Fascists use biological metaphors?

[fudgefactorfive]

I've been re-reading Fritjof Capra's "The Web Of Life" (1996). It's a description of others' work in systems theory, cybernetics, self-organisation, complexity, entropy and cognition, and has the Santiago theory of cognition as its major theme, tied up with the work of Maturana and Varela on "autopoiesis". It's pretty challenging for me - I have no real formal education in science - but I think I have a layman's handle on it, and I love it.

In a chapter about self-organising molecular systems, he suddenly goes off on a tangent about the differences and similarities between organisms and societies of organisms. This is a theme that's often occurred to me. It's very easy to look at maps of cities and industrial zones and draw comparisons with bacterial cultures growing in a petridish, or alternatively going up a scale, calling a city's tranport systems its arteries, its manufacturies its organs, etc., with all the little ant-people in their different roles acting as specialised cells. I've heard ant nests described as "distributed intelligences" - more and more people make the same claim about humans.

However, Fritjof isn't pleased by such parallels. Citing Maturana and Varela (whose theories of autopoiesis describe how living beings come to be) he explains that while society as a whole does share some of the characteristics of self-organising, self-reproducing multicellular beings, the major difference is that organisms restrict the freedom of their components - the components exist (and are destroyed) purely for the continuation of the whole, while in societies, it should be the other way round - the society exists to preserve the components (people), not the other way round.

I can buy all that, it sounds reasonable. But he ends by saying:

Totalitarian political regimes have often severely restricted the autonomy of their members and, in doing so, have depersonalised and dehumanised them. Thus fascist societies function more like organisms, and it is not a coincedence that dictatorships have often been fond of using the metaphor of society as a living organism.

My grasp of history is rubbish. So, is this true? Do fascist dictators tend to talk in terms of their nations being a living organism, a human body? And is this tendency mainly to be found in those with far-right views?

 

[.r.u.i.n.e.d]

I find this whole subject really interesting.

Ideas of the body politic have been around for a very long time, - the romans were fond of the analogy, so there is some truth in the idea that it's been used by fascists.

But that doesn't prove it's a bad idea.

From my point of view, there already is a sort of global body-politic, and a national one, and in a sense in a nation, the government is the head, and globally we're headless.

Within this whole analogy you can make a pretty convincing case for money being analogous to blood, cells that don't get any blood flowing to them die off pretty quick.

But I reckon the kind of body politic we have is a really crap badly-designed frankenstein type body, and one of the fundamental differences between a well-designed biological organism and our society is that an organism has very good feedback loops, and discovers if its hand is about to get burnt very fast, whereas we seem to have developed our system, so that only increased blood flow gets positive feedback. So maybe we should die of a heart attack?

 

[Crispy]

thing is, component cells don't know that they're being 'coerced' into their specific roles. a heart cell has no knowledge of what a elbow cell is up to. So , while the metaphor is a good one, it breaks down in the face of inter-personal communications. This is why, IMO, the internet is the biggest anti-fascist device ever created.

 

[agricola]

It is of course worth remembering that there is always a fundamental difference between what fascist (indeed most) regimes say (and say they believe) and what they in fact do.

The most glaring examples of course belong to the last century: for all the pronouncements and theorising of the Nazis, and the Soviets, about the necessity of cutting out / controlling harmful elements, or promoting positive elements, in order to have "the whole" function better / fix problems / restore order, those in charge of it almost always looked to their own interests first, as the various power struggles, their vast accumulated wealth and vastly improved living standards compared to everyone else in the society showed.

In that, it is of course very similar to the other bits of half-truth, about a whole range of disciplines, that were borrowed in order to dupe people by those regimes.

 

[fudgefactorfive]

This is why, IMO, the internet is the biggest anti-fascist device ever created.

I've seen both sides of that argument. Some claim it's the greatest tool for education ever created, with some justification IMO. Others say that it reinforces prejudice, since people can now look up things that back up their chosen beliefs quicker than ever before without having to browse through too much contradictory opinion.

 

[Dhimmi]

Blimey another fab FFF thread...

My grasp of history is rubbish. So, is this true? Do fascist dictators tend to talk in terms of their nations being a living organism, a human body?

I'm not sure they tend to but as you quote they're fond of it ("dictatorships have often been fond of using the metaphor of society as a living organism")
I can only really talk about Hitler, so all my comments herein are limited to him.

It was probably Hitler's favourite metaphor though even if he rarely used it, Richard Koenigsberg has done a fair few pieces on it. Not sure he's right though because the bulk of Hitler's speeches which I've read don't contain very many if any at all.

There's been some discussion of Hitler using this metaphor due to his mother dying young of cancer, but I'm not so sure. To me that's over analysing the minutae.

I think he used it most during the early years of his career when attracting the support of the German working class, as time went on and he shifted his position to attract the middle class he spoke more directly because a) the educated middle class didn't need metaphors and b) the working class who supported him were already onside whether they fully understood his latest speech or not.

There's also something more immediately quotable, notable and plain shocking when he says;
"...tearing piece after piece out of the flesh of our national body."
or
"...strip of flesh cut from our body," which "bleeds continuously and will continue to bleed till the land is returned to us."
than when he says;
"The National Socialist State since 30 January 1933 from public monies derived from taxation through the organs of the State has placed at the disposal of both Churches the following sums: In the fiscal year 1933 130 million Reichsmark, In the fiscal year 1934 170 million Reichsmark, In the fiscal year 1935 250 million Reichsmark, etc, etc..."

This might explain why some have picked up on the sensational former rather than the blander latter. It's a very effective metaphor though, a neat trick to get folk convinced; almost undeniable.
Everyone knows a festering open wound is a bad thing, so it gets his ideas halfway there, and at a time when medical treatment was an expensive everyday struggle for most. An effective way to abuse the people's suffering and encourage them to accept the scapegoats he offered them.

I've tacked a few quotes featuring the metaphor;

"Extremes must be fought by extremes. Against the infection of materialism, against the Jewish pestilence we must hold aloft a flaming ideal. And if others speak of the World and Humanity we say the Fatherland - and only the Fatherland!" SEPT 18, 1922

"What is the State? Today the State is an economic organization, an association of persons, formed, it would seem, for the sole purpose that all should co operate in securing each other's daily bread. THE STATE, HOWEVER, IS NOT AN ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION, IT IS A 'VOLKIC' ORGANISM." MARCH 27, 1924

"In the place of this rigid formal organization - the State - must be set the living organism - the people."
SEPTEMBER 16, 1930

 

[fudgefactorfive]

"Extremes must be fought by extremes. Against the infection of materialism, against the Jewish pestilence we must hold aloft a flaming ideal. And if others speak of the World and Humanity we say the Fatherland - and only the Fatherland!" SEPT 18, 1922

The metaphor of infection is an interesting one, and pretty appropriate to the fascist mindset - conjures the idea of external alien cells worming their way in and destroying from the inside, necessitating a purge.

Capra's book also covers another inappropriate set of metaphors - that of body as machine. In Descartes' time, well-to-do folk were fascinated by the current trend for building automata, clockwork robots that repeated cycles of entertaining movements. Descartes himself said that he could see no difference between the clockwork of an automaton and the muscles of a human body, a statement which seems incredible today.

... I had a point to make with this but run out of time

 

[Fez909]

I'm reading Darwin at the minute and as I'm learning about the Origin of Species, I can't help but to think of this in terms of economics and politics. Not sure if this is related or what, but it seems that Darwin's ideas could be used as a descriptor for organization, either of businesses or states.

I think what I'm saying is it's not only fascism which can allude to biological systems to justify it's existence or methods.

 

[118118]

Yes, because all scientists are fascist scum

 

[Santino]

I wonder if Capra is also thinking of Plato and his theoretical Republic. He was quite explicit about the workers being the appetite/stomach of the state, the army the desire/heart and the philosopher-rulers the reason/mind.

 

[kyser_soze]

I think for facists the benefits to making the body/society analogy (and to an extent this would also apply to say, Japan, which also has this view of society as a 'whole' organism, altho I guess that's based on buddhism rather than secular fascism) is that it's at once a message that people on both an individual level and at the level of the mob mind - my betting would be that any speeches would invoke the 'When you are ill, a part of your body malfunctions and needs to be cured; when the illness of subversion infects part of society, it is our DUTY as society to excise it, to cut out the cancer...' etc etc.

I'm reading Darwin at the minute and as I'm learning about the Origin of Species, I can't help but to think of this in terms of economics and politics. Not sure if this is related or what, but it seems that Darwin's ideas could be used as a descriptor for organization, either of businesses or states.

Ho ho, I've got ideas about how evolution is a fractal process that impacts on all biological development and behaviour at all levels, from the cellular through to societal behaviour...

 

[Dhimmi]

The metaphor of infection is an interesting one, and pretty appropriate to the fascist mindset - conjures the idea of external alien cells worming their way in and destroying from the inside, necessitating a purge.

Exactly. Probably why it can be so appealing.

... I had a point to make with this but run out of time

Well maybe you can come back and find time to make it.

(and to an extent this would also apply to say, Japan, which also has this view of society as a 'whole' organism, altho I guess that's based on buddhism rather than secular fascism)

Not so sure, buddhism uses an idea of "natural law" like the hindu faiths where everything is a whole.

 

[fudgefactorfive]

I'm reading Darwin at the minute and as I'm learning about the Origin of Species, I can't help but to think of this in terms of economics and politics. Not sure if this is related or what, but it seems that Darwin's ideas could be used as a descriptor for organization, either of businesses or states.

I think what I'm saying is it's not only fascism which can allude to biological systems to justify it's existence or methods.

aye - the point I guess is that using "society as organism" metaphors are maybe not inherently "fascist" or totalitarian in themselves - but that a flawed understanding of the nature of an organism's structure and processes will, if applied to a society, result in a flawed society. Bodies don't work like machines, and societies don't work like bodies. Capra reckons that the same "systems thinking" which proves this, also resolves stuff like the Cartesian split, as well as being implicit (but never explicit) in the work of Darwin and also Marx.

He really brings out the hippy in me

 

[fudgefactorfive]

I wonder if Capra is also thinking of Plato and his theoretical Republic. He was quite explicit about the workers being the appetite/stomach of the state, the army the desire/heart and the philosopher-rulers the reason/mind.

Was Plato a fascist?

 

[Santino]

A proto-fascist I suppose. Despite living in an era where there was a kind of democracy at work he advocated a dictatorship by clever people. The Republic is a profoundly anti-liberal work. He was definitely an inspiration for modern fascism.

 

[Leica]

Fascism got inspiration from a lot of things. That doesn't make those things fascist as well.

 

[Santino]

No, the bit about being ruled by a bunch of self-appointed oligarchs does.

 

[Leica]

It is anachronistic to apply modern categories to a work of the distant past. Besides the Republic was a theoretical construction not a social reality, not even a proposal for a political change.

 

[Buds and Spawn]

It's inevitable that political ideology will always turn to science for support. The Nazis did this - e.g. Friedrich Ratzel, and so did the communists of the USSR - e.g. see Lysenkoism.

Then there's a whole continuum of degrees of environmental determinism and depending on what you believe there - social darwinism.

I agree with Fritjof - but would extend it to most political (mis)use of biological metaphor.

Apart from Anarchism and Ecology of course

 

[MullahNasrudin]

Biological metaphors are used by all kinds of politicians, not just fascists. I read something by Robert Anton Wilson years ago where he points out how leaders use analogies with birth. Wish I could remember which book it was...

 

[MullahNasrudin]

Was Plato a fascist?

No, but he never did the washing up, hence the name.

 

[118118]

Fascism is essentially nationalistic, and afaik nations did not really exist round Plato's time.

 

[inflatable jesus]

I'm pretty sure that the body analogy is a staple of most Conservative thought in general. I remember coming across it while researching British conservative history at Uni.

It helps to justify the 'we're all in it together, so do as I say' aproach to politics.