contra mundum
“There was a time in the early twenties when the word ‘Bolshie’ was current. It was used indiscriminately of refractory school children, employees who asked for a rise in wages, impertinent domestic servants, those who advocated an extension of the rights of property to the poor, and anything or anyone of whom the speaker disapproved. The only result was to impede reasonable discussion and clear thought.
I believe we are in danger of a similar, stultifying use of the word ‘Facist’. There was recently a petition sent to English writers… asking them to subscribe themselves categorically, as supporters of the republican party in Spain, or as ‘Fascists’. When rioters are imprisoned it is described as a ‘Fascist sentence’; the means test is Fascist; colonization is Fascist; military discipline is Fascist; patriotism is Fascist; Catholicism is Fascist; Buchmanism is Fascist; the ancient Japanese cult of their emperor is Fascist; the Galla tribes’ ancient dearest ion of theirs is Fascist; fox-hunting is Fascist … Is it too late for a call for order?”
- Evelyn Waugh, writing to the New Statesman on 5 March 1938. (via jshleelee)
I believe we are in danger of a similar, stultifying use of the word ‘Facist’. There was recently a petition sent to English writers… asking them to subscribe themselves categorically, as supporters of the republican party in Spain, or as ‘Fascists’. When rioters are imprisoned it is described as a ‘Fascist sentence’; the means test is Fascist; colonization is Fascist; military discipline is Fascist; patriotism is Fascist; Catholicism is Fascist; Buchmanism is Fascist; the ancient Japanese cult of their emperor is Fascist; the Galla tribes’ ancient dearest ion of theirs is Fascist; fox-hunting is Fascist … Is it too late for a call for order?”
- Evelyn Waugh, writing to the New Statesman on 5 March 1938. (via jshleelee)