The great Austrian economist, Friedrich von Hayek, wrote a must-read book about creeping socialism in Europe prior to World War II. It arrived on the scene during the war. At the same time, he was a university professor residing in England. He was annoyed by the confusion he present in his academic peers regarding social and economic concepts.
So Hayek wrote his most well-received book, The direction to Serfdom. He tried to pass on this foundational truth: fascism and communism are both socialism – and quite similar. His warnings about the totalitarian movements building in Europe seemed fruitless. The majority of his colleagues believed fascism would be a product of capitalism. Hayek insisted National Socialism is what it says it is: socialism.
Fascism Isn't Right-Wing
In the introduction, Bruce Caldwell describes how Hayek began his book: \”It began as a memo to the director of the London School of Economics, Sir William Beveridge, designed in the early 1930s, disputing the then-popular declare that fascism represented the dying gasps of the failed capitalism.\”
Fascism representing failed capitalism is Marxist propaganda. Unfortunately, many Americans believe this today.
Historically, in Italy, Germany and Spain, the communists and fascists were political rivals competing for like-minded people. The communists portrayed fascists as right-wing to demonize them.
Today, European and American elitists call fascists right-wing for political reasons. It seems their whole political spectrum is anchored by socialism. And they strategically want to disparage capitalism.
The truth is, communism and fascism are rivaling socialist siblings.
Hayek demonstrated that besides fascism not originate from capitalism, many times, it springs from failing communism. He gave examples and quoted some ideological leftists who admitted it brokenheartedly. They acknowledged the Utopian dream frequently became uncannily just like a fascist dictatorship. What went down with time? Karl Marx's futuristic predictions became the reality of Stalin's Russia, Mao and Pol Pot.
Failed Communism Breeds Fascism
In the real-world, textbook constructs collapse. Today’s China is a mishmash of communism and fascism, with private businesses covered with the State. Vietnam is supposedly still communist. In reality, it is a commercialized dictatorship. Exactly what do you call Putin's Russia?
Hayek understood the mechanics, accurately observed human behavior, and saw the patterns many decades ago. The communists and fascists competed for the similar followers. As the communists used class rhetoric, and also the fascists racial or nationalistic jargon, they both ran expansionist dictatorships.
Mussolini, the earth's first fascist leader and Hitler's archetype, was a leading Italian Marxist. Enthralled by the outbreak of World War I, he declared himself anti-Marxian. (Marxists opposed that war.) But he created a collectivist, totalitarian system to rival Marxism, using odds and ends of Lenin’s program. He and his advisors created fascism out of Marxism. The truth is, communism and fascism are rivaling socialist siblings.
Hayek explained the interactions between the two parties in Germany: \”And what is the case with the leaders is much more the case with the rank and file of the movement. The relative ease with which a young communist might be converted to a young Nazi or vice versa was generally known in Germany, best of all towards the propagandists of these two parties.\”
Something Hayek greatly feared happened about two years after he gone to live in England. The National Socialists won the election in Germany, and Hitler became Chancellor.
About five years after he came to power, Hitler's invading armies brought the nation's Socialist German Workers Party, the Nazis, control of Hayek's Austrian homeland. More invasions of neighboring countries, the mass murder of undesirables, along with a monstrous totalitarian rule followed.
Putin's Fantasies
It is particularly rich that Vladimir Putin claims his goal is the denazification of Ukraine. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. The Russian individuals are under complete political control – Putin's police arrest protestors. Long prison sentences follow. He murders his political rivals with poison or any other means. Not just one parliamentarian dicated to stop him from invading Ukraine. The Russian parliamentarians’ giving him saving money light unanimously suggests their lives depended on it.
When Mussolini invented fascism, he described how the leader would decide for the nation. Individuality dissolved in to the state. Il Duce, der Führer, \”the leader,\” determined the will of the nation. It was a living because subsumed all individuality. He called this the coming trend. Putin's sphere of influence is his imagined coming trend. His will for Russia and people vassal states he controls through political puppet leaders may be the fascism that failed Soviet Marxism has wrought.
Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to consider Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.
Putin states that his Ukraine invasion is a defensive \”special military operation;\” it's limited in scope to degrade the fascist state next door, to disrupt being able to threaten Russia. But Ukraine only threatens his vision and ego.
Will the War End With Putin's End?
Putin has been doing so much damage in Ukraine, it's beyond forgivable. The large quantity of apartments, schools, commercial buildings, shopping malls, government buildings, and homes destroyed is astounding – not to mention roads, bridges, rail lines, seaports, along with other infrastructure. You will find thousands killed, left maimed, and made homeless. One man, \”the leader\” in Russia, did this and continues doing it to the Ukrainians. But what about the Russians?
Afghanistan was Russia's Vietnam. According to PBS, Russia has lost 7,000 to 15,000 troops in Ukraine in four weeks. In Afghanistan, they lost 15,000 in ten years. Russia's reported numbers are much less. But we know one thing for sure: their \”leader\” lies. Most professionals the actual numbers are somewhere in the centre. Regardless, are they not already too much for the Russian psyche to soak up?
Is it enough to get rid of your soul to the state? Russia includes a long history of serfdom. When will it strike Russians they don't need to be serfs anymore? Isolation from the modern world should hurt. One evil man has become their national mind. When can they decide they’ve had enough? The way parents react when a lot of their 18- and 19-year-old sons come home so quickly in body bags? As others get home disfigured? Will the Russian military become ill from the abuse and revolt? Mussolini's fate appears like a tough sketch for Putin's future. I doubt he'll get out of this together with his life.
