REVIEW: “How Fascism Works” by Jason Stanley. Random House.
By Adam Parker
June 27, 2019
The quality and character of our lives are determined in large measure by two primary influences, each of which can be described as a spectrum. The political influence has at one extreme true democracy, equality and freedom, and at the other extreme despotism. The economic influence has at one end a fair distribution of wealth, with no large disparities, and at the other end a system defined by a small oligarchy that controls most of the wealth, along with a large majority of citizens who are economically disempowered (including, usually, a sizable class of very poor people).
The well-being of organized society is determined according to these two influences and how they intersect. It is entirely possible for a functioning democracy to include desperately poor people, just as it is possible for a totalitarian state to distribute wealth in ways that minimize poverty. But usually the formula that works best is one in which democracy is maximized and poverty minimized. It should come as no surprise that policies that improve the one, also improve the other.
For example, the labor movement of the 1930s, which empowered working people to influence their circumstances, raised their wages, regulated their hours, gave them weekends off and vacation time, restricted child labor, improved job safety, secured unemployment insurance and aid to the disabled and helped establish Social Security. It was a moment of extreme democratization following a period of huge wealth disparities that had contributed to the Great Depression.
Another example of a political effort that strengthened democracy and addressed economic injustice was the civil rights movement, which during its direct-action phase of the 1950s and 1960s, succeeded in winning black people the right to vote and, through legislative and lobbying efforts, enfranchised them in other ways, including in the workplace.
Both movements were imperfect, to be sure. Organized labor was susceptible to corruption and sometimes failed to advance the interests of the average working person. The civil rights movement struggled with internal conflicts and, through no fault of its leaders, provoked a severe backlash that has played out in the form of mass incarceration, the privatization of education and other developments that have rolled back some of the movement's gains.
That rollback is indicative of a larger social force that is always counteracting democratization efforts. It's what Yale philosopher Jason Stanley calls "fascist politics." And because that force currently is carrying the day, in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, Stanley felt compelled to write a book called "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them" -- a concise volume that describes in clear language the main facets of fascist politics and how, when these elements combine and interact with one another in a single party or political movement, they pose a significant threat.
"The dangers of fascist politics come from the particular way in which it dehumanizes segments of the population," Stanley writes. "By excluding these groups, it limits the capacity for empathy among other citizens, leading to the justification of inhumane treatment, from repression of freedom, mass imprisonment, and expulsion to, in extreme cases, mass extermination."
This is not to say that wherever fascist politics is practiced, genocide soon follows. Stanley makes a point of differentiating between fascist politics, which can occur within democracies and other non-fascist states, and fascism itself, which is synonymous with ultranationalism based on ethnicity, religion or culture, and which is characterized by a charismatic authoritarian leader who claims to speak on behalf of the people.
"I am your voice," Donald Trump declared at the 2016 Republican National Convention. More recently, he warned that "the people would revolt" if he were impeached. Trump clearly has embraced a form of fascist politics, Stanley notes repeatedly in his book. And he's not the only one. "The politics of us and them" is on the rise around the globe -- in Turkey, Myanmar, the Philippines, Russia, Poland, Hungary, Brazil and Western Europe -- and in every instance includes some vilified group.
In Europe and the U.S., immigrants now are thought to be the problem. In Hungary and Poland, Jewish "globalists" also are singled out. In Myanmar it's Rohingya Muslims. In Turkey it's the country's secular citizens as well as the Kurds. In the Philippines it's drug-addicts and dealers. In each case, political leaders blame these marginalized groups for offending some mythical conception of the "nation." This tactic sows division within the population and enables the rise of the autocrat, Stanley writes.
"As the fear of 'them' grows, 'we' come to represent everything virtuous. 'We' live in the rural heartland, where the pure values and traditions of the nation still miraculously exist despite the threat of cosmopolitanism from the nation's cities, alongside the hordes of minorities who live there, emboldened by liberal tolerance. 'We' are hardworking, and have earned our pride of place by struggle and merit. 'They' are lazy, surviving off the goods we produce by exploiting the generosity of our welfare systems, or employing corrupt institutions, such as labor unions, meant to separate honest, hardworking citizens from their pay. 'We' are makers; 'they' are takers."
In a sequence of compelling interrelated chapters, Stanley proceeds to describe 10 pillars of fascist politics, and to cite example after example, some exhumed from the past, some playing out before our eyes. The cumulative effect is profound: it contextualizes today's acrimonious politics within the broad sweep of history and it sounds a loud warning, for fascist politics is gaining traction.
The elements are universal and can be found to some degree in most examples of autocratic rule. A male leader (always male, for fascism is patriarchal requiring a "father of the homeland") extols a mythic past characterized by a simpler life, strong family values, hard work, an entrepreneurial spirit, a clear social hierarchy and little crime. Practitioners of fascist politics, Stanley writes, always have sought to "drain swamps" of what they insist are corrupting elements.
To do so they employ propaganda to create an alternate reality where, as Rudy Giuliani said, "facts are not facts," and citizens begin to question the evidence before them. Sowing confusion and doubt among the population helps the leader galvanize power. What's more, the despot likely is exploiting human nature, Stanley points out, citing Plato's "Republic."
"Socrates argues that people are not naturally led to self-governance but rather seek a strong leader to follow," Stanley writes. "Democracy, by permitting freedom of speech, opens the door for a demagogue to exploit the people's need for a strongman; the strongman will use this freedom to prey on the people's resentments and fears. Once the strongman seizes power, he will end democracy, replacing it with tyranny. In short, book 8 of 'The Republic' argues that democracy is a self-undermining system whose very ideals lead to its own demise."
The strongman attacks institutions, such as universities, that promote critical thinking and diversity, employing a form of Freudian projection that places blame for society's troubles on elite and intellectuals. This anti-intellectualism also has the effect of making the under-educated feel better about themselves. "It is a core tenet of fascist politics that the goal of oratory should not be to convince the intellect, but to sway the will," Stanley writes.
Lies help a lot. They throw reality into doubt, fuel prejudices, help leaders distinguish between their supporters, who like to attend the rallies, and their enemies, among whom are members of the so-called liberal media and anyone else who dares to challenge the lies. Conspiracy theories also are widely embraced by those who wish to engender mistrust and paranoia in order to justify extremist policies and actions. Mexicans are rapists. Obama is a Muslim. George Soros is part of an evil Jewish cabal.
And this approach invariably includes a topsy-turvy definition of victimhood. Members of the LGBT community have endured discrimination and abuse, sometimes even murder, yet those who embrace fascist politics would have us believe that they are the victims of the "gay agenda." Women continue to experience the effects of unequal treatment, sexual harassment and unfair pay, yet when they protest, some men say they are the victims of a "militant feminism." In the U.S. and Europe, religious minorities have experienced the effects of prejudice and marginalization, yet some Christians would have us believe that they are the most persecuted in the world.
"The case is similar with the Black Lives Matter movement," Stanley writes. "Its opponents try to represent the slogan as the illiberal nationalist claim that only black lives matter. But the slogan is hardly intended as a repudiation of the value of white lives in the United States. Rather it intends to point out that in the United States, white lives have been taken to matter more than other lives. The point of the slogan Black Lives Matter is to call attention to a failure of equal respect."
This upside-down victimization applies also to political leaders. Despite the many credible allegations of corruption and abuse of power levied at Trump and his entourage, he has insisted that he is the victim of a "witch hunt."
One way to marginalize groups calling for more democratization is to criminalize them, limiting their access to education and the ballot box. This tactic also has the effect of reinforcing the notion that the "otherness" of targeted group (immigrants, African Americans) is dangerous. Consider what President Nixon's lawyer and adviser John Ehrlichman told Harper's Magazine in 1994 about the so-called war on drugs:
"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
Often, Stanley notes, a "law and order" agenda is driven in part by sexual anxiety, the "fear of interbreeding and race mixing, of corrupting the pure nation with, in the words of Charles Lindbergh, speaking for the America First movement, 'inferior blood.'" This is the root of anti-miscegenation laws enacted in the U.S. and elsewhere, and of the discomfort over transgender people and homosexuals, who are considered deviant and therefore not good for society.
In his powerful final chapter, "Arbeit Macht Frei," Stanley discusses the perversions of the "hard work" vs. "laziness" dichotomy, noting how the rhetorical goal of fascist politics is to "transform myths about 'them' into reality through social policy," and thus help reinforce those myths and justify unfair political practices. Lying alone is helpful but insufficient; those lies must become true. This is an especially insidious and terrifying aspect of fascist politics, and examples abound, Stanley writes.
Here's one: Refugees escaping violence and poverty need aid and sympathy but often are subjected to cruel treatment in detention centers and expelled unceremoniously. They might have become productive new members of society; instead, they are vilified as lazy, dependent on others and criminal. Laws are enacted making their actions illegal, and citizens look upon them with suspicion and fear.
This phenomenon repeats itself again and again, with Arabs in France, the Rohingya in Myanmar, black Americans and so on. "It is the racist who creates the inferiorized," wrote anti-colonial writer Frantz Fanon in 1952.
Stanley wrote this book, a follow-up to his "How Propaganda Works," so that his readers might better recognize the tactics of anti-democratic forces and find ways to counter them. It is essential we do so, for the world faces existential challenges such as climate change and its effects that now threaten to disrupt organized human activity on the Earth. These challenges require cooperation and understanding. They require that we minimize conflict and division. Yet we see the opposite happening: a retreat into nativism, consumerism and bigotry. Meanwhile, the sea is rising.
"The pull of fascist politics is powerful," Stanley writes. " It simplifies human existence, gives us an object, a 'them' whose supposed laziness highlights our own virtue and discipline, encourages us to identify with a forceful leader who helps us make sense of the world, whose bluntness regarding the 'undeserving' people in the world is refreshing."
The trouble is, you never can be sure when "them" might become you.
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The 10 pillars of fascism, according to Jason Stanley, author of “How Fascism Works”
1. A great mythic past which the leader celebrates. Mussolini fondly recalls Rome. Neo-Confederates create the “Lost Cause” narrative and put up monuments. Patriarchy rules.
2. Propaganda, which inverted everything. Real news is fake news. Anti-corruption is corruption. The most blatantly corrupt regime wages a campaign against the alleged corruption of others. (“Crooked Hillary,” “Drain the swamp.”)
3. Anti-intellectualism. “The enemy of fascism is equality, Stanley says. Emotion, especially rage, gets people to the polls. “Lock her up!” and “Build the wall!” Hitler, in Mein Kampf, says you want your propaganda to appeal to the least educated people. Academia is the enemy of the common man.
4. Unreality. You have to smash truth. Reason is replaced by conspiracy theories. Smash truth, so all that remains is loyalty.
5. Hierarchy. In fascist politics, members of the dominant group are better than everyone else. They deserve respect just for being them. Liberal democracy is based on equality and freedom; fascism features unequivocal rule by the dominant group.
6. Victimhood. In fascism, members of the dominant group are the greatest victims. The men are the victims of encroaching feminism. Whites are the victims of blacks. Germans are the victims of Jews. Christians are persecuted.
7. Law and order. What are they victims of? They’re victims of the out group, who are criminals. This is not about punishing criminals, but rather it’s about criminalizing out groups—minorities, immigrants, etc.
8. Sexual anxiety. The criminals are, specifically, rapists, for sexual anxiety helps determine and preserve otherness and fosters solidarity within the dominant group.
9. Sodom and Gomorrah: real values come from the heartland. People in the city are decadent, for they are diverse.
10. “Arbeit macht frei”—work shall make you free. The out group is lazy. Welfare is bad. The lazy criminals should be forced to work for little or nothing. Social Darwinism propels the hard-working, loyal, patriotic dominant group to the top. It’s all about winning.
