Mussolini as revealed in his political speeches (November 1914-August 1923)Mussolini, Benito
History
Mussolini as revealed in his political speeches (November 1914-August 1923)
Mussolini, Benito
Fascism -- Italy; Italy -- Politics and government -- 1914-1945; Mussolini, Benito, 1883-1945; Partito nazionale fascista (Italy)
We do not believe that history repeats itself, that it follows a given
path; that after Democracy must come super-Democracy. If Democracy had
its uses and served the nation in the nineteenth century, it may be that
some other political form would be best for the welfare of the nation in
the twentieth. (Well said!) So that not even fear of our anti-Democratic
policy can influence the decision in favour of that continuity of which
I spoke just now.
_The Army._ As regards the other institution in which the régime is
personified—the army—the army knows that when the Ministry advised the
officers to go about in civilian clothes to escape attack, we, then a
mere handful of bold spirits, forbade it. (Prolonged applause.) We have
created our ideal. It is faith and ardent love. It is not necessary for
it to be brought into the sphere of reality. It is reality in so far as
it is a stimulus for faith, hope and courage. Our ideal is the nation.
Our ideal is the greatness of the nation, and we subordinate all the
rest to this.
For us the nation has a soul and does not consist only in so much
territory. There are nations that have had immense possessions and have
left no traces in the history of humanity in spite of them. It is not
only size that counts, because, on the other hand, there have been tiny,
microscopic States that have left indelible marks in the history of art
and philosophy. The greatness of a nation lies in the aggregation of all
these virtues and all these conditions. A nation is great when its
spiritual force is transferred into reality. Rome was great when, from
her small rural democracy, little by little, her influence spread over
the whole of Italy. Then she met the warriors of Carthage and fought
them. It was one of the first wars in history. Then, bit by bit, she
extended the dominion of the Eagle to the furthermost boundaries of the
known world, but still, as ever, the Roman Empire is a creation of the
spirit, as it was the spirit which first inspired the Roman legions to
fight. (Applause.)
_Our Syndicalism._ What we want now is the greatness of the nation, both
materially and spiritually. That is why we have become syndicalist, and
not because we think that the masses by reason of their number can
create in history something which will last. These myths of the lower
kind of Socialist literature we reject. But the working people form a
part of the nation; and they are a great part of the nation, necessary
to its existence both in peace and in war. They neither can nor ought to
be repulsed. They can and must be educated and their legitimate
interests protected. (Applause.) We ask them: “Do you wish this state of
civil war to continue to disturb the country?” No! For we are the first
to suffer from the ceaseless Sunday wrangling with its list of dead and
wounded. I was the first to try to bridge over the gap which exists
between us and what is called the Italian Bolshevist world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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