From the archives: The Ethical Attitude to Fascism and Nazism (1939)

From The Ethical Societies’ Chronicle, Vol. XVII. No. 125. May 1939

(The substance of a speech at the Ethical Union’s Annual General Meeting, 1939).

In bringing before you the problem what should be the attitude of the Ethical Movement towards Fascism, it is necessary to emphasise I do so from no desire to influence our Movement politically but because I feel, as I think all Ethical members must, that this doctrine of Fascism, spreading over Europe like some insidious disease, is a definite menace to all the ideals we uphold, and has become the most important question in the world. It is needless to enlarge on the brutal methods adopted by the Fascist government for the suppression of opposition, wherever found, in political, social or religious activities.

From Germany we hear of the terrible persecution inflicted on the Jews, the attack on the Catholic and Evangelical Churches, the suppression of democratic and political parties opposed to those in authority, and worse, the beheading of men and women for the alleged crime of high treason. All this and much more, we can study over our breakfast table every morning. It is beyond question that if Fascism became dominant in this country—a not unlikely thing to happen—such societies as ours would not be allowed to exist for a single day. You all know of the suppression of the Ethical Society in Vienna and the imprisonment of its leaders. After the Munich Agreement a similar fate befell the Freethought Societies in Czecho-Slovakia.

What is the fundamental idea governing German Nazism and Italian Fascism? It is that the State has the right to mould every individual member to its own particular pattern, in thought, word, action; all must conform or be damned, and, furthermore, moulded according to the will of one man, the Dictator. This is in direct opposition to our ideal that individual freedom and well-being should be the first concern of Government. To the Dictator the State, that is himself, is absolute, the individual simply its instrument.

One may take it that the aim of the two European dictators is to achieve complete dominance over some 120 millions of people, and so satisfy their lust for power. Foremost in the Fascist creed comes the glorification of war, involving the militarisation of all the activities of life. This militarisation starts in the nursery; one reads of a Christmas seller in Berlin filled with nursery rhymes for the true Nazi child to repeat over his porridge, such as the following:

In the toy shops of the biggest towns can be seen hundreds of thousands of toy soldiers and all the paraphernalia of war—tin hats, toy guns, tanks, gas masks, aeroplanes, etc.

This training is continuous from childhood to adult years. Work and play alike follow the military model. No wonder that Hitler said: “What we want is a picked number from the new ruling classes, not troubled with humanitarian ideas, but who are convinced they have the right to rule an inferior race, and who will secure and maintain a ruthless rule over the masses.”

Hand in hand with the war spirit is the attitude towards Science, regimented like all else to fit Nazism. Professor Brady in his book, The Spirit and Structure of German Fascism, writes: “Authority has proceeded to reshape the structure and transmute the guiding rule of existing Science, to develop a series of New Sciences, discovered by the National Socialists themselves, and to use all scientists and sciences for the purpose of the State.”

In its treatment of Labour and democratic organisations Fascism assumes that the mass of the people are “unintelligent,” “childlike,” “inarticulate,” ruled by emotion rather than reason. Working on this assumption, trade unions and co-operative societies have been destroyed, as well as the rights of collective bargaining and free assembly. Even individual criticism may bring a man into a concentration camp; all opposition to the employer must be neutralised, since blind faith and obedience is all that that is required from the worker. On the negation of individual and communal liberty, on the ruin of the trade unions, the democratic parties, and all workers’ organisations, has been built the Labour Front which subjects all labour activities to National Socialism.

The position of women in totalitarian states is directly opposed to the ideals of our Movement. There is an old Kentish saying that woman’s place is between “the woodstack and the fire.” This is essentially the Nazi view. Women are to be confined to the home, their duty is unlimited parturition; the boys are to be trained servile workers; the girls should be docile, submissive, subject to man, having no claim to existence except as childbearers, although the totalitarian states claim that they are over-populated and therefore must expand.

Every woman must marry a true Nordic and care little for theatres, sport, cinemas, or any other kind of entertainment; they should not wish to be seen or known outside their homes. Men should find scope for their creative wills in the daily drudgery of office, factory, and shops, while for women the creative will is fulfilled in producing men. One of the slogans of Nazism is “The Emancipation of women has its roots only in Jewish intellectualism.”

All propaganda activity is managed by one supreme head, who seeks only to further the aims of the Totalitarian State, so that all printed matter, even to advertising, is controlled from headquarters. All news obnoxious to authority is suppressed, or else distorted to such an extent as to be utterly unreliable. Truth does not matter, the only criterion is efficacy in suppressing opposition.

Constant repetition of slogans in speech or writing undoubtedly hypnotises the people so that they accept inevitably as true what they have so often heard or read.

A few weeks ago a lecture was given to our Society at South London by a lady who was in Czecho-Slovakia during the September crisis. Leaving Prague for Poland she arrived at the frontier town of Teschen on the night the ultimatum of Britain and France was forced on Dr. Benes. She found the town quite normal, had no difficulty in passing through, and was treated with every consideration. To her amazement she learned later that the German newspapers were full of stories of brutality and outrage of which Germans were the victims. Streams of refugees were said to be pouring out of the town. This well illustrates the propagandist methods of Nazism.

As Ethicists do we believe that peaceful solutions of all international problems are possible? Fascism, in glorifying war as the supreme achievement of mankind, denies this. We believe in individual freedom, the right of all to self-development according to one’s highest ideals. Fascism seeks to enslave mind and body. Do we believe in the equality of men and women? Fascism believes in the subjection of woman to man. We believe in the worship of Truth and Goodness. Fascism believes in the deification of one man, the “Leader” (Duce or Führer).

The Ethical movement has inspired many men and women to strive for human betterment. Surely there can be no more urgent claim on us to-day than to fight against this monstrous thing. As individuals we can all do our share. Our speakers and writers can do much more. We should emphasise by every possible means, in public and private life the duty of making the moral code for which we stand the basis not only of civic relations, but of those of nations and governments. Otherwise, it seems civilisation must go down in blood and tears.

It is incumbent on every one of us to choose the high way towards a world in which the ideals of our Movement will prevail, or the low way of domination and destruction.

OLIVER KINGSNORTH.

Oliver George Kingsnorth (1881–1952) was a grocer and longtime member of the South London Ethical Society.