Question: Good morning, Lyn. What is a fascist, and why do you call Hannah Arendt a fascist?

LaRouche: Well, just to take it backwards: Heidegger was a professed fascist. He was a member of the Nazi Party. He was essentially a Nazi in his philosophy, before he joined the Nazi Party, together with Carl Schmitt, the fellow who defined Nazi law. Hannah Arendt was his lover, his mistress, at one point. And she also shared his view. But, she was Jewish, and therefore could not qualify for Nazi Party membership, so she went to the United States, and practiced her fascism in the United States, rather than in Germany, particularly after Hitler's entry into power.

Now, the term "fascist" really means--remember the origin of the term "fascist": The term "fascist" was a term, which was developed by the Synarchists, and it was used, particularly in the Italian case, by pointing to the "fasces" which is the famous symbol of the Roman legions, marching; they would carry this fasces, like this bundle of sticks, wrapped around a pole, called a fasces. So, fascism essentially meant the Mussolini movement's adoption of the fasces as the symbol of what became known as the Fascist movement. However, the Fascist movement was actually a branch of the Synarchist movement, which was actually the philosophy of the Napoleonic dictatorship--both Napoleon I and his nephew Napoleon III.

So, fascism was originally a French concept, coming out of the French Revolution, out of Napoleon. It was continued in Europe, by certain wealthy financial groups. In the 1870s, it became formally a system.

This became also known as the basis for what became known as "existentialism." Now, what happened was, the example is, of course, this Alexandre Kojeve, of Russian origin, who was a key part of the fascist movement in France, before and during--and after--World War II. He had a lot of influence on the economic teaching in France, and, of course, was a partner of the fascists in the United States, today.

Now, this movement became known, in the late 19th Century, as, not only Synarchist, but it became known in the 1920s as "Synarchist/Nazi-Communist." It was so known in Mexico, as "Synarchism = Nazi-Communist." Throughout the Caribbean, you had a network of people, called Synarchists, typified by Soustelle, for example, of French origin, who did a lot of work in Mexico, and recruited fascists around him, in Mexico. You had another one, Soustelle's teacher, Paul Rivet, who did the same thing in Peru. You had, in Caracas, you had, from Houston, Texas, a person of Russian-French origin, de Menil, who spread there.

These three, for example, were all part of the British group, which the British stuck on the French intelligence service of de Gaulle. De Gaulle later had an investigation of them. The U.S. had a major investigation of these, during the war and after the war, of the Vichy circle. And so, we had this category from the 1920s--intelligence category--of "Synarchist/Nazi-Communist." And they were Communists as well as Nazis in in it; but they all had one thing in common: They had this Napoleonic concept; this interpretation of Hegel's version of history, of Napoleon as the Beast-Man, the Dionysius, who would be such a terrible person, that the world would submit to his will, and the world would never object again. And, history would stop. And the system that Napoleon would establish would last forever!

That was the idea.

And, that's what it amounts to. So, the term "fascism," as it's commonly used, is an ignorant use of the term "fascism." It is one term for a form of existentialism, which takes it's origin from the Hegelian interpretation and Nietzschean interpretation of Hegel, of Napoleon's dictatorship, at the beginning of the 19th Century.

Hannah Arendt's philosophy, her existentialist philosophy, is of that nature. For example, Hannah Arendt is well known, like Karl Jaspers, and others; and Walter Benjamin, and others--she's well known for the denial of the existence of truth. Now, this is a characteristic fascist belief. There is no truth; there is only opinion. You'll often find, in universities today, where fascists are operating, you will get this teaching: There is no truth, there is only opinion; and therefore, good and bad don't exist. "Good" is not offending the sensibilities of somebody else with a different opinion. And "bad" is offending somebody else's opinion.

So, that's what the issue is.

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