The KKK in the 1920s
KKK (1920s)
Is it appropriate to label the Klan of the 1920s "fascist"? Surely it is one of the most overused terms in contemporary discourse. Yet, Paxton points to the first Klan as "the earliest phenonemon that seems functionally related to fascism." "In its adoption of a uniform (white robe and hood), as well as its techniques of intimidation and its conviction that violence was justified in the cause of the group's destiny, the first version of the Klan . . . was a remarkable preview of the way fascist movements were to function in interwar Europe." Nancy MacLean, in Beyond The Mask Of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan (1994), makes a similar argument: "Not only in its world view, but also in its dynamics as a social movement, the [second] Klan had much in common with German National Socialism and Italian Fascism." Klan leaders of the 1920s and 1930s acknowledged this kinship themselves, she points out.
Further, as we will see, the second Klan espoused all of the "mobilizing passions" Paxton identifies as characteristic of fascism:
Feelings propel fascism more than thought does. We might call them mobilizing passions, since they function in fascist movements to recruit followers and in fascist regimes to "weld" the fascist "tribe" to its leader. The following mobilizing passions are present in fascisms, though they may sometimes be articulated only implicitly.
1. The primacy of the group, toward which one has duties superior to every right, whether universal or individual.
2. The belief that one's group is a victim, a sentiment which justifies any action against the group's enemies, internal as well as external.
3. Dread of the group's decadence under the corrosive effect of individualistic and cosmopolitan liberalism.
4. Closer integration of the community within a brotherhood (fascio) whose unity and purity are forged by common conviction, if possible, or by exclusionary violence, if necessary.
5. An enhanced sense of identity and belonging, in which the grandeur of the group reinforces individual self-esteem.
6. Authority of natural leaders (always male) throughout society, culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group's destiny.
7. The beauty of violence and of will, when they are devoted to the group's success in a Darwinian struggle.
If the Klan of the 1920s was a fascist movement, how seriously are we to take the views Evans put forward? Paxton identifies five "stages" of fascism. It is the first two -- "the initial creation" and "their rooting as parties in a political system" -- that relate to the KKK. The Klan never advanced beyond the second stage, and reached that only partially and ineffectually. "First-stage fascism," Paxton notes, "is the domain of the intellectual historian, for the process to be studied here is the emergence of new ways of looking at the world and diagnosing its ills." Further, he argues, "comparison is of little help to us at this first stage, for all modern states have had protofascist movements and publicists since the 1914-1918 war." The very ubiquity of these movements suggests "that we can hardly attribute their origin to any one particular national intellectual history." Instead, Paxton holds, fascist movements emerged everywhere where democracy was sufficiently implanted for disillusionment with it to emerge. Where national peculiarities do come into play is in how fascist intellectuals and spokespeople drew upon particular national traditions to articulate their message.
http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/1920s/eugenics/klan.html
Further, as we will see, the second Klan espoused all of the "mobilizing passions" Paxton identifies as characteristic of fascism:
Feelings propel fascism more than thought does. We might call them mobilizing passions, since they function in fascist movements to recruit followers and in fascist regimes to "weld" the fascist "tribe" to its leader. The following mobilizing passions are present in fascisms, though they may sometimes be articulated only implicitly.
1. The primacy of the group, toward which one has duties superior to every right, whether universal or individual.
2. The belief that one's group is a victim, a sentiment which justifies any action against the group's enemies, internal as well as external.
3. Dread of the group's decadence under the corrosive effect of individualistic and cosmopolitan liberalism.
4. Closer integration of the community within a brotherhood (fascio) whose unity and purity are forged by common conviction, if possible, or by exclusionary violence, if necessary.
5. An enhanced sense of identity and belonging, in which the grandeur of the group reinforces individual self-esteem.
6. Authority of natural leaders (always male) throughout society, culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group's destiny.
7. The beauty of violence and of will, when they are devoted to the group's success in a Darwinian struggle.
If the Klan of the 1920s was a fascist movement, how seriously are we to take the views Evans put forward? Paxton identifies five "stages" of fascism. It is the first two -- "the initial creation" and "their rooting as parties in a political system" -- that relate to the KKK. The Klan never advanced beyond the second stage, and reached that only partially and ineffectually. "First-stage fascism," Paxton notes, "is the domain of the intellectual historian, for the process to be studied here is the emergence of new ways of looking at the world and diagnosing its ills." Further, he argues, "comparison is of little help to us at this first stage, for all modern states have had protofascist movements and publicists since the 1914-1918 war." The very ubiquity of these movements suggests "that we can hardly attribute their origin to any one particular national intellectual history." Instead, Paxton holds, fascist movements emerged everywhere where democracy was sufficiently implanted for disillusionment with it to emerge. Where national peculiarities do come into play is in how fascist intellectuals and spokespeople drew upon particular national traditions to articulate their message.
http://www1.assumption.edu/ahc/1920s/eugenics/klan.html