ANIMALIST PARTY

from Fancyclopedia 2

Was begun by fans in Beacon NY, under James H Madole; '45. Animalism, said Madole, was the doctrine which called for complete integration of all social, cultural, and governmental units to pave the way for greater productive capacity. Bureaus would be replaced by technical councils, slums and tenements would be eliminated, free college education and generous old-age pensions provided, etc. Madole claimed to have started political groups in New York, California, Idaho, and Kansas, but the movement had fizzled out by 1947. The point of fannish interest was that fans were to form the nucleus of this political party "which would include others" -- so far as your K. Breul can determine, the last original stirring of the old save-the-world-by-political-action notion among fans; tho older movements like the Technocrats had disciples persisting in fandom even longer.

[CORRECTION: A horrid goof. The right spelling is "ANIMIST". Madole dropped this idea and is currently (1959) Führer of the National Renaissance Party, America's only for-real Fascist movement -- not counting those like the American Nazi Party, whose "fascism" is actually racism. The NRP's BULLETIN carries the masthead-line "The Only Fascist Publication in America", and Madole still howls regularly up in Yorkville, NY, where there is still an audience for this sort of kookabooism.]