How To Be A Fascist: A Manual (Istruzioni per diventare fascisti)
Michela Murgia, Alex ValenteThe first & only guide to turning your 21st-century democracy into a fascist paradise.
Democracy is difficult, flawed & unstable. It involves barely distinguishable political parties taking part in lengthy, overcomplicated & expensive decision-making processes. Trying to engage so many people with political issues seems to lead only to complexity & disagreement. So why bother? Doesn't fascism guarantee a more effective & efficient management of the state?
In this short, bitingly ironic mixture of On Tyranny & The Psychopath Test, Italian political activist Michela Murgia explores the logic that is attracting increasing numbers of voters to right-wing populism. Far from its origins in the 20th century, fascism is once again on the rise in an age of increased connectivity & globalism. Murgia shows how many of the elements of our society that we might think would combat closed-mindedness & xenophobia actually fan the flames. Closing with a "fascistometer" to measure the reader's own authoritarian inclinations, How to be a Fascist is a refreshingly direct, polemical book that asks us to confront the fascisim in our governments, in our societies, & in our own political leanings.
Michela Murgia is an award-winning Italian writer & a political activist. She has written travel books, political non-fiction & novels, for which she has been awarded the Premio Campiello & the Mondello International Literary Prize.
ALEX VALENTE is an award-winning literary translator & teacher. His current translations into English include Can You Hear Me? by Elena Varvello, stories by Natalia Ginzburg & Elsa Morante for The Short Story Project, contributions to the Italian Literature in Translation fiction anthology, & the forthcoming Fidelity by Marco Missiroli.