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

THEORY OF FASCISM 655
entrusted with power who discern the moral law, or f
if we adopt the Nietzschean version, who will to exercise
it, Fascism has no principle of selection to offer. For, the
question may well be asked, "Who is to determine which
among the citizens of a community are capable of discern*
ing the moral law, or are fit to exercise power?" Fascists
often write as if knowledge of right or wrong was the
prerogative of a small body of persons, and as if there
could be no manner of doubt which members of a com-
munity belong to this privileged body. It never seems to
occur to them that there can be genuine difference of
opinion as to what it is that the moral law enjoins. What,
accordingly, in practice they are demanding is that the
State should be run according to their conception of the
moral law. And if we put the question, "Who are they
that their conception of the moral law should take pre-
cedence over all others ?" the only possible answer is, "TTiey
are those in a community who possess effective power".
Thus the practical outcome of the ethical principles of
Italian and German Fascism, different though at first sight
they appear to be, is to all intents and purposes the same;
for in the absence of any method of determining what the
moral law is and who knows it, the Italian principle that
the rulers should be those who know the moral law reduces
itself to the Nietzschean principle that government should
be in the hands of those who have the will to power and
are successful in obtaining power. Fascism in all its
forms is, on examination, found to embody this Nietzschean
principle. Fascism, that is to say, takes over the Platonic
principle of leadership, without adopting
formula for determining the leaders. In
class
the Platonic
the absence
in a fascist
of any such formula the ruling
community is in practice self-appointed.
It rules because
it has achieved the power which enables it to rule, and
the sign of its capacity is, as I have already pointed out,
the successful use of force.