238 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
conception of the future trend of history ; and it is from
this that our mentality and methods are derived. For we
are more and more convinced that the world is moving
towards the right, the ideas and the institutions of the
right, and above all in the direction of anti-socialism. . . .
We are more and more convinced that for our salvation
we have got to establish a new order., no matter how
reactionary our methods. . . . The democratic con-
ception of life is essentially political,, the fascist essentially
warlike.1
e. . . The masses are so much cattle ; the prey of
spasmodic, fluctuating, and irresponsible forces ; inert
matter, without volition, and without future. We must
overthrow, therefore, the altars raised by Demos to their
Holiness the Masses. This does not mean that we must
neglect their well being. On the contrary we must bear
in mind the statement of Nietzsche, who desired that the
masses should enjoy the highest material well-being so
that their complaints and troubles should not disturb
the higher manifestations of the spirit.3
It is from the people, according to the principle of
democracy, that power is derived. But according to the
fascist conception they are simply the masses, a sort of
primary material which must be immobilized, though not
obliterated. And as soon as the people lose all independent
existence, all self-determination, they nourish and serve
the e will to power'. Fascism is like the barbarian horde
marshalled against the city ; but marshalled in a new way,
1 So far as it is possible to speak of a mussolinian doctrine it may be summed
up in a single phrase—the glorification of war. In the article on fascist doctrine
that Mussolini himself wrote for the Italian Encyclopaedia he gives the following
definition : ' Above all, as far as concerns the future and development of
humanity in a general ways fascism does not believe in either the possibility
or the usefulness of eternal peace. It repudiates pacifism, which runs away
from the struggle and shrinks from sacrifice. War alone screws all human
faculties to their highest pitch and sets the seal of nobility on the peoples who
have the courage to face it. ... Consequently a doctrine founded on the
assumption of peace is no more consistent with fascism than are international
institutions with the spirit of fascism.3 And in his speech in the Chamber of
May 26, 1934, which may be regarded as the starting-point for fascist action in
Africa and in the Mediterranean, Mussolini proclaimed that : * War is to man
what maternity is to woman. I do not believe in eternal peace ; in fact I think
it wastes and denies the essential virtues of man, which can only be fully
displayed in bloodshed and strife.'