Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and now, China. Blue is the new Black (shirt):
The Blue Shirts Society (藍衣社), also known as the Society of Practice of the Three Principles of the People(Chinese: 三民主義力行社, commonly abbreviated as SPTPP), the Spirit Encouragement Society (勵志社, SES) and the China Reconstruction Society (中華復興社, CRS), was a secret ultra-nationalist faction that modeled Italian fascists in the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party).
Not going into the history of China, though. Just adding this rather awkward quote to update the list.
The Blue Shirts during the 1930s became one of the most influential and
feared political movements in China. To both contemporaries and
historians, however, the Blue Shirt movement has been a shadowy force,
known mostly through hearsay, with little solid information regarding
its doctrine or its activities. Now, on the basis of memoirs,
interviews, and especially Japanese intelligence reports of the 1930s, a
rough picture of this secret organization can be pieced together. And
the image that emerges is not simply a terrorist organization, but a
political faction that reflected the concerns and ideals of many Chinese
during the troubled Nanking decade.
Augustus Sol Invictus (born Austin Mitchell Gillespie, 1983), is a Florida lawyer and political candidate who drew attention some years ago when he ran for the U.S. Senate to represent Florida on the Libertarian ticket. When word got out that he'd once gone to the Mojave Desert and ritually sacrificed a goat, then drank it's blood, he didn't deny it. No indeed. He'd been a Thelemite, a loud and proud pagan, and made no bones (nor gristle) about it..
But the O.T.O. gave him the (jack?) boot.
Maybe it was the goat. Maybe it was his hard-right politics. As a lawyer, he's represented white supremacists, terrorists, and other hard-to-like defendants. He also was a speaker at the infamous Unite the Right rally, had previously praised eugenics, and promoted white supremacy. Not to mention he wants to see the world set on fire. Going through online references to Invictus, he doesn't seem to last very long in any group with which he affiliates. I don't think a guy like him takes orders very well. When you read the letter transcribed below, you'll see what I mean.
If it was a clean kill, I have no quarrel with a goat sacrifice; ridiculing it, well, is simply hypocritical. Muslims and Orthodox Christians do it, Jews did it; heck, some passages in the Talmud depict priests at Solomon's Temple wading
up to their knees in blood, and others describe 1.2 million animals
being slaughtered on one day. Certainly hyperbole, but I've read enough to know the courtyard of the Temple was a scene of constant smoke, fire, sizzling fat, and puddles of blood.
In recent news, Invictus was acquitted in a domestic abuse case (apparently the accuser didn't show). Charges of stalking, harassment, and domestic violence have been reported to police against him about 10 times. But in April this year, all charges against him in his latest trial ended up with a "not guilty" verdict. Read about his legal issues here.
There are already some good articles about Invictus online; this one is especially good at situating Invictus within the current fascist spectrum and is much defter than my attempts in recent posts. It focuses on the idea of "Imperium" articulated by Francis Yockey. I was really struck by this passage:
Fascism’s key....is syncretic, mixing in aspects of the
left to create a shifting, yet totalizing, political system.
Libertarianism....has the unique ability to mainstream far-right positions, and
really to be the only crossover point that organizations with
hard-right politics would normally have. Invictus himself seems to
maintain very common talking points from the Libertarian Party, but
mixes them with a sort of social commentary about the need for dominant
leaders, a “cult of violence,” and the need to return to the idea of
Imperium....he seems to
portray a frenetic and confused political menu that focuses on strength
and power and keeps a great deal of open fascist ideals just under the
surface.
A second article by the same author is also instructive. The writer, Shane Burley, is clearly not sympathetic to Invictus' views, but he manages to keep it fair; in fact, this second article is a response to a letter Invictus wrote to Burley, thanking him for the first article, which focuses on his ideas, rather than the sensational "Goat-blood drinking Florida Man" angle of most other articles about him.
From that second article, I'd also like to quote a paragraph that goes into something my previous posts have addressed: the meeting of left and right:
One thing that did stick from Yockey, and we are seeing today in many
sides of the New Right, is a call for unity between the Right and Left.
Yockey called for a "red-brown alliance," which would be the association
between fascists and anti-Zionist communists (since he saw the Jews as
essentially the primary problem), and this has been much of the
discussion of a Third Positionism that sees both capitalism and
communism as problematic. Today, we see this incredibly present in
National Anarchism, National Revolution, and National Bolshevism, as
well as various strains of racialist Asatru/Odinism and parts of the Alt
Right. It should be noted that they do not borrow from the Left in
terms of underlining ideas, but just in tactical notions like opposition
to capitalism and support of deep environmentalism.
National Bolshevism. Asatru/Odinism. Deep environmentalism. Left/right unity. Almost like a list of keywords for my recent posts....I've addressed each and every one of these topics in the last 12 months.
The letter I reproduce below has been widely discussed online. I only post it now because I got a call last week from a friend I hadn't seen in 30 years. "I'm in Marseilles!" Next day we're in Toulouse eating Camembert and I tell her about my recent forays into occultism and fascism. And she asks, "Have you ever heard of Augustus Sol Invictus? Cuz I went to school with him."
Coincidence
much? I'm writing posts about the occult and avant-garde roots of
fascism, and a woman I haven't seen in 30 years pops in from across the
Atlantic to tell me she went to grad school with the contemporary
personification of the occultist/artist/fascist idea I've been recently
manhandling. Oh yeah, Invictus writes poetry with titles like All is burning: it is the endand Set the World on Fire.
From the time of his religious renunciation and departure to the
wilderness to the time of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville
and its aftermath, Invictus discusses his first-hand experience of the
brutal world of radical politics, including the public betrayals and
catastrophes and the private heartbreaks and changes in course.
This
friend of mine was in a class with Invictus as a grad student and
describes him as a friend (at the time, anyway) and a decent guy. But
he hadn't yet revealed his fascist beliefs, and domestic violence
wasn't probably something they yukked about over sandwiches. My friend
is quite a feminist, she wouldn't truck with no violent misogynists.
She describes him as seeming "lost" and "in search of an identity." She emphasizes that Gillespie made sure to legally change his name before getting his diplomas, so that they carried his new name. Becoming Invictus was becoming a new person. She feels that the person before and after were truly like different people.
Some
time later, in 2013, my friend received Invictus' famous
"renunciation" letter, which I present here. It was originally sent to
his colleagues at DePaul University College of Law
(a Catholic school, BTW) and he sent to my friend as well.
(Update 13/07: Hey. I just re-read the article about Augustus. The letter that I shared with you was originally sent to our cohort & the professors at Rollins College Crummer School of Business....He sent a different letter to DePaul....When my Rollins cohort received our letter, the other people on our team dug around and found that letter that he wrote to DePaul on a DePaul message board.)
When that email arrived 2 days before finals, the school was so fearful of a
mass shooting episode that students were allowed to do their finals
from home. The grad program was effectively shut down for three days. Young Invictus even received a visit from the FBI.
The
first page of the scan is blurry but you can read the transcript
below. I don't feel this is a violation of Invictus' privacy. He sent
it to his entire cohort and every professor in the program; and it's reproduced online already.
He clearly meant it to be a public declaration. And the guy may run for
office again one day. Domestic violence? Shit. The GOP will excuse sex offenders. Sacrificed goats? No worries.
Remember a few years back, "I am not a witch...."
As NPR said of Christine O'Donnell's ad in 2010: "It should go without saying that if in your first TV ad as a candidate
for the U.S. Senate you feel compelled to announce: "I am not a witch,"
you're in deep trouble."
Whoooo-ooo-ooo! (That's a ghost noise BTW). Cue rattling chains!
According to a recent video (2022) Invictus posted on YouTube, he's once again Catholic. Tridentine (Pre-Vatican II), naturally.
So,
here's that letter. It must be intended to be ironic to a certain
degree, no? A "winning handshake"? What? No discussion of the paper
stock of his business cards? Is this Sol Invictus, or Patrick Bateman?
(Bateman: "This Confession Has Meant Nothing.")
--------- -------- -------- -------
Sent: Sat, Apr 20, 2013 1:01 pm
Subject: FW: On My Renunciation & Departure from Civilization
To the Grey World of Man:
They
say that only failures become revolutionaries; that those who
perpetrate violence in the name of a great cause only do so because they
have failed at everything else in life. In other words, they only become revolutionaries because they have achieved nothing of value in the “real” world.
Witness
ye the glory of my life at 29 years of age: I have four children, each
of whom should be the envy of every parent in the world; I have attained
a Baccalaureate Degree in Philosophy with honors; I have attained a
Doctorate in Law, cum laude; I have acquired licenses in the profession
of law in the States of New York, Illinois, and Florida; I am scheduled
to acquire two more such licenses in North Carolina & Massachusetts;
I am Editor-in-Chief of a poetry journal; I run an independent
publishing company; I have opened my own law office in downtown Orlando;
I am an MBA candidate; and I have accomplished a few other things that
will remain off the record for now.
I
am of genius intellect & cultured, well-educated & creative,
well-mannered & refined. I am God’s gift to humankind where the
English language is concerned, and I also happen to have a basic
knowledge of Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and Italian. I am musical
& artistic; I am athletic & possessed of militant
self-discipline; and I am many other things. I have a Cadillac & a
poodle, multiple computers & a personal library; I live in an
apartment downtown, right across the street from the courthouse; I have
been to Paris & Vancouver, to Cairo & Dubrovnik, to Mexico City
& Siracusa. I dress better than all of you, pronounce my words
perfectly, and have a winning, professional handshake. I am everything
you ever wanted to be.
I
challenge any of you, then, to accuse me of being a failure in this
artificial civilization of yours. For it is beyond dispute that I have
played your petty game, and I have won.
But
your game no longer holds any interest for me. Your architecture is
vapid & worthless, as is your decadent culture, the mindless drivel
you call music, the filth you call democracy. You waste your lives
watching pure excrement on television, shopping at the strip malls,
planning your vacations to resorts & theme parks. The Internet, with
its infinitude of information, is used for reading celebrity gossip
& watching sitcoms. You have begun to reduce argument to memes &
human communication to trite sound bites. Life has become trivial – and
if you cannot feel the human spirit decaying, you are already dead.
As
for those in the profession of law: The vast majority of you are
nothing more than parasites. The only reason you eat, the only reason
you can afford to have roofs over your heads, is that the lives of
others have been ruined by the very laws & social order you claim to
be legitimate. You feed off others like worms, and were this world
& their lives just & in order, you would be out of work. Look
upon your lives, and repent.
This
modern civilization of which you are all so fond deserves naught from
me but the violence of my contempt; and if you were strong enough, you
would hold the same contempt & turn your torches upon the world as I
shall.
WITNESS YE MY RENUNCIATION:
I
hereby renounce my licenses to practice law, my diplomas, my
affiliation with Rollins, DePaul, and the University of South Florida,
my United States citizenship, my membership in the Roman Catholic
Church, my law firm, my publishing company & poetry journal, and all
of my material possessions.
To
those who believe that this great renunciation is evidence of mental
illness rather than the initiation of a spiritual journey: If my example
stirs nothing in you, if you can see no further than the confines of
what your secular humanism & its hallowed psychiatry allow, then
there is nothing I can say to you that would wake you from your slumber.
You are less than the beast in man. You are fungi. Would to God that
you pass quickly from this Earth.
HEAR YE MY FINAL WORDS IN PEACETIME:
I
have prophesied for years that I was born for a Great War; that if I
did not witness the coming of the Second American Civil War I would
begin it myself. Mark well: That day is fast coming upon you. On the New
Moon of May, I shall disappear into the Wilderness. I will return
bearing Revolution, or I will not return at all.
It appears I like flags with a) astronomical elements and b) blue fields. I think I prefer the Australian over the New Zealander (Zealandish? Kiwi?) flag. No offense NZ; I think if the stars were just white I'd like yours more....and I think I'd like both more without the Union Jack....
This post goes out to Luis, with apologies....apologies because it's kind of a mixed bag....it was an enlightening experience to see how my writing is affected when I have an audience in mind!
In a recent post titled The Avant-Garde, Occultism, and Fascism, I looked at fascist leaders and their connection to the arts and the occult. In some cases, such as Germany, Italy, and Spain, the fascists controlled their respective countries. In others, such as the UK and the USA, the fascists were not in power, and the Second World War caused those movements to fold. That isn't to say that fascism disappeared, simply that the organized fascist parties and their paramilitary wings could no longer operate when their countries were engaged in total war against fascism itself. They morphed into something more....discrete. The far right has never gone away, and it's aims and ideals remain as strong as ever among what would seem to be a growing number of people.
Sparked by an exchange with a long-time reader in Portugal, I decided to take a look to see how fascism manifested there. Portugal has about 10.3 million people, with a large population abroad. France counts large numbers of Portuguese residents who have come here to find work. Portugal is not as wealthy as the rest of Europe, so a lot of people leave for brighter pastures, accumulate some money, and return. When I went to Luxembourg, I visited several bars catering to a Portuguese clientele and was surprised to hear a Portuguese radio station.
At the dawn of the 20th century, Portugal was a constitutional monarchy, which was overthrown in 1910. The result was the First Portuguese Republic. The Republic was fragile, the period tumultuous, and in 1926 a coup ended it, resulting in a military dictatorship. This Ditadura Nacional (national dictatorship) was followed by the corporatistEstado Novo. (follow that link to "corporatism" for more info)
The leader of the "new state" wasAntónio de Oliveira Salazar,and he would remain in power until his death in 1970. Before Salazar came to power, however, there wasfull-on fascist party jockeying for power.
Francisco de Barcelos Rolão Preto (note the mustachee!)
The Portuguese National Syndicalist Movement was founded during the transition to authoritarianism and unified a “political family” which had played an important role in the crises and downfall of the Parliamentary Republic (1911–1926) but had been marginalized during the establishment of stable dictatorial rule under Salazar at the beginning of the 1930s. National Syndicalism belatedly unified fascist currents arising from the large but divided post-war radical right. It attracted the most radical members of the parties and ideological pressure groups created during the twilight years of the Parliamentary Republic. Before it was outlawed and its leaders exiled in the mid-1930’s, National Syndicalism had set up an organization that included a sizeable army sector and had organized several coup attempts against the Salazar regime. As in other authoritarian contexts, the consolidation of the “New State” of Salazar meant the dissolution and repression of native fascism.
Preto was exiled by Salazar in 1934, who denounced the NS for being "inspired by certain foreign models" (German Nazism). He also condemned their
exaltation of youth, the cult of force through direct action, the principle of the superiority of state political power in social life, [and] the propensity for organizing masses behind a single leader.
National Syndicalist symbol.
The "corporatist state" envisioned by Salazar was similar to that of Italian fascism and the original corporativismo of Benito Mussolini, but there were considerable differences in their approach to governing. Salazar admired Mussolini and was influenced by his Labour Charter of 1927, but he distanced himself from Fascism itself, which he considered a "pagan Caesarist political system" with no legal or ethical limits....Salazar also viewed German Nazism as espousing "pagan elements" that he considered repugnant. Just before World War II, Salazar declared his opposition to '"might over right.". Deeply Catholic, capitalist, and conservative, but not "fascist" in the strictest sense of the term.
Could this denunciation of "paganism" be due to the occult influences on Nazism from Ariosophy and the Thule Society, and the mystical Freemasonry that D'Annunzio embraced? Or was it the nationalistic mysticism of Nazi (Thule) and Fascist (Imperial Rome) mythology? Salazar was far too Catholic to accept that stuff, and too pro-Capitalist to accept the "socialism" of his German and Italian counterparts.
Preto and followers
Although some scholars consider Salazar's government fascist, some say it wasn't; conservative and authoritarian, but as one can see in the quotes above, he denounced fascism. Could we say he was a fascist but not a Fascist?
Not to split hairs, but in these posts I speak of "Fascists" and "fascists". Fascism is a specific ideology which incorporated many notions often associated with the left. Hitler, D'Annunzio, and Mussolini were Fascists. As were Mosley, Pelley, Franco, and Preto. But Salazar, despite his secret police, authoritarianism, and brutality, was not. I think. Fascistic, yes. But not a large-F fascist. His Catholicism and Capitalism would seem to preclude it. In the end, I'm not sure most people were all to concerned with the fine print. The secret police, repression, and torture were more on their mind. One should also bear in mind that I'm far from an expert on the subject, and scholars are still debating exactly what constitutes "fascism". Maybe we should just call a spade a spade, but it's hard to apply the label to a man who specifically denounced it and exiled those who identified as such....I'm open to other points of view and don't really object to applying the label to salazar and O'Duffy. Hell, I've called Trump a fascist, with a small "f" anyway....
In fascism's heyday, in the 1930s, many regimes that were not functionally fascist borrowed elements of fascist decor in order to lend themselves an aura of force, vitality, and mass mobilization....[Salazar] crushed Portuguese fascism after he had copied some of its techniques of popular mobilization.
Hence the exile of Preto in 1934. Portuguese National Syndicalism had unified elements from among the post-war radical right. Preto wrote "our organic syndicalism is essentially the basis of current syndicalist thought among Mussolini’s friends." Before it was outlawed and its leaders exiled in the mid-1930’s, National Syndicalism had organized several coup attempts against the Salazar regime. No love lost there.
The Blue Shirts used the so-called Roman Salute and, after the example of other movements, followers called Preto "the Chief" (Chefe). "Duce," "Fûhrer," "Caudillo," etc... He was apparently genuinely revered by his followers. He was in close contact with German and Italian delegates, publicly exalting the fascism of both nations.
After WW2, however, Preto renounced fascism and joined a left-wing movement. The idea that the far-left and far-right lead to the same place is not as odd as it may first appear.
After World War II, Rolão Preto abandoned fascismand joined the left-wing forum Movement of Democratic Unity, and he published a volume entitled A Traição Burguesa ("The Bourgeois Betrayal"). The book criticised fascist regimes for becoming victims of social and political compromises with the bourgeoisie.
In 1945 he thought that "neither the glorious clarions of nationalist
mysticism nor the powerful social projections of Nazi efforts can make
us forget what Nazism represented — the deception of the revolutionary
hopes that gave birth to National Socialism".
Salazar was not a big-F fascist, he was still brutal dictator. I have a friend whose father spent 7 years in a Lisbon prison for distributing communist newspapers, where, among other tortures, his captors sought information by pulling off his fingernails.
After his death in 1970, the country fell once again into turmoil. Fortunately for Portugal, a moderate military faction emerged, staged a coup, and turned the country over to civil authority. In 1975, the country staged its first election in 50 years and today remains a stable democracy.
Researching the Portuguese Blue Shirts, I also found this
was the nickname for yet another group of fascists, in Ireland (and of course, in Spain). Ireland and Portugal have some similarities. Both have a smallish population, are historically less wealthy than the rest of Europe, Catholic, and have a large number of citizens living abroad.
Eoin O'Duffy
Ireland was occupied by Anglo-Normans waaay back in 1169. Jumping ahead some centuries, years of struggle culminated in the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). This happens to be the period during which fascism was emerging, and in Ireland, where nationalist sentiment was riding high after a successful guerrilla war against England, it's not surprising fascism found adherents.
One admirer was Eoin O'Duffy, a veteran of the war, a former commander in the IRA, and a former police commissioner. A group organized by and for vets, the Army Comrades Association (ACA), asked O'Duffy to lead the group in 1933, and he began to transform the organization along the lines of his fascist principles.
ACA flag
O'Duffy was offered and accepted leadership of the ACA and renamed it
the National Guard. He re-modelled the organisation, adopting elements
of European fascism, such as the straight-arm Roman salute,
the wearing of uniforms and huge rallies. Membership of the new
organisation became limited to people who were Irish or whose parents
"profess the Christian faith". O'Duffy was an admirer of Benito Mussolini, and the Blueshirts adopted corporatism as a chief political aim....
O'Duffy and the National Guard
The history of the period is too complex for me to summarize, but the quote above indicates some elements O'Duffy adopted from fascists in Italy and Germany.
The uniforms, the "Roman" salute, the rallies, the cry of "Hoch O'Duffy!" ("Hoch" = "Heil"), corporatism....O'Duffy openly admired Mussolini, and started a newspaper to promote corporatism (like Preto), and voice opposition to "alien" control and influence.
In the early stages of the 2nd Italo-Ethiopian War in 1935, O'Duffy offered Mussolini
to send 1000 Blueshirts to help the Italians. He and some of his men also made an appearance at the 1934 International Fascist conference in Montreux, arguing against antisemitism. The goal of this conference was to create a Fascist International to oppose the Communist Internationale, and identified fascist movements in 39 countries, including Portugal. Despite Salazar's reservations about Fascism, he certainly found enough affinities to send a delegation to this conference, oddly the same year he exiled the "hard Fascists" of the National Syndicalists. The Portuguese delegation included reps from Acção Escolar Vanguarda (Vanguard School Action) and União Nacional, headed by António Eça de Queiroz (future head of the National Radio Station of Portugal). There were no representatives from Italy, Nazi Germany, or the British Union of Fascists. From the outset, he conference was divided over the role of Nazi Germany, antisemitism, and role of race in international fascism. As we've already seen, the Irish delegation opposed antisemitism, as did the organizer of the conference, Eugenio Coselschi.
In 1936, O'Duffy also led a contingent to assist Franco during the Spanish Civil War.
By this time the Blueshirts had already been banned, changed name, been subsumed by another group, and succumbed to infighting. After his return from Spain, O'Duffy continued to network with German and Italian spies for the fascist cause, without much success. O'Duffy's personal affairs had become something of a mess and worsening alcoholism led to his early death at the age of 54 (1944).
It's rather ironic he was taken by drink. According to Wikipedia
O'Duffy believed in the ideal of "cleaned manliness". He said sport "cultivates in a boy habits of self-control [and] self-denial" and promotes "the cleanest and most wholesome of the instincts of youth". He said a lack of sport caused some boys to have "failed to keep their athleticism, but became weedy youths, smoking too soon, drinking too soon".
Not that sport is inherently fascist, but it does bring to mind the then-current concept of "Muscular Christianity" and the emergence of organized sport and other outdoor activities, such as Scouting. Nazism was certainly big on athleticism, physical culture, and clean living, at least outwardly. Hitler was like a pin-cushion of uppers and downers. But, hey, he was a vegetarian.
Physical culture was a prominent part of the Nazi propaganda machine. Fascism is a strange hybrid when it comes to technology; on one hand it exalts nature and hearkens back to a glorious, mythical past, yet it also embraces the might of technology. Italian Futurism was very influential on fascism in Italy, with its machine-age stylings and love of bells, whistles, electricity, planes, trains, and automobiles; yet fascism in general also placed importance on the relationship of the people (blood) and the natural world (soil). We wrote about this sort of "green" or "ecofascism" at the beginning of June. In many ways, fascism was a Romantic reaction to a rapidly-changing world, both suspicious of and taking technology in hand.
1936
In the final season of Peaky Blinders, we find anti-hero Thomas Shelby navigating his way through the interwar political landscape. One of his adversaries is British fascist Oswald Mosley, (see my previous post), and he also gets tangled up with Irish fascists. Odd intersection; until researching this post the talk of Irish fascists was new to me.
In one scene, Shelby explains that
Since I've entered politics, I've learned that the line doesn't go out from the middle to the left and the right. It goes in a circle....You go far enough left, eventually you'll meet someone who has gone far enough right to get to the same place. Working-class socialists like me, working-class nationalists like you. The result? National Socialism.
Well... since I've
entered politics, I've learned that the line doesn't go out from the
middle to the left and the right. It goes in a circle. I'll show you.
You go far enough left, eventually you'll meet someone who has gone far
enough right to get to the same place. Working-class socialists like me,
working-class nationalists like you. The result? National Socialism.
And that's me, in the middle. Just a man trying to make an honest living
in a very dark world. You have friends in Dublin, Laura McKee, who are
actively fighting for a Fascist Ireland. And you are acting on their
behalf, ain't you? When Jack Nelson comes to London, I can give him
access to Oswald Mosley and to Fascist sympathisers in the House of
Commons and the House of Lords, on both sides of the divide. Fascism is
quite the thing... among the very best people. And with your help, I can
also offer him Dublin.
Read more at: https://tvshowtranscripts.ourboard.org/viewtopic.php?f=287&t=51644
Well... since I've
entered politics, I've learned that the line doesn't go out from the
middle to the left and the right. It goes in a circle. I'll show you.
You go far enough left, eventually you'll meet someone who has gone far
enough right to get to the same place. Working-class socialists like me,
working-class nationalists like you. The result? National Socialism.
And that's me, in the middle. Just a man trying to make an honest living
in a very dark world. You have friends in Dublin, Laura McKee, who are
actively fighting for a Fascist Ireland. And you are acting on their
behalf, ain't you? When Jack Nelson comes to London, I can give him
access to Oswald Mosley and to Fascist sympathisers in the House of
Commons and the House of Lords, on both sides of the divide. Fascism is
quite the thing... among the very best people. And with your help, I can
also offer him Dublin.
Read more at: https://tvshowtranscripts.ourboard.org/viewtopic.php?f=287&t=51644
Preto is a good example; after WW2 he denounced fascism and became involved in left-wing politics. In France today, many supporters of far-right leader Marine Le Pen are ex-Communists. (In yesterday's legislative elections, her party is set to win 90 seats in the French parliament, far beyond expectations).
Before the Second World War, the explicitly fascist French Popular Party (1936-1945) was founded by ex-Communists. Putin's guru Alexander Dugin also recognizes this circular model; his "Nazbol" (1993-2007) group, the National Bolshevik Party, used the Nazi flag; red field, white circle, black icon. But instead of a swastika, they used a hammer and sickle.
National Bolshevik Party
French Popular Party (like the NS and ACA, a cross)
Not to seem trivial, but I would be remiss not to discuss Slovenian group Laibach, musical outlet of the political art collective NSK (New Slavic Art). As a country in which both Communism and Fascism have taken their turns, Slovenia is a natural wellspring for explorers of the totalitarian labyrinth. Like the fictional Shelby, Laibach recognizes the limitations of the left-right axis political model.
Laibach are often accused of being fascists for their use of uniforms, militaristic icons and imagery, and the martial sounds, and lyrics, in their music. Despite being accused of having fascist sympathies, they actually have communist roots. They play with the imagery of totalitarianism to point out that authoritarian communism and fascism share as much as they differ. They are trolling both "sides".
Laibach incorporates the aesthetics of social realism, Nazism and Italian Futurism, demonstrating where extremes meet, much as the fictional Thomas Shelby with a water ring on a bar table. Wikipedia speaks of Futurism emphasizing "dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane, and the industrial city." Hence Salazar's criticism of Facism's "exaltation of youth."
We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter." So say the group, rather cryptically. In the words of musician/journalist Richard Wolfson
Laibach's method is extremely simple, effective and horribly open to
misinterpretation. First of all, they absorb the mannerisms of the
enemy, adopting all the seductive trappings and symbols of state
power, and then they exaggerate everything to the edge of parody...
Next they turn their focus to highly charged issues — the West's fear of
immigrants from Eastern Europe, the power games of the EU, the analogies between Western democracy and totalitarianism.
Laibach are not fascists. Like Pink Floyd and David Bowie, they are partly satirizing the fascistic elements of the rock concert as something akin to a fascist rally. Interestingly, this rock star as fascist is also accompanied by a mental breakdown; in The Wall, Pink is falling apart. And Bowie? A lad, insane. But I think Laibach are as much concerned with the dangers of capitalism with anything else. Toying with totalitarian aesthetics, they remind us to take a hard look at authoritarian aesthetics; the rallies of modern North Korea and those of Nazi Germany: there isn't much difference except the colors and symbols.
While this was a brief aside when I mentioned McDuffy's remarks about sport, I include the video above for Laibach's song The Whistleblowers. An homage to Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, it's pictured as a kind of fascist training program for youth. The imagery is fascist, but the message is decidedly in favor of those with the courage to break the silence beneath which governments commit all manner of crimes. Some may think their tactics are in poor taste; I think they're trying to make people really examine their own "democracy." They are saying that in many ways a capitalist, western democracy is just as capable of committing atrocities as the fascist regimes. We think of Nuremberg rallies and Communist parades and shudder. But aren't our cultures also reveling in spectacles we actually pay for? Spectacles where mindless masses cheer and scream for "heroes" that earn more in a single match or concert than most will earn in a year? Is a fascist rally any worse than a rock concert or the Super Bowl? Our "culture" is an increasingly expensive series of "spectacles...." Hats off to Guy Debord and The Society of the Spectacle. Written in 1967, it's truer today than ever. Culture behind a paywall. Marinetti predicted his future, our past; Debord predicted his future, our present.
While Hitler has become synonymous with human evil, and wearing a swastika in public unthinkable, one can wear a hammer and sickle with impunity. But in terms of human destruction, Stalin matches Hitler, perhaps exceeds him. By some estimates Stalin is responsible for 6 million deaths due to mass murder and forced labor. Others put that at 9. If famine is included, the figure could be as high as 60 million people. And Pol Pot, ostensibly a Communist, was unimaginably barbaric, killing up to 2 million Cambodians.
Comparing death tolls like baseball stats is grotesque, but illustrative. This brief foray into fascism has taught me that left and right are not straight lines, but curved lines that often meet, like circumnavigating a globe. Like Shelby tracing a circle on a table top. The lines become something like a fence encircling everyone in the middle hoping just to get by.
The fascist impulse seems to be something which hasn't gone away, merely changed forms. Before embarking on this series of posts, I only associated fascism with Germany, Italy, and Spain. We speak of international communism, but not much about international fascism. But we should. It may seem counter-intuitive to think of nationalists embracing international coordination, but as the Financial Times reports
Since being ousted from his position as White House chief strategist in 2017, he [Steve Bannon] has shifted his attention to Europe, helping launch the Brussels-based The Movement, a rightwing think-tank to support nationalist, anti-establishment groups.
Bannon has opened a center in Italy in order to cultivate links between far-right groups and politicians from Italy, Greece, and Hungary, and from across Europe. Said Bannon in 2019
“Come back here in a few years and you’ll find 100 students; 20 to 25 faculty [staff]. You’ve already had a couple of classes graduate [by then] and people are back in media, back in political campaigns, serving as junior ministers in government and starting to build a network . . . I think this academy will start to build a cadre.”
Something to keep an eye on, despite the skepticism of many European rightwing leaders. Today's fascists may not wear easily-recognizable uniforms other than black and yellow polo shirts, but their aims are not much different from their early-20th century counterparts. The digital revolution is as transformative as the technological revolution of years past, and the reactionaries of today are as committed as those of that period. January 6th may well be a prelude of what is yet to come.
"The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal
vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the
consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
John Philpot Curran (1750-1817)
I know this post is a bit of a jumble, and I'm sure some new color of shirt will pop up soon, but for now, da- da- das ist alles, Völker!
So Luis, what do you think? Have I got anything dreadfully wrong? I feel a little out of my depth with this one, so I'd be happy to hear your point of view. Obrigado antecipadamente e obrigado pelo seu apoio.
For many years I collaborated with Tim Wilson (a.k.a undule; a.k.a. .sWineDriveR.) on several artistic projects. We were roommates for a time and took some classes together. We finished each other's homework, journals, and added our touches to each other's paintings (He is an infinitely more skilled artist than I, but he was always very generous with his encouragement and feedback; he even gave me my first set of brushes and tubes of Liquitex).
One of our largest collaborations was Plastic Tub, which is, as far as I know, the first, if not only, work of fiction using Wiki software.
We shared (share?) a lot of ideas in common, but we have very different personalities and beliefs. After our first rift, I reached out a few years later and it was great to speak to him again, because some of my most productive conversations about art and literature were with Tim. Never a dull or derivative idea.
For a man who loved pseudonyms, he was always honest, sometimes brutally so. Not always an easy guy to get along with, especially when liquor entered into the equation. And the same is to be said of me. I don't get so wild anymore, but back in the day I drank in order to get dronk, with Rimbaud's "derangement of the senses" firmly and pretentiously in mind. I could get pretty deranged and become an insufferable and boorish twat. I'd calmed down by the time my wife left me, but the grief of our separation was the final nail in the coffin in which time and the trail of wounded laid that youthful, exaggerated exuberance to rest.
The Tub played a part in Tim and I falling out: different levels of commitment, different ideas of where it should go, alcohol. Pity, because the Tub is a genuinely strange, funny, and intelligent work of satire and yet also a "serious" aesthetic manifesto. There were four core writers, including The Gid and Steven Vogeler, and I think three other people added some passages. While lacking heft in some parts, it's a pretty thorough praxis of the ideas we developed into a "high-modernist '-ism'" we called "AA" (pun intended), or "Accidental Associationalism."
Surrealism, Discordianism, Gnosticism, Alchemy, détournement, and whimsy....aficionados of each will find something to love in the depths of the Tub....
It seems I write a little blurb about the Tub every few years because I think it deserves to be recognized as a unique and early example of the collaborative artistic possibilities facilitated by the internet. Not HTML fiction but Wiki fiction. A collaborative assemblage of ideas is intrinsic to the Wiki concept....
Tim is real smart, extremely well-read, and is a deep well of original and creative works of art across many media, from painting to film-making, collage, and video game design. He taught himself how to make add-on modules for video games and ended up working for some industry leaders on big projects, including Borderlands and Duke Nukem Forever.
Despite our acrimonious parting of ways, I can't deny the man's big influence on my artistic endeavors....which can't be said of another collaborator he worked with, a guy who based whole shows on one of Tim's ideas and never once tipped his hat -- sadly endemic in art circles. Tim encouraged me to pick up a paintbrush and helped me to liberate my poetry from undue influences. I owe him a lot, lit-wise, and everything, painting-wise. Anger and sadness aside, I still am glad I met the guy; he literally changed my life.
The clip above is from a film he made titled Water:Pillow. I think it was first screened in 1994, when I was 24. I'm the guy in the fedora, and The Gid is the guy with the head wound. This was a fun project to work on, and Tim really worked the medium of 16mm with all kinds of experimental techniques I had never even imagined. It's a weird and funny film, and the clip is a good representation of the kind of "dark whimsy" that pops up in his oeuvre from time to time.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this clip, because it was a big part of my life for an academic year or so, and it features your LoS authors.
His YouTube page has other snippets for your perusal.
When someone asks me where I come from, how I answer depends on my mood. If I'm tired, I just say "Tampa." (Puzzled looks) "Floride?" If I'm up for a chat it's some variation of the following....
My father was born in Marietta, Ohio and grew up in St. Mary's, WV. My mom was born and raised in Sutton, Surrey, England. She became a US citizen when I was 4. Ethnically, I'm painfully WASPish.
Places I've lived:
Born: Tampa, Florida, 1970 (MacDill AFB)
Oxford, England
Mobile, Alabama
Honolulu, Hawaii
Sumter, South Carolina
Naples, Italy
Tampa (again) and DeLand, Florida, 1981-1992
Arlington, Virginia
Tampa (and again)
Zaragosa, Mexico
Tampa (yet again)
Edgewood, Albuquerque, and Jemez Springs, New Mexico
Ithaca, New York
Toulouse, Aucamville, and Verdun-sur-Garonne, France, 2002-Present
7 states and 4 countries. Woof!
Places I've visited/lived:
England (1+ year)
Italy (3 years)
Israel (2 weeks)
Jordan (5 days)
Egypt (3 days)
Netherlands (1 week)
Mexico (1+ year)
Guatemala (3+ months)
Belize (5 days)
France (20 years)
Switzerland (3 days)
Canada (3 days)
Spain (3+ months)
Portugal (3 weeks)
Greece (10 days)
Andorra (several hiking expeditions)
Argentina (20 days),
Uruguay (4 days)
Brazil (10 days),
Morocco (7 days)
Germany (36 days)
Slovenia (1 day)
Czech Republic (1 day)
Austria (2 days)
Belgium (4 days),
Luxembourg (2 days)
Ireland (3 days)
27 countries. A fraction of what some of my friends have managed, but still pretty diverse.
My ancestry:
English, Dutch, Irish
Me ex-wife is from Argentina and has Spanish, Italian, and Quechua ancestry.
My kids were born in France and like the entire nuclear family are trilingual: English, French, Spanish. I always speak English with the kids and with their mother they speak French, and then Spanish. Dinner is like a session of the UN.
They identify as French, Argentine, and American, in no particular order (though my son spent a year in Minneapolis and dreams of living in the States). They are Third Culture Kids (TCK), as am I. I recognize the benefits and challenges of "TCK-hood" described by researchers, and learning about TCK characteristics did a lot to alleviate some anxiety I felt about the challenges I'd faced as a teenager adjusting to life in the "normal" world.
I am also an existential migrant. That is to say, my decision to move abroad was not for economic or political reasons, but
a chosen attempt to express something fundamental about existence by leaving [my] homeland and becoming a foreigner.
I believe my desire to live abroad results from moving back to the US after living in Italy. This was the first time I'd lived off-base or in a community not dominated by military families. I was 11, on the cusp of adolescence, and found myself woefully out of touch with "civilian life" and the cultural norms of American pre-teens. I dreamed of returning to Europe, and finally did, at age 32.
I'm 51 and have lived 25 years outside the US, and the Toulouse area of France is by far the place I've lived the longest. Whatever reservations I have about life in the US come honestly, courtesy of my dad's service to Uncle Sam. The unforeseen consequences of military life. You sometimes see things a little differently. Objectively, I can't say. But certainly differently....
Flag-waving and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance make me feel weird. Am I American? White? Anglophone? All of the above and none of the above? Identities shift and overlap. Am I unpatriotic or anti-nationalist?
American exceptionalism....globalism.... world citizenship....Jizz-boots on the spooge-tip?
My mother and sister still live in Tampa, but I have as many close relatives in London as anywhere else.
I shall probably live in Europe for the rest of my life. Barring expulsion or some other unforeseen circumstances. I am resolutely American. But I'm something else, as well.
Where am I from? Many places really. Call me a cracker, a gringo, a foreigner....but I cringe every time my ex calls me a "Yanqui!" Ridiculous? Yep.
The American South. The south of France. Southern Italy. South England. Perhaps the one constant across my peregrinations is being a "southerner" to some degree. And a provincial. A provincial cosmopolitan. Or a cosmopolitan provincial. Some words, basically. I've barely left my house in four years. All that moving and now I find my couch to the fridge is about all I can muster.
20 years from now, when I live in Benin, or Vietnam, or Ethiopia, I'll look back on this sedentary period and wonder just WTF happened. I'll reflect on it at the end of the month while I'm in Germany.
No real point to all this except to question what we really mean when we speak about who we are, and where we're from. More and more people have trouble answering the second question and don't identify where they're from as who they are. I find that encouraging.
I posted Tampa's flag above because it attempts to represent the city's diverse heritage: Spain, England, Italy, and America. Very much like my own family. In fact, the Centro Asturiano de Tampa was co-founded by a man named Faya, and my wife is a Faya, with Asturian ancestors. Faya is a rare name, and the guy may well be a distant cousin. The flag meshes nicely with my own family tree's tangled roots, but damn, it is a godawful mess, innit?
Short of any fascist imagery to untangle this week, I dipped my toes into my genealogy, which is now just a collection of names and dates and places. I'm hoping to turn all that data into a narrative, and as the blog is where I come to set down my thoughts and get things straight, I expect to do a lot of genealogical ruminations in the coming months.
5 generations of my family lived and died on the same farm in Ohio until dad broke the chain by running off to Vietnam. And I've been running ever since. And Vietnam is definitely on my list of places to go before I shrug off my mortal coil.
My biggest regret about the circumstances and choices of my life is the lack of roots in a specific place. Was it Wolfe who said you can never go home again? In my case, that's sometimes painfully true. A nomadic life has its benefits, but it's a trade off, and just once I'd like to stroll down Main Street and wave to distant family and neighbors going back generations. It's like being nostalgic for something I never experienced.
Maybe the grass is simply greener than wherever it is one happens to be at the moment....
Wiki-P, Tenacious-D: Enrique Tarrio has been the chairman of the Proud Boys since late 2018.
According to a former federal prosecutor and the transcripts of a 2014
federal court proceeding, Tarrio had previously served as an informant to both federal and local law enforcement.
You don't need a weather-vane to know which way the wind blows....actually, I have no effin' clue what Tarrio's history as an informant means, but it's hard to imagine that once the feds have their claws in you, they let go easily, especially when you lead a group currently being charged with sedition....
"Tarrio" comes from Latin, via the French, a cognate of the Latin "terra," or "land." As in this is "our land." "You! Will not! Replace us!" It does happen. Just ask the Iroquois. Starfleet had a "Proud Boy Problem" too: "Terra Prime!"Terra Prime was an extremist xenophobic terrorist organization dedicated to the expulsion of all non-Humans from Earth and the Sol system.
Bummer for Fred Perry. Bummer for Tiki Brand. You can't choose who co-opts your brand....
The rooster on the PB flag faces west because, hey, as Jim Morrison says, "The West is the Best, baby...." The rooster, or cock, is also a traditional symbol of masculinity and territoriality. And France, incidentally. For France, it's a pun (gallus = Gaul v. gallus = rooster); for the PB's, maybe it's a dick joke. Or a wake-up call: Cock-a-doodle-doo....
The cock is surrounded by victory laurels, stephanos. The flag above is on the PB Wiki page, but photos in situ depict laurels. Not sure where this starry version comes from, though I've seen photos of PB's in shirts with both the wreaths and the stars.
Why 20 stars? Dunno. It's an auspicious number. Maybe they've turned from earthy "feminine" flora to "masculine" sky imagery...."Driver where you taking us?"
Become a Proud Boy. Step 1: Say "I'm a proud Western
chauvinist, I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world." (Good thing, PB, because you didn't create jack) Step 2: Get punched until you spit out some satisfactory pop trivia. (Some kids can recite the entire Quran, other "boys" can name 5 brands of breakfast cereal) Step 3: Get a
tattoo and agree to cease "self-pollution." Step 4: Get into a
major fight "for the cause." Does January 6th count?
Actually there are rules. Rule 1: "Don't talk about Fight Club. Rule 2: "Don' talk about...."
These are the hazing steps described online. As much as I could give a rat's rump for the rep of the PB&J's, I wonder if the media hasn't been pranked. Then again, a friend who'd pledged Sig Ep told me in a roundabout way about some equally improbable male-bonding methods. No prohibition on having a wank, though.
This is far more than I intended to say about the Proud Boys, so full stop, almost.
I would add that a high-level police informant organizing an assault on Congress is, well....weird.
1. Why do the Proud Boys wear black and yellow? I know the FP polos have long been favored by skinheads, and the laurel wreaths match PB symbolism, but why the colors?
