EPILOGUE 337
up in Italy, alongside the prevalent lethargy, and for a
certain space of time these balanced each other. In such
cases momentary influences, including luck, may be decisive.
The slightest variation may upset the balance and change
the whole situation. Then it is that the actions of one man
become of first importance, and history becomes a drama
in which everything is linked up and nothing pre-deter-
mined, in which the epilogue may- be changed up to the
last minute, so long as the actors—individuals or groups—
do not themselves rush towards the catastrophe. Contrary
to a common belief, circumstances do not always of them-
selves create the men who are needed. Past history now
provides a proof.
II
Fascism is a dictatorship ; such is the starting-point of
all definitions that have so far been attempted. Beyond
that there is no agreement. Dictatorship of capitalism ' in
the period of its decline \ dictatorship of large-scale capital-
ism ; dictatorship of finance-capitalism ; c openly terrorist'
dictatorship e of the most reactionary, chauvinist and
imperialistic sections of finance-capitalism 3; dictatorship
of the c two hundred families' ; and so on, until sometimes
one meets the definition of fascism narrowed down to the
personal dictatorship of Mussolini or Hitler. Someone has
said, e Italian fascism is Mussolini3.
Each of these definitions contains some truth, but none
can be accepted as it stands. Further, we shall take care
not to produce a new one, which would of course be the
right one, a pocket formula, which could be brought out
at any moment to clear up our own and everybody else's
doubts. Our way of defining fascism is to write its history.
We have tried to do this for Italian fascism of the years
1919-1922. A theory of fascism can only be evolved through
a study of all its forms, latent or open, modified or unre-
strained. For there are many different fascisms, each one
made up of numerous, sometimes contradictory tendencies,
and capable of developing in such a way that its most
characteristic features may be altered. To define fascism
is to surprise it during this development, and, in a given
22