Fascism in progression fantasy

I read a lot, and I read a lot of different types of works. On a typical week I will read about one novel, one non-fiction -article, or -essay, and a handful of blog posts.

In the novel-section of my weekly digest, one may often find books in the ‘progression-fantasy’ genre. Books about characters getting progressively stronger, smarter, more powerful, etcetera. There is broad overlap between progression-fantasy and Xianxia cultivation fantasy, meaning that it involves elements of individualism, spirituality, religion, and so forth.

In the non-fiction-essay-section one can find various political, philosophical, or religious texts and manifests. This week, this included Mussolini’s[1] short essay “La dottrina del fascismo’’, which I – due to my still-lacking Italian knowledge -- read and English translation of: “The doctrine of Fascism’’. The Doctrine of Fascism, outlines – unsurprisingly – the core tenants of fascism as a political, social, economical, and spiritual doctrine. Also unsurprisingly, the essay is rather unclear in many parts. Fascism is of course not known for its rigorous philosophical basis, but I truly cannot overstate quite how poor some of the reasoning in the work is.

It happens surprisingly often that my non-fiction reading finds parallels, allegories, or examples in whatever fiction I am reading at the time. Though I must admit that I was rather surprised to find a great overlap between the tenants of fascism and the ideas expressed in many progression-fantasy novels.

A brief disclaimer before I start: while this blog post intends to point out similarities between the philosophies expressed in The Doctrine of Fascism and popular progression-fantasy novels, I do not intend for this to smear the genre or authors writing in it. There are plenty of works of fiction wherein any number of characters are adherents to awful systems of belief, or who commit terrible actions and this does not make them worse works, nor does this imply that the author adheres to-, or attempts to glorify- these actions or beliefs. Furthermore, the similarities are within fascisms ‘less’ problematic doctrines (anti-Semitism is luckily not a common occurrence in progression fantasy nor is it actually a part of Mussolini’s fascism).

Lastly, since I will be talking about various novels in this post, there will be some MINOR spoilers for The mother of learning, Defiance of the fall, and Cradle.

The doctrine of progression fantasy

Let’s start with some frequently recurring ideas in progression fantasy. Ultimately, in such works, the focus tends to be on self-actualisation and -cultivation. The protagonist is trying to become the most powerful-, smart-, developed-, version of themselves. The path to such power is paved by hard work. Certainly, there is often an element of luck involved, but the protagonists of these stories succeed because they are willing to put in the work to turn their fortunes around and to capitalize on the advantages they receive.

This hard work usually takes the form of struggling on the brink of death. Certainly this is not essential, but the greatest gains are always found millimeters away from the breaking point.

Cultivation (which is how I will refer to the development of these characters from now on) usually results in increased physical-, and mental-, fortitude, drastically lengthened lifespan, and higher social status. In most cases, society is set up in such a way that the powerful rule over the weak. “Might makes right’’, as many like to say, and if a country bumpkin manages to reach a higher level of cultivation compared to the emperor, then the emperor will bow down to them from that point forward.

Cultivation tends to require a lot of resources leading to conflicts over materials and opportunities. Those that succeed are the ones that seize whatever they can get their hands on. Deference, sharing, and charity have no place in these worlds.

In fact, charity is actively frowned upon. Since power is gained by struggle, when opportunities and materials are freely given, then recipients will not struggle for them and will thus be (perhaps permanently) handicapped. This leads to a strong individualistic mindset, though also to the forming of sects.

Large organisations can get their hands on materials more easily, and the presence of a high-cultivation individual keeps members more safe and provides them with resources (all in exchange for contribution to the sect of course; no charity). Since a single patriarch or matriarch can outlive generations of dependents at higher cultivation ranks, these sects often start out as families.

The doctrine of fascism

Having covered that, let me try to outline the core element of Mussolini’s fascism as I understand them.

First and foremost, fascism is conceived by Mussolini out of a disillusionment with the dominant philosophies from the early 20th century, namely socialism, liberalism, and scientific materialism. This disillusionment seemed to stem (as it often does) from a previous affiliation. During the first world war there was an apparent schism in the Italian liberalism of which Mussolini was a part. With one camp being in favour of the great war (which we now call the first world war) and one camp being against. Mussolini was in the former camp, which ended up being the less-popular – and therefore rejected – path.

When the war ended in 1919 Socialism, as a doctrine, was already dead; it continued to exist only as a grudge, especially in Italy where its only chance lay in inciting to reprisals against the men who had willed the war and who were to be made to pay for it.

Fascism, therefore, is anti-individualistic, pro-war, pro-state, and anti-well-being.

Let’s start with this first element: pro-war. Way, Mussolini argues is the ULTIMATE occupation of any state (and the state is all that matters as we will see shortly). War should not necessarily be waged for any particular purpose. Indeed, I don’t think Mussolini saw it as a very emotional excessive. War is waged for the purposes of strengthening oneself (id est: the state) through struggle.

The Fascist disdains an ‘easy’ life

The idea that any state, race, religion, etcetera is particularly better than any other – and therefore should rule over the others – is laughable to Mussolini. War is held for the purpose of struggle, and if any one state would subjugate all the others, then there would be no more struggle, which would be disastrous.

Secondly, there is the pro-state mindset. The state, Mussolini argues, is the only way for a person to fully express and develop their moral, spiritual, and physical selves. At the same time, the individual does not matter, in fact, they may completely cease to exist, being incorporated entirely in the state. This is to Mussolini the highest aim of life, in a rather spiritual sense:

which suppressing the instinct for life closed in a brief circle of pleasure, builds up a higher life, founded on duty, a life free from the limitations of time and space, in which the individual, by self-sacrifice, the renunciation of self-interest, by death itself, can achieve that purely spiritual existence in which his value as a man consists

The state therefore should manage everything, from religion, to economics, as the state is the only thing which exists. On this note, while this essay specifically suggests a roman catholic religion and a guild-based economy, these seem to be to be merely suggestions for the Italian fascist state in particular. Mussolini does not seem to hold any particular affinity for these (in fact, he actively despised catholic Christianity), nor does he necessarily think they are any good. However, a state should have a religion and an economy, the details don’t matter, all that matters is development through struggle.

Coming to the anti-well-being aspect, this is tied in closely with the anti-individual aspect.

the Fascist conception of life stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with those of the State

The interests-, pleasure-, and even life- of the individual does not matter to the state. Just as any particular person does not care about the life of death of a single cell in their body.

the well-being and freedom of the individuals composing it does not seem to be in conformity with nature’s plans, which care only for the species and seem ready to sacrifice the individual.

The comparison

I think those are enough fascist quotations for one post, let’s move on to the comparison with progression fantasy.

To point out the obvious: growth through struggle is a core concept (perhaps THE core concept of both ideologies). And everything, from pleasure to well-being to life can be sacrificed before the altar of progress.

We see this in Defiance of the Fall, where The System (the mechanistic god of this universe) plans and sanctions entire wars between galaxies to strengthen the victor[2]. In Cradle, we see a society which has lived in peace and prosperity for generations and has grown weak and feeble because of it, with a literal child from the outside being able to best the entire valley if they wanted to. In The Mother of Learning, we see one character becoming an Archmage by putting in the work, using others, and having a complete disregard for their own life, while we watch another with greater opportunities and talents waste his potential by investing time in social bonds, romance, and fun.

The anti-individualism of fascism seems at first glance to not mix well with the individualistic mindset of cultivation, though I believe they actually align rather well. You see, individuals at the high-levels of cultivation are states unto themselves.

We see this for example in Defiance of the Fall where individuals who have reached the ‘monarch‘ stage of cultivation are entire worlds onto themselves, worlds which can house many other people. In Cradle, the sects formed by lords, monarchs, and sages often involve the (sometimes literal) sacrifice of lower tiered members for the cultivation of the benefit patriarch or matriarch, id est: the benefit of the sect.

Another interesting parallel is not as common across the genre, but I feel like it is still worth pointing out. In Defiance of the Fall, faith is a source of power which can be accumulated, and is actually one of the most powerful forces in the universe partially powering the system itself. Importantly however, faith does not need to be targeted towards an actual god. Instead, faith can be directed practically anywhere. No faith is particularly better or more true than any other. Instead, most major sects will have a faith directed towards their founder with rituals and practices designed solely for the purpose of accumulating faith power. This rings with Mussolini’s approach to Catholicism, where he didn’t particularly believe in the teachings of the Bible or pope, but DID believe in the earthly benefits of having a unified religion.

The heroes of both the progression-fantasy novel and the fascist mythos are the Nietzschian ubermenschen. Those who have shed the weaknesses of morality, charity, and non-zero-sum-thinking, to become truly noble. That is: brave, and strong, and demanding respect. In all cases: if you help others, you will only cripple them. If you truly want to help another state/person: declare them war, fight until you are on the brink of death, then go a little further.

Of course, In these novels, a common theme is that the protagonists gradually lose their humanity, and typically authors include interpersonal relationships to keep the characters grounded and relatable. At the same time, the attitude of that characters seems to be that you cannot argue with the results. They might look at the great-war and world-war in our universe and say: “well you all learned a lot didn’t you? Warfare was revolutionized, the atom was split, advances were made in medicine and science... And look at you now: Lazy, decadent, content and deeply miserable’’.

I don’t know what to make of this. In a restrained quantity, I think that the message that you can improve yourself by working hard is a good one. Obviously fascist ideology goes much much too far in this regard. Since progression fantasy is mostly written-, and read-, by young men – And since there are already plenty of fascist influences on young men these days – and can’t help but be slightly concerned. I would like to believe that other readers can – much like myself – recognize that these are works of fiction, that the ideologies and characters should not be idolized, and that our world is one where human life-, and well-being- matter. But I have been let down so many times before.

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