Notes on the aesthetic roots of fascism

This article aims to unfold Peter Sloterdijk’s hypothesis, in “Critique of Cynical Reason,” according to which the emergence of fascism is due to the establishment of a cynical ethic in culture – a modern cynicism, a bastard offspring of the combative Greek cynicism. To this end, it will be necessary to rescue the figure of Diogenes, the ancient philosopher, his relationship with the social body and his ethic of “truth-telling.” Next, we intend to outline what would be an aesthetic of fascism from its cynical bases, adapted to social logic – such as the character Peachum, by Bertolt Brecht, and the Nephew, by Denis Diderot – to finally bring such an aesthetic closer to the mode of government of fascism.