Fascists, Fascism Quotes
Hayek uses this line to explain that fascism may emerge when communism—or belief in its promise—fails, as seen in Stalinist Russia and pre‑Hitler Germany.
Although the Nazis railed against the Communists & Socialists, the potential opposition they feared the most was the middle class. See also {582967}.
During the Spanish Civil War, the Roman Catholic Church—the only major Christian Church in Spain—sided with the Fascists in overthrowing the elected government and ousting the king. The church also supported the German Nazi bombing of undefended Spanish towns where there were concentrations of Republicans supporting the elected government. While there were a few Catholic worker priests on the Republican side, the church buildings and the hierarchy of the Church was part of the Fascist axis. Therefore churches were burned whenever possible, often with the help and participation of the Catholic worker priests many of whose churches had been bombed. Although Durruti often said this, he did not originate it; Peter Kropotkin did.
The war in Europe had ended in victory and the British people were looking for a better standard of living after their wartime privation. Churchill represented the class system, the Empire, and bellicose leadership and didn’t temper his approach to the peace that he had won. He made this blunder and associated the Labor Party and their social welfare state with a coming Gestapo—the name of the Nazi secret police. It was all over the top and the Conservative Party was trounced at the polls. He would be elected Prime Minister a decade later.
Ironically, the fascist organizations that did form in America did just that. The American Firsters claimed patriotism motivated them to support Hitler and Father Coughlin and his fascist movement was his own version of Christianity—one which the Roman Catholic Church was so opposed to that they prohibited him from appearing on the radio with his virulent preaching. He was one of several who “hijacked” American Christianity not unlike the way radical Muslims would later in the century hijack Islam.
English conservatives were so fearful of socialism and communism that they applauded the efforts of even fascist dictators in putting down labor unions or anything that was favored by the left. Even Churchill ignored the anti-democratic and dictatorial behavior of Mussolini, as did many other British conservatives. The very regimes that some of the British aristocracy supported then turned on England and the democratic world and threatened their very existence. Churchill was chastened by the lesson he learned. The quotation also illustrates how political leaders learn and grow from their experiences and actions. Churchill was not prime minister when he sent this communication. For other politicians who made the same error as Churchill see {623198}. {623200} and {623201}.
