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Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v... [M]y father was a blacksmith who bent the red-hot iron on the anvil. Sometimes as a child I helped my father in his hard, humble job; and now I have the much harsher and harder job of bending the souls. [56] Mussolini certainly realized that people were not dead matter, as his comments on Lenin hinted. On January 3, 1924, in response to a salute of ministers visiting him, Mussolini reiterated that "politics is not an easy art . . . for it works the most elusive, the most fluctuating and uncertain matter . . . the human spirit." [57] The politician's work differed from that of the artist's because the masses constituted the "most refractory of matters"—living people. [58] This is why it was so difficult to shape them and "bend their souls." Mussolini also perceived that, in an era of mass politics, the politician could not exercise his function without establishing a relation with the populace. Yet, according to his vision, that relationship was one of producer and prod- ― 23 ― uct: the "masses" represented an object that the artist-politician could shape and mold with his hands. They lived through the leader; they acquired a form thanks to his creative genius: "What would the masses do if they did not have their own interpreter who was expressed by the spirit of the populace, and what would the poet do if he did not have the material to forge?" [59] Mussolini recognized the role of the "masses" in providing the context from which a leader would emerge as an emanation of their spirit. However, his appreciation of the "masses"' active stance ended there. For Mussolini the artist-politician was supposed to establish order and subject the "masses" to his talent. The artist created himself; and the "masses" were only a malleable object in his hands. Mussolini's aesthetic-political vision of the "masses" as raw matter combined well with his identification of the "masses" as female. And as much as the metaphor implied the preeminence of the sculptor's role in the relationship between the artist and matter (politician and "masses"), so the conception of the "masses" as female legitimized the guiding role of the political leader, the man. Mussolini never entered openly the question of whether he considered women inferior or superior to men. However, he did believe that women and men were not equal. "[L]et's confirm that she is different," he once stated. Then he continued: "I am rather pessimistic . . . I believe, for example, that a woman does not have a large power of synthesis, and that she is thus unfit for great spiritual creations." [60] Women were not able to create a work of art, within Mussolini's frame. Therefore, they could not build a sublime political form. Mussolini's pessimistic judgment of women contributed to the widening of the distance between the leader's government and the people's participation, although at the same time it established the criteria for the relationship between politician and "masses." On the one hand, Mussolini used his negative appreciation of women's qualities in order to affirm his non-democratic vision of the world. Within that vision fascism dominated not only the "masses" but also liberalism and democracy, for they were both weak, peaceful, irresolute—that is, they embodied female characters. On the other hand, by rejecting women's feebleness, fascism defined itself, in opposition, as manly, and in this guise affirmed its rule as necessary for guiding the nation and the "masses." [61] To the old liberal system, Mussolini presented the alternative of a new, "very strong," and "virile" fascist state. [62] Fascism was aggressive, intrepid, and courageous. The political opposition was accused of wanting fascism to be less "virile." [63] Anything fascist became "virile" in Mussolini's rhetoric, from his own speeches to fascism's politics of peace. [64] Thanks to its manly characteristics, fascism could look ― 24 ― after the populace and establish a domineering relationship with "her." As Mussolini told his biographer: "The multitude is female." [65] In this sense, fascism and Mussolini represented the male pole of the union between fascism and the "masses," between Mussolini and the Italian people (the female pole). "What drives me more," Mussolini declared," . . . is . . . the love of the Italian people! Because I do love the Italian people, I love it in my way. Mine is the armed love, not the tearful and unwarlike love, but severe and virile." [66] Through reference to gender identity, Mussolini defined his attitude toward the "masses" and conceived his relationship to them as founded not on empathy and equality but rather on paternalistic dominance. Mussolini's love for the people followed the model of the patriarchal family structure. Mussolini was first of all the father, the leader, the Duce of what theories of the time defined as an illogical, moody, and variable woman: the "masses." Therefore, he himself emphasized his function as duce . "I am your Leader," he cried from the balcony of Palazzo Venezia in his first speech for the Decennial of the Revolution. [67] Mussolini was the governing patriarch, the strong man. The "masses" needed him, because, as he affirmed with Nietzschean tones: "[T]he mass . . . is nothing other than a flock of sheep, until it is organized." [68] In order to attain a 14 of 199 7/11/2006 12:54 AM
Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v... form, the "masses" needed a leader, a strong dux , who could artistically mold them into a beautiful shape. [69] The ideal of artistic creation and the political necessity of a dictatorial one-man rule, the reality of which Mussolini never denied, certainly fit well with Mussolini's negative conception of the "masses" as female. Once transferred to the "masses," women's allegedly negative attributes—their illogicality, sensuality, and wildness—justified Mussolini's rejection of any power demand from the part of the populace and his claim that subordination to the will of the leader was vital to fascism. The belief that the "masses" had female features reinforced Mussolini's aesthetic conception of politics, which entailed the dependency of the mass-matter upon the politician-artist. In addition, the "masses," as female, asked to be dominated by "virile" leaders. Whereas the manly, rational politician approached the "masses" as a spiritually superior patriarch, the female, irrational "masses" longed for a strong man, or so Mussolini claimed. "[C]an a dictator be loved?" asked Ludwig to Mussolini. "Yes," he replied, "when the mass is at the same time afraid of him. The mass loves strong men. The mass is female." [70] Susan Buck-Morss suggests that the narcissistic myth of total control, connected to the idea of the manly creator and the motif of autogenesis, constitutes "one of the most persistent myths in the whole history of modernity (and of Western political thought before then . . .). Doing one better ― 25 ― than Virgin birth, modern man, homo autotelus , literally produces himself." [71] For Buck-Morss, the myth of autotelic genesis expresses a fear of the biological power of women. The self-creating male subject avoids external control by giving up sex. He is thus wholly self-contained and sensedead. [72] Mussolini's conception of the mass-object's feminine status reflected the Duce's subscription to the myth of autotelic creation. It also provided the basis on which Mussolini constructed his model of rule. Because the "masses" were not rational, they needed to be governed with enthusiasm more than pragmatic interest. The mystical side needed to be taken into account, [73] because the hope of serving a "beautiful" cause would hold even those who were not connected by any interest to the fascist movement. [74] Following Le Bon's view on the means to address and conquer the "collective consciousness" of the "masses," Mussolini resorted to myths and aesthetic images on the premise that they were able to influence the crowd, its behavior and beliefs. To be sure, the participation of the "masses" in politics was an integral part of the fascist regimes, as Benjamin suggested. [75] The "masses" were at the same time part of the fascist spectacle and fascism's spectatorship; they were acted upon and actors. Slogans, rallies, and images excited people's senses, though as an object of power people were also denied their senses. Benjamin's notion of aestheticized politics indicates that fascism, by resorting to symbols, rituals, and spectacle, was able to offer the "masses" a chance to express themselves and be part of a movement, even if their participation was based on a cultic experience. By beautifying politics, fascism created the auratic distance between the regime and the governed necessary to channel people's involvement in politics through faith, myths, and cults. By beautifying politics, fascism reaffirmed the value of tradition—a tradition founded on hierarchy and respect for authority and drawing its aura from faith. Indeed, Mussolini insisted, the identity between fascist and Italian was not meant to derive from constraint or, even less, from interest. Fascism, Mussolini wrote in 1932, "is a religious conception, in which man is seen in his immanent relationship with a superior law, with an objective Will that transcends the particular individual and elevates him to a conscious member of a spiritual society." [76] The existence of an "objective will" obliterated the role of individual, independent judgment and declared its obsolescence. Whereas Le Bon encouraged the birth of a new Caesar who could stop the deleterious consequences of crowds' appearance on the political scene, Mussolini developed the deep conviction that he represented the alternative to Italy's defective parliamentary system. He could dominate and control the "masses'" natural irrationality. He would be the one to enhance ― 26 ― progress and avoid stagnation. The idea that faith bound the population to fascism and that the "masses" could be moved by images, words, and feelings led Mussolini to adopt a political style that privileged the symbolic aspects of power relations, the mystical side. From Art to Violence In a speech in Milan on October 4, 1922, Mussolini stated: 15 of 199 7/11/2006 12:54 AM
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