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Ecofascism

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Ecofascism is a term used in two different ways: (1) For specific elements of radical environmentalism which are openly affiliated with neo-fascism, or which share conceptual similarities with fascist theories. It is used critically from an external source, and somewhat less commonly used from within as a self label, to refer to various white nationalist and third positionist groups who attempt to incorporate environmentalist positions into their ideology. (2) The term is also used as a political epithet by political conservatives to discredit deep ecology, mainstream environmentalism, and other left and non-left ecological positions, and less frequently by political leftists to discredit environmental movements they see as non-left such as deep ecology.

Contents

Nazi and Fascist views on ecology

A form of admiration for nature was a theme of the German Nazi party and the Wagnerian German romanticism which predated it, and is also a key issue for some modern fascist movements, nazi.org being an especially apt example.

Two writers from the early to mid 20th century who supported Nazi and Fascist political movements are strongly associated with ecofascism and remain among the primary sources for the incorporation of ecological views within neo-nazi and neo-fascist groups today: Savitri Devi was a writer from India who openly admired Hitler while promoting animal rights and vegetarianism, which she linked to a denunciation of Jewish dietary practices. Julius Evola was an Italian writer and supporter of the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini who wrote books romanticizing a primitive state of nature and denouncing "modernism."

When seeking to understand the environmentalism, vegetarianism, and animal rights policies of Nazi and neo-Nazi groups, one must be aware that these ideas are in no way divorced from these groups' emphasis on biology, eugenics and social darwinism. Racial hygiene is seen as cleansing the human genetic stock, much as ecology cleans the environment. All of these concepts have a common thread, emphasising the importance of nature, and man's duty to behave as steward.

Accusations of ecofascism among other groups today

For some, cries from mainstream ecologists for regulation of human reproduction and reduction of the world population are suggestive of anti-humanist Nazi policies. However, proponents of population control policies have reacted strongly against these comparisons, regarding them as merely attempts to slander certain sections of the environmental movement (see the article on deep ecology for more details).

In the United Kingdom, the Third Way political party has been accused by left-wing watchdog groups of ecofascism, although Third Way says it has renounced all fascist ideology and describes itself as in the "radical center". There has been a history of environmentalist views being held by the far-right in the UK, notably by Henry Williamson, Rolf Gardiner, Jorian Jenks and the "Blackshirt Farmer" Bob Saunders. Some have also accused the "radical antiquarian" John Michell of holding ecofascist views. In his 1995 book The Village That Died For England, concerned with the Dorset village of Tyneham which was requisitioned by the British Army, Patrick Wright details much of the history of British ecofascism during the Second World War. In Germany, Herbert Gruhl has been accused of being an ecofascist, as have conspiracy theorist David Icke in the U.K. and Pentti Linkola in Finland. Gruhl and Icke are both former Green Party leaders in their respective countries although both are persona non grata in those countries' Green Parties today.

Rush Limbaugh and other conservative and Wise Use Movement commentators have used "ecofascist" and "eco-Nazi" as political epithets to refer to the environmental movement as a whole, including Greenpeace and the Sierra Club.

Quotes

"We recognize that separating humanity from nature, from the whole of life, leads to humankind’s own destruction and to the death of nations. Only through a re-integration of humanity into the whole of nature can our people be made stronger. That is the fundamental point of the biological tasks of our age. Humankind alone is no longer the focus of thought, but rather life as a whole . . . This striving toward connectedness with the totality of life, with nature itself, a nature into which we are born, this is the deepest meaning and the true essence of National Socialist thought."
:Ernst Lehmann, Biologischer Wille. Wege und Ziele biologischer Arbeit im neuen Reich, München, 1934
"..."ecofascism" has come to be used mainly as an attack term, with social ecology roots, against the deep ecology movement and its supporters plus, more generally, the environmental movement. Thus, "ecofascist" and "ecofascism", are used not to enlighten but to smear."
:David Orton - [Ecofascism: What is It? A Left Biocentric Analysis]
"I think the growing disregard for the environment, culture and heritage is a natural consequence of capitalism. When people care more about profit than the world they live in that is what happens."
:Varg Vikernes, neo-Nazi black metal musician and writer [link]

See also

Individuals

Organizations and ideologies

External links

 

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