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BUF: Oswald Mosley and British Fascism
Kindle Edition
Published November 29, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 9, 2021
Going into this excellent work by James Drennan I only had the vaguest of interest because I did not know much about Oswald Mosley prior. It almost seems as though in Third Positionist circles there still wasnt enough info about him. After reading this book however I have a whole new undeestanding and appreciation for the man.
And not only the man, but the times in the Engpand he came up in. Not only was this book a great quick explanation of the character and ideas of Mosley it is also a highly underated study of the philosophy and ideals of Fascism as whole and British Fascism in particular. Drennan explains the historical foundations and ideals of Fascism better then many many of thr books on Fascism by the greats already out there.
I highly recommend for any self proclaimed Third Positionist this book as a must read. You will be glued to the book from start to finish.
And not only the man, but the times in the Engpand he came up in. Not only was this book a great quick explanation of the character and ideas of Mosley it is also a highly underated study of the philosophy and ideals of Fascism as whole and British Fascism in particular. Drennan explains the historical foundations and ideals of Fascism better then many many of thr books on Fascism by the greats already out there.
I highly recommend for any self proclaimed Third Positionist this book as a must read. You will be glued to the book from start to finish.
June 23, 2022
Very interesting read. This book was much more about economics than I was expecting. I have a much better understanding of Mosley and of fascism as a result of reading this.
May 22, 2024
Interesting, this book was mainly economic theory. Agreed with everything he had to say about it, and fundamentally was not much different than what FDR was doing in america. In terms of the ideology Mosley tried to argue Christianity and Nietzechian ideals are compatible, not contradictory. Not sure about that.
For all his talk of “defeating ideology”, he also spurted a lot of utopian nonsense. But, he was a very bright man working against the bureaucratic interests of the business class pushing Free Trade™️ and the slow moving non action of the British Parliament.
His temperament strikes me as very similar to the current day Zoomer attitude of the Boomers, except his generation had a bit more ground to stand on being the men who fought in the trenches of the Great War
Good quotations
“Out of the night of history old shadows are appearing which menace their (the bourgeoisie’s) complacency. The disciplined movements of devoted minorities are more fearful than the incoherent waves of mass resentment which they have learnt well how to circumvent with squads of their own bourgeois special constables. Growing groups of unknown men out on the streets are laughing the unbeliever’s hollow laugh at all those things the democrat has taught the people to hold dear… The oligarchs and the democrats dread this classic figure more than anarchy-for it is the figure of the Leader, the natural aristocrat, whom they had thought long dead and buried… The figure has not yet been recognized in England, but these men move the people- as no democrats can ever do- to rise up from the dreary life of the machine.”
“Property owners were coming to have no longer a direct interest in the land and in the factories of their countries; since property is not, as it once was, cows and sheep and machines and looms, but share certificates and dividend coupons. Capital was ceasing in any sense to be national, and was becoming supremely international, and it was becoming a matter of indifference to the owner of wealth whether he derived his profits from looms in Bombay or in Lancashire, from steelworks in Bohemia or in Middlesbrough, from coal in South Wales or oil in Mexico. All that he could ask was- Profit. All that he needed was freedom of movement for capital- which he called Free Trade.”
“It was only with the development of Fascist movements in Italy and Germany that certain European nations began to show that they were prepared to master-and not only anxious to fly from-the formidable problems that had accumulated in the modern world. Mussolini seeks to master the Machine rather than to destroy it, and by rousing the corporate consciousness of the Italian nation, to organize a stable, balanced people to replace the struggling city movs and the debilitated proletariat of the country-side. Mussolini, confronted with the conservative reality of the Roman Catholic Church, has emphasized the fundamental and traditional humanities to which the peasant-farmers and the middle-class folk of the small Italian towns can respond from the inner fibers of their being. Hitler, operating in a larger field, where other traditional forces have their weight, can proceed to organize the German people almost as embattled tribes to confront the destiny of the passing century. Assured in the iron discipline of an older Germany, he can undertake policies which might affront the more varied and more independent communities of a united-but infinitely diversified-Italy. The power of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany is not strong enough to inhibit the most modern experiments of a truly German leader, and the sterilization of the unfit and “racial selection” are adventures into the future which are as welcome in Germany as they would be inacceptable in Italy. But fundamentally the two Fascist movements represent a dynamic and consciously controlled effort to master the Machine in economic and the City in cultural life…Fascism, then, not only seeks to find a solution to the economic problems of the modern European world. It challenges, actually, the inevitability of decline, and seeks to renew the strength and to perpetuate the cultural health of the peoples of Europe.”
“The Caesar-men have arrived, and they affront the wincing world of intellect. Unreasonably, and unreasoning they have emerged to power in the brief span of a decade…Without ‘programmes’ and theories these Caesar-men have raised their legions from the street, and they stride as the leaders of men into the courts of the money-changers… These new Caesar-men are neither upstart dynasts nor the aristocratic leaders of great factions. They are out of the earth- Mussolini, the stonemason from the Romagna;Hitler, the obstinate foot-soldier-“the typical German man”. Rather they represent great movements of living sentient men in insurrection against the circumstances of a destiny that seems to threaten to overwhelm them.”
“There is a blood urge, a spiritual passion, a mighty mystical import, in the movements of the modern Faustian man which seeks- with an infinitude of proud ambition- to master the material bases of a destiny which has hitherto brought all civilizations and men of all time to the doom of an inevitable end. The Fascist insurrection to the extent that all movements are coordinated by the realities of time and space, but it is, in its wider scope, a profound spiritual insurrection- a rising up of men in a period of moral and material decline, and a revolt of man against the destiny of decadence.”
“If we rely on Conservatism to defeat Marxism, we shall be defeated by Marxism.”
“Fascism has no long pedigree of theory, like Socialism, Liberalism, and Communism..Fascism is real insurrection-an insurrection of feeling- a mutiny of men against the conditions of the modern world..The men who built Fascism in Italy and Germany-who are the “common men”, the men in the street- leave theories to the intellectuals and programmes to the democrats who have betrayed them with the programmes for a century. The Fascist is concerned with the problem of power- and he aims at the achievement of power through action.”
For all his talk of “defeating ideology”, he also spurted a lot of utopian nonsense. But, he was a very bright man working against the bureaucratic interests of the business class pushing Free Trade™️ and the slow moving non action of the British Parliament.
His temperament strikes me as very similar to the current day Zoomer attitude of the Boomers, except his generation had a bit more ground to stand on being the men who fought in the trenches of the Great War
Good quotations
“Out of the night of history old shadows are appearing which menace their (the bourgeoisie’s) complacency. The disciplined movements of devoted minorities are more fearful than the incoherent waves of mass resentment which they have learnt well how to circumvent with squads of their own bourgeois special constables. Growing groups of unknown men out on the streets are laughing the unbeliever’s hollow laugh at all those things the democrat has taught the people to hold dear… The oligarchs and the democrats dread this classic figure more than anarchy-for it is the figure of the Leader, the natural aristocrat, whom they had thought long dead and buried… The figure has not yet been recognized in England, but these men move the people- as no democrats can ever do- to rise up from the dreary life of the machine.”
“Property owners were coming to have no longer a direct interest in the land and in the factories of their countries; since property is not, as it once was, cows and sheep and machines and looms, but share certificates and dividend coupons. Capital was ceasing in any sense to be national, and was becoming supremely international, and it was becoming a matter of indifference to the owner of wealth whether he derived his profits from looms in Bombay or in Lancashire, from steelworks in Bohemia or in Middlesbrough, from coal in South Wales or oil in Mexico. All that he could ask was- Profit. All that he needed was freedom of movement for capital- which he called Free Trade.”
“It was only with the development of Fascist movements in Italy and Germany that certain European nations began to show that they were prepared to master-and not only anxious to fly from-the formidable problems that had accumulated in the modern world. Mussolini seeks to master the Machine rather than to destroy it, and by rousing the corporate consciousness of the Italian nation, to organize a stable, balanced people to replace the struggling city movs and the debilitated proletariat of the country-side. Mussolini, confronted with the conservative reality of the Roman Catholic Church, has emphasized the fundamental and traditional humanities to which the peasant-farmers and the middle-class folk of the small Italian towns can respond from the inner fibers of their being. Hitler, operating in a larger field, where other traditional forces have their weight, can proceed to organize the German people almost as embattled tribes to confront the destiny of the passing century. Assured in the iron discipline of an older Germany, he can undertake policies which might affront the more varied and more independent communities of a united-but infinitely diversified-Italy. The power of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany is not strong enough to inhibit the most modern experiments of a truly German leader, and the sterilization of the unfit and “racial selection” are adventures into the future which are as welcome in Germany as they would be inacceptable in Italy. But fundamentally the two Fascist movements represent a dynamic and consciously controlled effort to master the Machine in economic and the City in cultural life…Fascism, then, not only seeks to find a solution to the economic problems of the modern European world. It challenges, actually, the inevitability of decline, and seeks to renew the strength and to perpetuate the cultural health of the peoples of Europe.”
“The Caesar-men have arrived, and they affront the wincing world of intellect. Unreasonably, and unreasoning they have emerged to power in the brief span of a decade…Without ‘programmes’ and theories these Caesar-men have raised their legions from the street, and they stride as the leaders of men into the courts of the money-changers… These new Caesar-men are neither upstart dynasts nor the aristocratic leaders of great factions. They are out of the earth- Mussolini, the stonemason from the Romagna;Hitler, the obstinate foot-soldier-“the typical German man”. Rather they represent great movements of living sentient men in insurrection against the circumstances of a destiny that seems to threaten to overwhelm them.”
“There is a blood urge, a spiritual passion, a mighty mystical import, in the movements of the modern Faustian man which seeks- with an infinitude of proud ambition- to master the material bases of a destiny which has hitherto brought all civilizations and men of all time to the doom of an inevitable end. The Fascist insurrection to the extent that all movements are coordinated by the realities of time and space, but it is, in its wider scope, a profound spiritual insurrection- a rising up of men in a period of moral and material decline, and a revolt of man against the destiny of decadence.”
“If we rely on Conservatism to defeat Marxism, we shall be defeated by Marxism.”
“Fascism has no long pedigree of theory, like Socialism, Liberalism, and Communism..Fascism is real insurrection-an insurrection of feeling- a mutiny of men against the conditions of the modern world..The men who built Fascism in Italy and Germany-who are the “common men”, the men in the street- leave theories to the intellectuals and programmes to the democrats who have betrayed them with the programmes for a century. The Fascist is concerned with the problem of power- and he aims at the achievement of power through action.”
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews