A dubious use of medical terminolgy

I was at Oxford during the era when sit-ins and student protests were the thing to do. I wasn’t a great enthusiast for it: I didn’t see myself as the sort to save the world. (Well except for the occasional superhero fantasy and even then I didn’t go the whole spandex route.)

And I was particularly annoyed by the use the sitters in and protestors made of the word ‘fascist’. It came too fast to their lips, seemed a bit ill defined and mostly was used to prop up their fantasies of being part of a mighty movement dating back at least as far as George Orwell volunteering to fight Franco.

Recently though, looking back on the course of my life I begin to wonder if they saw something I didn’t. The fact that most of them went on to become respectable civil servants, bankers, teachers and clerical persons didn’t invalidate the insight no matter how much they have changed and perhaps repudiated their adolescent views.

Nowadays, if people point at a right wing pundit or candidate for office and call them ‘fascist’ I am much more likely to take a look at their record of pronouncements and say “Yes, looks like.”

Now my internal definition of ‘fascist’ is, I will admit a bit loose and general. It’s “Anyone who cares more about power in politics than they do about justice.” I find it useful but others may get stuffy about it the way I do about changes in the language that destroy useful words.

So when I try to communicate the conviction I have I have up to know used a medical concept that I’m not at all sure I’m using properly. “Fascism,” I have said, “is a syndrome: it’s a collection of symptoms that often come together and that experienced practioners can use to diagnose the underlying symptoms. Even if they don’t have swastika tatoos or work the number 88 into their every conversation you can still call them fascist if they go the nationalist authoritarian route and say their prejudice is based on culture and not race.”

Useful though I have found this metaphor I’m thinking of replacing it with “Spectrum”. Members of my family may be found to exhibit behaviour on the Autistic Spectrum. And members of Reform UK may be placed somewhere on the Fascist Spectrum.

And look that sort of usage is already in Social Sciences. Which unhappily means my insight isn’t that original but if someone will point me towards actual qualified political science sorts who are using it I will be grateful.

I write this in response to all the spurious “Is T a fascist?” YouTube and Blog posts in which people who are convinced that fascists must all have the particular symptom of the infection that they have fixated on. Start thinking in terms of syndromes and spectrums, matey. It will clear your mind and perhaps your sinuses too.

The picture is Wolfie Smith. I wonder what happened to him.