The treaty of Atlantis -- Legitimacy in history -- American encyclope-deism (revolutions and open societies I) -- The well of the Caliph (revolutions and open societies II) -- Paradise won -- Slouching toward Geneva -- Conclusion : academic counter-enlightenment and the recline of the West.

This paper seeks to add a new facet to the definition (s) of fascism, that amorphous social, cultural, political, and aesthetic conception that has inspired no small degree of controversy over the years since the defeat of the Nazis—indeed, even since the ascension of Mussolini. I argue that the conception of “decadence” by ruling or vanguard party circles, and the expression of a need for such decadence to be purged for the health of the society, is a central tenet of (...) fascist or crypto-fascist ideology in either its rise to power or renewed consolidation of power. In this view, “fascim”, does not necessarily mean the Nazis, and “decadence” need not signify a circumscribed artistic definition, connoting a certain circle of late-nineteenth-century painters in poets, especially in France. Though I regard period-circumscribed views of fascism and decadence as informative, I hope to offer a new framework in which the two concepts, seen in perpetual, relation to each other, break historical bonds and tell us about deeper, transhistorical political trends. In doing so, we may be better equipped to guard against the renewed emergence of crypto-fascist ideology by taking this rhetoric of a “purgation of decadence,” wherever it comes from, as a serious warning. Thus I will use historical cases outside of the standard Hitler-Mussolini axis that I view to exhibit overtly fascist tendencies, such as Khmer Rouge Cambodia and Cultural Revolution Maoist China, and I will make normative claims about current ideological currents that, while certainly not neo-Nazi, may also contain fascist or crypto-fascist tendencies. (shrink)

This paper argues that too restrictive an understanding has governed both academic and popular analysis of the social, cultural, and political conflicts between the Western European majorities and their Islamic minorities. These conflicts are typically viewed through the prisms of majority racism and/or minority economic disadvantage. While such social facts are undoubtedly important, I argue that the ideology of radical Islamism must be taken seriously in any analysis of the problem. Thus, I do two things in this essay. I outline (...) the elements in twentieth-century radical Islamic writings that relate to the relationship between (broadly understood) Islamic and Western civilization; I also offer an overview of the now long-lived situation of culture war in Western Europe that supports my argument that Islamic cultural pathology, more than European racism, is the chief causal factor. This is intended as a warning that “clash of civilization” and “Islamo-fascism” models, usually disparaged in the academy, must be taken quite seriously. (shrink)