FASCISM AND THE ITALIANS
From A SPECIAL
CORRESPONDENT
ONE of the governing body of Italy's most pro-Fascist university assured- me the other day that Italy's political condition is no more advanced than that of England under Cromwell. A judgement in many ways true ; but also typical of the educated and artistic classes with whom Mussolini has principally dealt in such a way as to inspire aversion and fear. Many university teachers showed such reluctance in subscribing_ to the oath of allegiance forced on them in October, 1931, that many had to be pressed to sign, some never did. Occasionally, even today, certain families will receive a notice saying without further particulars that their son " has been called away " in the interests of the State. Croce and his group are in retirement in Naples where Fascism is little accepted. Above all, the official efforts of Fascist art—the Forum Mussolini, the Fascist Exhibition at Rome, and the various new public buildings, the Americanized films and the vogue of the " Nordic " female type in advertisements—are either so repulsive or undistinguished as in no way to represent the best artistic forces of the nation. The life of these, uninspired by the Fascist ideal, is the same as it always was—one is surprised at what a pre-War atmosphere the Opera retains, low necks, -military uniforms and all.
Naturally in the region of art the crudity of the Fascist ideal stands most glaringly revealed. Insistence on their connexion and continuity with ancient Rome leads to an effort to forget, and a carelessness in dealing with, the monuments of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Churches arc demolished to lay bare a Roman wall or basilica ; the Norman superstructure of the Castello San Angelo is to be pulled down to reveal the Roman work within. Panels containing the Fascist- emblem arc to be found inserted in spots of the most exquisite beauty in the Villa d'Estc at Tivoli. Such vandalism is no more calculated to recommend itself to the cultured, than is the ignorant cleaning-up of Classical antiquities to the scholars of Italy.
The attitude of other classes, however, is more difficult to assess. Statistics of those actively co-operating in the new syndical and corporative hierarchy are mis- leading. Equally so evidence of the comparative ease with which the actual incorporation was effected, because very many motives ranging from pure individual self- interest and fear to dread of a recurrence of the chaotic post-War period now replaced by .Fascist absolutism; might and did account for them. The Press is no more useful. Consequently, one can only infer from the mental background, of various classes how certain known factors will probably have affected them. A dangerous, but, to some extent, valid method.
In the first place then, there will be those who view the regime with a coldly • critical eye, regarding the political clap-trap as a necessary evil, and inclined to judge by practical results. The larger employers and capitalists who were glad to see Socialism overthrown, but whose entrepreneurial activities have been hit both by the deflation and the laws restricting the setting up of new businesses, to say nothing of the wide hold on industry and finance secured by the State in unfreezing industry and subsidizing trade in the Depression ; organized and intelligent industrial labour which was largely socialist, together with the agricultural labour of the North, which has benefited from increased social services and attempts to alleviate the worst hardships of capitalist wage-fixing, and has seen the large employer and land-owner regimented and generally tickled up by their ex-Socialist Prime Minister ; the capitalist who qua investor has benefited from the sound-money policy and industrial peace :—it is safe to say that these classes arc taking an intelligent interest in the regime and actively co-operating where they see their affairs reasonably handled. They would not on the whole desire a political change if it meant reversion to the old Liberalistic days ; but because they take, if only in private, a genuinely critical and reasoned attitude, they are likely to use every opportunity of influencing economic and political change, and if, as recent events seem to indicate, such opportunities will increasingly occur in the future, they may soon be able to create something which corresponds more nearly to English ideas of political freedom.
As a religion, Fascism will appeal to the more simple- minded whose ideals centre round the family, the soil, and racial community of blood. On these, constituting the lowest common factor in human sentiment, large- scale efforts to influence mass-psychology are concentrated today, as in Germany. Now in Italy such a mentality is to be found par excellence in the large class of tenant-farmers, artisans, and owners of small businesses, the piccola industria that with the ex-service officers was the very class to form the first Fasci of Mussolini, the backbone of his revolutionary movement, and to prosper and augment .whom Fascist economic policy has all along been directed. The Catholic piety of such classes and their innate conservatism will also incline them sympathetically towards the new hierarchic political system which moulds rather than is moulded by the changing shape of public opinion.
Finally; the wretched peasants of the South, earning amid their incredible filth a bare subsistence, cry out that Fascism will do something for them. It has already tackled their ancient oppressor, the absentee-landlord.
How far will this analysis apply to the next generation in taking over the responsibilities of the country ? In • Italy today there exists, in addition to the normal class and family influences, an incessant subjection to intensive Government propaganda and semi-military regimentation from the age of six upwards. How can the spirit of reasoned co-operation avoid being stifled by this rank emotionalistic credo ? However, Mussolini is evidently trying to make the people swallow a pill with his religious jam ; to inculcate an austerer ideal by military dis- cipline and the constant reminder that hard work and expanding the national output are duties towards society. But I have little faith that the Italian stomach has done anything but reject the pill and digest the jam. Parades of Fascist youth would make an English O.T.C. sergeant blush ; the working day is as inconsequent as ever, the impotent bureaucracy enlarged. If the railways are safe to travel on, the sexual morality of the young and the old emotional superficiality are not improved. The boasted successes in athletics must be put down, like those of America, to large funds available for training up prize-winners, not to a spread of sportsmanship among the youths. The university student of today who will be the administrator of tomorrow, despite the sedulous attentions of the Dopolavoro eltural organ- izations, remains artistically negligible ; his mind, under the sapping influence of the old Catholicism and philosophical Idealism, still shuts away its abstract and speculative studies from practical problems, incap- able of bringing his learning to bear, by way of con- structive criticism, on his social or political life. He has been taught to memorize rather-than to think.
Nevertheless, no analysis of the present can make it really safe to speculate about the future. For, with the passing of Mussolini, there will almost certainly be great changes in the nature both of the propaganda and the regime.
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