Abstract
The article discusses the cultural content of fascism, based on the essays of the German-Jewish philosopher Ernst Bloch. Bloch's writings help understand historical fascism, as well as providing tools for understanding far-right politics today. In the context of German critical theory, Bloch offers a divergent explanation for the rise of fascism, emphasising cultural aspects and taking seriously the appeal of the fascist utopia. I argue that Bloch's focus on cultural aspects is linked to his philosophy of temporality as well as to his philosophy of nature. Fascism both appropriates temporally obsolete concepts, such as the Third Reich, and builds on them to construct a utopia. In the utopia the relationship between man and nature is restored to its original state.
How does Bloch's analysis apply to the activities of the far-right today? Alberto Toscano calls it a "dialectical irony" that neither Donald Trump nor the global nationalist movement are this time appealing to an archaic past but are longing for a much more recent history. They are driven by nostalgia for the glory days of big capital and big labour, a longing for Fordism and post-war prosperity.
I suggest the utopia of post-war industrialism is of course linked to the idea of the independent (white) man providing for his family but carries a fantasy of a controlled metabolism between man and nature. It refers to a time when there was no talk of climate change, but when people drove cars, ate meat and consumed freely, even as a virtuous activity. To understand late fascism, one can apply Bloch's writings on time, technology, and nature. From a Blochian perspective, late fascism's relationship to nature is not only about explicit ecofascist ideas, but also about a more general yearning for a relationship with nature that provides for an imperialist way of life.
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