. A Brief History of Fascist Lies. Oakland > University of California Press, 2020. 152 pp. $19.95 (cloth), ISBN > 978-0-520-34671-0. > > Reviewed by Joshua Cohen (University of Leicester) > Published on H-Socialisms (February, 2021) > Commissioned by Gary Roth > > Fascist Lies > > Federico Finchelstein's _A Brief History of Fascist Lies _seeks to > explain what is intrinsically untruthful about fascism. The book is > less concerned with the expediency that drives the postwar Far Right > to abjure the "fascist" label and more focused on lying as a core > element of fascist ideology, dating back to its interwar development. > > Fascism has been described as inherently duplicitous. John > Richardson's recent discourse analysis of British fascism explores > the dissonance between textual surface--what fascists say they stand > for, including as they cynically manipulate an electoral path to > power--and their true ideology. This builds on the work of Michael > Billig, who analyzed the British National Front of the 1970s. Both > authors reveal an esoteric fascist ideology operating at the heart of > postwar "racial populism," giving a signal to cadres that the legacy > of Hitler and Mussolini has not really been abandoned.[1] Fascism's > ability to build a mass movement, Richardson argues, is directly > proportional to the degree to which it must disguise its sinister, > true intentions toward democracy, the labor movement, and human > rights.[2] > > For Finchelstein, lying is a special feature of fascism and not only > a disguise for its intentions and enormous crimes. He writes that > "organised lying defines fascism." While lies are present in other > political movements, such as liberalism, they are "incidental" to > their core ideology. Here, the author centers on the idea of the > charismatic leader who expresses and shapes the organic will of the > national or racial community: "only facts (and lies) prescribed by > the leadership could be accepted as truth" (p. 15). This concept, > speaking to fascism as political religion, calls into question what > are "lies" in the commonly understood sense of deliberate falsehoods > and what are fanatically believed-in mythic fantasies, which are > viscerally "true" for the believers. Finchelstein addresses this > question ("do liars believe their own lies?") and asks, rhetorically, > whether, when Joseph Goebbels said that Hitler was omniscient and a > creative instrument of divine destiny, the Nazi propagandist had a > "reality-based notion of knowledge" (p. 11). This book does deal with > the invention or manipulation of "facts," but Finchelstein's focus is > really on "belief in a truth that transcended facts" (p. 12). The > author is making an important contribution by getting to grips with > fascism's fundamental challenge to empirical truth, but in a way that > is perhaps inadequately conveyed by the book's title. > > Finchelstein deepens our understanding of fascist rhetoric. Where > before "Mussolini is always right" might have been understood as > bluster, Finchelstein shows that actually the claim profoundly drew > on "the core divine truths of the mythic ideology" of the infallible > leader (p. 41). And since it was the fascist leader who personified > eternal truth, it was the leader's critics and antifascists who > became "enemies of truth" (p. 32). For Hitler, "lies" were the > ideologies, political systems, and values that contradicted his > racist worldview and conspiracy theories. Crucially for > Finchelstein's argument, this conception rested on "a notion of truth > that did not need empirical verification ... what is true for most of > us (the result of demonstrable causes and effects), was potentially > fake for him [Hitler]" (p. 12). To fascists, the leader principle was > the true form of democracy, while liberal democracy was inherently > false in its disconnection from the popular will and its irrational, > pre-conscious driving forces. This is one of many examples in > Finchelstein's book of fascists not operating as liars in the > simplest sense but instead fanatically believing in themselves as > champions of a "natural" truth. > > Finchelstein goes beyond "fascist lies" when he says, correctly, that > "fascism does not altogether speak the untruth when it refers to its > own irrational powers, however faked the mythology which > ideologically rationalizes the irrational" (p. 27). The author deals > very well with the implications of this, which are that fascist > "truth" replaced empirical truth, and "fiction displaced reality and > _became _reality" (p. 21). For example, Finchelstein describes the > antisemitic lie, expressed in Nazi propaganda such as the film Der > ewige Jude (1940), with its footage of Polish ghettoes, that Jews > were biologically prone to be dirty and contagious. The empirical > reality was, in fact, a self-fulfilling prophecy: the Nazis created > the very conditions of overcrowding and inadequate sanitation that > made diseases such as typhus a reality. > > This book draws heavily on fascism's irrational (indeed, > antirational) basis and on the powerful myths it used to galvanize a > mass movement. In recognizing the centrality of myth, Finchelstein > aligns with prevailing views on fascism, including Roger Griffin's > argument that the "mythic core" of fascism lies in its palingenetic > ultranationalism.[3] Finchelstein notes, for example, that Mussolini > described Bolshevism as a "rival myth," albeit an inferior one > because it lacked the truth rooted in ultranationalism. Conversely, > the Italian Fascist leader also believed that "reality could not > represent an obstacle to myth" (p. 14). _A Brief History of Fascist > Lies _is very good on the conflict between psychoanalysts, especially > Freud, and the fascists over their conflicting views on the self: > Finchelstein devotes a chapter to this topic. He shows that while > Freud questioned the immutability of souls and critically analyzed > the origins of the sacred, fascists drew from their understandings of > pre-consciousness a notion of the mythic, violent, and, therefore > above all, "true" self. Fascists saw themselves as a conduit for > expressing the subconscious needs of the masses: the result was for > them not a lie but "the moment when transcendental truth was finally > revealed" (p. 21). This higher form of truth was liberated both from > empirical evidence and history, being "intuitive affirmations that > were ... expressions of transhistorical myths" (p. 26). > > A problem for understanding fascism mainly as something that draws on > myth is suggested by the scholarship that emphasizes the movement's > economic, quasi-scientific, and "rational" motivations. This suggests > that at least one aspect of fascism's active appeal was not solely, > at least, about the flags, torchlight processions, salutes, and other > mythic symbols. Ulrike Ehret, for example, argues that Nazi theory on > population resettlement, the unproductiveness of surplus population, > eugenics, and race science was much closer to prevailing "scientific" > reasoning in the interwar years than it was to any "religion."[4] > Some explanations for the Holocaust see that genocide's motivations > as more grubbily economic than anything suggested by Nazism's > rhetoric about an eternal battle between Jewish and "Aryan" souls. > David Cesarani, for example, argued that the genocide can be > explained "rationally" in that it was self-financing, consumed few > resources, and contributed greatly to the German war economy.[5] > Michael Burleigh sees fascism as a "deadly synthesis" of racial > science and "the consolations of a religion."[6] Read in the context > of these other studies, _A Brief History of Fascist Lies _suggests > the need for works that explore the intersections and contradictions > between "rational" economic motives and the irrational aspects of > fascism that Finchelstein concentrates on and is so good at > explaining. > > Finchelstein's key justification for writing this book is the > contemporary relevance of fascist lying as "intellectual lineage" for > Donald Trump (p. 9). Trump's presidency was marked by his accusations > of "fake news," attempts to undermine the empirical scientific > evidence on climate change, xenophobic accusations, and stoking of > right-wing populist resentment around the palingenetic idea of "Make > America Great Again." Finchelstein writes that "today lies are back > in power. We need history to remind us how much violence and racism > happened in such a short period" (p. 1). The author explains that he > has written about the convergence of right-wing populism and fascism > in his previous book, _From Fascism to Populism in History _(2017). > We really need to have read this to properly anticipate the > presentism of _A Brief History of Fascist Lies._ Without doing this, > some contemporary illustrations suggest strong similarities between > Trump's approach to the truth and those of fascists in history, but > without always clearly setting out how fascist myth and > transcendental truth have inflected Trumpism. The author does provide > enough linkage to justify reaching into the present, including that > "after winning, populism pretends that its elected leader > impersonates the people and is their only true representative" (p. > 95) and that the fascist conflation of mythic infallibility and truth > surfaces in the views of people who saw Trump's 2016 victory as > "God's work" (p. 94). > > Fascism's cynical lies have enabled and disguised mass murder, such > as offering workers a socialism freed from "international capitalism" > only to ruthlessly crush the labor movement once in power, or > pretending that Theresienstadt was a "model camp" in the midst of > exterminating Europe's Jews. Finchelstein's book is an important one > because it returns to core fascist ideology to show that this > contained a distorted view of reality operating at a deeper level > than these odious lies, as catastrophic as they were. > > _A Brief History of Fascist Lies _is a well-written and accessible > book that will add to conceptual understandings of fascism. It is > admirably transnational in scope: Finchelstein explores a range of > mainly interwar fascist thought in Mexico, Argentina, China, Japan, > and several other less commonly treated countries, as well as Fascist > Italy and Nazi Germany, as would be expected. To achieve a fuller > understanding of the book's contemporary relevance, it needs to be > read in conjunction with Finchelstein's earlier work on fascism and > populism, and with the developing literature that presents a more > complex analysis of the roots of Trumpism and its challenge to truth > than Finchelstein provides here. Wendy Brown's recent _In the Ruins > of Neoliberalism_ (2019) is a good example, in that it situates the > (mainly American) Far Right alongside a range of other > anti-democratic forces galvanized in the wake of neoliberalism, and > charts how neoliberalism's challenge to the idea of the state fosters > antipathy to objective truth. > > Notes > > [1]. John E. Richardson, _British Fascism: A Discourse-Historical > Analysis, _Explorations of the Far Right Series (Stuttgart: Ibidem, > 2017); Michael Billig, _Fascists: A Social Psychological View of the > National Front_ (London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978)._ _ > > [2]. Richardson, _British Fascism_, 42. > > [3]. Roger Griffin, ed. _Fascism_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, > 1995), 3. > > [4]. Ulrike Ehret, "Understanding the Popular Appeal of Fascism, > National Socialism and Soviet Communism: The Revival of > Totalitarianism Theory and Political Religion," _History Compass _5, > no. 4 (2007): 1236-67; 1246. > > [5]. David Cesarani, "A response to _The Dark Side of Democracy_," in > "Debate on Michael Mann's _The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining > Ethnic Cleansing_," John Breuilly et al., _Nations and Nationalism_ > 12, no. (2006); 389-411; 395. > > [6]. Michael Burleigh, "National Socialism as a Political Religion," > _Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions _1, no. 2 (2000): > 1-26; 11. > > Citation: Joshua Cohen. Review of Finchelstein, Federico, _A Brief > History of Fascist Lies_. H-Socialisms, H-Net Reviews. February, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55795 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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