FASCIST FEELINGS
W
hy care about fascists’ feelings? First, because that’s where the radicalisation process begins. Each chapter of this book articulates a stage of the process through which feelings and emotions mutate into fully formed political movements. Without the later stages, fascist feelings might never become politically important, but without those initial feelings of inadequacy, hate, or alienation, and without their continual replenishment, the far right wouldn’t have the purchase it does now. Second, although all political movements have an imaginary,3 fascism’s is particularly prominent, so prominent as to often seem like its principal driving force. This is not because fascists are particularly imaginative but because, lacking a material basis for their politics (such as class struggle or the struggles of the oppressed), fascists instead think in terms of quasi-mythic, imaginary forms – always metaphysically clashing in a realm of pure strife, its images deeply freighted with feeling. And third, it’s also here that the deradicalisation process can begin, a process we will discuss in our conclusion.
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