Fascism Defined

[Bottomfeeder 244]

fascism (fâsh'iz'em) n.

A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism. [ital. fascio, group.] -fas'cist n. -fas-cis'tic (fa-shis'tik) adj.

Fundamentally, corporatism is a new name for an old face - that of fascism. Most dictionary definitions you'll find nowadays exclude the "typically through the merging of state and business leadership" theme, whereas previously they might've.

The Italians, who invented the term Fascism, also called it the Estato Corporativo: the corporatist state. GeorgeOrwell described it as an extension of Capitalism.

http://www.corporatism.org/

[AURaptor 1,125]

Thanks, BF. Most of us can look stuff up on Wikipedia with out your ASSistance. Now go away.

[otterinbham 0]

Actually, Bottomfeeder, that definition is wrong. Fascists were statist and actually brought the control of private industry into government, rather than allow them to remain independent entities. So the difference between fascism and communism was not very great at all.

Oh, and citing Orwell to denounce capitalism is kind of a laugh, chiefly because he was a socialist through and through. He was one of the cabal who steered Britain into its disastrous nationalization of industries immediately after World War II, a move that effectively ruined the British economy until Margaret Thatcher came to power. The irony of Orwell was that he wrote about fascism in Animal Farm and 1984, yet he never realized that he himself was promoting it by taking economic freedom away from the people.

[AURaptor 1,125]

Oh, and citing Orwell to denounce capitalism is kind of a laugh, chiefly because he was a socialist through and through.

I was going to point that out, but since BF is a socialist himself, I didn't even bother.

[Bottomfeeder 244]

Thanks, BF. Most of us can look stuff up on Wikipedia with out your ASSistance. Now go away.