Marx and Mussolini 189Roman Empire and the glory that would return to Italy under
fascism. The emotional ideal of the Roman Golden Age was the
myth used to fire the imagination of the Italian masses.
The final aspect of irrationalism is the creation of the “new
man.” Mussolini saw communism and liberal capitalism as
being simply concerned with man’s economic condition, a
superficial and inadequate vision which neglected the spiritual
aspect of his being. This “heroic” man who was willing to
sacrifice self for a higher good, who was strong, courageous, and
disdained mere materialism, is the fascist ideal.
Imperialism, the third major concept, is an obvious outgrowth
of irrationalism, since the violence, action, power, and human
struggle are objectified in war. This driving force in man was
incorporated into fascist philosophy as the struggle of good over
evil, the strong over the weak. Mussolini saw war as desirable,
because it cultivates moral strength and courage and “brings up
to their highest tension all human energies and puts the stamp of
nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it.”
Through war a nation can bring a higher and nobler culture to
others and fulfill a natural law. Imperialism, according to
Mussolini, was “the external and immutable law of life.”
A fourth major principle of fascism is the organismic theory
of the state. This theory maintains that the state is a biological
organism, similar in fact, not merely by comparison, to a human
being. All the members of the state, like the cells in a human
body, contribute to the whole and must function as a unity to
maintain the health of the entire body. Thus, the state is not only
a real person, but one whose reality is greater than any individual
within it. Any elements which might jeopardize the health of the
state may, therefore, be justifiably eliminated.
Just as with individuals, however, the state must be greater
than just a mere economic or mechanical entity. The spiritual
aspect of its being is of most importance. Hegel referred to the
state “as the march of God in the world, the Divine Idea as it
exists on earth.” Mussolini not only accepted Hegel’s idea, but
expanded it. To him the state was a spiritual entity with an ethical
will of its own, organically growing in form and substance.
“Outside the state,” he said, “there can be neither individuals nor
groups ...the state is an absolute before which individuals and
groups are relative. Individuals and groups are ‘thinkable’ in so