Anti-Fascist Series #16: General Eco

 “How to Spot a Fascist” by Umberto Eco, 1997

This famous essay was referenced by Chris Hedges in his work “American Fascists,” a book about U.S. Christian Dominionism.  Eco’s analysis is popular with left liberals as a take on the present Trump movement.  Eco, the Italian author of “Name of the Rose” and “Foucault’s Pendulum,” grew up as a boy under Mussolini and remembers the day that Mussolini was overthrown in 1945. His description of ‘Ur-Fascism’ intentionally avoids a specific historical or economic frame and sounds like later cultural and intellectual descriptions of ‘general’ fascism. Eco is not a Marxist, though he recognizes the leading role of the PCI in the armed Resistance in Italy and seems somewhat irritated by it.

These are the 14 culturo-political points Eco thinks identify a fascist movement, though they could also identify conservatives of various stripes.  That is a weakness here, though these points are based on his observations of ideas found in real Italian, Spanish and German fascism.  It is obvious that these fascisms sought to ‘improve’ on conservatism, even though their ideologies were not identical.  Yet Eco’s 14 points ignore a very significant reality.  That is classic fascism’s role as a violent and dictatorial bulwark against the working-class, unions and the Left in support of the profits of the capitalist system.  That key point is missing.  He does not even include Mussolini’s simplistic point about ‘corporatism’ as fascism.  I guess these are not ‘Ur’ enough for him.

This is his Ur-Fascism: 

     1.   Traditionalism.  It is born out of a Catholic reaction to rationalism and the French Revolution, as interpreted by fascist 'theoretician' Julius Evola in Italy.  Truth already exists, so further searching is unnecessary.  The past holds everything. (This method is actually a link to post-modernism and AI too.)

     2.   A rejection of modernism.  The European Enlightenment and the ‘age of Reason’ are both rejected ideologically.  While technology is embraced, science is not, which is an obvious contradiction.  

     3.   Irrationalism.  Action is preferred over thought, leading to anti-intellectualism.

     4.   Dissent as betrayal.  Critical thinking and dissent are opposed. Distinctions only impede ‘clarity’ so simple binary thinking is preferred.

     5.   Difference.  The opposition to ‘intruders’ and ‘others’ is across the board.

     6.   Appeal to the frustrated middle classes. This is the point where Eco finally touches on class, as he observed that these Italian classes, when in economic trouble, moved towards fascism.  Marxists also observed this phenomena.  Note, his use of the term 'middle class' means the petit-bourgeois business, professional and farmer strata, not the working class.  The working class actually exists below the middle-class.

     7.   Xenophobia.  For those without an identity, the ‘nation’ provides one.  Eco links this to an obsession with conspiracies as a substitute for actual knowledge.

     8.   The Enemy.  The needed and chosen enemy is both extremely strong and full of weaklings.

     9.   War.  Life is permanent war. Eco hints that this eventually leads to Armageddon.

     10.               Elitism.  The poor, the sick, the laborer, the weak, etc. are all inferior.  This translates to a hardy embrace of the class system and a leadership cult.  He, however, does not mention the issue of a leader explicitly.

     11.               Death cult.  This is the cult of the military hero.

     12.               Machismo.  Women, gays, lesbians and non-conformists are all inferior.

     13.               Populism.  Individualism is denied, and only ‘The People’ exist.  Eco makes the point that ‘The People’ in this case are a ‘theatrical pretense,’ as the leader or nation dominates.  So Ur-Fascism opposes “rotten parliamentary governments’ in the name of ‘The People.’

     14.               Newspeak.  Eco borrows Orwell’s concept of words that slowly mean nothing, or become whatever power chooses them to mean.  As Eco puts it, “poor vocabulary and elementary syntax” are part of the method.  As you can see he’s a writer.     

Mussolini and Co. Caught by Partisans

The implication of this list is that the humanitarian “left” must be the mirror opposite of all these ideas.  For instance #9 implies that pacifism will answer fascism’s drive to war and violence.  Yet pacifism did not stop fascism in Italy.  This is relevant to some other points as well.

Eco, like Zizek, is a defender of the Enlightenment and the EU idea, the idea that nations should not wage war and instead work together and combine.  The EU itself came about due to the constant wars that wracked Europe.  This contradicts the pretensions of conservatism, the Right and Ur-Fascism which seek to destroy the EU and a misnamed ‘globalism.’  Eco understands that racism and hostility to ‘non-EU citizens’ is still rampant in Europe, but this falls short of tariffs, sanctions, fascism or war.  This thin volume adds two Eco essays - one on forms of censorship as either silence or noisy nonsense – and another on the ‘European’ idea of a 'humanist' but capitalist form of internationalism.

Given liberals and many impressionist leftists are now calling Trump or the Republicans ‘fascists,’ Eco’s Ur description might warm their hearts.  Certainly many of these 14 points show up in Trumpism.  However the bloody dictatorship of capital is not yet upon us in the U.S., so in a way this description minimizes what classic fascism was, or can be. A Marxist analysis of fascism can be found using prompts below. 

P.S. – Kash Patel, Trump’s new FBI Director, is a clone of J. Edgar Hoover.  He’s coming hard after BLM, anti-fascists like Antifa and Left organizations, while ignoring fascist violence.  You may simplistically think every FBI director is exactly the same - but that lack of subtly could be your undoing.  

Prior blogspot reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 19 year archive, using these terms:  “Anti-fascist series #,” “Chris Hedges,” “Zizek,” “Orwell,” “Evola,” “Zetkin,” “Trotsky.”  

And I got it at May Day Books used/cutout section!

Red Frog / March 14, 2025