omnis mundi creatura / quasi liber et pictura / nobis est in speculum <i>(all the creatures of the world / as a book and a picture / are to us a mir… - Umberto Eco

Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist. Take away imperialism from fascism and you still have Franco and Salazar. Take away colonialism and you still have the Balkan fascism of the Ustashes. Add to the Italian fascism a radical anti-capitalism (which never much fascinated Mussolini) and you have Ezra Pound. Add a cult of Celtic mythology and the Grail mysticism (completely alien to official fascism) and you have one of the most respected fascist gurus, Julius Evola... But in spite of this fuzziness, I think it is possible to outline a list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism.

لعلها شيخوختي الحالية هي التي تجعلني أشعر - وأنا آثم في ذلك - بأن كل ما عشته في شبابي كان جميلاً وصالحاً .

The list could surely go on, and there is nothing more wonderful than a list, instrument of wondrous hypotyposis.