Fascist body-worship masks a repressed death-wish that aligns with killing

Evidence

The love of nature and destiny expressed in totalitarian propaganda is simply a veiled reaction to failed civilization. Men cannot escape from their body and sing its praises when they cannot destroy it. The “tragic” philosophy of the Fascist is the ideological party which precedes the real blood wedding. Those who extolled the body above all else, the gymnasts and scouts, always had the closest affinity with killing, just as the lovers of nature are close to the hunter. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 222

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s prior work on ritual sacrifice and bodies — Dido’s self-immolation, sacral kingship — as political technologies of death and love. — connects to: Torture of prisoners expresses the executioner’s repressed longing for the body he destroys — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 223; Fascist followers’ masochism is fused with sadistic impulses — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 328; Fascist leaders keep libidinal energy unconscious so it can be diverted into obedience — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 184 (+4 more)
• QUESTION: Adorno claims gymnasts and scouts had closest affinity with killing — is there historical evidence tying organized youth fitness movements (German Turnerschaft, scouting) to militarism/violence?

Broader Connections

• Fascist followers’ masochism is fused with sadistic impulses #expands (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 328
• Totalitarian mass murder expresses what the masses have already become rather than a death-wish. #contradicts (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 254
• Nazism’s dual character combined humane wellness ideals with depraved atrocities #complicates (0.75) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 704
• Fascist leaders keep libidinal energy unconscious so it can be diverted into obedience #corroborates (0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 184