EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, Jr.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnScott P. RichertrnART DIRECTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O.]. Brown, KatherinernDalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rnJ.O. Tate, Michael Washburn,rnGlyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, William Mills,rnJacob Neusner, Srdja TrifkovicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobhsrnPUBLISHERrnThe Rockford InstituternPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnCindy LinkrnA publicahon of The Rockford Institute,rnEditorial and Advertising Offices:rn928 North Main Street, Rockford, IL 61103,rnEditorial Phone: (815) 964-5054,rnAdvertising Phone: (815)964-5813,rnSubscription Department: P.O. Box 800,rnMount Morris, IL 61054. Call 1-800-877-5459.rnU,S,.A, Newsstand Distribution by Eastern NewsrnDistributors, Inc., One Media Way, 12406 Rt. 250rnMilan, Ohio 44848-9705rnCopvnght ‘S 1998 by The Rockford Institute,rnAll rights reserved.rnChronicles (ISSN 0887-5731) is publishedrnmontlily for $39.00 (foreign subscriptions add $12rnfor surface deliven,. S48 for Air Mail) per year byrnThe Rockford Institute, 928 North Main Street,rnRockford, IL 61103-7061. Preferred periodicalrnpostage paid at Rockford, IL and additional mailingrnoffices. POSTMASTER: Send address changesrnto Chronicles, P.O. Box 800, Mount Morris,rnIL 61054.rnThe views expressed in Chronicles are tirernauthors’ alone and do not necessarily reflectrnthe views of The Rockford Institute or of itsrndirectors. UiLsoIicited nranuscripts cannot bernreturned unless accompanied b’ a self-addressedrnstamped envelope.rnChroniclesrnVo] :2, No, 6 )uiiel998rnPrinted in the United Stales of ^iiericarnPOLEMICS & EXCHANGESrnOn Fascism andrnAnti-FascismrnThe novelty of 20th-century historiographyrndoes not reside in new theories (thernlast century was too rich in this respect),rnbut in the veto exercised over its main issues.rnOne such, the issue of communism,rnhas been half-opened by FrancoisrnFuret and Stephen Courtois; the other,rnthe issue of Hiderism, is sdll under therninterdict of the intellectual establishment.rnJean-Paul Sartre used to bernpraised for saying that the century’s outstandingrnevent was not the two worldrnwars but the rise of communism; yetrnHider’s rise to power is explained away asrnevil magic, treated like a black hole,rnknown only for the period’s satanic mills.rnOtherwise, it was a non-event. Littlernchildren in America’s schools are told (inrn”social studies” classes!) to write aboutrnthe “bad Nazis,” but historians researchingrnthe why’s and how’s of the period arernalso expected to cancel their efforts at objectivity.rnChronicles’ remarkable March issuern(“Fascism/Anti-Fascism: It’s still thernsame old story • • • “) tries to breakrnthrough the barriers of censorship, althoughrnit is hard to open new channelsrnwhen the legitimate ones are clogged byrnhistorians cum ira et studio. The questionrnremains: Are we going to write aboutrnthe Hiderian period as a legitimate partrnof European history, or are we forever tornemploy the Orwellian (and Soviet) strategyrnto omit, re-write, and stuff down thernmemory hole true events and objectiverninterpretations?rnThe so-called cliches and subterfugesrnof the Hitler era are genuine facts andrnhistorical factors. Bismarckian Germanyrn(in 1920) lay morally and materially brokenrnto pieces after Versailles, mainly thernwork of the French negotiators underrnthe inspiration of Maurice Barres andrnCharles Maurras. The humiliation wasrnproportionate with Germany’s earlierrnarrogance; the misery proportionaternwith the pre-1914 bourgeois prosperitycum-rnwelfare state. From 1920 to 1932,rnGermany was a cloaca, or at any raternthe sick man of Europe. As Hitler approachedrnpower, new sectors of societ)’rnfound hope for revival. His methods andrnstreet-fights were not different from thosernof the communists, but at least the Nazis,rnunlike the Reds, were not agents of a foreignrnpower. In the eyes of an increasingrnnuinber of citizens, Weimar democracyrnwas a ludicrous circus-show, and ifrnmedicine was to be administered, it hadrnto be from the right.rnHider had arrived from Vienna, itselfrna kind of model for “Weimar,” a mini-rnSodom, as Karl Kraus described it. Civilizationrnwas on the decline, whether yournfollow Spengler, Carlyle, or Ortega. Inrnthis, Europe’s best minds agreed, butrnHitler’s advantage over them was hisrnnon-status as an intellectual and thus hisrnopenness to concrete action inspired byrnpopular philosophies and even morernpopular sciences: ethnology, psychology,rnbiology, Darwinism. Hider’s conversationsrnwith Hermann Rauschning (thernGerman commissioner in Danzig, laterrna teacher in Oregon) tell the story, almostrnin its entirety. (I have the 362ndrnFrench edition from 1939). Let’s simplifyrnit, as if it were a Washington-based talkrnshow: Are you a racist? asked Rauschning,rnNational-Socialist head of thernDanzig government. Hider explained:rnNo, separate races, racial superiority arernfalse notions, as any animal breeder willrntell you. But this is the 20th century; science,rnincluding political science, hasrnyielded to myth as a new principle, a newrnmotor of history. In dealing with masses,rnnations, “races,” we must coordinate andrnlead them with big, half-obscure ideas.rnCommunism and democracy are such.rnWith Germans, democracy will notrnwork; we choose different methods to restorernnational unity and the elan of collectivernwill.rnIn propounding these notions —likernthem or not, they contain some contemporaryrntruths, universally practiced —rnHider had good company. His ideas (Irnwell remember) were far more popidarrnthan Marxism and liberalism. Reflectingrnon the inert human mass brought FatherrnTeilhard de Chardin to regard concentrationrncamps in Russia, Japan, and Germanyrnas evolution’s efforts to massifyrnmankind, endow it with a rudimentaryrncollective consciousness. And I rememberrnhearing UNESCO director JulianrnHuxley expound on the blessed future ofrnhumanity’s “collective head” at thernHague in 1946. Twenfy years later inrnBrazil, Archbishop Helder Camara (vari-rn4/CHRONICLESrnrnrn