Reply #17: That's a really fruitful topic...

[napoleon_in_rags]

...it also pays to look at the Mussolini and Marx in their own words. Mussolini defined Fascism as the opposite of Marxist communism, and he's right its a very different beast. Fascism is a manufactured mythological framework for the people, its beating heart is propaganda. It strives for total control over every aspect of the individual life...economic, social, intellectual, spiritual. Mussolini defined it as "spiritual" while communism was "materialist", for instance. Communism is above all an economic and materialistic ideology. In its authoritarian forms it rigidly assets material reality as "true" reality, thus the militant anti-religious doctrine you see in authoritarian communist states...But its not innately authoritarian. Fascism is.