Modern Fascism by Veith Gene Edward

Author:Veith, Gene Edward [Veith, Gene Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Concordia Publishing House
Published: 1993-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

The Will

In rejecting transcendent meaning, existentialism insists that meaning is created by the human will. Nietzsche bases his whole philosophy and ethic on the exaltation of “the will to power.” 37 Later existentialists toned down Nietzsche’s emphasis upon power (an emphasis that would be resurrected in postmodern thought), but the will as the originator of authentic meaning remains central. Thus, an important concept for Heidegger is “willing the essence.” In the “Rectoral Address,” Heidegger calls on the university to come together into a common will and to will its essence—that is, to will knowledge and to will its historical and spiritual mission. 38 When Heidegger speaks in this way of “willing the essence,” he is keeping the existentialist dictum that existence precedes essence. 39 There is no preexisting essence to which individuals must conform. Essence comes into being when it is willed.

Heidegger is referring not only to the will of the individual but also to a “common” or collective will. As Rousseau had also emphasized, those who will the same thing constitute a community, which takes on a life and a will of its own. In Being and Time, Heidegger argues that individuals can achieve full authenticity only by participation in such a community, which does not erase personal identity but gives it fulfillment: “Authentic existence becomes secure within the context of a communal life, from which the loss of personal identity is entirely excluded.” 40

The existentialists’ emphasis upon the will, and thus human freedom, seems to fly in the face of fascist totalitarianism. Yet the will—and even calls for freedom—played a prominent role in fascist theory and rhetoric. “Of the highest importance,” writes Hitler in Mein Kampf, “is the training of will-power and determination, plus the cultivation of joy in responsibility.” 41 The centrality of the will means that those who choose must take responsibility for their fate, a common theme of existentialism. “The aim of a German foreign policy of today,” writes Hitler, “must be the preparation for the reconquest of freedom for tomorrow.” 42

Hitler is referring to a collective will, in addition to the isolated will of the individual, and to national freedom, rather than freedom of individuals. Fascists believed in communalism, in which the individual’s will and freedom finds fulfillment in the will and freedom of the group. The goal was not mindless conformity, but masses of individuals all actively willing the same thing.

If reason can no longer lead to a common truth and if meaning is a function of the will, then the intellectual life becomes a conflict of competing wills. Persuasion is a matter not of rationally analyzing evidence to reach a common conclusion; rather, it becomes a matter of power, of one will conquering other wills.

In a discussion of his political rallies, Hitler analyzes persuasion as the process whereby weak wills are overwhelmed by a stronger will:

In all these cases [of public oratory] we have to do with an en- croachment upon man’s freedom of will. This applies most, of course, to meetings attended by people with a contrary attitude of will, who must now be won over to a new will.

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