Be Cynical About Nationalism

Commenter Ken Hoop, on Chinese Fascism – An Example, asks me what I think about National Bolshevism. Click the link to try to get a handle on it. Basically fascism with a socialist economic system – it’s quite popular in Russia among the idiots that love both Stalin and Hitler. I’m a Leftist with a capital L. We consider those NB idiots to be fascists. Then again, it boils down to whether or not fascism is about economics. A famous commenter wrote me the other day taking me to task on my definition of fascism for leaving out the economic aspect. According to him, fascism always has an economic aspect. What that economic aspect is is somewhat up in the air. Leftist theoreticians usually say it is some form of capitalism, while rightwingers like to say it is a form of socialism, corporatism, or at any rate, Big Governmentism. If fascism has an economic aspect that is part and parcel to it, then NB cannot be fascism. But from here, it just looks like fascism with a socialist economic system. The way we see it, Mao and Stalin got into some fascist type behavior too. No one is immune to it. I’m really pretty hardline against nationalism, almost like some of these ultra-Left sects here like the Progressive Labor Party who have taken the extreme line that all nationalism is to be condemned. I still believe in enforced borders, state languages and national interests, but that is about it. Nationalism is just bad news. It is *inextricably* tied to fascist ways of thinking. Inextricably! And there does not seem to be any way to pull nationalism from its fascist moorings and tendencies to float in that direction. I’ve noticed over and over that folks who start calling themselves nationalists sound an awful lot like fascists. And most racists get into some form of “nationalism” at some point. Almost all anti-Semites transform into “nationalists” somehow. No wonder Jews tend to be leery about (non-Jewish) nationalism. In fact, most overtly racist parties on Earth today have “nationalist” in their names. Given all of that, why should progressive people not be very cynical, to say the least, about nationalism?

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3 thoughts on “Be Cynical About Nationalism”

  1. This reminds me of something I read in National Lampoon years ago: “I can’t agree with the Nazis’ economic policies, but they sure were snappy dressers.”
    How do you distinguish the nationalism you condemn from the separatist movements you’re on record as supporting? It seems like a continuum to me…
    As for the Progressive Labor people, who are they exactly? I remember they were known for physically attacking other leftists. I used to think they had something to do with the Larouchites, but not so sure now.

  2. Thanks for the perspective. You are clearly on the cusp of Internationale (se Yockey’s chapter in Imperium) utopianism. Although the PLP might say you have opened the door for the rest of we realists, particularly Conservative Revolutionaries. (only the curious need investigate).

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