What Is Fascism?

Nazism, an extremely violent and extremism that caused the death of millions of Jews during the Nazi era. But why did fascism appear? What is fascism? In today's video, let's find out.

Fascism was born after the end of World War I. This is theism that, according to its proponent Mussolini of Italy and later Hitler of Germany, both considered it to be the greatest regime, overcoming all the disadvantages of capitalism and socialism.

 

The word "Fascism" is derived from the Latin "Fasces" from ancient Rome. In Roman times "Fasces" was a symbol of a bundle of wood tied together to form an ax handle, it meant that "each wooden stick is very weak, but tied in bundles will be very strong to form the handle of an ax, which will cut off all injustice." In Germany, the fascist symbolism was inspired by the swastika representing the Aryans, a people they consider to be the origin of Germanic civilization and an outstanding race, surpassing all others peoples in Europe, including Jews or Slavs.

 

We know that Hitler was a genius orator, and Mussolini was no less when he was the editor-in-chief of a famous newspaper. With eloquence, these two characters stood up to call and initiate a movement to restore the country. The common idea is to unite, determined to turn their country into a powerful, superior empire.

 

The first fascist movement born in Italy under the leadership of Mussolini was very quickly received with many supporters, especially the bourgeoisie. They pumped a lot of money into the movement because at that time communism was thriving, the capitalists were afraid of having all their assets confiscated and added to the general fund.

 

If to define fascism, it is actually very complicated and unclear, because each country, each leader has a different type of fascism, as well as 5 modern socialist countries Vietnam, China and North Korea are not the same. However, in general, fascism also has the following main characteristics:

 

First, fascism puts the interests of the country first, their goal is very clear, which is to do everything to turn their country into a strong and great empire. Therefore, fascism very much hates socialism because socialists believe that: "at a certain stage when people are aware of work and do as they please, the management is unnecessary and the state will disappear, because the state was only created to manage and now no longer needs to be managed, so there is no need for the state to do anything.

 

This completely contradicts fascism, where everyone has to sacrifice personal interests to serve the country, for them the country is also the life of each citizen. To achieve this goal, the fascist state is very extreme and violent, for example with Germany, they believe that "the Aryan race is a superior race, only people of this race can help the nation develop". Therefore, they seek to purify the country by destroying the races they consider to be cowardly and weaker such as Jews and Slavs.

 

In addition, people with disabilities, homosexuals or those who do not share the same views, do not bring value will also be exiled or deported. With Nazi Germany, only men were as brave as warriors, and women only needed to do well in the task of giving birth to warriors of Aryan descent. Therefore, Hitler advocated abortion, especially those that were deformed, unhealthy, or were not of Aryan bloodline. But it is against the law to have an abortion with healthy Aryan blood.

 

In addition to the purge, the Nazis also asked all people to put personal interests below, national interests above all. That is why we have the second feature that the economy of fascism is a state-managed economy. It does not add all the wealth to the general fund like socialism, but also does not leave the economy free like capitalism, but instead the state will manage, who produces what? How much to produce? are also directed by the state, but mainly for items needed for war such as weapons, food or medical equipment.

 

Fascism also does not encourage exports, because it will be dependent on other countries, they tend to be self-sufficient, self-sufficient, because that will always be stable and sustainable.

 

The third feature is that of a regime, one party leader like Germany is Nazi Germany or Italy is Fascist Italy. Fascism considers having multiple leaders as a decline in power, and only one Party and one leader can always unify the direction from top to bottom. And so, any organization or individual that goes against the direction or intends to oppose will be coerced by force and violence. In general, fascism is very extreme.

The fourth feature, fascists are also nationalists, fascists always propagate to encourage people that "their people, the Aryan people, are the most superior people". Therefore, in addition to purifying other ethnic groups as mentioned above, they must always try to be worthy of their national pride.

 

And the fifth characteristic is that the fascists always believe that every big and great country must show its strength through conquering and ruling over other, weaker countries. Like Mussolini, he glorified military might with discipline, obedience, loyalty, and courage. After coming to power, he ordered the invasion of Ethiopia, a poor country but a disgrace to Italy for having defeated it. In revenge Mussolini used aircraft, artillery and even poison gas to attack a country using only obsolete muskets and then he declared the Roman Empire back.

 

In short, fascism is an extremism that puts the interests of the people below, the national interest first. With the motto of one Party leading, they are determined to turn themselves into a great military empire, fight other countries to show their strength, and the economy is managed from the center to every piece of rice in each family.