Florida, Fascism, and the Past

In “Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt,” Umberto Eco lists out features of fascism and points out that “it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around us.” Traditionalism, the longing for a mythological past, looms larges as one of the defining features of fascism. This gazing backwards, immediately raises a wall to learning and expansion, it says, as Eco puts it, that “[t]ruth already has been spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message.”

Along with a longing for a non-existent bygone past, fascism explicitly rejects any semblance of diversity that disagrees with those in power and uses the “fear of difference” as a means of solidifying and maintaining power. Eco points out, “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”

While we have seen aspects of fascism over the years, we are seeing the hallmarks of fascism in places like Florida and elsewhere in the United States, and we must, let we become like the speaker of Martin Niemöller’s poem, speak out before “there [is] no one left to speak for [us].” The proposed Florida House Bill 999: Public Postsecondary Educational Institutions is just another salvo in the rise and proliferation of fascism in the United States. The proposed…