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Mussolini Quote

This document discusses the incompatibility of National Socialism with Christianity and rational political philosophies. It argues that National Socialism cannot be justified by reference to God or religion given the process of secularization. It also cannot be aligned with absolutistic or counter-revolutionary theories as it radically separates itself from them and lacks a theory of society. While National Socialism contains elements of different philosophies, these are not integrated and are merely used to establish and extend power.

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211 views2 pages

Mussolini Quote

This document discusses the incompatibility of National Socialism with Christianity and rational political philosophies. It argues that National Socialism cannot be justified by reference to God or religion given the process of secularization. It also cannot be aligned with absolutistic or counter-revolutionary theories as it radically separates itself from them and lacks a theory of society. While National Socialism contains elements of different philosophies, these are not integrated and are merely used to establish and extend power.

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Docteur Larivière
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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incompatible with National Socialism.

As a result of the process of


secularization it has become impossible to justify political power by
reference to God and the church. The sole modern attempt to found
political power on God is the Austrian constitution of 1 May 1934,
promulgated by Dollfuss, who became, so to speak, ‘God's vicar on
earth’. This attempt collapsed internally even before Austria was con-
quered. But even aside from the process of secularization, Christianity
and National Socialism are essentially incompatible. According to
National Socialism, men are irrational and unequal, and this separates
it even from the least rationalist theologies of St. Augustine and Calvin.
National Socialism comes closest to the political theory of the Restora-
tion (the period after the French Revolution), especially to that of
K. L. von Halls-r,“ which regards the state as a natural fact and at the
same time as a divine institution, which accepts the domination of the
weak by the strong and rejects civil rights, parliaments, and human
reason. Already Hegel had denounced that type of political philosophy
as ‘fanaticism, mental imbecility, and hypocrisy?" Yet even Haller’s
imbecilities are, like all conservative traditional theories, still far too
rational for National Socialism. Haller still recognizes a ‘natural’,
though out-dated and antiquated structure ofsociety. This again stands
in contrast to National Socialism’s complete eradication of feudal
remnants in society.
No known absolutistic or counter-revolutionary theory fits National
Socialism, because National Socialism has traits that radically separate it
from them and because it has no theory of society.
The ideology of National Socialism contains elements of idealism,
positivism, pragmatism, vitalism, universalism, institutionalism~in short,
of every conceivable philosophy. But these diverse elements are not
integrated, they are merely used as devices to establish and extend power
and to carry on propaganda. The prevalent interpretations of National
Socialist ideology suffer from two great misunderstandings. The first is
the identification of National Socialism with Hegelianism. We have
shown the incompatibility of HegePs rational political philosophy with
National Socialism)‘ and Herbert Marcuse’s 11 book supplies a brilliant
refutation of this erroneous interpretation.
Nor must we fall into the second error, that of identifying National
Socialism with relativism, positivism, or pragmatism. It is true that
Mussolini has admitted his indebtedness to relativism and pragmatism:

‘In Germany relativism is an extraordinary daring and destructive


theoretical construction (perhaps Germany’s philosophical revenge
which may announce the military revenge). In Italy, relativism is
simply a fact. Fascism is a super-relativistic movement because it has
never attempted to clothe its complicated and powerful mental atti~
* See above, pp. 69-70.
377
tude with a definite programme but has succeeded by following its
ever-changing individual intuition. Everything I have said and done
in these last years is relativism by intuition. If relativism signifies the
end of faith in science, the decay of that myth, “science”, conceived as
the discovery of absolute truth, I can boast of having applied relativism
to the analysis of socialism. If relativism signifies contempt for fixed
categories and men who claim t0 be the bearers of an external objec-
tive truth . . . then there is nothing more relativistic than Fascist
attitudes and activity. . . . We Fascists have always expressed our
complete indifference toward all theories. . . . We Fascists have had
the courage to discard all traditional political theories, and we are
aristocrats and democrats, revolutionaries and reactionaries, prole-
tarians and anti-proletarians, pacifists and anti-pacifists. It is sufficient
to have a single fixed point: the nation. The rest is obvious. . . . From
the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, that all ideologies are
mere fictions, the modern relativist deduces that everybody is free to
create for himself his own ideology and to attempt to carry it out with
all possible energy.’ l"

This is, indeed, an extraordinarily illuminating quotation from


Mussolini. It shows that his so-called relativism, which has next to
nothing to do with either philosophic relativism or pragmatism, is
nothing but cynicism and nihilism. What fascism means by its praise
of relativism is that it uses theories as devices. We also know from Gau-
dens Megaro’s biography“ of Mussolini that the invocation of great
models by the Fascist leader is pure eyewash and that they are invoked
from time to time merely to give the Fascist doctrine an academic
standing.
It is true that relativism and pragmatism contain authoritarian ele-
ments. By denying the validity of objective truth, they may pave the way
for the adoration of the existing. But at the same time they are debunk-
ing theories; they are critical doctrines, deflating the arrogant claims of
post-Kantian idealism, which, as we have sh0wn,* veils the very accept-
ance of given facts by transferring all decisive problems into the same
sphere of metaphysics. Positivism and pragmatism bow only to ascertained
facts and, thereby, demand freedom to ascertain and analyze them. Such
freedom is indeed granted by National Socialism—but only to the natural
sciences, not to the humanities and not to the social sciences. No
philosophy can be held responsible for National Socialism.
National Socialism is, we repeat, incompatible with any rational
political philosophy, that is, with any doctrine that derives political
power from the will or the needs of man. Why that should be so is, I
believe, amply proved by the structure of National Socialist society.
There exists a fundamental antagonism between the productivity of
* See above, pp. 305-6.
s78

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