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PART ONETHE SOIL OF FASCISM:ITALYI · The Bad WordFASCISM HAS ATTAINED to the dignity of a cuss word inAmerica. When we disagree with a man's social or political arguments,if we cannot reasonably call him a communist, we call him afascist. The word itself has little more relation to its original andprecise object than a certain well-beloved American expletive hasto the harmless domestic animal it actually describes. But fascism issomething more than a bad name. If we are to have an eye cockedfor fascism and fascists in this country we had better be sure weknow a fascist when we see one. Of course we will recognize him inan instant if he will go about in a Bundist uniform or stormtrooper's black shirt. But what if he wears no such uniform, hasnever learned to goose step, speaks with no German gutturals orItalian gestures but in excellent seaboard English and is, in fact,a member of a patriotic American society or labor union and actuallyhates Hitler and Mussolini and wants them trapped, tried,and strung up—how then will we detect him?There is a difference between a fifth columnist working in Americafor Hitler, Mussolini, or Stalin, and an American who would givehis life for his country but would also like to see its social andeconomic life changed in the direction of the fascist pattern. Youwill get no such American to admit that wjhat he believes in isfascism. He has other and more agreeable names for it. He wouldbe provoked to knock you down if you called him a fascist. That isbecause he does not know what fascism is and makes the mistake ofi