GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

62O ETHICS AND POLITICS: THE MODERNS
III. ETHICAL ANCESTRY AND
DOCTRINES OF FASCISM.
Basic Doctrines and Denials. I propose at this point
to make an attack upon the difficulties to which I have
referred, by dogmatically selecting three doctrines as
being both common and peculiar to Fascism in all it?
forms. They are, first, the view that power and not wealth
or happiness is the true end ofhuman endeavour; secondly,
the glorification of the will in those who would realize
this end; thirdly, the application to human nature of a
principle of qualitative selection as a result of which
some are designated as noble, namely, the holders ofpower, and the rest as raw material to be manipulated by and to
serve the noble. The development of these three doctrines
will provide us with a guiding thread through the ramifications
of fascist doctrine and the variety of forms in which
it finds expression. The three basic doctrines to Which I
have referred entail a series of denials which I have set
forth in the ensuing list, giving chapter and verse in the
shape of brief quotations from fascist writers in illustration
of each denial.
(1) First, there is the denial, already mentioned, of
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Hedonism in all its forms. "Fascism, writes Mussolini in
Th* Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism, "denies the
materialist conception of happiness as a possibility, and
abandons it to its inventors, the economists of the first
half of the nineteenth century: that is to say, Fascism
denies the validity of the equation well-being-happiness."
The other tenets of the utilitarians are rejected with as
little ceremony (and as little argument) as the supreme
value of happiness.
(2) Fascism rejects the dogma ofequality in its utilitarian
form, that everybody should count at one and nobody
as more than one. Fascism denies both that all people are
of equal value in the eyes of the State, and that they
should share equally in the benefits of the State. ''Fascism,"