President Biden finally used the F word! In a speech delivered at a fundraising event hosted by the Democratic National Committee in Bethesda Maryland on 25th August, he denounced the Make America Great Again (MAGA) wing of the Republican Party as akin to a fascism. He stated:
I'm interested in the list of conditions that you describe as existing in the 1920's which allowed for the rise in fascismo in Italy. Looking at the current Italian situation specifically would you agree that, other than the paramilitary veteran element, there are a lot of similarities? Some quotes:
"a perceived national crisis"
"a time of political instability and the radicalisation of working-class people"
"loss of faith in democratic politics throughout the continent."
"It emerged in Italy, a society whose institutions lacked legitimacy, and whose political system was in permanent crisis."
"a crisis of authority"
I appreciate your arguments and some of these statements could describe the permanent Italian state of affairs but the Pandemic has created a kind of psychic shock in the country, IMO, and I wonder about the consequences of this combination of events.
Thanks for your comment Laura. You are right to suggest that the Pandemic and the confluence of economic and political crisis have created a fragile environment for democratic politics. However, they are not remotely on the same scale as the post World War One crisis. This War changed everything - from the outbreak of revolutions to the collapse of western empires. Indeed many of the problems you allude to above have their origins in the interwar era. In comparison to 1919-21- Italy is relatively stable. It is true that its political system seems to be in permanent crisis but it is not afflicted with the radical polarisation that led to fascism in the early 1920s.
It's interesting, isn't it, that we* reference the past and feel certain that the present is as bad if not worse. This is a state of mind that is clearly useful for some people to perpetuate. It does feel like there is a fragility at the moment though based on a kind of apathetic but constant sense of crisis. *Personally I can't imagine how seismic the changes were, in the first 20 years of the 20th Century
I'm interested in the list of conditions that you describe as existing in the 1920's which allowed for the rise in fascismo in Italy. Looking at the current Italian situation specifically would you agree that, other than the paramilitary veteran element, there are a lot of similarities? Some quotes:
"a perceived national crisis"
"a time of political instability and the radicalisation of working-class people"
"loss of faith in democratic politics throughout the continent."
"It emerged in Italy, a society whose institutions lacked legitimacy, and whose political system was in permanent crisis."
"a crisis of authority"
I appreciate your arguments and some of these statements could describe the permanent Italian state of affairs but the Pandemic has created a kind of psychic shock in the country, IMO, and I wonder about the consequences of this combination of events.
Thanks for your comment Laura. You are right to suggest that the Pandemic and the confluence of economic and political crisis have created a fragile environment for democratic politics. However, they are not remotely on the same scale as the post World War One crisis. This War changed everything - from the outbreak of revolutions to the collapse of western empires. Indeed many of the problems you allude to above have their origins in the interwar era. In comparison to 1919-21- Italy is relatively stable. It is true that its political system seems to be in permanent crisis but it is not afflicted with the radical polarisation that led to fascism in the early 1920s.
It's interesting, isn't it, that we* reference the past and feel certain that the present is as bad if not worse. This is a state of mind that is clearly useful for some people to perpetuate. It does feel like there is a fragility at the moment though based on a kind of apathetic but constant sense of crisis. *Personally I can't imagine how seismic the changes were, in the first 20 years of the 20th Century