Judging by what adorns a huge part of the offer of local publishers, we live surrounded by unique, high-quality, unusual... publications. However, common sense necessarily forces us to think that, if everything is unrepeatable, superb, unusual, there is every chance that almost nothing or very little of it really is. Similarly, we are crumbling existences in societies where every now and then we reach for a feather-light meaning of fascism, emptied of content, which can lead us to think that, if everything is fascism, if everything can be declared fascism in an instant, then there may be no real fascism. At the junction of those two phenomena from the domain of reality, the overall impression of the study is nested Anatomy of fascism by Robert O. Paxton. A superb and unusual book that comprehensively deals with the much-needed effort to map and establish the nature and undeniable core of fascism as clearly and precisely as possible.
The ranges that Paxton achieves are even more impressive when we look at them from the point of view of the ambivalent, elusive and highly debatable year 2026, which showed that even the already muddied water can be muddied even more, and this was reflected in the ever-present slippery terrain on which all those who strive to mark the exact, and not just the terminological and semantic boundaries of fascism, navigate. This study by Paxton was published at the beginning of the fall of 2004 and, naturally, there are no too fast and too easy moves in it, nor the ostentatiousness that "adorns" and burdens many texts in the last ten years. Paxton takes, it seems, the only correct and justified path: he provides the exact historical context in which Mussolini's fascist current was born dramatically, while wisely pointing out the synchronicities in other European addresses of the time. Expectedly, but also necessary, already in the "Introduction" we come across an always welcome reminder, which already on the first pages testifies to Paxton's intellectual honesty, and which says that fascism in its protophase started from a striking "anti-capitalist, anti-bourgeois animus". Paxton emphasizes that "the early fascist movements ostentatiously emphasized their contempt for bourgeois values", attacking "international financial capitalism almost as vehemently as the socialists". However, the author immediately points out that "whenever the fascist parties came to power, they would do nothing to implement their anti-capitalist ideas, while, on the other hand, they carried out their threats to socialism extremely violently and thoroughly". This point is also extremely important in a broader sense, because it indicates that it is still possible, without too quick apologies to seemingly opposing ideological parties, to draw accurate conclusions, for example that today's left could gain a lot if it unequivocally admitted that there is a lot of "left" in the idea of Christianity, or in the deistic worldview.
After an extensive opening chapter, Paxton moves in a predictable but no less effective direction, following a logical and conceptual chronology to the last lines. The chapters "Creation of Fascist Movements" and "Entrenchment" follow, while the central part, as expected, takes up an overview of what is effectively described by the very titles of the two most extensive chapters: "Taking Power" and "Exercising Power", in which the author points out the not at all surprising discrepancy between what is publicly advocated and promised and what is, in fact, actually implemented. In Chapter Five ("Exercise of Power"), in the subsection "The Nature of Fascist Rule: The 'Dual State' and Dynamic Formlessness", we also come across this observation, which sounds quite familiar despite the different context: "During their long struggle for supremacy within fascist rule, the parallel organizations which the fascist parties developed during the period of entrenchment played complex and ambiguous roles. They were of enormous benefit to the fascist leader who preferred to undermine conservative strongholds from the shadows rather than attack them directly. On the other hand, they offered ambitious radical militants autonomous sources of political support to challenge the leader's absolute power."
The two penultimate chapters ("Long-term outcome: Radicalization or entropy?" and "In other times, in other places") subtly, and factually and associatively very suggestive, trace the way to the finale in which Robert O. Paxton ends this completely perfect circle, putting a question mark on everything he has built in the previous four hundred pages. In the final section, both the author and the reader, at the junction between "Contrary Interpretations" and "Boundaries", again come to the question "What is fascism?". At that point, Paxton scathingly concludes that "first-stage fascism exists in all democratic countries, including the United States... Based on the study of its development, we know that fascism does not need any spectacular 'march' on the capital to take root - apparently conciliatory decisions to tolerate lawlessness against national 'enemies' are enough." With the remark that in the shorter part that concerns the events in Yugoslavia after 1991 there is a certain superficial Wikipedia run to a certain goal, this book is a complete feat of mind and spirit, as well as the publisher's focus and courage. In addition to the extensive bibliography (and other additions) on about seventy pages, there are also numerous footnotes, as well as the overall careful organization of the text, and Paxton's conciseness, consistency and articulateness.
