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Mussolini, whose chief aim was power, began his movement with oneset of objectives and ended with a wholly different one. Events, conditions,the demands of powerful groups, the streams of thought anddesire running deep and strong among the masses forced him tofollow their course or be washed under. Had Mussolini not modifiedhis program he would have been discarded. But the thing we knowas fascism might well have come, sooner or later. A different leaderwould have given it a different color, different tempo, differentrhetoric, and perhaps many different incidental characteristics. Buthe would have given fascism or he would have been discarded, becauseat that moment events and circumstances had become morepowerful than parties or leaders, the decision over events had passedout of the hands of the people; the rushing currents were carryingItaly along. Only he who moved with them could lead.I must be careful not to infer that Mussolini did what a majorityof the Italian people wanted. He had made one important discovery—a principle that most successful politicians in a parliamentary stateunderstand and that is perceived by few of their intellectual critics.It is that parliamentary societies are not governed by majorities butby combinations of minorities. "Majorities are inert," Mussolini saidto his faithful Boswella, Signora Sarfatti, "but minorities are dynamic."He had perceived that society is composed of groups profoundlyconcerned about their several group interests. They are allminorities. Each minority is far more interested in its special minorityobjective than in those vague, general subjects that concern the stateas a whole. It comes about, therefore, that two seemingly hostileminorities can be induced to unite upon a third proposal of a generalnature provided they are each rewarded with a promise of fulfillmentof their own special desires. Mussolini climbed into power, as all suchmen climb into power, not by having a hard-and-fast program, notby becoming "prisoners of theories," but by locating the streams ofintention and thought and desire running strong among the massesand moving with each of these streams.I have failed signally in what I set out to do if I have not madeclear that for many years certain deeply fissured streams of thoughtand desire and demand were running among the people; that thesestreams of thoughts represented the efforts of powerful minorities47