After reading Eco’s “Ur-Fascism”, I found his fourteen features of Ur-Fascism quite interesting. I also think it is interesting that he states that a system can exhibit only one of these features and still be considered Ur-Fascist. With this being said it makes it difficult for me to decide whether the United States should be considered Ur-Fascist. It seems that most Ur-Fascist societies are ruled under only one Party, which would be traditional. Whereas in the United States, we have two opposing parties: the Republican Party (traditional) and the Democratic Party (modern). Additionally, while the hero narrative is pushed on society through films, I feel that in everyday life it is not normal to be an exceptional hero to everyone that one crosses paths with. For these reasons I would not deem the United States as Ur-Fascist.
I do believe there are some countries that exhibit more of the contradictory features of Ur-Fascism such as North Korea, Syria, Denmark, and Ukraine. These countries exhibit traditionalism, rejections of modernism, irrationalism, and sometimes exploitation of individuals who are different. Most of these countries do not allow their citizens the opportunities and rights that we have in the United States which demonstrates a lack of change and rejection of modern ideals. There are even countries such as China that place limitations on the number of children that a family can have. Due to this, I believe that there are some countries that are borderline Ur-Fascist, but cannot be considered one hundred percent because of their other labels and systematic traits that do not align with Eco’s features.
