Thank you. You actually offered a far more intellectual challenge to my post then I am accustomed to getting on DP.
As to your second point, I do agree that the spectrum I posted tries to "cram in" libertarianism into the spectrum in a way that I do not think fits. Libertarianism is somewhat a unique political philosophy in many respects, as it does not have a government character component since it does not believe in government.
Well, I would not go so far as to say Libertarianism is the belief that the government should be done away with. I would not want to put words into libertarians' mouths (there being many different schools of libertarian thought), but most libertarians I know would appear to believe in extremely limited government in which the primary purpose of government (if not the only purpose of government) is to protect the liberties of its citizens, through the use of a military, a police force, and courts of law, but that individuals are expected to provide everything else for themselves by their own wherewithal or voluntary mutual cooperation. Libertarianism is certainly not anarchism, but I would not wish to put words in the mouths of any anarchists present.
Most importantly: most schools of libertarianism stress the near-axiomatic importance of the liberty of the individual. Something that Fascism loudly and proudly rejects.
A suitable graphical analysis would have to consider a “lack of government” role. So, if you must graph it, it requires a "y" axis of "authoritarian" and "libertarian" to provide depth to the left/right. Perhaps this?
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Well, I would want to know what separates a “True Libertarian” from an “American Libertarian” and a “Traditional Conservative” from a “Social Conservative” to determine why they are placed where they are on the chart. And, from a historical perspective, I would also want to know why "Progressive" is considered a more libertarian philosophy, when both the administrations of the Progressive Republicans (under Theodore Roosevelt) and Progressive Democrats (under Woodrow Wilson) were characterized by the expansion and exercise of Federal executive authority
As to your first point, the characteristics of fascism, I find much confirmation to my posting. Though I agree that what I posted deals more with the characteristics deal with attaining and maintaining power, it does also represent the core values of fascism. After all, zealots attain power through advocation of their convictions and convincing others to “join up".
Well, if we are going to look at an authoritarian government to determine whether or not it is Fascist by matching their activities up with the Fourteen Points, one will rarely be disappointed in finding confirmation. But I would point out that the People’s Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Iran match most of those points (if not all). But they are not technically Fascist governments, although perhaps we can call them effectively fascist governments as a result of their social and economic policies.
Again, I commend you on your challenge of my previous post. Its a good day when I can find intelligent life on DP with a different point of view.
Well thank you. I must return the compliment, upsideguy.
I believe that the
Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism as explained by Lawrence Britt are not bad point starting off point, but it is sorely incomplete because, again, most of these characteristics (if not all) can be see again in many authoritarian regimes worldwide. Essentially, the Fourteen Characteristics are what Fascists
do once they have power, but not what actually distinguishes Fascism from other modes of authoritarianism. And to simply lump all forms of authoritarianism together to call them quintessentially fascist (which you have not done, but which I have seen others do) I think blinds people to the danger posed by that particular ideology. I like
Belanger's list of points as I think it is more explicative and gets to the roots which distinguishes Fascism from, say,
Nicolae Ceaușescu's Romania. I would say that one of the best (short) explications of the distinguishing ideological principles of Fascism would be the late Umberto Eco's short essay
Ur-Fascism.
eace
