- Fascism itself is a political ideology that is difficult to define, as it encompasses a totalitarian and an aggressively oppressive type of involvement, extending itself to the point of erasing the political, social and even religious identities of those it wishes to enslave. Therefore nothing of the human or spiritual that contradicts the totalitarian dictatorship can exist or is considered to have value or merit. So, the first thing that fascism and political art have in common is the breakdown of the establishment. In order to control people, fascism must break down the established and accepted mores of the people it wishes to control, so the first line in this is to get the people to fear and reject the established norm. Political art works in the same way as it pictorially tears down the established mores of the society in order to make way for the "new thought." This type of art is more commonly known as Propaganda.
- Fascism can take all kinds of approaches to achieve its' goal of gaining the control of the people. As the norm is slowly and rejected through the insidious tearing down of social and religious foundations, the new thought is introduced into the public consciousness. Propaganda works in the same way in that it identifies a "problem" which needs to be eliminated whether through elective or destructive processes. The most commonly used technique is to create an "Us vs. Them" dynamic. This is done by creating enemies for the collective to fear. In Nazi Germany, the European Jewry had been instrumentally used to unite the German people by constantly reinforcing a fear and distrust of them, their lifestyle, customs, business practices and of course their faith. Once this fear and distrust were established, it became acceptable that the source of this fear and distrust be systematically eliminated without any fear of moral and or legal repercussions. It eliminated empathy for the source, which led to the acceptance of genocide.
- Political art, or propaganda is not static or without purpose. The reason propaganda is used to motivate people to act. Fascism is all about action because the goal is to control and controlling people is a process that needs to be maintained vigilantly. Propaganda must be constantly disseminated and put out there for people to digest so that they do not forget what they should believe. Fascism does not want people to have to time to reflect and or think, or worse to call into question how the dictatorship wants people to act. It is very rudimentary. If you control how people think then and you can control how people act. Fascism and Political Art work to achieve the same goal, which is to control society for its own end.
