19th century fascism?

[ByzantineCaesar]

Surely substituting the telegraph and newspapers for the radio would suffice for a 19th century movement, though? You can still get the party line out there and get everyone in the country marching all at once, even if they can't hear the voice of their glorious leader directly.

I'm not sure. How deep of a penetration did newspapers have among the working class? I genuinely do not know. My guess would be little because to consume newspapers you would have to be literate, hence middle class and upwards. The big advantage of the radio is that it can reach illiterate people as well.

 

[Lampiao]

Is it solely these sorts of factors though? Is there not a portion of Fascistic view, that develops ultimately from a sort of Platonic unity of sorts between all facets of society pointed together into a statist structure? If we can determine it as at least reminiscent of this, we can begin to develop some non-western examples of this sort of 'fascist' idea.

We can certainly develop more characteristics, I was only focusing on the most commonly associated with Fascism today. Julius Evola, for instance, takes ideas from Buddhism and Hinduism apparently, but I wouldn't know more than that. But, IMHO, Fascism, just like Communism, is an answer to a supposed decadence in Western Society. In that line of thought, we can see something like the Meiji Restoration as an answer to the Eastern decadence, absorbing only what's interesting from Western society.

 

[Born in the USSA]

I'm not sure. How deep of a penetration did newspapers have among the working class? I genuinely do not know. My guess would be little because to consume newspapers you would have to be literate, hence middle class and upwards. The big advantage of the radio is that it can reach illiterate people as well.

Assuming a government-controlled telegraph network to disseminate the orders of the dictator and maintain command and control, it's simply a matter of creating a cadre of criers to repeat pronouncements from the central authority.

 

[ByzantineCaesar]

Assuming a government-controlled telegraph network to disseminate the orders of the dictator and maintain command and control, it's simply a matter of creating a cadre of criers to repeat pronouncements from the central authority.

It doesn't sound very simple to do logistically in the 19th century though. The state isn't even properly built yet.

 

[TRH]

I'm not sure. How deep of a penetration did newspapers have among the working class? I genuinely do not know. My guess would be little because to consume newspapers you would have to be literate, hence middle class and upwards. The big advantage of the radio is that it can reach illiterate people as well.

You could still rely on local party members to read them and mobilize everyone else. And because fascism has an anti-intellectual streak, I don't think it'd be seen as too critical that everyone read/hear and understand the message directly. Besides, mass social movements obviously existed before radio, so unless we're really picky with our definitions, precedent suggests you don't even really need the telegraph.

Assuming a government-controlled telegraph network to disseminate the orders of the dictator and maintain command and control, it's simply a matter of creating a cadre of criers to repeat pronouncements from the central authority.

Yeah, this, basically.

 

[Lampiao]

Assuming a government-controlled telegraph network to disseminate the orders of the dictator and maintain command and control, it's simply a matter of creating a cadre of criers to repeat pronouncements from the central authority.

Suddenly realized that Julius Ceasar was a the first Fascist.

 

[Born in the USSA]

It doesn't sound very simple to do logistically in the 19th century though. The state isn't even properly built yet.

Look to the West gives a good example of such a structure. France is able to implement an incredibly thorough system of visual telegraph to allow one man to essentially govern the entire country at the same time. It would be difficult to do for sure but a mass movement that is able to mobilize reliable segments of the literate classes through the written word and foster loyalty to the ideal of the leader through rallies, pronouncements and visual propaganda could work in practice.

 

[Chrispi]

Doesn't France under Napoleon count? Or at least bear some resemblances

Napoleon III, possibly.

 

[Night Gaul]

Napoleon III, possibly.

Yeah, I've heard his reign called "proto-fascist", and I can definitely see why people say that.