From the comments of the
MetaFilter thread referenced
earlier, here's Umberto Eco's article from 1995,
"Eternal Fascism: 14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt." I'd never seen this before today, and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with it.
Ur-Fascism is still around us, sometimes in plainclothes. It would be so much easier for us if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, "I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Blackshirts to parade again in the Italian squares." Life is not that simple. Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances — every day, in every part of the world. Franklin Roosevelt's words of November 4, 1938, are worth recalling: "If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land." Freedom and liberation are an unending task.
# posted by
Gerry Canavan @ 1:58 PM
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