Explicit Totalitarianism
- This is part of a series:
- Parallels between Falangists and US Fascists
Totalitarianism STATE –INDIVIDUAL –LIBERTY
There are major similarities between the American Hard right and the 1930s Falangist Parties in Spain. One reason I took an interest in the Spanish Falange, aside from Federicko Garcia Lorca is that the Falange were openly totalitarian. They didn't try to hide their authoritarianism and totalitarianism the way some other fascist groups did. The Sixth Plank of their platform established them openly as a Totalitarian movement. If Mussolini gave the word "fascist" to their class of movements. The Phalanx, established a movement that was:
- openly revolutionary,
- Openly Violently Militant, (Hence Falang (falange), Phalanx, which was an ancient Greek Military formation of armed men.
- They saw the State they sought as “a totalitarian instrument to defend the integrity of the fatherland.”
Openly Totalitarian
Thus the Falangists were explicitly totalitarian, fascist and Violent. It was baldly stated in their platform:
The Falange baldly stated that they were a “Totalitarian” movement:
- “when in power all will participate through their “family, municipal, and syndical roles.”
To the Falange, discipline, order, and loyalty were paramount. To the Fascist movement:
- Fascism (Discipline): One is not really free unless he is a part of a strong and free nation. Therefore, all will be disciplined. No rebellion will be tolerated.
- Privatization: The State will only permit “private initiative that are compatible with the collective interest.” It will also “protect and encourage profitable” initiatives.
Royalism and Totalitarianism
Under Franco, the Falange would merge the Carlist (royalist) factions with their own, and purge any elements that took any "leftist" promises seriously. That too is a feature of totalitarian movements. They rest their politics on the power of propaganda and self interest. Hannah Arendt (Pg 347 of Origins of Totalitarianism), they rest their ruthless "positivism" on the notion that:
“on the evaluation that [self] interest as an all-pervasive force in history”
Totalitarian movements assume, similarly to normal ideologies, that “objective laws of power can be discovered” and that such [self] “interest makes governments live or die” This “pragmatic” view that they can use people's myths and prejudices to get and maintain power also means, Ironically, that fascist followers often identify their own interest with the rulers, and this means that once in power fascist movements are rarely pragmatic or utilitarian in practice. Most other political ideologies assume that self interest identifies with common interest. They expect movements and governments to be pragmatic and utilitarian, and to look out for the common good. Fascists on the contrary, as Hannah Arendt notes:
“It is precisely because the utilitarian core of [normal] ideologies was taken for granted, that the anti-utilitarian behavior of Totalitarian governments, their complete indifferance to mass interest has been a shock.” [Arendt]
And the reason is that groups like the Falangist party believed that they could use propaganda, indoctrination, repetition and the practice of the "big lie" to change people's perception of self interest. To provide them with "alternative facts" [to current events]. They knew they could use violence, threats of violence and intimidation to force people to go along with their program and indoctrinate them. To the authoritarian mindset, there is no need for “political parties,” and of “a Parliament of the type that is all too well known.” [platform #6] Because they could use the organs of power and violence to force them into line.
To be Free, One has to be Not Free
All of the Fascist movements, not just the Falange, see strength and hierarchy as more important than personal freedom. When in an Army of a mob on the street, the fascist felt free because he was totally giving himself over to the movement and supporting his fearless leader. Plank item 7 states a fundamental tenant of all fascist movements:
“7. Human dignity, integrity, and freedom are eternal, intangible values. But one is not really free unless he is a part of a strong and free nation.”
The Fascist goal is to convince the ordinary person that it is safer to be a member of the movement than to stand against it. The movement could blackmail compliance, or kill those who opposed them.
Alternative Facts
This concept that freedom is not freedom hands a sign over the world that "work makes you free" as if it were a work camp, because such movements were and always have been into esoteric layers of cynicism and dogma. They see the unity, destiny and "fate" of the movement as paramount and identify that with "nation", "fatherland", or people. For authoritarians self interest and national interest are an identity and what authority tells them it is. If authority tells themselves something different, they are still right and it is either the new facts or "just a ploy" to accomplish some brilliant strategic move.
This tribal, cultish, esoteric approach to movements means that people in the same movement can have entirely different notions of what the movement is about and their role in it. In such movements Anarchists and troubled youths found a comradeship and family identity coupled with the oceanic feeling of putting one's own ego into the ocean of a mob. There is no thinking needed.
Thus it is that people professing notions of individualism or "liberty" get sucked in to the extent they act the exact opposite of their former professed beliefs. Those who don't get involved in fascist movements for the same reason a pick pocket works the crowd, find a license to pickpocket the crowd while pretending to believe. Those who are true believers use pretzel logic to justify the pickpockets. The result is people who believe everything and nothing, for a variety of reasons. The manipulation and lies succeed because the border between reality and fantasy is destroyed. Everyone sustains the lies that protect the movement. Everyone supports the violent deeds that promise a future paradise, whether they believe in that paradise or not. Top layers manipulate the people who form the rank and file. Everyone fears to be kicked out.
Whatever else fascists believe they almost always believed in Nietzche's "Triumph of the Will." They know that if they fight hard enough, or induce enough fear, they could change either the facts or their perception. With enough torture and indoctrination, terrorism, nearly anyone will accept that "2+2=5". If they couldn't make 5 soldiers out of 2+2 they'd draft 6 people and kill one.
Totalitarianism is organized Terrorism. Authoritarians can stop with obedience. Totalitarians want people to smile while being beaten. The Falange acted as Authoritarian once in power.
- For more on Totalitarianism See:
- Authoritarianism versus Totalitarianism
- Democratic Facts -- Review of Democracy in Chains
- Trump's GOP Totalitarian Movement and Propaganda
- Rules for Survival
- For the next piece in this series see:
- Right Wing Syndicalism and Corporatism
- For the previous piece see:
- Right Wing Imperialism, Nationalism and Myths
Further Reading
- The conscious misuse of Myth, Georges Sorel and Fascism
- https://fraughtwithperil.com/cholte/2004/11/29/the-conscious-misuse-of-myth-georges-sorel-and-fascism/
- Georges Sorel, the Power of Myth (Review)
- https://fraughtwithperil.com/cholte/2006/09/10/georges-sorel-the-power-of-myth/
Additional readings
- https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/falange
- The conscious misuse of Myth, Georges Sorel and Fascism
- https://fraughtwithperil.com/cholte/2004/11/29/the-conscious-misuse-of-myth-georges-sorel-and-fascism/
- Georges Sorel, the Power of Myth (Review)
- https://fraughtwithperil.com/cholte/2006/09/10/georges-sorel-the-power-of-myth/
- https://fraughtwithperil.com/cholte/2006/12/14/strategy-and-tactics-myth-and-reality/
- https://fraughtwithperil.com/cholte/2011/02/20/laying-down-the-gauntlet/
- https://www.americanblackshirts.com/single-post/2015/03/04/The-Twenty-Six-Point-Program-of-the-Falange
- http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-life-of-garcia-lorca-and-fascist.html quotes taken in August 2018. I also have them in several of my books and from other webpages.
- https://www.amazon.com/Federico-Garcia-Lorca-Ian-Gibson/dp/0571142249
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falangism
- Quote taken from book;
- "National Identities and Socio-Political Changes in Latin America" By Antonio Gomez-Moriana, Mercedes Duran-Cogan page 112
- https://books.google.com/books?id=PWjhAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA112&lpg=PA112&dq=One+Nation,+One+Faith,+One+people+Spain&source=bl&ots=wSBJa8Qato&sig=aEsGLSukCZr_2PQE8FwjahO-CKE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjp1YGT09XcAhVNx1kKHW6bC0kQ6AEwB3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=One%20Nation%2C%20One%20Faith%2C%20One%20people%20Spain&f=false
From My own writings
Used in this Post
*note, I'm writing this because I'm finding that the material available on wikipedia, and in other sources, has been altered. Sources challenged that I have hard copies of, or remember reading in the library. And misinformation substituted. I should probably weigh in on the wiki battles, as one can provide original sources to them and get the material restored. [I hope] All with the obvious purpose of softening the impact of the Spanish Inquisition, Catholic Fascism, and Franco. Catholic Fascism doesn't meant that all Catholics are fascists, but it has been a reality of either factions in, or the official leadership, of the Church for centuries. Authoritarianism has been part of the Doctrine, since the Pope started insisting his primacy over the other patriarchs, and really since the Roman Empire started using the Church as a tool to rule their people. Efforts to excise the negative consequences of authoritarian behavior, are part of that behavior. My wife was an expert on this subject. I'm not. I inherited a small library on this subject when she died and I see a necessity to set the record straight as long as I can, as my country, the USA, is currently going fascist.
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