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Inflationary use of the term fascism

A characteristic feature of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is the fact that the act of military aggression is justified using arguments that present themselves as historical. It is claimed that the respective opponent (whether Ukraine or NATO) has National Socialist leadership and pays homage to fascism. In Western media, a similar accusation also appears repeatedly in return. The Russian regime allegedly bears a similarity to the familiar phenomena of fascism. In the West, however, this accusation appears with a disproportionately lower frequency.

Regardless of the political shortsightedness that such an argument inevitably entails, it is nevertheless astonishing how many Russian citizens and members of the Western cultural sphere are taken in by such a statement. Fascism has become a sort of polemical buzzword used to document the moral depravity of those with different political views. Just as history does not repeat itself, the term fascism, in its original meaning, is effectively no longer usable.

However, there are similarities in political action that suggest a comparison with the past. Much more fundamental to us, however, seems to be the question of how fascist action can come about at all and how societies must change in order to be compared with the societies of the first half of the 20th century. Roger Griffin already had conclusive answers to that well over 30 years ago. It is all the more astonishing that current debates are by no means revolving around questions of definition, but merely serve entrenched reaction patterns.

Political action does not necessarily have to be right and ethically correct, even if it is not fascist in the strict sense. In our view, this is not given enough attention, not only in international reactions, but also in the domestic discussions of almost all Western democracies. Nothing is gained by labeling something.

Perhaps we could have helped Ukraine better not only with stronger weaponry, but also with historical arguments, had we been aware of this years ago.

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While preparing my symphonic poem „September 8th,“ I spoke with numerous relatives of members of ANPI (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia), with politically uninterested „ordinary Italians,“ and, naturally, waded through standard historical literature on the subject of fascism and partisans in Italy. When asked for a definition of fascism, very few were able to help me.

However, the psychological profile of the „proto-fascist“ was supposed to be the content of the first movement of my symphonic work, so there were moments in the past two years when I almost gave up on the project.

It was only the short treatise „Fascism, an Introduction to Comparative Fascism Research“ by Roger Griffin that re-encouraged me in my endeavor. The definition „a myth-based palingenetic narrative of an ‚ultranation“" is very coherent to me and made it easier for me to compose the 1st and currently also the 2nd movement. To what extent this definition also applies to the current state of the Russian state, I leave to each individual.

The composition is presumably to be understood as an act of personal mental hygiene and as an attempt to gain insight.