Infecting the discourse

Here's an excellent post from Paula at Stonerwitch (and I'm not just saying that because she likes my blog):

It seems to me that when people try to define fascism, they are trying make it into something resembling a political or social movement, something understandable in political and social terms. What if fascism were something else, which only used political and social movements as means and not ends? What if fascism were, say, a meme?

Paula raises an important point. Memetics may not necessarily be a key to understanding fascism, but they provide at least a useful tool for coming to terms with it. This argument dovetails into mine (and Griffin's): If fascism is a meme, then it must revolve around the myth of societal rebirth, with all the nationalistic and populist trappings.

I'll try to discuss these memetic aspects of fascism, especially in its affective powers over individuals, near the end of this series. (Newspeak plays an essential role in transmitting the meme, as it were.) But even though I'm getting ahead of myself a little here, I wanted to introduce these ideas into the mix.