Last week I discussed atheism and gave a few examples of what people who don't believe in god might believe instead. I left out one important contender, though: fascism. You probably have some understanding of what fascism is, but it is kind of difficult to define. Most people have prototypical definitions, but it's difficult to pin down the essence of what fascism is. This is what I want to attempt in this post. I will do this from a neutral position, arguing neither for or against fascism. To some this may already be problematic, since there seems to be the expectation to condemn fascism at any possible opportunity. And I'm not meaning to justify or even relativize any of the crimes committed by fascists in the past. But no matter where you are on the political spectrum, I think that there is merit in understanding what fascism is.
When a group of people decides how to structure their society, a fundamental question, if not the most fundamental question, is how power and responsibility should be divided between the group and the individual. On one end of the spectrum is total anarchy, where each individual holds all the responsibility for themselves and is free to obtain any power they may get while there is no group behavior whatsoever. On the other end of the spectrum is total unification where individuals seize to exist and the group acts like one individual, almost like a hive-mind. It is that end of the spectrum that fascism pushes towards.
From that point of view it becomes easy to see how fascist individuals are atheists. There is no need for them to identify with a religion if they don't have an identity. There's no need for them to ask any questions if they don't make any decisions. In fact, there's no need for them to believe in anything if believing is not their responsibility.
You may disagree with the proposition that fascists are atheists, though. After all, many fascist movements are closely linked to religion. But that is because, as stated before, belief is the responsibility of the group and the group may well decide to follow a religion. This may lead you to the false conclusion that fascists can believe in religion, but belief is more than just following religious doctrines. To believe in something means to explain the world based on the belief's unverifiable claims. True fascist individuals will not try to explain the world at all. In addition, they will only follow religious doctrines as far as their group does. And if the group obviously breaks the rules prescribed by religion, no fascist individual will bring the group's actions into question since it is not their place to do that.
From the outside it is often difficult to understand how fascists allow their regime to "suppress" them. But the important point to understand is that, if they are true fascists, they will never feel suppressed as long as their group is successful. Even if they are among the lowest ranks of society, the belief in their group's shared identity will keep them going. In that sense, fascism fills the role in the individual's life that would otherwise be occupied by religion.
In western society, individual freedom is regarded as one of the greatest values. For that reason it becomes difficult to imagine how one might want to give that up. This is likely the main reason people don't understand fascism. But not everyone is happy with all the responsibilities that come with individualism. Not everyone is willing to give up the strength people can have when acting as a group. Not everyone wants to think for themselves. Some people just want to be a cog in a machine. It's those people that western civilization has left behind. It's those people who are very unhappy with any development that improves personal freedom. It's those people that vote for extremists in elections.
As a society, we need to find a way to incorporate those people. It does not help to label them as "Right-Wing-Extremists", "Nazis" or "Xenophobes". In many cases that might be what they are, but it's our fault they became that way. We abandoned them, forced them to be on their own and continued to make the world even more difficult to navigate for them. Obsessed with "freedom" we never conceived any place in our society where you could go if you don't want to own yourself. In the name of fighting "oppression", we tore down any institution that offered relief from personal responsibility in exchange for security. We "liberated" people when it comes to education, work, shelter, health and even relationships.
And don't get me wrong, all these developments are awesome. The degree of personal freedom people get to enjoy in our society is a tremendous achievement. But the one freedom we failed to give people is to forfeit it. And if we don't find a way to do that soon, fascism may return and destroy all the freedom we have created for ourselves.
So please, can we all stop hating these individuals for what they have become and start imagining what path we could provide them?
The future of the free world depends on it.
