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

THEORY OF FASCISM 643
of true liberty as the "finding out, or being forced to find
out) the right path and to walk thereon". But who, one
wonders, is to exert the force which is necessary to enable
common men to find the right path? The answer can
only be, those whom Carlyle denominates as "Superiors"
or "Heroes"; those, namely, who, we are to presume,
have already found it Hence the problem of government
is for Carlyle simply that of finding "your Real-Superiors",
and letting them govern you, while democracy is the
form of government into which communities lapse in the
absence of Real-Superiors to govern them. Democracy
means, for Carlyle, "despair of finding any Heroes to
govern you, and contented putting up with the want
of them".
Mazzini (1805-1872) looked not to individuals but to
the nation to discover the moral law. His writings are,
unfortunately, not as clear as could be wished, but broadly
his view is that democracy is tolerable as a form of government
in so far as it observes the moral law, but that, if
it does not, the people are not, or ought not to be (for
there is the confusion between "fact" and "ought"
which we have already noticed in discussing the theory
of Sovereignty) 1
sovereign, and the people's will ought
not to be obeyed. "The simple vote of a majority", Mazzini
writes, "does not constitute sovereignty, if it evidently
contradicts the supreme moral precepts ... the will
of the people is sacred, when it interprets and applies
the moral law; null and impotent when it dissociates
itself from the law, and only represents caprice." And,
if the people's will does not "interpret the moral law",
then the inference seems inescapable although Mazzini
does not draw it the people must be directed from above.
The " Superior " Man is he who Embodies the General
Will. This inference is unhesitatingly drawn by Italian
fascists, who argue as follows. Questions of right and
wrong are matters of objective and discernible fact,
1 See Chapter XIV, p. 514.