The Doctrine of Fascism by Benito Mussolini

[Petros Agapetos]

Against Historical Materialism and Class-Struggle

Through this conception of life Fascism becomes the emphatic negation of that doctrine which constituted the basis of the so-called scientific Socialism or Marxism: the doctrine of historical materialism, according to which the story of human civilization is to be explained only by the conflict of interests between the various social groups and by the change of the means and instruments of production.

That the economic vicissitudes - discovery of prime or raw materials, new methods of labour, scientific inventions - have their particular importance, is denied by none, but that they suffice to explain human history, excluding other factors from it, is absurd: Fascism still believes in sanctity and in heroism, that is to say in acts in which no economic motive, immediate or remote, operates.

Fascism having denied historical materialism, by which men are only puppets in history, appearing and disappearing on the surface of the tides while in the depths the real directive forces act and labour, it also denies the immutable and irreparable class warfare, which is the natural filiation of such an economistic conception of history: and it denies above all that class warfare is the preponderating agent of social transformation.

Being defeated on these two capital points of its doctrine, nothing remains of Socialism, save the sentimental aspiration - as old as humanity - to achieve a community of social life in which the sufferings and hardships of the humblest classes are alleviated. But here Fascism repudiates the concept of an economic "happiness" which is to be - at a given moment in the evolution of economy - socialistically and almost automatically realized by assuring to all the maximum of well-being.

Fascism denies the possibilities of the materialistic concept of "happiness" - it leaves that to the economists of the first half of the Seventeenth Century; that is, it denies the equation "well-being-happiness", which reduces man to the state of the animals, mindful of only one thing - that of being fed and fattened; reduced, in fact, to a pure and simple vegetative existence.

[Petros Agapetos]

The Untruths of Democracy

"Reason and science says Renan (who had certain pre-fascist enlightenments) in one of his philosophical meditations, "are products of mankind, but to seek reason directly for the people and through the people is a chimera. It is not necessary for the existence of reason that everybody should know it. In any case, if his initiation were to be brought about it could not be through low-class democracy, which seems to lead rather to the extinction of every difficult culture and of every great discipline. The principle that society exists only for the welfare and liberty of individuals. The principle that society exists only for the welfare and liberty of individuals composing it, does not seem to conform with the plans of nature: plans in which the species only is taken into consideration and the individual appears sacrificed. It is strongly to be feared that the last word of democracy thus understood (I hasten to add that it can also be differently understood) would be a social state in which a degenrated mass would have no preoccupation other than that of enjoying the ignoble pleasures of the vulgar person".

Thus Renan. In Democracy Fascism rejects the absurd conventional falsehood of political equality, the habit of collective responsibility and the myth of the indefinite progress and happiness.

but if there be a different understanding of Democracy if, in other words, Democracy can also signify to not push the people back as far as the margins of the State, then Fascism may well have been defined by the present writer as "an organized, centralized, authoritarian Democracy."

[Petros Agapetos]

Against Pacifism: War and Life as a Duty

As far as the general future and development of humanity is concerned, and part from any mere consideration of current politics, Fascism above all does not believe either in the possibility or utility of universal peace. It therefore rejects the pacifism which masks surrender and cowardice. War alone brings all human energies to their highest tension and sets a seal of nobility on the peoples who have the virtue to face it. All other tests are but substitutes which never make a man face himself in the alternative of life or death. A doctrine which has its starting-point at the prejudicial postulate of peace is therefore extraneous to Fascism.

In the same way all international creations (which, as history demonstrates can be blown to the winds when sentimental, ideal and practical elements storm the heart of the people) are also extraneous to the spirit of Fascism - even if such international creations are accepted for whatever utility they may have in any determined political situation.

Fascism also transports this anti-pacifist spirit into the life of individuals. The proud 'squadrista' motto "me ne frego" (I don't give a damn) scrawled on the bandages of the wounded is an act of philosophy - not only stoic. It is a summary of a doctrine not only political: it is an education in strife and an acceptance of the risks which it carried: it is a new style of Italian life. It is thus that the Fascist loves and accepts life, ignores and disdains suicide; understands life as a duty, a lifting up, a conquest; something to be filled in and sustained on a high plance; a thing that has to be lived through for its own sake, but above all for the sake of others near and far, present and future.

[Petros Agapetos]

Fundamental Ideas of Fascism:
(by Benito Mussolini)

Philosophic Conception of Fascism
Spiritualized Conception of Fascism
Positive Conception of Life as a Struggle
Ethical Conception of Fascism
Religious Conception of Fascism
Historical and Realist Conception
The Individual and Liberty
Conception of a Corporate State
Democracy
Conception of the Fascist State
Dynamic Reality
The Role of the State
Discipline and Authority
Political and Social Doctrines - Origins of the Doctrine of Fascism. Development. Against pacifism: War and Life as a Duty. etc.
Against Historical Materialism/Dialectical Materialist critique of History.
Against Democratic Idealogies
Untruths of Democracy
Against Liberal Doctrines
Fascism does not turn back
The value and the mission of the State
The Unity of the State and the Contradictions of Capitalism
The Fascist State and Religion
Empire and Discipline