The Mythic Past

The Mythic Past, according to Jason Stanley in “How Fascism Works” (2018), is a fascist technique of control. Combined with fascist propaganda and anti-intellectualism, it creates a state of unreality in which fake news and conspiracy theories drive out reasoned debate.

George Orwell in “1984”:

“‘Who controls the past,’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

Practitioners:

• early 1900s: Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, neo-Confederates (all those statues);
• early 2000s: The Daily Stormer; the right wing in the US, France, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, India, Burma, etc.

Not mere sanitization: As reported on this blog, countries like Japan and the US love to sanitize their ugly past when it is taught at high school. The Mythic Past does that too, but it goes way beyond:

Red flags: Thanks to the logic of fascist power, the Mythic Past tends to have these features regardless of the actual facts of history:

• it is glorious: the country was strong and ruled others, everyone practised traditional values and gender roles, and “we” were on top, whatever we (race, religion, and/or culture) the fascist leaders say they champion. It was all ended by globalism, cosmopolitan elites, and respect for “universal values” like equality. Or by out-group minorities gaining too much power. Either way it fatally weakened the nation.
• strong, happy patriarchal families: when men were men and women were women! Men bravely fought in wars, women knew their place and were devoted mothers. Families were not falling apart like they are now as people abandon traditional gender roles. Fascist leaders need to glorify strong patriarchal families – where whatever the father says goes – to make their own hierarchy and authoritarianism seem right and good. What is the Dear Leader, after all, but the father of the nation?
• civilization and conquest: in the Mythic Past the country ruled or conquered others, furthered or defended civilization. Because fascist leaders themselves are bent on doing the same sort of thing (imperialism, ethnic cleansing, genocide, etc). Therefore:
• exceptionalism: Stanley: “If one can convince a population that they are rightfully exceptional, that they are destined by nature or religious fate to rule other populations, one has already convinced them of a monstruous lie.”
• the ugly past downplayed, denied or censored: the country was ethnically pure and good. It has an amazingly unblemished record – despite its love of military solutions and unchecked power.
• liberals say the Mythic Past is untrue. And therefore not a good grounding for government policy. But, as Stanley notes: “It is typical for fascist politicians to represent a country’s actual history in conspiratorial  terms as a narrative concocted by liberal elites and cosmopolitans to victimize the people of the true ‘nation’.”

The Mythic Past is untrue – thus the word “mythic” – because it has little regard for facts and every regard for supporting fascist policies. Fascists imagine their own designs for the future as a glorious age in the past. The point of history is not to learn from it but use it to concoct a version for poltical gain.

The Mythic Past is always about the present.

– Abagond, 2022.

See also:

• practitioners:
  • strongmen:
    • Donald Trump
    • Viktor Orban
    • Narendra Modi
    • Mussolini
    • Hitler
      • Hitler: War Propaganda
  • Marine Le Pen
  • The Daily Stormer
  • Neo-Confederates
    • The Confederate flag
    • Confederate monuments
• Ur-Fascism
• fake news
• conspiracy theory
• George Orwell:
  • 2 + 2 = 5
  • 1984
• political arguments – and how they are shaped by the sort of family you come from.
• high-school history books:
  • Japan: Japanese history textbooks
  • US: Why American history gets whitewashed
    • Texas: History in Texas schoolbooks
    • Arizona: Books banned from Tucson classrooms – this was back in 2012!
• Us and Them
• conquest

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