A great question

[Joseph Tracy]

> The difference between communism and capitalism is that in  
> capitalism man exploits man, but in communism it's the other way  
> around.

I think fascism is typically characterized as between authoritarian  
and totalitarian, as nationalist with racist qualities, as  
colonialist/imperial/ , as militaristic, as corporatist, industrial.  
It has religious overtones: the chosen, the master race, the elect,  
an obsession with purity/conformity,  a sense of cosmic destiny to rule.

Some see the merger of corporate capitalism  and strong central  
militaristic government as the defining characteristics.  Hannah  
Arendt  argued that the success of such a movement depends on   
individual lives being made banal, isolated fearful and compliant,  
all natural results of  an industrial workforce with little  
individual power and little  sense of  direct community.  TV also  
seems to work. All of these things seem to naturally converge and  
reinforce each other.

It seems like large scale human social patterns are dismally  
predictable.