Hitler as "Drummerboy"

Wow. Had no idea that this film existed. Here's a bit from a docu-drama on Hitler's early career. It's from a film called Hitler: The Rise of Evil.

Mr Hitler

Something to amuse you. Monty Python has fun at Hitler's expense. If the humor strikes you as odd... Well, it was the 60s.

"Joel's Army" and Dominionists--American Fascists?

This post builds off of the discussion we had in class today. I was particularly intrigued by the material about Joel's Army, available here. There's a video piece as well. Chris Hedges, author of American Fascism, wrote this about Dominionists. As you can imagine, his take on fascism has produced a great deal of criticism from the Christian community.

Sorel, Syndicalism, and Violence

In the readings for Friday, there were a few obtuse references that I thought I could help you better understand. In document 18 Curzio Malaparte talks about the "Sorelian" nature of Fascism. Georges Sorel was a French socialist who eventually turned away from the rationalist, evolutionary Marxism of the 1880s in favor of "syndicalism"--one form of alternative social organization wherein the unions themselves run industry. In contrast, socialists believe that a group of experts (the state, usually) should manage trades/industry; communists reject government control in favor of public ownership--it imagines a classless, stateless society.

• socialism: state management of production
• communism: no state--public ownership of production
• syndicalism: unions own production.

Got that? It's a place to start, at least.

George Sorel not only advocated syndicalism as a "moral" necessity, he believed in the use of "direct action", including violence, to achieve political and social ends. One of his most influential works was Réflexions sur la violence (1908). In the text, he presents the general strike (and its attendant confrontations between workers and the state) as a central element in the mythic struggle for social justice.