> The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition. The word "cult" in the phrase "cult of tradition" serves as a synonym for "too much" in an attempt

> The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition. The word "cult" in the phrase "cult of tradition" serves as a synonym for "too much" in an attempt to avoid the question: How much is too much? Celebrating christmas? Easter? And: Is too little also possible? A too radical rejection of tradition, such as the ten day week in the french revolution? > This new culture had to be syncretistic. So, muslims celebrating christmas, for example? Are those ur-fascists? > Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism. Both Fascists and Nazis worshiped technology, while traditionalist thinkers usually reject it as a negation of traditional spiritual values. However, even though Nazism was proud of its industrial achievements, its praise of modernism was only the surface of an ideology based upon Blood and Earth (Blut und Boden). The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life, but it mainly concerned the rejection of the Spirit of 1789 (and of 1776, of course) One almost gets the impression that Eco imagines Hitler and Goebbels as anxious to avoid being judged as fascist according to Eco's list, and therefore cleverly disguising their true traditionalism with a modernist facade. > Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Goering’s alleged statement (“When I hear talk of culture I reach for my gun”) That would be a very strange statement to make for someone who looted two hundred million dollars worth of art[1] and indeed google returns only Eco's essay when searching for this quote. But maybe, whenever he heard talk of culture he reached for his gun to steal some of it? [1]: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-revelations-of-a-nazi-art-catalogue https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-revelations-...