Fascist Spectacle.pdf

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Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v... the love for fellow creatures and from willing nothing. They will return her goal to earth and to men their hopes—new, free, very free spirits who will triumph over God and the Nothingness. [15] The new spirits were needed in a reality that Mussolini believed was dominated by a lack of ideals and spiritual values. ― 45 ― The Superman is a symbol, the exponent of this anguishing and tragic period of crisis that is traversing European consciousness while searching for new sources of pleasure, beauty, ideal. He testifies to our weakness, but at the same time represents the hope for our redemption. He is dusk and dawn. He is above all a hymn to life, to life lived with all the energies in a continuous tension toward something higher. [16] Only the superman could make life heroic. Only the new spirits could upset the egalitarian system that democracy had introduced into social and political life. [17] As a matter of fact, well before he took the role of duce of fascism, [18] and prior to the mass organization of his myth, Mussolini came to represent the model of a new generation of politicians. Whether he stood in the forefront of the battle as leader of the revolutionary socialists or played the role of spokesman for interventionism in World War I, Mussolini's claims to spiritualism, his activism, and his nonconformist political theories attracted the attention of many critics of the liberal system who were looking for a "new man." [19] A few years later, when Mussolini became the central cult figure in the fascist regime, his myth was made possible by the search for "the man" in what Warren Susman labels "the culture of personality." [20] The widespread mystique of the great leader explains as well the extended admiration and success of the Duce when he was appointed prime minister in 1922. [21] Mussolini in the Culture of Personality In the middle of the twentieth century's first decade, a change occurred in the normative expectations of ideal social behavior for the individual. As Susman argues for the American case, "the modal type [of self] felt to be essential for the maintenance of the social order" shifted in the 1910s from "character" to "personality." [22] The notion of character had responded to the nineteenth-century preoccupation with elaborating a standard of conduct in society that would ensure the mastering of the self and its moral development. It also constituted a model for the presentation of the self to others that established the link between the "social" and the "moral." Hundreds of books, pamphlets, and manuals connected to the building of "character" were published during the century. Other cultural forms, such as literature and the arts, also testified to the concept's influence upon the moral spirit of the 1800s. [23] Qualities such as citizenship, duty, democracy, work, honor, reputation, and integrity were most frequently associated with the notion of character. [24] Values of work and production, as embodied in Max Weber's ideal type of the Protestant capitalist, were particularly emphasized. ― 46 ― The Protestant capitalist, representative specimen of the "culture of character," exemplified the construction of the moral self via the disciplined control of impulses and the internalization of moral values. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, and in the face of changes in the social order, a new vision of the self emerged, along with a new method of presenting the self in society. The development of psychiatric and psychological studies at this time was symptomatic of the growing awareness of the effects that material transformations were exercising upon individuals. [25] Self-help books appeared with new kinds of advice that responded to novel needs and conditions caused by technological discoveries' effects upon people's sense of time and space. [26] The new American disease, "neurasthenia," spurred the spread of therapies seeking to relieve nervous depressions, or what Victorian England called "shattered nerves." [27] Within this context, therapeutic ideals of self-fulfillment overcame the interest in moral qualities and ascetic self-denial; the notion of expressive "personality" and individual needs began to come to the fore. Manuals for self-improvement suggested ways to build one's personality and referred to qualities such as "fascinating, stunning, attractive, magnetic, glowing, masterful, creative, dominant, forceful." [28] This constituted a fundamental shift in the social ideal of the self. [29] Uniqueness became a must in a society dominated by "crowds." Having an identity meant being someone special, unusual. Interestingly, as Susman remarks, self-help guides 26 of 199 7/11/2006 12:54 AM
Fascist Spectacle http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft18700444&chunk.id=0&doc.v... indicated that individuals needed to be themselves in order to develop a personality. At the same time, guides suggested ways to achieve this end that clearly subordinated spontaneity to the more urgent requirement of being liked, conforming to people's expectations. Hence, on the one hand the individual needed to show uniqueness in order to stand out from the crowd. [30] On the other hand, one's success depended on one's relationship with the crowd, on "making oneself pleasing to others," on acting in order to impress others. [31] The culture of personality emphasized strong individuals who would be able to compel people to like them. Personal charm and fascination, rather than moral attributes, constituted major qualities. Masterful Personality , published by Orison Swett Marden in 1921, glorified personalities who could achieve supremacy and "sway great masses." [32] Leadership was connected to magnetism. In the same way that Le Bon instructed the leader to adopt a style that would attract people's favor, so self-help guides urged great personalities to present themselves in a likable manner. The road for the development of a dramaturgical self, the self as spectacle, was thus paved. Not by chance, modern motion picture stardom began to take place at around the same time the "culture of personality" re- ― 47 ― placed the "culture of character." As Christian Metz affirms, "[T]he cinema was born . . . in a period when social life was deeply marked by the notion of the individual (or its most elevated version, 'personality')." [33] Movie actors turned into images and were marketed as personalities to be admired. In a society slowly moving from production to consumption, actors and entertainers, along with politicians and businessmen, became the main protagonists of a new popular column in magazines and weeklies: biographies. "[O]ne of the most conspicuous newcomers in the realm of print since the introduction of the short story," says Leo Lowenthal, biographies grew into a standing feature in periodicals immediately after the First World War. [34] Their appearance indicated a growing interest in individual personalities, great figures. In Germany after 1918, political biographies took a major role as "the classical literature of the German middle-brow." [35] In general, popular biographies became a staple of French and English publications—another proof of the fascination with the idea of unusual, unique types in the first twenty years of this century. Personalities, because they were distinctive, deserved admiration and applause and lured public interest. In Italy, the search for a new leader, a "man," had anticipated the attraction for great personalities. Before the war the quest for leaders often involved nostalgia for traditional kinds of rulers (strong characters à la Bismarck). After World War I, qualities such as "exceptional" appeared to be more appealing. [36] Within this context, once Mussolini became prime minister in the wake of what appeared to be a "revolutionary" March on Rome, his "glowing" personality immediately drew widespread attention. Journalists, writers, intellectuals, and politicians glorified the youngest prime minister in Italian history—even though in his first two years of rule Mussolini formally renounced the revolutionary principles of his movement and surreptitiously governed within the democratic institutions he had previously attacked. As a matter of fact, Mussolini's fame boomed during the two to three years that preceded the dictatorial turn. The quest for a new order and the search for novel political figures who could bring forth changes helped to confer upon Mussolini a symbolic aura. [37] Whereas only a few years earlier a minority of intellectuals had regarded Mussolini as the "new man," suddenly Mussolini came to be considered an exceptional individual by a much larger audience. The man and his personality monopolized attention. [38] Illustrazione Italiana , a weekly magazine that mainly reported national and international events through photographs, testifies to this trend. [39] Upon his assignment as prime minister on October 1922, Mussolini became a major subject of Illustrazione's photographic stories. Besides making the front page in the aftermath of his appointment (November 5, 1922; the whole ― 48 ― issue was dedicated to this event), Mussolini appeared in almost every issue of the journal in the next three months, then approximately twice a month from February 1923 to December 1924. [40] Illustrazione featured him on the front cover fifteen times during 1923 and seven times in 1924, the year of the Matteotti crisis. The amount of coverage Mussolini received in Illustrazione over the first two years of his prime ministership was quite unusual, even discounting the extraordinary circumstances surrounding Mussolini's assignment. The fascist March on Rome had certainly disrupted the normal course of Italian political life, and in this fashion it constituted an important event for journalists. However, the frequent presence of Mussolini in the news continued well beyond the aftermath of the march and surely exceeded that of any preceding prime minister. In the year and a half of Giovanni Giolitti's 27 of 199 7/11/2006 12:54 AM
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