Reich
Many years ago, in Wilhelm Reich’s pre-Hitler early 1930s masterpiece work “The Mass Psychology of Fascism”, he pointed out that Hitler (who had not yet taken state power) himself “was of no real importance.” But then he added “What is much more significant is the importance the masses have attached to Hitler.”
Of note, Reich was once a practicing psychanalyst and member of the German Communist Party but later soured on the way socialism was being implemented in the Soviet Union and warned about the developing authoritarianism around Stalin as early as the mid-1920s and declared that socialism would fail there.
Of the Soviet Union he said: “The elimination of individual capitalists and the replacement of private capitalism by state capitalism in Russia has not in the least altered the typical helpless and authoritarian character structure of the masses of people.” Sadly, he was right about that, and this is true to this very day under Putin’s monstrous authoritarian regime. Reich also said: “In its pure form, fascism is the sum total of all irrational reactions of the average human character.”
He was also expelled from the prudish German Communist Party in 1933 largely for his linking of sexual repression to authoritarianism and fascism. Sadly, Reich may have been driven off the rails in his later years, but he was on the right scientific track when he related sexual repression and religion to authoritarianism and fascism, and his early brilliance cannot be denied.
Lessons of History
The differing Faces of authoritarianism.
If history teaches us anything, it tells us that the roots of fascism are often engrained in the masses themselves. Class society and the need of the wealthy classes to exert control over those beneath them has not vanished. American fascism today differs in one significant way from 1930s German fascism. Economic conditions were much more extreme in Germany. Some will recall old news reels in which workers figuratively needed a wheel barrel of paper money to buy a loaf of bread. WWI’s loss and the Treaty of Versailles had wrecked Germany’s economy and then a worldwide capitalist depression hit.
Germany was split between a large communist movement that demanded major leftward change and a backward Nazi movement that also promised change, one based on authoritarian control and repression of the left and revenge for the Treaty of Versailles. If truth be told, the latter was a huge economic burden placed on Germany by a war which in reality was also the mutual fault of the other major powers involved, all of which were competing for imperial domination of Asia and Africa.
Greed is behind the American financing of fascism.
America faces no such situation. The leadership and financing of American fascism is rooted in the arrogance and greed of segments of the upper classes which prefer totalitarian control to best protect and increase their financial interests. The trigger for this was a recognition that the Republican Party as formerly organized could no longer attract enough support to keep winning elections since they stood for nothing but upper-class interests and that was becoming more than clear to a majority of voters. They had to try something different. The politics of race, fear and distraction often seemed to work in the past, but the fascism-lite of the past would no longer suffice.
Trumpism is Really Nothing New
America in many ways is already a police state.
Then along came Trumpism and the Republicans decided that they needed fascism— the real thing — to succeed, which they went all in on, Texas hold’em style. The threats posed by American fascism will not vanish with a derailed Trump. The patriarchal exposure, miseducation, distraction and authoritarianism inflicted on the masses are cradle to grave, and to such a cultural extreme that logical arguments no longer prevail.
These same 4 “demons” helped undermine attempted socialization of country after country. It’s the only explanation for why something as logical and beneficial as socialism keeps evaporating even with state power and turning at times into its opposite, i.e. a form of fascism, as it did in Russia, China and Cambodia.
The Seeds for Change are Within Us
Over 500 thousand demonstrated this day against the Vietnam War.
There are nevertheless still socialist and free-thinking movements that arise under certain conditions, such as in the 60s. Certainly, the upper classes know their class interests and act accordingly. Large numbers of the rest of us are often not so lucky, and all too many of us lack basic class consciousness and the ability to understand and grasp new ideas. So, what promotes change?
We had a long period of progressive struggle and victories after the dark days of the cold war and the McCarthy era of the 1950s. The seeds of change were planted by mass struggles waged by the early Civil Rights movement which opposed Jim Crow and segregation. And it inspired and coincided with the eruption of a thing called Rock and Roll and eventually a sexual revolution of sorts and open rebellion against the Vietnam War.
Music and Social Change
Popular album by the Jefferson Airplane
I won’t pretend there were not many other factors, too many to detail here, but the sexual revolution that Reich valued so much as a way to liberate society also began right after those dark days. And it was led by the music which erupted on the scene and the sexual revolution which in part occurred because of it.
I recall Ed Sullivan wanting to have a young Elvis Presley on his variety show. He was even warned to make sure that he was not shown on camera below his waste. Why? It was the sexually explicit gyrations of his legs which was no doubt partly responsible for the hysterical screaming of his audiences. And struck fear in the hearts of censors and religious puritans. It was said that Elvis got the gyrations business idea from watching Chuck Berry.
There was an unprecedented eruption of creative sounds along with sexually stimulating music of all types and descriptions. The times really were changing as Bob Dylan reminded us of during those times. Of course, it only affected some of us, but enough to spur changes that many thought were impossible. It was the culture of life, and it broke through censorship and repression of all kinds. The reactionaries are still trying to restore authoritarian “law and order” and take back the progress that we fought so hard for.
LBJ signs the Civil Right Bill.
We should not forget that achieving real progress in America requires we use innovative ways to move forward and vanquish fascism. The authoritarian decision of the Supreme Court was certainly one against women’s rights, but perhaps a less obvious motivation of the “Alito” Court was that of repressing sexual freedom in general, by making it impossible to control the consequences of sexuality and an unwanted birth.
Sex Negative Religions
Patriarchal religions are universally sex negative. Reich’s early work examined the functional, physical, as well as the psychological and behavioral effects of sex negative upbringing. He found it a major factor in enabling authoritarian control, breaking the individual’s natural sexual curiosities and spirit, and causing all sorts of neurosis, rigidity, violent and sexually stunted behaviors, and setting the stage for future fascist men and women. Religious feelings and spirituality need not be tied to an immortal patriarchal god that cruelly punishes people and makes us feel guilty about our sexuality.
I recall for a brief time in the 60s and 70s the changes even reached some right-wing working-class elements which culminated in an eventual majority condemning the War in Vietnam. In a span of a year young people that formerly would not join us hanging out or burning weed in the park grew their hair long, smoked with us, with the men abandoning their crew cuts. Women, gays and people of color began to demand the kind of respect they never got before. For a time, it spread like wildfire. But of course, it could not be maintained in the midst of a culture (many of us called it a death culture) and economic order which ran so counter to the ideals that we had. But nevertheless, many of the changes that were achieved were indeed long lasting.
Civil Rights Victories and the Repression Which Followed
Philadelphia police raid on black activists in the 1970s.
The Civil Rights Movement of African Americans achieved stunning victories in the 60s, which inspired many of us. But it also never fully recovered after the assassination of leaders like Malcom and King and many others whose names we will never know. Major repression came down on the movement and groups like the Black Panthers after the death of King.
An independent black movement would not be tolerated once it was directed against the system itself and it was brutally repressed by an illegal FBI program known as COINTELPRO. The racial divide still consumes many Americans and economic prosperity still escapes millions of people of color.
The Rise and Fall of the Labor Movement
The labor movement has declined drastically from 35% of the workforce to around 15% since WWII. There is a new labor movement today however, one that involves perhaps a majority of lower paid workers and many of which are people of color. A strong labor movement is a bulwark against fascism and a strike for economic justice and equality. They must also be part of our struggle, along with undermining the 4 “demons” mentioned previously. One reason for the aggressiveness of the upper classes and fascists is the relative weakness of organized labor today, badly weakened by deliberate anti-union policies of corporate America, shifting many industrial jobs overseas as well as increasing foreign imports.
Choose Life . . .
A bronze Wall Street bull, a symbol of market capitalism.
Authoritarian and patriarchal culture have dominated civilization almost from our beginnings. I’m well aware personally of the difficulties all who have battled the planetary dominance of predatory capitalism have faced. But civilization cannot survive on its current path.
We must lead a new way forward. Marx and Engels carefully documented the destructive nature of capitalism but did not provide a successful model to defeat it. Their method of utilizing a “dictatorship of the proletariat working classes” represented by an authoritarian elite vanguard failed repeatedly once its leaders assumed power. We must understand why things failed in order to avoid the fate that those before us fell victim to.
The seeds for both life and the destruction of life are both within each and every one of us. We should also remind ourselves that the massive demonstrations of 2020 by both Black Lives Matter protestors and anti-Trump groups, often simultaneous, had a very positive effect on the voting turnout for Biden in the Fall. The political benefits of taking it to the streets, militantly but peacefully, should not be underestimated.
