Showing posts with label Falange. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Falange. Show all posts

Sunday, March 17, 2019

The Birth of Falange Fascism

Origins of Spanish Totalitarianism

The life of José Antonio Primo De Rivera teaches us that fascism doesn't appear out of a vacuum. Afterwards, usually will admit they ever were fascist, but during the buildup to Fascism, fascism grows out of little selfish decisions that involve using hate and fear to serve ambition. Spanish Fascism didn't start with José Antonio Primo De Rivera, it started with the dictatorship of his father. With the invasion of North Africa and with a gradual polarization between the left and the right. Primo de Rivera was later made into a hero. Why? Because he died at the outset of the Spanish Civil war and it was convenient to his fellow Fascists and their movement. He was no hero. Like all Fascist leaders, he was a ruthless, opportunist politician.

Miguel Primo De Rivera

In Hannah Arendt's "Origins of Totalitarianism" she profiles the relationship between European Fascism and its associated "eliminatist" rhetoric, and colonialism. José Antonio Primo De Rivera's father illustrates this role. Miguel Primo De Rivera was born to a wealthy family in Jerez, Spain, in 1870. Before he ever entered Spanish politics he served in the Spanish Colonial army and took part in the colonial wars in Morocco, Cuba and the Philippines, in the 1890s. After the First World War Miguel Primo de Rivera held several important military posts including the captain-generalship of Valencia, Madrid and Barcelona. On the death of his uncle in 1921 he became Marques de Estella.

What is Done to Others Abroad, Eventually is done at Home

One Inspiration for Fascism is in colonial warfare, which was far more brutal, especially to the people living in colonies, than what people experienced inside of Europe, that the habits of divide and rule, brutality, exploitation, and manipulation were developed and refined that contributed to the rise of chauvinistic nationalism at home.

Messy Democracy

Democracy is messy, and any corruption is usually out in the open where all can see. There is a tendency among authoritarian leaders to paint the problem with corrupt government as being with democratic forms. And Miguel De Rivera, used to authority and discipline reacted to efforts to establish Democratic forms in Spain with violence. He made friends with Prince Alfonso XIII.

Alfonso the XIII – Proto-Fascist

Alfonso the XIII was an autocratic ruler opposed to democratic forms in the nation. He had assumed bout in 1902, and by 1906 was the target of an assassination attempt on his wedding day. Spain was becoming unstable. Spanish wars in North Africa were unpopular at home. Abandonistas wanted to pull out of Morocco. Africanistas wanted to expand the Spanish Empire.

Launching a Coup, Monarch as Dictator

The imperialist "Africanistas" were a minority, but the King backed them.

“Blamed for the Spanish defeat in the Moroccan War (1921) Alfonso XIII was in constant conflict with Spanish politicians. His anti-democratic views encouraged Miguel Primo de Rivera to lead a military coup in 1923. Alfonso gave his support to Rivera's military dictatorship” [Spartacus]

Dictator from 1923-1930

From 1923-1930 Miguel De Rivera ruled Spain as a Dictator. Miguel

“promised to eliminate corruption and to regenerate Spain. In order to do this he suspended the constitution, established martial law and imposed a strict system of censorship.” [Spartacus-Rivera]

Of course he didn't eliminate corruption, or stay in office only for 90 days. Authoritarian rulers rarely do. He created the Unión Patriótica Española, and tried to outlaw other parties.

Colonialism and Fascism

He did ally with the French to prosecute the Rif War. Spain had proven too weak to take the Rif (northern part of Modern Morocco) by themselves. They needed an alliance with the French, but by 1925, with the use of chemical weapons (mustard gas) they'd subdued the Rifians enough to force their leader to surrender. It was General Dámaso Berenguer who used that Mustard Gas in the Rif. Berenguer was subsequently court marshaled for plotting an uprising before Miguel's coup. Miguel pardoned him. The warfare continued til 1927.

Fascists Fail

Miguel tried to raise taxes on the rich to pay for his wars, which alienated his base. When that didn't work he borrowed money. By 1930 the combination of ill health and increasing opposition forced him to resign. By March he died of diabetes. His Son would take up his mantle and continue his legacy.

Trying to Save a Flailing Monarchy

When Miguel died, King Alfonzo XIII first appointed General Dámaso Berenguer. When that failed he gave the government to Admiral Juan Bautista Aznar. Both attempts to save the crown failed, and King Alfonso had to go into exile, in April 1931. The Second Spanish Republic was born in April 1931.

Defending his Father

José Antonio Primo De Rivera would pick up where his father left off. His bios say he got into politics defending his father's ideas. Meanwhile he studied Fascism. He would fall in love with Mussolini and Hitler's ideas. But those ideas were already incipient in Spanish Culture Some tracing back to pre-Columbian times.

This narrative picks up in the post:

The Death of José Primo De Rivera
https://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2018/10/TheDeathOfPrimoDeRivera.html
Related Posts:
Garcia Lorca
Falangist Terror versus Garcia Lorca
Garcia Lorca and Charlie Chaplin
The Death of Garcia Lorca
Biographies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Antonio_Primo_de_Rivera
https://spartacus-educational.com/SPantonio.htm
Miguel: https://spartacus-educational.com/SPrivera.htm
The Spanish Phalanx and Latin America
https://www.alamy.com/spanish-civil-war-el-fascio-magazine-published-by-the-spanish-falange-party-in-the-1930s-image210364277.html
Garcia Lorca, A Life, by Ian Gibson:
https://www.amazon.com/Federico-Garcia-Lorca-Ian-Gibson/dp/0571142249
https://spartacus-educational.com/SPAchronology.htm
https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWfranco.htm
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/new.htm

Friday, November 16, 2018

Garcia Lorca and Charlie Chaplin

Naturally, As soon as I finished my post “The Death of Garcia Lorca”, I'm lying in bed and I start thinking:

“Hoover!”, “Garcia Lorca!”, “Emma Goldman!”, “Red Scares!”

Garcia Lorca should have lived a long and productive life had he not been shot down in a fusilade of bullets along with other "rebels" in 1936.” There are real parallels.

Darn! I'm not done. Oh no! Oh My! “Charlie Chaplin was in many ways our Garcia Lorca!”

Thursday, November 15, 2018

The Death of Garcia Lorca

This post follows where I wrote in the post: “The Life of Garcia Lorca and Fascist Spain.”

Garcia Lorca, knew with a massive dread that his days were probably numbered. Yet he soldiered on in his project to improve the live of Spaniards and Spanish people in general.

Thursday, November 1, 2018

The Death of José Antonio Primo De Rivera

One reason I started latching onto José Antonio Primo De Rivera and Federico Garcia Lorca, is that after fascism fails in a country, no one usually will admit they ever were fascist. That is not so much the case with José Antonio Primo De Rivera. To Spanish speaking Fascists, Primo de Rivera is still a hero. Why? Because he too died at the outset of the Spanish Civil war. General Francisco Franco made Primo De Rivera a hero, and thus he became enshrined in Catholic, Falange, Fascism ever more, as a hero. He was no hero. Spanish Fascism didn't originate with Primo De Rivera it originated as much with his father and King Alfonso.

Lessons Learned

There are three main lessons to be learned from Rivera, his life, and his death:

  1. General Fancisco Franco was doing what Fascists do; creating myths.
  2. Killing the leader of a totalitarian group does not stop the movement.
  3. Fascists turn scoundrels into heroes.

Friday, October 19, 2018

Falangist Fascism and Terror versus Federico Garcia Lorca

I started reading a biography of Federico Garcia Lorca as a diversion from what is going on with Trump and his Trumpers. With Horror I soon realized that what was going on in Spain was so similar to the present that reading that book was no longer a pleasure but something I had to dive into. The reason? The Right Wing in the United States is looking more and more like the 1930s Falange down to the details. The result was that I had to study the Falange down to its details, before I could digest what happened to Garcia Lorca. They murdered him. For more on this:

Garcia Lorca
The Life of Garcia Lorca
Garcia Lorca and Charlie Chaplin
The Death of Garcia Lorca

Falange Fascism

Falange was fascism in a pure form. In the end, whether it is falangism and its offshoots, Nazism, Stalinism, Pol Potism, Maoism, or whatever, these ideologies are authoritarian, kleptocratic, kakacratic and violent. They were and are driven by a cruel mood of the citizenry and their leadership and a viciousness that is not even masked by the pretend glories and righteousness of the totalitarian movements that conduct the viciousness. The Falange went to war with liberals, progressives and people of good will in Spain. They went to war with principles of ecumenicism, equality, liberty, fraternity, good will, multiculturalism. They saw different dialects as an enemy of the State. They saw religious liberty as heresy. And they saw human freedom as perversity. Ironically that dogmatic authoritarianism led the Fascists to go on a vicious and blood thirsty rampage.

People of fundamental good will, like Federico Garcia Lorca, never had a chance of surviving the raw power of such hate. Even so killing Lorca made him a hero and a martyr to a cause and his name still stands for something opposite of the fascism of the Falangists and of Franco. Franco is now a name remembered by most people with Shame. Lorca is now celebrated by much of the Spanish Speaking World. He is still a difficult subject for people with rigid beliefs. He was to the left, and gay. For more:

This continues: The Life of Garcia Lorca and Fascist Spain

Celebrating a Life

http://holtesthoughts.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-life-of-garcia-lorca-and-fascist.html
https://www.amazon.com/Federico-Garcia-Lorca-Ian-Gibson/dp/0571142249

What Is Falangism?

The Word Falange comes from the Spanish for "Phalanx". Similar fascist movements in other countries have a similar meaning. I have a series of posts on Falangism:

These start with:
Parallels between Falangists and the American Right Wing
And:
This post flows from the introduction in the post: The 26 Point Plank of the Falangist Party
Then I break down the subject into a number of posts:
  1. Right Wing Imperialism, & Myth Making
  2. Right Wing Explicit Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism
  3. Right Wing National Syndicalism and Corporatism
  4. Right Wing Land Reform and Privatization
  5. Right Wing Chauvinism and Indoctrination
  6. Right Wing Violent Revolution And Dictatorship
  7. Parallels between Falange fascists and US Fascists on Abortion
Falangism and Fascism:
The Birth of Falange Fascism
The Death of Primo De Rivera
Operation Condor, Exporting Fascism to South America

I was going to update this later within the post. But I found myself exploring a maze of related subjects and things happening in the United States kept taking me down new rabbit holes. So I've got a number of separate and related posts now, instead.

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Right Wing Violent Revolution and Dictatorship

Revolutionary Violence

The Falange Party Sought Violent National Revolution

“The Falange Espanola Tradicionalista y de las JONS shall engage in “direct, bold and combative” revolution.”

The Falange like other fascist groups had in common the attachment to violence both as a tool for seeking and maintaining power; and a tool for indoctrination and propaganda. The Word "Falange comes from the Greek Military formation known as the Phalanx. The Falange like the Fascists in Italy and the Nazis in Germany, saw themselves as a spearhead for revolution. Jose Antonio Primo De Rivera and Franco, both saw violent revolution as a solution to the problem of “Republicanism” and “Permissivism.”

This is part of a series:
Parallels between Falangists and US Fascists

Monday, October 1, 2018

Parallels between Falange Fascists and US Fascists -- Abortion

Someone on Twitter was comparing the Europeans and the USA on abortion. He claimed:

“why is there such a national obsession with abortion?”

Well it is not entirely true that this is only an issue in the United States

This is part of a series:
Parallels between Falangists and US Fascists

Thursday, September 6, 2018

Authoritarian versus Totalitarian

Left or Right, Authoritarian or Totalitarian?

The Fascist movements were totalitarian movements. In office they were always authoritarian but not always totalitarian. The difference is a matter of degree not intent. Both totalitarian and authoritarian movements and governments are extreme and have certain common characteristics, left or right. The difference is in the word "total." My source here is "Origins of Totalitarianism" [Hannah Arendt], Altemeyer and other scholars.

Totalitarian Attributes

  • Total power to rule by a mob like party obedient to the movement and its leadership.
  • Absolute power residing in the head of State
  • Enforcement of ideological conformity via State and extralegal power.
  • Total control of the military.
  • Controlled Communication, enforced by police, party members & spies
  • Arbitrary use of police power to enforce obedience
  • Centralization of both economic and political power

Authoritarian Attributes

There is overlap between totalitarian and Authoritarian Attributes. But the defining word here is "authoritarian".

  • Authoritarian movements create mythical narratives of an idealized future, look back on an idealized past, offer easy solutions to current problems but for the behavior of some enemy.
  • Authoritarian movements create heroes and expect people to worship and follow the leader.
  • They find and setup Scapegoats, teach grievience & demonize "enemies."
  • They require obedience, faith and respect for the authority of people and doctrines deemed "authorized."
  • They expect obedience and outward expression of faith in that Dogma.
  • Their Dogma is always conflictive towards heretics, non-movement members & scapegoats.
  • Their followers put faith over reality and therefore engage in pretzel thinking to maintain their deification of their leaders. They depend on exaggerated cognitive dissonance, compartmentalization, fantasy. This creates a deep hypocrisy, & self blindness, in members of the movement.

Dichotomy between Attributes of Leaders and Followers

Authoritarian movements, in power, may or may not achieve totalitarian power. But the movements are almost always totalitarian whether or not they act that way in power. Authoritarian movements are based on fandom. They are cults, political or religious become political. The fearless leader (alive or from some past mythical figure) is like a God to the followers. His infallibility is often in inverse proportion to the actual capability, decency or wisdom of current leaders. The followers have one set of characteristics. The leaders range from Authoritarian follower attributes to similar Exploitive, Manipulative, Amoral and Dishonest [EMAD] traits of the top leadership.

Related posts:
Fighting Authoritarianism
Review of Altemeyer

EMAD leaders

I've been writing an extended review of the Falangists in connection to what started as highly personal reading about the playwrite Federico Garcia Lorca and his death at the hands of the Falangists. The fearless leader of the Falangists was initially Jose Antonio Primo De Rivera, who set the agenda but died before he got into power. General Francisco Franco took his place. Franco was more authoritarian in power than totalitarian. But it was still deadly to be a democratic republican or a critic of the Falangists once he was in power. I wanted to put a post out to explain the distinction between authoritarian power and totalitarian power. Authoritarian is Catholic and Orthodox but usually lawful. Totalitarian is radical.

Left or Right do not refer to Economics

The word "right wing" if it refers to economics, is misleading. In France in the 1790s when the term was first invented, the left was "on the side of the people" literally, and the "right" were the hierarchs of prelates, landlords/nobility and powerful interests of the ancient regime. Over time the terms came to be applied to economic dogmas. However, the right was authoritarian in France. It wanted to keep power and privilege over the people. Eventually the leaders of the revolution emerged as equally EMAD and their followers as continuing to be authoritarian followers.

Authoritarian Followers

Therefore in the case of talking about Authoritarian followers "right wing" refers to the original definition of the right as being that on the side of authority and hierarchy. Compared to the modern USA right wing, the Falange, Italian Fascistas and even the Nazis, seem economically "socialist" and "left wing" by comparison to the aspirations and totalitarian dreams of the far right in our country. This is a diversion. An example of Totalitarian propaganda is the use of deceptive gray propaganda, "white propaganda" which is at least somewhat accurate, and

Black Propaganda Against Democracy

Conserving Praxis while adapting propaganda to the Times

There are major similarities between the American Hard right and the 1930s Falangist Parties in Spain. There are also differences between the content of their propaganda and modern propaganda, but the same underlying method (praxis) is the same. The similarities and differences between the Falange 26 points, the Nazi agenda and the USA planks of our own Hard right reflect underlying common desires for power and accommodations to the conditions of the country they are using propaganda to try to win over. Fascist movements are ruthless and machiavellian their leaders have a defined agenda, but don't really care about facts in order to get their. They adopt and discard doctrines expediently. This reflects the EMAD traits of the leadership. The Falange were Catholic, their followers authoritarian Catholic. In Germany the country was evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants, so the Nazis modified their plank to accommodate both. Similar behavior is observed in fascist movements around the country. They all have the traits I describe. Most Fascist movements dream of empire of some kind. All three planks said similar things when it came to basic fascist traits. Similar traits go with left fascists. Both give lip service to freedom, improvement, etc... but their core goals are xenophobic, imperial, authoritarian and about controlling the people not giving them an independent voice.

Modern Fascist/Authoritarians Are extremist

The reason modern propagandists and ideologues, like Dinesh D'Souza, can claim that they aren't doing the same thing as other 1930s hyper-nationalist movements is that in the 1930s the nationalists had to give at least lip service to labor. Since World War II incipient fascist movements, fearing labor, actual liberty and actual democracy, spent time demonizing the basic ideas of the labor movement so that modern fascists wouldn't have to pay lip service to them. They succeeded so well that many workers no longer even realize they've been stripped of rights and freedoms. The original red necks wore red kerchiefs and supported the labor movement. If Franco had had a 80 year base of proto-fascist propaganda to build on he would have done pretty much the same as he did do, except with no pretense that his top down Syndicates were for the sake of labor.

More Extremist than the extremes of the 30s

For at least 40 years, since the major protoganists of World War II started fading into the winds, the fascist strategy has been to try to hide their more racist and violent tropes behind abstraction and dog whistles and to focus on recruiting people using narratives that prey on fear, anxiety, and the very fact that labor has been stripped of power and a future.

Therefore the Falange 26 point program, Hitlers Nazi Program, of course, have even more points of similarity than modern fascists. People like Dinesh D'Souza can misrepresent such planks, because they express the exigencies of politicians and their followers, and so some elements sound superficially like the programs that any party might make. But they are very different documents from the kinds of planks a traditional party like the Democrats, or the pre-Trump Republicans, might have put forth.

Fear Myths

As discussed in the post, Right Wing Imperialism and Myth, the Right Wing uses the tools of interpretation and narrative to build images of how the universe is, should be, and could be, and then manipulates that myth to indoctrinate people with fear, anger and the idea that they are entitled to redress grievances. It is hard to fight myths, except with other myths that are more fundamentally true. Myths boil down complex realities to easy to understand slogans, concepts, tied to images of bravery and heroes. It is no accident that Mussolini, Trump, Hitler and other dictators throughout history, strike similar poses. Napoleon with his hand in his jacket is trying to pose as brave, mighty, heroic. If Trump sometimes looks like Mussolini with a hair piece, it's not an accident.

Hijacking Myths

For Sorel, concepts like "General Strike", "syndicalism" were supposed to be positive myths, that he wanted to use to counter the propaganda used by authoritarian and business opponents to labor aspirations. Unfortunately myths are powerful, and once people are entranced by a powerful myth coupled with fear and anger, they can be mobilized to war, to genocide to overthrow systems that actually were benefiting them. Myths that were originally designed to move people to fight for the general good become a tool for the ambition of EMAD leaders and their flying monkey EMAD senior followers.

The falangists in Spain hijacked the concept of syndicalism, which had originally been associated with democratic principles and "leftist" economic thinking, and harnesed it to a movement that was anti-democratic, violent and right wing. They used sophisticated arguments to advocate for an authoritarian state. The Website that carries the Falange platform quotes Thierry Maulnier:

“Democracy and Capitalism are one and the same evil: they can only be overthrown together. A regenerated nation, a better future a flourishing peace can only spring up on their ruins.” RW Page: [blackshirts page]
-Thierry Maulnier

The Party Program is at this webpage:

https://www.americanblackshirts.com/single-post/2015/03/04/The-Twenty-Six-Point-Program-of-the-Falange

Seeking Power Keeping power

EMAD maps to the attributes of Narcissism. The leaders all exhibit the "Dark Triad" of Narcissist, Sociopathic and machiavelian leaders and authoritarian followers. In power they seek totalitarian control, not only to realize their dark utopian dreams, but to force people to believe in their leaders and act like they are realizing them. While seeking power they often spell out goals that are at odds with their more inward goals, or that state them in language that obfuscates their true intent. This is the case with the 26 Point Program, less to a certain extent than other Fascist movements.

Authoritarian is ultimately Royalist

The Falange Party used the myth of royal and imperial Spain to build up the myth of Royal Spain as the end state of Fascist Spain. The Falange party merged with the Royalist "Carlists" in 1937 after Franco took over generalship of the movement because Fascism is ultimately about a return to the past. It goes beyond conservatism to reifying a glorious past, that usually never was. Franco would name the single party state the "Traditionalist Spanish Phalanx and of the Councils of the National Syndicalist Offensive" and make it the sole legal party of the Francoist State in Spain. Franco also purged any remaining "leftist" [code for pro-worker] factions of the Falange movement.

Militarism is part of Selling the Myths

Sorel had written:

““…..Men who are participating in a great social movement always picture their coming action as a battle in which their cause is certain to triumph. These constructions, knowledge of which is so important for historians,”

The myth of a grandiose mythic utopias of a glorious, now threatened past, a mythic future, is designed to get people dreaming. Amway style salesmen read "the power of positive thinking." It is all about constructing a potential future in ones' mind and then finding a way to make it reality. One can architect from the same bricks a cathedral or a prison. Unfortunately, those who build on faulty myths tend to create their own prisons. Sorel had seen the reality at the beginning of the 20th century:

“I propose to call myths; the syndicalist “general strike” and Marx’s catastrophic revolution are such myths. As remarkable examples of such myths, I have given those which were constructed by primitive Christianity, by the Reformation, by the Revolution and by the followers of Mazzini.”

Learning from Sorel

Sorel had put a psychological, sociological, pretty much scientific take on the architecturing of society and the myths that feed it. To Sorel these were historical forces:

“that we should not attempt to analyze such groups of images in the way that we analyze a thing into its elements, but that they must be taken as a whole, as historical forces, and that we should be especially careful not to make any comparison between accomplished fact and the picture people had formed for themselves before action.“

Myths motivate people whether they are achieved or not. There is a saying that we are "the wolf we feed." When the magicians who spin myths spin ugly myths, the results are ugly. When the results of a movement never quite measure up to the vision, scapegoats are found, lies are told, people are forced to continue believing "or else." That leads to Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism: STATE –INDIVIDUAL –LIBERTY

The Falanists were openly totalitarian. The Sixth Plank of their platform established them openly as a Totalitarian movement. They were:

  • openly revolutionary,
  • Openly Violently Militant, (Hence Falang (falange), Phalanx, which was an ancient Greek Military formation of armed men.
  • The State they sought as “a totalitarian instrument to defend the integrity of the fatherland.”

Royalism and Totalitarianism

Later, under Franco, they would merge the Carlist (royalist) factions with their own, and purge any elements that took their more "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 Ironically 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]

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" [current events] 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]

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.”
Alternative Facts

They could hang a sign saying "work makes you free" over the gates of a work-camp because the unity, destiny and "fate" of the fatherland was paramount and the fascist was to give him or herself over to it. This was anti the professed notions of anarchists and libertarians, that self-interest was paramount. But for authoritarians, self interest is what authority tells them it is. 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. Thus it is that people professing notions of individualism or "liberty" get sucked in. Those who don't get involved in fascist movements for the same reason a pick pocket works the crowd. Their own self interest meant inventing the lies that sustain the movement, manipulating the people who form the rank and file. Even the true believer leaders among them had no qualms about profiteering, privateering and outright bribery and theft, because lying about it was in their self interest.

If the Will Doesn't Triumph, Raw Power will

Indeed much of the ruthlessness of fascism, lay in the need to try to convince people that what they were doing, would result one day, in a paradise to the benefit of all true believers, ruthless leaders and fathers. They also believed in Nietzche's "Triumph of the Will." They thought that if they fought hard enough, they could change the facts. At the very least they could force people into a severe delusion where they'd say what the party or its leader told them; "2+2=5". If they couldn't make 5 soldiers out of 2+2 they'd draft 6 people and kill one.

This is enough for this post.

Sources and 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/
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/falange

From My own writings

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/

Used in this Post

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

Friday, August 31, 2018

Right wing Syndicalism and Corporatism

Syndicalism; Labor, Corporations, mobs

The Spanish Falange under both Jose Antonio Primo De Rivera and later Franco was an explicitly fascist, totalitarian movement when out of power. Franco was authoritarian in power. I'm examining their plank because it is as illustrative of fascism as studying the planks of Nazis, Portuguese Fascists or Italian Fascists.

Most early Fascist parties, especially in the "Mediterranean" fascist countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy & Vichy France), touted syndicalism as a "third way" that would be more just than pure socialism or capitalism. Syndicates are essentially organizations of people combined to promote some common interest.

Unfortunately

  • Workers form Syndicates
  • Employers form Syndicates
  • Mobsters form Syndicates
This is part of a series:
Parallels between Falangists and US Fascists

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Right Wing -- Imperialism, Nationalism, Myth!

Parallels between the Falangists and the American Right wing – War-mongering and Hyper-nationalism

Jose Antonio Primo De Rivera Founder of the Falange Party
This is part of a series:
Parallels between Falangists and US Fascists

Monday, August 20, 2018

Parallels between the Falangists and the American Right wing

Parallels between the Falangists and the American Right wing

There are major similarities between the American Hard right and 30s Fascism. It is a complex subject so it took me a while to cover all the pieces. The Falange party was Spanish Fascism. Like fascism in other Mediterranean countries it was a teaming between a relatively amoral core base and Catholic radicals. The hard right cannot exist without the support of conservatives. Other Fascist movements eventually failed because their amoral and ambitious core base challenged the Catholic Church. Under Franco, the Falange succeeded to survive World War II and weren't dismantled until Franco died, with some influence continuing to the present day. Mussolini, Juan Peron and other similar Fascist groups failed, because they challenged the Catholic Church to one degree or another. Franco's Fascism was an intensely Catholic Fascism. Modern Catholics can try to spin this, but it was obvious.

Falangist Parties in Spain. These are best expressed by summarizing from the 6 Categories in the 26 Point platform referred to in the header meme.

This post flows from the introduction in the post: The 26 Point Plank of the Falangist Party

These are:

  1. Right Wing Imperialism, & Myth Making
  2. Right Wing Explicit Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism
  3. Right Wing National Syndicalism and Corporatism
  4. Right Wing Land Reform and Privatization
  5. Right Wing Chauvinism and Indoctrination
  6. Right Wing Violent Revolution And Dictatorship
  7. Parallels between Falange fascists and US Fascists on Abortion

In my next series of posts I'll be referring to the 26 point Program of the Falange Party, with a separate essay on all 6 points, their meaning, and comparing them to others. It is hard not to see the similarities and contrasts. The Falange 26 point program, Hitlers Nazi Program, all have points of similarity. This is obvious to almost anyone who looks at them, except for those trying to gaslight the subject.

Sunday, August 12, 2018

The 26 Point Plank of the Falangist Party

Parallels between the Falangists and the American Right wing

There are major similarities between the American Hard right and 30s Falangist Parties in Spain. In my next series of posts I'll be referring to the 26 point Program of the Falange Party, it's meaning, and comparing it to the current platforms of the hard right here and in other countries. It is hard not to see the similarities and contrasts. The Falange 26 point program, Hitlers Nazi Program, all have points of similarity. This is obvious to almost anyone who looks at them, except for those trying to gaslight the subject.

This is part of a series:
Parallels between Falangists and US Fascists

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

The Life of Garcia Lorca and Fascist Spain

What is going on has been so dark, I thought I'd take a break from #Trumpenführer's effort to inject fascism into the USA. So what do I do? I start reading a bio of Federico Garcia Lorca, by Ian Gibson. If I wanted to ease my mind about Fascism, he was exactly the wrong person to read. Or maybe it was my destiny and the emergence of imminence that was speaking to me that "now is the time to finish reading him." Unfortunately, the book reveals parallels to current times.

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Turning "Our Revolution" into Piqueteros

The Lost Patrol of Piqueteros/"burn it down" activists

The Far left wing in much of the world is into violent revolution, "burn it down", "destroy the establishment," and replace the current system. That is similar to the goal of the Far Right. But in the hands of corrupt leadership, compromised leaders or leaders who won't work well with each other, the people who engage in such "revolution" become one or all the following:

  • Useful Idiots, people who cancel the efforts of each other and give dictators and corrupt organizations by canceling their own efforts.
  • Controlled opposition,, who will go after a dictators enemies as proxies for them. Sometimes instigated by trolls, agent provocateurs, corrupting agents, or traitors. Sometimes good people behave badly due to blackmail or bribes.
  • Unsound followers of authoritarian ideology,; who follow sociopathic or narcissistic leaders and have a deluded ideology that cannot ever work out as dreamed of by those followers. The Far Right has morphed into such a totalitarian movement led by a nascent dictator. A similar tendancy exists in the far left. Whenever people follow leaders blindly, they fall into the authoritarian trap.

Wise people hold principles that include working for the common good, trading lesser goals for greater objectives and recognizing the importance of thresholds and mutual equity. Sometimes to achieve a threshold capability one has to be willing to trade off ideals. People who can't adjust to reality are idealists (by definition). Such people usually let "the perfect be the enemy of the good" and are easily manipulated by trolls, agent provocateurs or demagogues.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Libertarian Bait and Switch -- The role of James M Buchanan

I'm wading through a rather large book named "Democracy in Chains" by Nancy MacLean. The book focuses on James M. Buchanan, the Koch Brothers and their role in allowing elitist activsts to use exoteric movements to promote esoteric causes via deception and manipulation. Her book focuses on how the Far right expresses itself through movements that are basically projects of program offices based in far right institutions. She fills in much of the story of how the University of Virginia helped birth a deeply subversive movement when it founded "Thomas Jefferson Center for Studies in Political Economy." It follows familiar territories and provides missing pieces to the puzzle of how this all was integrated. She helps demonstrate how:

"What we think of as dysfunction is the result of years of strategic effort." [Review]

Friday, August 4, 2017

The Lost Piqueteros of the Radical Left movements

https://goo.gl/images/nJ136x

My wife and I couldn't visit Argentina for the first few years we were married. Her passport was good everywhere but back home, yet Argentina lacked passport quality paper to make new passports, and so if she'd returned to Argentina she'd have been stuck there. She would have had to renew her passport there and it would have been months before they could do so. That is how dysfunctional Argentina was. She had no control over her own finances, her own money supply, etc...

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Gresham's law as a Tool of Regulation

Gresham's law, in a sovereign country, becomes a tool to manage money. So-called "Good money" becomes a commodity, measured by the governments accounts, paper and issue. Bad money is really money that is outside the control of society. In this post I explain why "good money" tends to be actually bad money, from the Point of View of Society as a Whole.

It is a faulty assumption that rare commodities like gold or silver are better money than, say the bronze tokens the Romans use. Good money is actually money that:

  • holds its value (is safe),
  • is readily used and accepted in markets
  • and that stays in Circulation long enough to support payrolls and investment in capital goods & services.

Therefore it is an illusion that gold and silver is "good money" unless your point of view is one of wealthy people who need portable assets that they can hoard. It is a faulty assumption.

Moreover, actual good money is based on the "full faith and credit" of the goods and services it buys and sells. That implies several additional things:

Money must be regulated through taxation.
Money holds its value when unearned and excessive quantities of it are removed from circulation by taxation.
When there is an alternative to private credit instruments.
When it is backed by goods and services.