Forscher,
Once again you demonstrate the sort of ignorance of politics and history you accuse me of. Fascism, even in Italy was a historically left-wing political movement, barely to the right of Communism, the political movement it arose in response to. The only reason Fascism became so powerful was that a desperate rich class faced with a popular communist uprising put all their powerful resources in the one left-wing group which promised not to take their property rights away from them. If you bother to check your history you'll find out that Mussolini was a long time Communist (he was raised as an Anarchist, the Communists of the day) who'd fallen out of favor with his fellow anarchists and started his own left-wing group, the Fascists. The only difference between his, and the Communist dictatorships of the day were that he did not impose state ownership of private corporations or farms (he opted for heavy government regulation instead) and he did not abolish religion (he liked them in their role as "the opiate of the people," they made powerful allies).
At the time Mussolini founded his Fascist Party, Italy was a Constitutional monarchy and the Democrats (Italian) were the political right-wing. Fascism, like Nazism, only gained the label of right-wing through the efforts of Communist scholars of the Frankfurt School who fled Germany after Hitler took control and settled in the United States just before WWII. They would successfully revise history and give Fascism the right-wing label people l;ike you still insist on using.
Is this your way of apologizing for suggesting that the term "fascist theocracy" is an oxymoron?
As to your take on Italian history, it is true to a certain chronological point, rather early in Mussolini's history. You really should stop cherry-picking your facts and try to be honest in your analysis of history, which is always imbued with your often shadily disguised neo-conservative agenda.
The tenets of Fascism lurched to the right very early on in its history in Italy. I should know, my father was a Communist Politician in Italy during the later years of Fascism and onward into the 1960's.
Let me provide evidence to support my statement that Italian Fascism was Right Wing in nature, and I hope that you provide evidence for your own statements:
Definitions and scope of the word
Main article: Definitions of fascism
Many diverse regimes have identified themselves as fascist, and many regimes have been labeled as fascist even though they did not self-identify as such. Historians, political scientists, and other scholars have engaged in long and furious debates concerning the exact nature of fascism and its core tenets. Since the 1990s, there has been a growing move toward some rough consensus reflected in the work of Stanley Payne, Roger Eatwell, Roger Griffin, and Robert O. Paxton.
Mussolini defined fascism as being a right-wingcollectivistic ideology in opposition to socialism, liberalism, democracy and individualism. He wrote in The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism:
Anti-individualistic, the fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only insofar as his interests coincide with those of the State, which stands for the conscience and the universal will of man as a historic entity.... The fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value.... Fascism is therefore opposed to that form of democracy which equates a nation to the majority, lowering it to the level of the largest number.... We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century. If the nineteenth century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State. [8]
A very interesting link from the conservative viewpoint underlining the right-wing nature of Italian Fascism : http://www.amconmag.com/06_30_03/feature.html
From the Remember Organization. Please note, that I have included for your benefit a definition from the Remember Org of what "right-wing" actually means, as you seem to be confused about this matter.
Fascism
Fascism was an authoritarian political movement that developed in Italy and several other European countries after 1919 as a reaction against the profound political and social changes brought about by World War I and the spread of socialism and Communism. Its name was derived from the fasces, an ancient Roman symbol of authority consisting of a bundle of rods and an ax. Italian fascism was founded in Milan on March 23, 1919, by Benito Mussolini, a former revolutionary socialist leader. His followers, mostly war veterans, were organized along paramilitary lines and wore black shirts as uniforms. The early Fascist program was a mixture of left- and right-wing ideas that emphasized intense Nationalism, productivism, anti-socialism, elitism, and the need for a strong leader. Mussolini's oratorical skills, the post-war economic crisis, a widespread lack of confidence in the traditional political system, and a growing fear of socialism, all helped the Fascist party to grow to 300,000 registered members by 1921. In that year it elected 35 members to parliament.
Right-wing - As used in this chapter, individuals or groups who profess opposition to change in the established order and who favor traditional attitudes and practices, and who sometimes advocate the forced establishment of an authoritarian political order.
I think at this stage the onus rests on you to prove why Italian Fascism could not be described as right-wing in nature. In word of warning, be careful, you need to look at its tenets in order to answer this questions accurately.
The most notable evidence against your claim that Italian Fascism was not "right-wing" came believe it or not from Mussolini himself, who in 1922 described his Fascist Party as being "of the right".
The trap you have fallen into is viewing "movements" only in term of labels, and not in terms of evolving ideologies an issue which we have discussed on numerous occasions. It is a very notable trait is certain Americans who seem only to be able to think politically in terms of Democrat and Republican as if these two movements, even if they live up to their ideologies which neither do, are the only game in town! Fascism as a political movement survived in Italy for over a quarter of a century, it was an evolving ideology and most certainly was right-wing in its thinking for most of its history, lurching further right as its power base strengthened.
I really recommend that you read the definitive book on this period by Christopher Hibbert, simply entitled "Mussolini". It is so well researched and a very good read. Another excellent read, and evidence of Mussolini's right-wing nature can be found in the Italian Language book "Mussolini Et Il Suo Fascismo". I forgot the authors name but it was written at the height of the Fascist revolution in Italy in the late twenties and in it you will clearly note the TENETS of Fascism from Mussolini's own words.
Do you actually check the thoughts that drift from your mind against reality? One thing is for sure, Zappa was a lot brighter then you seem to be. ;)
Once again, you start off with ad homenism , how predictable of you Hill.
Well, if you note the ";)" you will see that it was a tongue in cheek remark, and actually it is not an ad hominem, it is a judgement that I make having read your many posts on this Board, and having spent a couple of days with Zappa at his home a few years ago. From what I can tell, he was brighter than you seem to be.
Suck it up Forscher, being clever is overrated anyway. ;)
HS
