Is.. according to the urban dictionary a word to describe a ‘hidden supporter’ of fascism. Fascism in turn is something which it seem’s not a lot of people can agree on.. but is what for simplicity’s sake could be called an authoritarian form of goverment (among other things). I knew a guy once who called himself a national socialist, he was pretty hard to get on with.. but I then later found that Hitler’s Nazi Party in Germany had considered itself a national socialist party.
The thing I considered strange then was I always thought Marxism and Fascism two quite distinct.. and opposed ideologies. How wrong I was! (I’m going somewhere with this, honest) Marxism is a system intended to deliver ‘justice’ to the working classes. The belief that the needs of society are put over the needs of the individual, and the individuals desire for ‘capital’ of his or her own. It is also many other things but this is what I wanted to say on it.
National Socialism by contrast then looks at ‘class’ and broadens it to the ‘nation’. The delivery of ‘justice’ and rights for those of the nation group. I found a quote by Himmler which best captures the attitude.
”Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death like cattle interests me only in so far as we need then as slaves to our culture… whether ten thousand Russian fenales fall down from exhaustion while digging an anti-tank ditch interests me only in so far as an anti-tank ditch for Germany is finished.”
The question I want to then pose to anyone who might be reading this is to think on some things regarding Marxism and National Socalism before continuing.
-Marxism if concerned for a concept of Justice for the oppressed working classes requires a preconcieved concept of justice. Where might this come from?
-National Socialism likewise requires a concept of justice, however this concept appears to differ in some sense. How so?
-Both definitions of justice seem to be redefined or atleast restricted to either a nation group or a class and suggest a pre-existing desire to change things.
-Both these institutions are by a result of their thinking atheistic (though some would argue this isn’t a given)
So.. I guess the thing is here is.. why should anyone concern themselves about justice unless it concerns the self.. or unless they are moved by some moral obligation? Without a infinite point of reference (something like God) how are finite expressions (like measures of justice, terror, mercy etc.) given any lasting value? If it is we then who define these from the moment when we reject God it is quickly visible why National Socialism is viewed as an authoritarian regime.. why should an individual like Hitler define what is right and wrong for a nation when his value is of insignificance anyway? and more so, his view is just as insignificant as anyone elses!
Now the fascism and the thinking behind Hitlers third reich has always been tied together with Friedrich Nietziech and his work concerning the concept of ‘The Will to Power’ . In the absence of God, we must become God’s ourselves and define our own existence, to control others and to rise over notions like pity, mercy or justice because such things no longer exist.. or did not exist ever. In short.. I’m looking out for me and me only. Yet we all feel the pull to our own ‘tribe’ be it our family or subculture (and boffins say this is something to do with our evolutionary heritage). So it’s “me and my tribe are all that matter”.
Ever heard someone say do something for your country only to have someone reply what’s my country ever done for me? (Or words to that effect?) I think it’s the same thing. Why care about stuff which doesn’t concern you? Most politicians will be dead by the time Global Warming does it’s worst.. and I quite like my standard of living.. why should they care.. why should I? I’m only interested in now and me, me me. Damn the ‘future generations’ who gives a monkeys?
The link in with today is Nietzsche although not so often talked about now is one of the first “Post-Enlightenment” thinkers. One of the first or even ‘pre-’post-modernists. It might not be popular.. or some might not care but it isn’t a massive streach to see how the ethics which make something like Hitler so bad are so evident in our own lives.. and our own society today. Hitler simply defined what was right and good for Nazi Germany aswell as all that was bad and wrong for it too. Don’t we belong to tribes or groups which make these same claims in our ’search for meaning’. Hitler just seems bad because his notion of Good and Bad were just so different to what we now consider ‘normal’. So unless your in my tribe.. why talk to me of justice? You don’t know what it means!
But.. what if there really was truth, justice and other such things? What if there was a true truth wether we liked it or not? That we could share an understanding to then communicate and act on our communal existence beyond the confines of any one persons definitions?
Just some thoughts.. I just don’t how any of this is possible without something like God. Without him or whatever you think of him as, what is actually the point? We’re already dead we just don’t realise it yet.
But I think with Jesus you know he showed us a way and lived like there was meaning in his life. The only person who used those shared values and didn’t say “No! Me and my tribe only” but..
“I command you to love each other the same way that I love you. And here is how to measure it- the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. You are my friends if you obey me. I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn’t confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the father told me. You didn’t choose me. I choose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. I command you to love each other”
