Download Mussolini on Fascism Primary Source and ?`s

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Excerpt from Enciclopedia Italiana (1932) – Written by Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile
Background: Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) rose to power in Italy a few years after World War One. Although he was a socialist early in his
life, he left the Socialist Party and founded the Fascist Party. He capitalized on Italian people and their fear of a communist revolution. War
Veterans and the middle and upper classes were behind Mussolini’s fascism. In 1922, he marched on Rome to overthrow the monarchy.
King Victor Emmanuel gave up his power and declared Mussolini to be Italy’s Prime Minister. Mussolini began purging the country of
communist influence, and was popularly called Il Duce (“The Leader”).
Fundamental Ideas [of Fascism]
1. Like every sound political conception, Fascism is both practice and thought; action in which a doctrine is immanent, and a doctrine which,
arising out of a given system of historical forces, remains embedded in them and works there from within. . . . There is no concept of the
State which is not fundamentally a concept of life; philosophy or intuition, a system of ideas which develops logically or is gathered up into a
vision or into a faith, but which is always, at least virtually, an organic conception of the world.
2. Thus Fascism could not be understood in many of its practical manifestations as a party organization, as a system of education, as a
discipline, if it were not always looked at in the light of its whole way of conceiving life, a spiritualized way. The world see through Fascism is
not this material world which appears on the surface, in which man is an individual separated from all others and standing by himself. The
man of Fascism is an individual who is nation and fatherland, which is a moral law, binding together individuals and the generations into a
tradition and a mission, suppressing the instinct for a life enclosed within the brief round of pleasure in order to restore within duty a higher
life free from the limits of time and space; a life in which the individual, through the denial of himself, through the sacrifice of his own private
interests, through death itself, realizes that completely spiritual existence in which his value as a man lies.
3. Therefore it is a spiritualized conception, itself the result of general reaction against the flabby materialistic positivism1 of the 19th century.
Fascism desires an active man, one engaged in activity with all his energies: it desires a man conscious of the difficulties that exist in action
and ready to face them. It conceives of life as a struggle, considering that it behooves man to conquer for himself that life truly worthy of
him, creating first of all in himself the instrument (body, mind, soul) in order to construct it. Thus for the individual, the nation, and humanity.
4. This positive conception of life is clearly an ethical conception. It covers the whole of reality, not merely the human activity which controls
it. No action can be divorced from moral judgment; there is nothing in the world which can be deprived of the value which belongs to
everything in its relation to moral ends. Life, therefore, as conceived by the Fascist, is serious, austere, religious: the whole of it is poised in
a world supported by the moral and responsible forces of the spirit. The Fascist disdains the "comfortable" life.
5. Fascism is a religious conception where man is in his immanent relationship with a superior law & with an objective will that transcends
the particular individual & raises him to conscious membership in a spiritual society. Whoever has seen in the religious politics of the Fascist
regime nothing but mere opportunism has not understood that Fascism is a system of government, but above all, a system of thought.
6. The Fascist State, the highest and most powerful form of personality, is a force, but a spiritual force, which takes over all the forms of the
moral and intellectual life of man. It is the form, the inner standard and the discipline of the whole person; it saturates the will as well as the
intelligence. Its principle, the central inspiration of the human personality living in the civil community, pierces into the depths and makes its
home in the heart of the man of action as well as of the thinker, of the artist as well as of the scientist: it is the soul of the soul.
7. Fascism, in short, is not only the giver of laws and the founder of institutions, but the educator and promoter of spiritual life. It wants to
remake, not the forms of human life, but its content, man, character, faith. And to this end it requires discipline and authority that can enter
into the spirits of men and there govern unopposed. Its sign, therefore, is the Lictors' rods, the symbol of unity, of strength and justice.
positivism1: belief that the only truth is that which can be proven empirically or scientifically (e.g. seeing, tasting, touching, smelling, hearing)
1)
Underline any terms in the text that are new to you or that you do not understand. Define them in the space below.
2)
What do you suppose is meant by the statement in point 1, “fascism is both practice and thought”?
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3)
According to point 2, why can Fascism not be fully understood as a party, a system or a discipline?
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4)
Why does Fascism come into conflict with positivism or science (point 3)?
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5)
What is another way to say “the Fascist disdains the comfortable life” (point 4)?
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6)
Find a phrase in point 5 that supports the Fascist belief that the community is more important that individuality.
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7)
In a few sentences, explain some conclusions that can be drawn from the three images below.
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Mussolini
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Mussolini & Hitler
Mussolini
Ad
8) Advanced Social Studies only: After reading points 12 and 13, develop a metaphor or analogy for The Fascist State and its effect on a
man (e.g. the Fascist State is like a light and man is the lantern that holds the light … or … man is like an illness and the Fascist state is like
the cure)
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