"F" for Franco

I got pulled up by Toyah and AdTheLad for being too easy in my use of the 'F'-word - fascist. In my youth, when, as a student I could do anything I wanted, anyone who tried to prevent me from exercising my will was immediately branded a 'fascist'. Of course, having studied inter-war history and politics, I should have known that fascism was - and still is - an ideology that needs to be correctly defined, and should not be loosely bandied about, as a kind of political insult.

The best definition that can bring clarity to the debate here and now in Poland about fascism is that it is anti-liberal, anti-communist... and anti-conservative.

There was a good piece in Gazeta Wyborcza some months ago delving into Poland's (truly) fascist fringe; the author distinguishes this tiny minority from other ultra-nationalist groupings as being pagan rather than Catholic. The Hitler-loving Polish fascists, incidentally, should follow their dear Fuhrer's precepts and gas themselves, thus ridding the world of some Slavic untermensch thereby leaving more lebensraum for the herrenvolk that they so lovingly admire.

So then. Let's not lump the tiny truly fascist extreme in together with Poland's more mainstream nationalist tendencies. For them, Hitler is definitely not the role model.

I'd suggest instead Francisco Franco. Here was a man, deeply conservative, deeply religious, deeply nationalist; an implacable enemy of modernity, cosmopolitanism and liberalism (both social and economic).

So here's my answer to the conundrum - why British Conservatives and American Republicans can't see eye-to-eye with Jarosław Kaczyński's PiS - because he's far nearer in ideology to El Caudillo than he is to Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan. It's worth reading about Francisco Franco - the parallels with Kaczyński are indeed interesting. And indeed, about Antonio de Oliviera Salazar, the Portuguese leader for 36 years, same time as Franco. (Like Kaczyński, he never married.) Salazar's Estado Novo was a similar construct to Franco's Spain; deeply conservative and traditionalist.

The barbarism of the Spanish Civil War should act as a warning for all those who love Poland. And so, from now on, I pledge not to use the "F"(for fascism) word in regard to anyone in the Kaczynski-ite camp.

I'll leave the last word to Walter Sobczak (played by John Goodman) from the Coen Brothers' excellent film, The Big Lebowski:

...say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

This time three years ago:
Christmas lights: all in the best possible taste

This time four years ago:
Letter from Russia