From Etruscans and Romans to Modern Times - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 71

MUSSOLINI STRUTS THE STAGE
Fascism is…an educator and a promoter of spiritual life. It aims at refashioning…man,
his character and his faith... [I]t enforces discipline and uses authority, entering into the
soul and ruling with undisputed sway. — Benito Mussolini , Fascism [69]
As befitting a democracy, Italy joined Britain and France in World War I. The Italians
carried the war into Austrian territory, most notably into what would later become
Yugoslavia. [70] Ten years after the armistice, Italy suffered the ravages of the Great Depres-
sion. An old piece of political wisdom says that the times bring forth the man. That may be
so, but there is no guarantee that the man will be a force for good, not for evil.
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) began his political career as a socialist and journalist
but cast his socialism aside at the end of World War I. The Italian socialists had argued
that Italy should remain neutral during World War I, believing that the only right conflict
should be a worker's revolution against capitalism. But Mussolini, growing tired of social-
ism, argued for armed neutrality and was then expelled from the socialist party and joined
the army.
Let's stop and consider the meaning of socialism and its counterpart on the opposite
end of the political spectrum, namely fascism. Socialism is a political and economic philo-
sophy of the left that rejects individualism, private ownership and private profits in favor
of a system based on economic collectivism and some larger group's (governmental or so-
cietal) ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods. Communism is an
extreme form of socialism where government itself withers away in favor of a worker's so-
ciety without formal governance. In contrast, philosophies of the right such as fascism ac-
cept the importance of central political authority and order in a society. And these goals can
best be achieved, those on the right suggest, by accepting that some individuals and groups
are better suited and better able to govern, whether it is a certain political party, a certain
ethnic group or race, or a certain individual, a philosopher king in the words of Plato.
Mussolini had tired of socialism and came to believe that he was destined to be the
future leader of Italy, moving his philosophical tendencies from left to right. He threw him-
self into the politics of discontent at war's end and founded a veterans' movement in Mil-
an in 1919. Nationalistic, anti-socialist, and anti-liberal, the movement took its name fas-
cist (from the Latin faces: sticks tied together) from the Roman symbol of unity. Wearing
black shirts, the fascists found support in the conservative strata of society: landowners,
the Church, the military, the aristocracy, and the king. Mussolini convinced the well-to-do
conservative titans of industry and other components of Italian society that he alone was
capable of pushing back against those socialists and communists who wanted to undercut
the traditional capitalistic society.