ABSTRACT
Any society is a reservoir of old longings and ancient hatreds. These need to be understood, addressed, resolved and transcended if a society is to have a future that is different from its past. Furthermore, whatever a society tends to exclude as a set of possibilities may represent essential sources of energy or information, of neglected inspiration or authority. To face an enemy or to explore new territory may require animal spirits, just as a society may require a new openness to alien ways of thinking and living if it is to make use of ideas and technology developed by foreigners. Whenever a nation needs to resolve old hatreds and fulfill ancient aspirations while at the same time acquiring foreign ideas, capital and technology, it will need to open itself to a wide range of turbulent emotions and to face its own fears of alien influences. Under these conditions a society may develop an ideology that, like Japan’s prior to the Second World War, seeks to use the modern to overcome modernity while mobilizing national sentiments around dreams of national glory and vindication. The fascist potential in such a situation is a matter of historical record as well as in the daily news.
