Topic: Fascism

Subject: EDUC 200B (Philosophy of Education)

Student: Alonzo, Marilyn
Basco, Yvonne
Mestizo, Rosalyn
Professor: Llenaresas, Alan O., MAED

FASCISM\

Fascism is the totalitarian philosophy of government that glorifies the state and nation
and assigns to the state control over every aspect of national life.
A political philosophy, movement or regime that exalts the nation and often the race above
the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a
dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of
opposition.
Against DEMOCRACY
Against COMMUNISM
Believed in EXTREME NATIONALISM
Believed in EXTREME MILITARISM

Comes from the Latin word fasces.

In ancient Rome, the fasces were cylindrical bundles of wooden rods, tied tightly together
around an axe.
They symbolize unity and power.
It is used as a symbol of penal authority in ancient Rome.

The Characteristics of Fascism

• Extreme militaristic nationalism
• Contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism
• A belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of the elites
• Desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community)
 • Individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation

Fascist Ideals
Fascism tends to celebrate:
 Masculinity
 Youth
 Mystical unity
 The regenerative power of violence
Often, but not always, it promotes:
 Racial superiority
 Ethnic persecution
 Imperialist expansion
 Genocide.

Liberty < Duty

• State – link between succeeding generations; farseeing more unselfish
• Elite – control of the state; capable of subordinating their own immediate private
interests to those of the national ideal; chosen from above; values validated by
power to enforce them; not installed by interminable parliamentary debate

Notable People
 Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)
Originally a Marxist.
By 1909 he was convinced that a national rather than an international revolution
was necessary.
Edited the Italian Socialist Party newspaper. Avanti! [Forward!].
 Adolf Hitler
Nazism, also spelled Naziism, in full National Socialism,
German Nationalsozialismus, totalitarian movement led by Adolf Hitler as head of
the Nazi Party in Germany.

Philosophy of Fascism
Fascism is an authoritarian Nationalist political ideology that exalts nation (and often
race) above the individual, and that stands for a centralized autocratic government
headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible
suppression of opposition.

Main goal of Fascism

The goal is to prepare the nation for armed conflict, and to respond to economic
difficulties. Fascism puts nation and often race above the individual. It stands for a
centralized government headed by a dictator. Historically, fascist governments tend to be
militaristic, and racist.

Anti-communism
The revolution that fascists sought to bring about was not a social revolution, aimed at
changing the system of ownership, but rather a revolution of the psyche, a ‘revolution of
the spirit’, aimed at creating a new type of human being (always understood in male
terms). This was the ‘new man’ or ‘fascist man’, a hero, motivated by duty, honour and
self-sacrifice, and prepared to dissolve his personality in that of the social whole. Finally,
anti-communism was more prominent within fascism than anti-capitalism. A core
objective of fascism was to seduce the working class away from Marxism and
Bolshevism, which preached the insidious, even traitorous, idea of international working-
class solidarity and upheld the misguided values of cooperation and equality. Fascists
were dedicated to national unity and integration, and so wanted the allegiances of race
and nation to be stronger than those of social class.

Ultra-nationalism
Fascism embraced an extreme version of a tradition of chauvinistic and expansionist
nationalism that had developed before the First World War, expressed in European
imperialism. This tradition regarded nations not as equal and interdependent entities, but
as natural rivals in a struggle for dominance. Fascist nationalism did not preach respect
for distinctive cultures or national traditions, but asserted the superiority of one nation
over all others. In the explicitly racial nationalism of Nazism this was reflected in the ideas
of Aryanism, the belief that the German people are a ‘master race’. Italy, a victor in the
First World War, had failed to achieve territorial gains at Versailles. Germany had been
both defeated in war and, Germans believed, humiliated at Versailles by reparations, the
loss of territory and the deeply resented ‘war guilt clause’.

Integral-nationalism
Fascism seeks to promote more than mere patriotism, the love of one's country; it wishes
to establish an intense and militant sense of national identity, which Charles Maurras
(1868–1952), the leader of Action Française, called ‘integral nationalism’. Fascism
embodies a sense of messianic or fanatical mission: the prospect of national regeneration
and the rebirth of national pride. The popular appeal of fascism has been based upon the
promise of national greatness. All fascist movements highlight the moral bankruptcy and
cultural decadence of modern society, but proclaim the possibility of rejuvenation, offering
the image of the nation ‘rising phoenix-like from the ashes’.

The Fascist State

Although it is possible to identify a common set of fascist values and principles, Fascist
Italy and Nazi Germany nevertheless represented different versions of fascism and were
inspired by distinctive and sometimes rival beliefs. Fascist regimes and movements have
therefore corresponded to one of two major traditions: one, following Italian Fascism,
emphasizes the ideal of an all-powerful or totalitarian state; the other, reflected in German
Nazism or national socialism, stresses the importance of race and racialism.

Fascist Education

Value More Value Less

Character Building Intellectual Growth
Transmission of information
Blind obedience to authority Critical and independent thinking that
challenged fascist ideology

Educational Priority
Elite of the exceptional endowment
Schools do not make or unmake the elites, just increases social distance from the masses

Aim of Fascist Education

• Not to equalize educational opportunities but to differentiate them
• To strengthen the bonds of nationality through cultivation of a common culture by
means of sharp differentiation between elementary and secondary schools
• The creation of a new school system which imparts energy of thought and will to
rising generation
Realizing Maximum Potential
Liberal Maximally effective to realize their own material advantage
Fascist Unselfish devotion to state interest

Principle – identification of the individual to the state’s interest

Volition – will of the states act in the will of the individual

Role of Teacher
• Unique superior personality
• Spiritual life of students and the teacher is fused and organically united
• Discipline and respect for authority

Curriculum
• It uses textbooks in tier effort to integrate individual with the state
• Fascism attaches great importance to the inclusion of subjects to physical
education
• The school promoted a masculine curriculum that emphasized militarism and
patriotism

Methods of Teaching
• Teacher-centered
• Students are viewed as empty vessels who passively receives knowledge from
their teachers through lectures and instructions
• Student learning is measured through objectively scored test.

Implication to Education
• Education is perverted by the growth of nationalistic
• Education is to produce the political soldier with emphasis on discipline, training
and order
The teacher “is not just an instructor and transmitter of knowledge. He is a soldier, serving
on the cultural and political front of National Socialism. For intellectuals belong to the
people or they are nothing.” - Herman Klaus

SOURCES:

https://www.manilatimes.net/descent-into-fascism/494988/
https://www.giantbomb.com/fascism/3015-4881/
https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-
roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-18-what-is-the-future-of-italy-(1945)/the-rise-and-fall-
of-fascism
https://books.google.com/pj/books?isbn=8171566332