By William Walter Kay
Look how little the leopards have lost their spots!
Professor Gasman’s Haeckel’s Monism and the Birth of Fascist Ideology provides insights into the coherent fascist intellectual doctrine that, by 1920, was embraced by a wide swath of European academics and artists. Defining features of this cohort were:
They referred to themselves as: ecologists, naturalists and socio-biologists.
They were pseudo-scientists bent on subverting real science.
Their mantras were: natural, holistic, and organic.
Their Religion of Nature was basically a revival of Pantheism. They worshipped Earth as a divine living organism. Human achievements were disparaged as scant and fleeting compared to Nature’s glory.
They desired scientist-led governance. Scientists probed Nature’s divine realm, hence scientists alone understood the political implications of Nature’s laws.
They were pessimistic and denied the existence of progress.
They exhibited a longing for primitivism.
They were organizationally and ideologically linked to the organic foods movement.
They were organizationally and ideologically allied with the occultist/neo-pagan milieu.
They were divided between those who wanted to replace Christianity and those who wanted to modify Christianity.
They dreaded human overpopulation and were active in eugenics/population control strategizing.
They considered humanitarianism to be scientifically incorrect.
They described society as an organism that grew organically out of Nature.
They saw direct continuity between biological and sociological laws, and contended that bio-evolutionary laws should literally be the basis for human laws.
They believed human survival required abject conformity to the environmental totality. Human liberation would come not through dominion over Nature but through submission to Natural Law.
They opposed capitalist industrialization and sought to reinvigorate beleaguered countryside interests undermined by the rise of industrial cities. Hostility to industrial capitalism manifested in criticism of what was deemed lifeless scientific-mechanical thinking.
They stridently opposed democracy.
Gasman did not set out to expose similarities between environmentalism and fascism. His book makes no reference to environmentalism nor ventures off the topic of European academic trends circa 1870-1920.
Professor Gasman’s Haeckel’s Monism and the Birth of Fascist Ideology provides insights into the coherent fascist intellectual doctrine that, by 1920, was embraced by a wide swath of European academics and artists. Defining features of this cohort were:
They referred to themselves as: ecologists, naturalists and socio-biologists.
They were pseudo-scientists bent on subverting real science.
Their mantras were: natural, holistic, and organic.
Their Religion of Nature was basically a revival of Pantheism. They worshipped Earth as a divine living organism. Human achievements were disparaged as scant and fleeting compared to Nature’s glory.
They desired scientist-led governance. Scientists probed Nature’s divine realm, hence scientists alone understood the political implications of Nature’s laws.
They were pessimistic and denied the existence of progress.
They exhibited a longing for primitivism.
They were organizationally and ideologically linked to the organic foods movement.
They were organizationally and ideologically allied with the occultist/neo-pagan milieu.
They were divided between those who wanted to replace Christianity and those who wanted to modify Christianity.
They dreaded human overpopulation and were active in eugenics/population control strategizing.
They considered humanitarianism to be scientifically incorrect.
They described society as an organism that grew organically out of Nature.
They saw direct continuity between biological and sociological laws, and contended that bio-evolutionary laws should literally be the basis for human laws.
They believed human survival required abject conformity to the environmental totality. Human liberation would come not through dominion over Nature but through submission to Natural Law.
They opposed capitalist industrialization and sought to reinvigorate beleaguered countryside interests undermined by the rise of industrial cities. Hostility to industrial capitalism manifested in criticism of what was deemed lifeless scientific-mechanical thinking.
They stridently opposed democracy.
Gasman did not set out to expose similarities between environmentalism and fascism. His book makes no reference to environmentalism nor ventures off the topic of European academic trends circa 1870-1920.
Editor's Note: There is far more! Please follow the link.
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