Fascism vs. Nazism
Sat Oct 23 2004
To confuse
fascism
and
Nazism
is perhaps understandable-- both weredictatorial,antidemocraticmovements. But there are important differencesbetween them as well.First, let us unravel theterminology.
Revolutionary groups and whipping canesFascism
originated inItaly, under the leadership ofBenito Mussolini.
Its name-- not itsideology-- is in part derived from certainrevolutionary workersgroups in Italy at the end of the19th century,
fasci revoluzionari
(=revolutionarygroups). When Mussolini startedhis movement in 1919, he called his first fascist groups
fasci di combattimento
(=combatgroups).As it happens, the similar-soundingLatinword
fasces
(signifying abunch of whipping canes, bound around an execution axe) was anestablishedRomansymbol ofpower. In earlyRome, the entire
contraption used to be displayed ritually before the powerful Romanconsuls, who before 300BChad the sole power to pass judgement as
well as to mete out punishment (whippingbycaneorbeheadingby
axe). After 300 BC this combined judiciary and executive power cameto an end, when Roman justicewas reformed. But this didn't botherMussolini, who used pictures of
fasces
as his own symbols ofdictatorial power.Hence the word
fascism
has two "separate but equal"roots: the Italianword
fasci
and the Roman (Latin)
fasces
.
National socialismNazism
is a contraction of the German word
Nationalsozialismus
(derived from the officialGermanname of Hitler's party,
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
,NSDAP). It stands forthetotalitarianand racist pseudo-ideology under which theAdolf
Hitler's GermanThird Reichwas ruthlessly governed.
During the 1930's, political analysts in the democratic West werehorrified by both of these antidemocraticcreeds, Italian fascism aswell as German Nazism. But they took care to keepthemconceptuallyapart.However, this was not the case inStalin'sSoviet Union, because the
full name of the Soviet Union has one word element in common withNazism (
National
sozialismus
), the wordsocialism--USSRis read
out as the
Union of Soviet
Socialist
Republics
. Stalin, who saw
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adequate primer to understanding the underestimated influence of language in each person's subjective perception of the reality we create and all to often mistake as independent & objective.