Inspirativní přehled rysů ur-fašismu (jeho vlastní termín) sestavil v roce 1995 Umberto Eco (ten, co se nehodí na čestný doktorát na Univerzitě Karlově, oné v evropském průměru silně průměrné a málo inspirativní vysoké škole). Šlo o esej, ne odbornou studii, esej postavenou hlavně na studiu textů a projevů nacistů a italských fašistů plus výběru soudobých amerických autorů, ale v mnohém myslím výstižnou. Později byla formulace některých bodů vyčítána (např. výklad tradicionalismu v jeho podání, ale nebylo zpochybňováno to, že fašismus odkazuje na tradici, pouze to, že ve své podstatě nejde ani tak o tradici, jako o idealizovanou představu o ní, atd.). Kult tradice pokládá Eco za základní, na závěr přidává ještě:

Newspeak, use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning. But we must be ready to identify other kinds of Newspeak, even if they take the apparently innocent form of a popular talk show.

(omlouvám se, nemám čas to překládat). Dále vyjmenoval těchto 12 příznaků:

1. Rejection of modernism. The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.

2. Distrust of the intellectual world. Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values.

3. Rejection of analytical criticism. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason.

4. Fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.

5. Appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. In our time, when the old “proletarians” are becoming petty bourgeois (and the lumpen are largely excluded from the political scene), the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority.

6. Obsession with a plot. To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia, but the plot must also come from the inside.

7. The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies.

8. For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world.

9. Popular elitism. Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology, insofar as it is fundamentally aristocratic, and aristocratic and militaristic elitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak.

10. In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.

11. Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters. This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality).

12. Selective populism. In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have a political impact only from a quantitative point of view—one follows the decisions of the majority. For Ur-Fascism, however, individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1995/jun/22/ur-fascism/?page=2 (vybral a občas mírně textově upravil F.T.)

Každý si to může zkusmo aplikovat na společnost kolem sebe. Já kolem sebe spatřuji a tady na diskusi občas čítám příspěvky blízké některým z uvedených bodů, v různé míře a od různých lidí a jen výjimečně u jednoho člověka více než řekněme 4-5.