My 2025 tip to understand Fascism

M - Son of the Century

2024 was the year of elections and contrary to some doomsayers’ predictions, democracy held strong. The most important election of them all, in the United States, ended in a clear cut victory, dissipating the risk of a repeat of the storming of Capitol Hill on January 6th 2022. Although you could argue that we’ll never know what would have happened had Trump not won so resoundingly. But let’s not worry about what didn’t happen. There’s plenty that DID happen over the past year that we can worry about.

Everywhere you look incumbent parties have been uncermoniously kicked out, and apart from some notable exceptions like the Labour landslide in the UK, in Europe and the US the right (centre, hard, radical or far, depending on your views) is on the rise.

What we’ve witnessed in the past year isn’t just about right and left wing, but rather a rejection of mainstream politics. Democracy may have held, but there are still two wars raging at Europe’s borders, faltering economies, tensions around migration which are proving crucial at the ballot box, escalating climate change, a changing information landscape and a new US president who prides himself on being a disruptor.

Fear and uncertainty abound, and that’s when authoritarianism thrives. When people feel the need to look to a strong leader, someone to take control. Someone to make thing better and safer, no matter the cost.

I wish all the work I’ve done around my grandfather being a fascist (btw new book coming out in April!) had given me clarity. That it had given me black-and-white answers to so many questions, starting with the one that has been the guide for my work from the beginning: Could it happen again? And is it happening now?

Then again, I do know this: if Fascism was effective at one thing, it was at presenting simple solutions to complex situations. And there’s no shortage of people now calling for radical change and strong leadership that offers solutions.

Sometime in the first half of 2025, a new SKY Drama will be aired about Benito Mussolini. If this conjures up images of a boring historical drama, think again. It’s based on the bestselling novel by Antonio Scurati M - Son of the Century. The book itself, though a meticulously researched, historically accurate account of Mussolini’s life and the rise of Fascism, reads like a gripping novel. Easily the most engaging work I’ve read on Fascism and I’ve read a lot. Or to be more honest, I started a lot of historical tomes that didn’t come to life. Not so Scurati’s books and I bet the TV drama will not disappoint.

I’ll be talking about this new Sky Drama a lot when it launches, but the trailer itself (see above) highlighted one of the points that I think is often overlooked when we talk about fascism and the rise of dictatorships. It’s in this one line that Mussolini says in the trailer:

“We are the new.”

This phrase stuck out for me because it encapsulates one of the things that surprised me most during my research.

Fascism was not conservative, in the sense that fascism wasn’t about maintaining the status quo.

Fascism was all about change.

It was all about Mussolini promising to create a new Italy, a new breed of Italians, a new society. A change from the chaos and injustice. Many of those promises never materialised. One of the reasons my grandfather joined fascism in the early 1920s was that Mussolini promised a 1 billion lire investment in my grandfather’s native Sardinia, to redevelop the island which was one of the poorest parts of Italy. It never really happened. When the money did come, it was to benefit the regime, not the people. And by that point, it was too late. My grandfather had made his pact with the devil.

An easy prediction about 2025 is that it will be a year of change. But what the price of that change will be is a much harder prediction to make.

And with this short note, that’s it for 2024! Thank you all for your support over the past 12 months, especially those of you who share your thoughts in the comments section, it’s always a pleasurable and fascinating read.

Have a wonderful new year and see you in 2025.