Umberto Eco was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, a historical mystery combining semiotics in fiction with biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory, as well as Foucault's Pendulum, his 1988 novel which touches on similar themes. Eco wrote prolifically throughout his life, with his output including children's books, translations from French and English, in addition to a twice-monthly newspaper column "La Bustina di Minerva" (Minerva's Matchbook) in the magazine L'Espresso beginning in 1985, with his last column (a critical appraisal of the Romantic paintings of Francesco Hayez) appearing 27 January 2016. At the time of his death, he was an Emeritus professor at the University of Bologna, where he taught for much of his life. In the 21st century, he has continued to gain recognition for his 1995 essay "Ur-Fascism", where Eco lists fourteen general properties he believes comprise fascist ideologies.
We shall not get out of this circle until it is decided that when exceptional events occur, humanity cannot afford to apply the laws currently in force, but must shoulder the responsibility of sanctioning new ones.
Five Moral Pieces is another collection of Eco's essays and lectures, these are from the 1990s and as suggested by the title refer to plotting a moral course in a world revising its codes and transmitting mediums. The first few weren't encouraging, focusing o a new virtual definition f war and whether it was possible to for the godless to be good. Interesting as always, my spirits were not encouraged until the final two essays: Ur-Fascism and Migration, Tolerance and the Intolerable. Both appear to a response to our daily headlines and the clamor for expulsion from Charlotte to Hamburg.
The essays that make up Five Moral Pieces - Reflections on war, When the Others Appear on the Scene, On the Press, Ur-Fascism, and Migration, Tolerance, and the Intolerable, make me now realise that I prefer Eco's nonfiction to his fiction. I believe he was a better theorist than a novelist. While I found Ur-Fascism, which offers a series of keen discriminations between Mussolini鈥檚 fascism and Hitler鈥檚 Nazism, the highlight for me here, the other four pieces did least make for challenging and interesting reading. I have another collection of his essays to read in the not too distant future.
Umberto Eco descreve estes ensaios como " de car谩cter 茅tico, ou seja, dizem respeito ao que seria conveniente fazer-se, ao que n茫o se deveria fazer e ao que n茫o se pode fazer sob pretexto algum"
Encontra-se dividido em 5 partes: - " Pensar a guerra", aborda as grandes guerras e as suas ideologias; - " Fascismo eterno" , aborda o fascismo e o nazismo ; - " Quando entre em cena o outro", aborda a liberdade de escolha - " Migra莽玫es, toler芒ncia e intoler谩vel", discute o crescimento do racismo, da xenofobia e da intoler芒ncia
Para al茅m destes temas tamb茅m dialoga sobre a impressa televisiva e de jornais. Para mim este foi a parte mais interessante por estar relacionado com a minha licenciatura. Considero que estes textos serem mais do que ensaios, tamb茅m possuem tra莽os biogr谩ficos do escritor e opini玫es pessoais sobre a sua It谩lia.
In his introduction, Umberto Eco writes that the five essays in this book are occasional pieces and ethical pieces. Their occasional nature arises from their being speeches given at some conference or articles commissioned for publication. Their ethical nature is what makes them moral pieces: 鈥渢hey treat of what we ought to do, what we ought not to do, and what we must not do at any cost.鈥�
What we ought to do, or what fans of Eco ought to, is read this short book 鈥� a mere 111 pages. I read it in two sittings. It is by no means an essential or a required Eco. In fact these are only slight pieces 鈥� meaning they are short and minor essays, yet with big themes. And, I hasten to add, they are highly readable pieces, even if they are structured to be knotty moral-philosophical arguments.
The essays are not of uniform quality. Some strike me as well thought out, others are just plain fillers. 鈥淩eflections on War鈥� (1991) was written at the start of the Gulf War 鈥� 鈥渏ust as Allied troops enter Kuwait City鈥� 鈥� but its relevance surpasses its time. Not only because war is timeless in the first place, but because the issues still resonate on the previous/current 鈥渨ar on terror鈥� and the next wave of war in Iraq that George W. Bush architected and justified by lying through his teeth. The principles given in this first polemical essay are prescient as they apply to modern warfare in general. Eco discusses the role of technology in modern war and why this makes obsolete and revises the art of war given by Clausewitz.
Eco鈥檚 reflections in this first essay, and in all others following it, are not really too focused or too tight. Yet his conclusions and assertions, even if predictable in parts, are nonetheless powerful and explored creatively. This is because he arrived at them obliquely. Eco has this unique style of circling around ideas playfully before confronting the issues full frontal.
The essay that I consider the weakest, and which I find too theoretical, is 鈥淯r-Fascism.鈥� The essay defines several hybrids of fascism and Nazism and differentiates between and among these types. It is the sort of essay that is limited by its geographic experience and scope (Europe) though not by its subjects (racism and intolerance).
What we ought not to do is dismiss offhand Eco鈥檚 arguments. They are well developed, free-ranging thoughts. They skim on several surfaces and make some surprising turns and dives. Since these are short pieces, Eco goes to the nib of an idea without being laborious. The labor of reading constitutes only in the wonderment at a quick change in register, quite unlike his fiction. Eco鈥檚 novel The Island of the Day Before, for example, despite being great, contains stultifying passages that can bore the hell out of an "addled reader" (reader with ADD). What these essays share with his fiction is the living wit behind the prose.
鈥淲hen the Other Appears on the Scene鈥� is another playful essay, constructed as real correspondence to a priest, a cardinal. It reminds me of The Creation by E. O. Wilson. While The Creation is concerned about the cultivation of an environmental ethic, Eco鈥檚 essay briefly sketches the foundation of a 鈥渓ay ethic鈥�, or ethics for the laity, specifically that for nonbelievers. One of Eco鈥檚 striking arguments goes like this: a nonbeliever also has a lot to fear for sinning and has a lot to repent because, at the back of his mind, he is not so lucky to have a god who can forgive him his sins.
I鈥檓 not sure if Eco is an atheist (not sure if Google will say), but his letter points to this absentee kind of religious preoccupation. Eco eventually arrives at what he calls 鈥渘atural ethic鈥� which he believes 鈥渃an find common ground with the principles of an ethic founded on faith in transcendence.鈥� This reminds me of Wilson鈥檚 book because that book is also addressed as a letter to a man of religion, a pastor, and also seeks to find common ground between two supposedly contending institutions, that of pragmatic science and dogmatic religion.
鈥淥n the Press鈥� demonstrates Eco as a credible academic, blasting the Italian press for the seemingly shallow coverage of non-substantial news. He has mustered evidence from the news articles themselves to validate his claims and in the end, he suggests practical solutions to promote the integrity of journalism. This essay broadly anticipates scandals and controversies of public political figures in the press.
The last essay in a way serves to encapsulate the basic idea of the whole book. This is not just a conflation of disconnected pieces after all; they can also try to cohere. The essay is about intolerance, a basic feature of the modern world, now that we are global and globalized, and multiculturalism is the state of nature. This last essay is a bit distracted and diffused also but it contains philosophical gems. There is, for example, a rule of thumb proposed to justify the decision of nations who are faced with a choice of whether or not to interfere or intervene in another nation鈥檚 seemingly intolerable acts. This is a very thorny contemporary issue. (Just think of the recent bloodshed in Myanmar and the challenge of democracy in Honduras: Should nations act decisively in such cases, despite directly threatening the sovereignty of the erring nations, or should they just watch events unfold on TV?) But again, the soundness and power of Eco鈥檚 solution is morally apt. For as long as nations are mulling decisions in the international arena, and individuals in their personal lives, choices have to be made in black and white. Suffer the consequences later, or as Eco phrased it, be 鈥渞eady to pay the price of error.鈥�
What we ought not to do, and what we must not do at any cost is lead immoral lives, however that is done. Eco shows some hints, insights, and bases of 鈥渢he certainty and necessity for moral action.鈥� His pieces on war and war crimes, religion and disbelief, freedom of the press, tolerance, and fascism, uphold basic decency as the sturdy rope that knots into a strong moral fiber. This book of essays may be occasional and slight and fleeting but they clarify a lot of things. If we listen, we can filter the noise and din from the explosions of war, intolerance, and libel. The line must be drawn and the cord pulled down. Living is simply choosing. The sound of our confidence is hidden in trying journeys.
BE艦 AHLAK YAZISI -ENTELEKT脺ELL陌K D脺R脺STL脺K, ger莽e臒in inan谋lan 艧eklinin ele艧tirel olarak, hem de ba臒l谋l谋k ve yolda艧l谋k dinlemeyecek 艧ekilde, do臒rucu Davut misali, ortaya konmas谋d谋r.
-Art谋k SAVA艦, 莽ok uluslu kapitalizmin do臒as谋 gere臒i, sava艧an cephelerde kalamaz; herkesin cephe gerisi d眉艧manlar谋 ve ortaklar谋 vard谋r. Bilgi teknolojisi hi莽bir diktat枚r眉n k谋s谋tlayamayaca臒谋 boyutta 艧effafl谋臒a zorlar. 陌ktidarlar tek merkezli ve tek uluslu de臒ildir; sava艧, silah t眉ccarlar谋na kar sa臒larken, turizm ve ithalat/ihracat sekt枚r眉ndekilerin 莽o臒una zarar verir.
Ensestin a莽mazlar谋n谋 anlamam谋z ve tabu ilan etmemiz i莽in binlerce y谋l谋n ge莽mesi gerekmi艧tir; sava艧谋n zararlar谋n谋 anlamak i莽in bu kadar zaman谋m谋z yoktur ve bir an 枚nce tabu ilan edilmelidir. Ba艧ka bir 莽谋kar olmad谋臒谋 g枚r眉lse bile, sava艧谋n tabu oldu臒unu s枚ylemek, entelekt眉el d眉r眉stl眉kt眉r. Sava艧a taraf olmak, insanl谋臒谋 daha da al莽akl谋臒a 莽ekmektir.
-FA艦陌ZM, gelenek莽i, modernizm ve din kar艧谋t谋, entelekt眉ellik ve ele艧tiriden hazzetmeyen, farkl谋 olana duyulan do臒al korkuyu kullanan, 谋rk莽谋, d眉艧 k谋r谋kl谋臒谋ndaki ortas谋n谋flara hitabeden, bar谋艧谋 sevmeyen, s眉rekli eylemi kutsayan, hiyerar艧ik yap谋s谋ndan dolay谋 alttakini hor g枚rmeye dayal谋, kitlesel se莽kinci, 枚l眉mle ta莽lanan kahramanl谋k k眉lt眉r眉ne sahip, kad谋n谋 k眉莽眉mseyen ve bek芒rl谋臒a/homoseks眉elli臒e varabilen d眉zeyde ma莽o tav谋rl谋, birey hakk谋n谋 k眉莽眉mseyen, teatral bir lider s枚zc眉l眉臒眉nde somutlanan, parlamentoyu gereksiz bulan bir ideolojidir.
G眉n眉m眉zde, fa艧ist ideolojinin TV-internet 眉zerinde a莽谋k莽a g枚sterilmeyen y眉z眉ne dikkat etmeliyiz. 脟ok az kelimeli, basit gramerli Orwell tarz谋nda dil kullanan fa艧istler, sivil giysileri i莽erisinde, demokrasi ve refah toplumunun i艧lememesi halinde do臒acak f谋rsattan yararlan谋p, bilinen giysilerini giymeye haz谋r 艧ekilde beklemektedirler.
-Bizi tan谋mlayan ve bi莽imlendiren, 脰TEK陌鈥檇ir, BA艦KALARI鈥檇谋r. Ba艧kalar谋 olmasa, yani ormana b谋rak谋lan bebek olsak, insanla艧amay谋z. Herkes bize yokmu艧uz gibi davransa, 莽谋ld谋r谋r veya 枚l眉r眉z.
-Ho艧g枚r眉s眉zl眉臒e, ba艧kalar谋n谋 kabule y枚nelik, 莽ok k眉莽眉k ya艧lardan ba艧layan ve s眉rekli devam eden bir e臒itim gereklidir. Avrupa 枚n眉m眉zdeki d枚nemde bunu ger莽ekle艧tirip, 脟OK IRKLI-脟OK RENKL陌 B陌R TOPLUM olmak zorundad谋r. Bu, ho艧a gitmese ve 莽at谋艧malara neden olsa da ger莽ekle艧ecektir.
Lo encontr茅 por casa y me lo le铆 porque incluye el ensayo "El fascismo eterno", donde el bueno de Eco explica para universitarios americanos las caracter铆sticas que definen el 别蝉辫铆谤颈迟耻 de un movimiento fascista. Por supuesto, se ha sacado a relucir con TROMP y dem谩s, pero merece la pena notar que ni una sola vez usa la palabra "populismo". Gracias, Umberto. 5 estrellas.
El resto de ensayos no est谩n mal, pero producen la sensaci贸n insatisfactoria que dar铆a leerlos en un peri贸dico de hace 20 a帽os (que es donde se escribieron, claro). El mundo de los "intelectuales" ha muerto, y aunque por un lado da pena haber perdido mentes como la de don Umberto, por otro lado es de agradecer el poqu铆simo viejunismo de las opiniones de un se帽or que escribi贸 esto con casi 70 a帽os y siendo respetad铆simo.
Aunque s铆 que menciona la "political correctness" (as铆, en ingl茅s). Nadie es perfecto.
Eco鈥檔un kendi deyimiyle 鈥渆tik nitelikli鈥� 5 yaz谋s谋n谋 okuyoruz bu kitapta. Bu 5 yaz谋n谋n konular谋 ise 艧unlar: sava艧, fa艧izm, bas谋n, 枚teki kavram谋 ve g枚莽. Eco bu yaz谋lar谋 g眉ncel meseleleri yorumlamak 眉zere yazd谋臒谋n谋 s枚yl眉yor. En yak谋n tarihli yaz谋n谋n bile 眉zerinden yakla艧谋k 25 y谋l ge莽mi艧. Ancak buna ra臒men hala ge莽erlili臒ini koruyan, g眉n眉m眉zde de ya艧ad谋臒谋m谋z sorunlara 谋艧谋k tutacak d眉艧眉nceler ve 莽ok de臒erli tespitler bar谋nd谋r谋yor yaz谋lar. 脰zellikle fa艧izm, sava艧 ve 枚teki meseleleri 眉zerine yaz谋lan yaz谋lar benim i莽in 枚ne 莽谋kanlard谋. Fa艧izmin olas谋 arketiplerini s谋ralad谋臒谋 14 maddelik liste mutlaka okunmal谋.
Eco鈥檇an okudu臒um ilk kurgu d谋艧谋 kitap oldu. Son olmayacak...
Umberto Eco, Five Moral Pieces (New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2001), translated by Alastair McEwen. Pp. 111. Hardcover $23.00.
I had never read anything by Umberto Eco, and I knew that he is a leading thinker of our time. This was the book I picked up to read to acquaint myself with his philosophy and writing style.
It's a fairly short book. It's comprised of five chapters, which are essentially five independent essays. The essays are: Reflections on War, When the Other Appears on the Scene, On the Press, Ur-Fascism, and Migration, Tolerance, and the Intolerable. This review will comment on two of the essays, and then conclude with some general remarks.
The first essay I want to comment on is Reflections on War. Eco starts the essay by arguing that intellectuals have an obligation to speak out about war. And if they choose to remain silent, then they have an obligation to say why it is that they are silent.
He then progresses to his argument as to why war is not a good option for modern society. This probably comes as no surprise to those familiar with Eco; what did surprise me, however, was the way he made is argument. One would expect an anti-war (pro-peace?) argument to proceed along the lines of how unjust war is due to its inhumanity; however, Eco's argument is more along the lines of how modernity has changed the rules so much that war isn't war anymore. Allow me to list his points:
1 - Nuclear weapons, if used, mean that no one would win. They would only destroy the planet.
2 - War no longer has two clear cut sides. Each side's media can be reporting news from behind 'enemy' lines, which makes it harder to 'demonize' the enemy (e.g., Americans reporting in Baghdad when the U.S. was attacking Iraq). Also, because America is a melting-pot, people who may identify with the enemy may be living among you.
3 - Modern technology and communication means that anyone can communicate (and thus sympathize) with the enemy.
4 - A global economy (and global consumer base) means that war plays havoc with the market.
5 - Modern technology means that war is no longer like a chess game (your enemy moves, and then you move, and so on). Now, it's as if both sides are moving randomly (all at the same time), and may even be attacking pieces of the same color.
Eco concludes that warfare is no longer practical. Instead, we need to evolve a new way to 'war' with one another. He suggests that the new way be a 'cold war.' He writes that is has, "proved a very humane and mild solution in terms of casualties, and cold warfare can even boast victors and vanquished." A very interesting idea.
The other essay I want to comment on is On the Press. This was a very interesting essay, mostly focused on the Italian media. He's arguing that television has destroyed the ability of the media to have engaging conversations and inform the public of important issues. The problem started when people turned to television for their news instead of newspapers. Newspapers, faced with a declining readership, changed its structure to that of the dailies (more entertainment driven, rather than news driven); the dailies respond by changing their structure, as do the monthlies, and so on. It gets so bad, that papers are reporting on what the television, and other papers, are saying about the news, rather than simply reporting the news. He goes on and lists the way the structure inhibits the media from really reporting the news.
He gives two conclusions as to how to solve the issue of the media. He suggests that papers go back to simply reporting a few lines about important events around the world. This way, each reader can be informed about the basic facts of news from around the world. The other solution is to stop treating the papers as a source of entertainment news, and cover events from around the world with in-depth articles. However, he admits that both these solutions require an educated readership to be able to determine what's important for them.
I wish conclude with a few brief comments about this work overall. I greatly enjoyed his arguments, and I found them easy to follow. I did notice that Eco's style of writing and expounding his arguments was similar to C.S. Lewis's. Though they would, no doubt, come to different conclusions, the feel of the argument, for me, was similar. Go figure. At any rate, I recommend this book.
Umberto Eco 茅 um escritor e um estudioso fant谩stico. Um dos primeiros semi贸ticos a aproximar a academia da cultura pop em textos que reverberam at茅 hoje. Este livro, Cinco escritos morais, foi lan莽ado na It谩lia em 1997 e, por isso, muitos deles, como os que tratam da imprensa, sobre a guerra e sobre a alteridade parecem extremamente datados. Contudo, os textos "O Fascimo Eterno" e "As migra莽玫es, a toler芒ncia e o intoler谩vel" me parecem incrivelmente atuais. Principalmente o texto em que ele cria o termo ur-fascismo, que 茅 um tipo de ideologia que durar谩 para sempre e se repetir谩 de temos em tempos na nossa sociedade, como uma mem茅tica. 脡 muito assustador como um texto que foi escrito h谩 vinte e cinco anos atr谩s diz tanto sobre a contemporaneidade e como Eco, que viveu o fascismo original na sua inf芒ncia na It谩lia, percebe esses elementos na sociedade no limiar do segundo mil锚nio. Apavorante, mas ao mesmo tempo muito fascinante.
A escrita sempre inteligente e acess铆vel de um dos maiores intelectuais do p贸s-guerra, aqui sobre temas os mais atuais - a quest茫o migrat贸ria, a estrutura do fascismo, a imprensa e sua fun莽茫o no nosso tempo... Acho que um livro que envelheceu muito bem, e hoje talvez se ache ainda mais pertinente que 脿 ocasi茫o de seu lan莽amento.
Este volume tem cinco ensaios e foi publicado em It谩lia em 1997 pela primeira vez. S茫o escritos sobre guerra e paz, fascismo eterno (Ur-Fascismo), a imprensa e os seus avatares, os valores da 茅tica natural e, finalmente, a inevitabilidade das migra莽玫es.
芦Liberdade e liberta莽茫o s茫o uma tarefa que nunca acaba. Que seja este o nosso lema: "N茫o esque莽am".禄 P. 40
Umberto (ik mag papa zeggen) heeft heel erg veel goede meningen maar ze zijn allemaal langs me heen gegaan omdat ik 16 uur lang met slaaptekort onderweg was
This is the first work by Eco which I have read, and it was pretty meh. The writing style he took swung between highly studied and intelligent distinctions (as in the first two essays) and a "logistics story" smoothbrain, NPC, "I'm going to talk about advertisements all day" of the middle essay.
The first essay, "Reflections on War", was written at the time of the Gulf War. Eco started by pointing out the "ritual exorcism" that proponents and opponents of wars seem to always make where they feel obligated to admit the cruelties of their perspective, but then launch into their argument. Eco saw the role of intellectuals to add nuance to such situations, and the role of "decision makers" is to strip away that nuance and make a definite decision. He argues that though we have a notion of World War today, there are several things that make such a war impossible today, such as nukes, multinational capitalism, freedom of speech/not massacring the opposition afterwards, etc. The element of surprise is largely lost in our era of instant communication, and "war can no longer be frontal, because of the very nature of multinational capitalism". In other words, we have a much harder time wiping a civilization off the face of the map, because we are all tied to each other in many ways, economic and social. War used to be more of a chess game, Eco argues, while today it's a parallel game, where rules cannot be distinguished from data. Continuing the chess metaphor, today's game involves players taking pieces of the same color, because of our interconnectedness. If incest can become a tabboo, so can war, he argues. Instead, we have found an "excellent alternative to war, and that is cold war". Such proxy wars tend to be the norm now, with the major powers not being so stupid as to actually be direct. This seems to be indicative if our era, of a lack of directness. We don't have advertisements which list the features of a product, we have people trying to make a skit with the product featured in it, or "organically" bring up the product. To our own peril, we have blurred the lines between entertainment and advertising, just like we have blurred the lines between war and economic games.
The second essay, "When the Other Appears on the Scene", was part of an exchange between Eco and Carlo Maria Martini. It was still a very interesting letter that illuminated Eco's agnostic appreciation of Catholicism (and his deep understanding of it as well), but I ultimately didn't find it that convincing. Eco begins by approaching things via his specialty, semantics (related to semiotics). Here, he begins by interrogating what universals we share as humans, coming up with a modest body-based ethic. He begins in directions and orientations that humans as embodied beings innately understand across cultures (though I do know of some cultures who don't have a right/left, but do have things like "towards the mountain" and "away from the mountain", etc.). Largely, his first point holds water, and it's eerie how much it echoed the body-based ethics of "The Body is not an Apology", which I was reading simultaneously with this one. These rights of the body might have prevented genocides and other atrocities, but they only work in a social context; Eco disregards the personally ethical, the lying to yourself (which can do massive damage), in favor of the interpersonal. Eco, using a paradoxical anectdote (one of his religious friends saying "Pope John must be an atheist. Only a man who does not believe in God can love his fellowman so much!") to clarify that "The strength of an ethic is judged on the behavior of saints, not on the foolish one cujus deus venter est [whose god is their belly]". Ultimately, Eco doubts the possibility of a strong atheism (i.e. without transcendent experiene), just as he admits the often extremely worldly disposition of "believers". After all, even atheist philosophers leave their writings behind in some belief it will help future generations.
Even if Christianity is a lie and Christ didn't rise from the dead, Eco finds the ability of the human race to ocme up with such a sublime, divine example to be worth praising, and this is an interesting approach. I've often thought to myself that it's hard to conceive of a non-deity coming up with such a paradoxically beautiful ethic as Christ's, which simultaneously fulfills the OT law while establishing an even more rigorous NT law (and providing free forgiveness all the while). I think this is a nice thesis, but it begs the question of why Eco doesn't knock, since he's standing at the door.
The third essay is easily the worst, comprised of dated nitpicking about "dailies" and "weeklies", of which I actually forgot daily newspapers existed, since in my lifetime most papers have shrunk to the weekly-only model. True, we don't have as much overt censorship, it's mostly brave new world/1984-style media, which could be mostly negated if people were media literate. Like many other media-analyses of the day, he bemoans how the visual mediums like TV have impacted the written mediums like newspapers, who now feel the need to sensationalize to stay competative. Eco did helpfully point out how reviews have morphed into interviews, so instead of being told if a work is good or bad (and the reasons for that valuation), instead we are given an advertisement of the work from the author's/artist's point of view. I find this to be part of a larger inability for our generations to make value judgements, instead only making descriptive explanations about the work or the author's feelings when making it. Eco bemoans the idea of personalized news, because, as opposed to the old newspapers (which showed you a range of items, some of which may upset you or otherwise not be sought out, i.e. not be as tasty), the new tactic of personalized news obviously tends toward echo chambers and confirmation bias (as social media has so plainly taught us).
The fourth essay, "Ur-Fascism", was a great exploration of the squishy term (from an Italian's perspective, no less!), and it began with Eco's childhood, which was during WWII. When it was over, he was shocked to find that there were political choices, not just one party, and that freedom actually meant something, that it had quantitative ramifications, that you could hear varying opinions, not just THE opinion (of the head of state, which, in a sly turn, replaces the voice of the people, thus making the people voiceless). Eco very helpfully points out how varying fascism is depending on the location and time, since it's a cultural/national ideology. For some reason, the term "Fascist", out of all the other terms (Nazi, etc.) survived as the one describing this loose grouping of movements.
The confusing thing isn't just the diversity in the movements (and thus their inter-contradictions, but their intra-contradictions), such as the atheistic Mussolini invoking Providence. A good way to explain this is that "fascism was philosophically unsound, but on an emotional level it was anchored to certain archetypes". Eco lays out 14 basic features of fascistic movements that are shared by most. Highlights include the cult of traditionalism (which often entails contradictory fusions of politically expedient authors or movements, and I would argue that makes it actually anti-traditional, a mockery of tradition), irrationalism (i.e. being against rationalism, a return to other rhetorical modes, especially pathos), the fear of difference (discussed slightly more in the last essay), an obsession with conspiracies (especially international ones), life as a permanent war (which brings with it machismo, misogyny, etc.), and lastly the loss of the voice of the people (as I alluded to earlier, with the dictator instead allegedly speaking for the populous). Eco ends the essay with a fitting poem by Franco Fortini.
The last essay in the collection I believe misses the mark, instead focusing on why we tolerate or don't tolerate certain things, specifically "war crimes", whereas I think he could do better with defining what toleration is in the first place. Eco begins the essay belaboring a mostly moot point about the year 2,000 AD and other calendars. Yada yada, I get it, other calendars exist, duh, move along. He next makes a helpful distinction between "immigration" and "migration", the first of which is controlled, while the second spills over so to speak, and is an overflow of people from one area to another. The first involves acculturation to the destination, while the former doesn't. Next we move to fundamentalism and "integralism", or ethic-related theocratic tendencies. Eco wisely sticks to just a Christian context, leaving the Islamic and Judaic versions to "the experts". He largely sees this springing from America and protestantism, somehow absolving catholicism of the taint because it doesn't obey one book, but a whole heirarchy and tradition (as if protestantism ever actually jettisoned all that tradition?).
Interestingly, Eco doesn't see political correctness as a means of slowing down intolerance, but merely of letting people talk in discriminating ways with the correct pronouns (as well as discriminating against those who can't keep up with the frustratingly fast movement of politically correct terminology). I think Eco misses the mark when he discusses intolerance of "difference", but he doesn't bring up the tolerance (and intolerance) of evil. The only groups that don't tolerate any difference are extremist and radical groups, whereas most people will tolerate what they percieve as mere difference. I find the issue lies in defining difference vs evil (i.e. things so outrageous that they take on a moral character), and how much evil we must tolerate, since to live socially is to tolerate some level of evil. He finds the most dangerous intolerance to be that which lacks a logical doctrine to back it up (i.e. is irrational), while I find the most dangerous kind to be the unexamined contrast between what one group calls mere "difference," and another calls "evil". Lastly, Eco points to the scientific, systematic, and worldwide nature of the Nazi project to be the ultimate example of what we should never tolerate, and I agree with him.
Overall, I find the conversation surrounding toleration to be lacking because it doesn't make that same distinction I do; merely calling intolerance an inability to tolerate difference begs the question of what is difference, and how we define, for example, Eco's closing example of the Nazis, as "evil", and furthermore as an evil not to be tolerated. Perhaps that's just the work cut out for me. I didn't learn much from these essays, but they were good launching points, and occasionally they made interesting points. I probably won't read more from this guy haha. Toodles.