The British union of fascists as a Totalitarian Movement and political religion

Abstract

This essay considers the concepts of totalitarianism and political religion in relation to the British Union of Fascists (BUF). It suggests that these concepts enable us to study vital aspects of fascist reality and experience, particularly the BUF's organic, evolutionary perspective on life and politics and its attempt to penetrate the realm of total experience and being. A restless Faustian belief in modern technology's potential to subdue the world of inanimate nature and create a world ‘reborn through science’ lay close to the heart of the BUF's palingenetic totalitarian project. However, the essay seeks to demonstrate that ingredients other than this obsession with rational scientific panaceas went into the BUF's rebirth project, in that its revolutionary strivings had their basis in a creative fusion of science and spiritual faith. This spiritual component could be observed in the pervasive presence of religious rhetoric and imagery in the BUF's commentary on contemporary British life and politics, as well as in the symbolism and rituals of the party. This essay concludes by suggesting that, although the BUF's fascism was a form of ‘political religion’, its interpretation of the ‘spiritual’ differed from that of traditional Christian thought.