Putrid Goddess

"Fascismo throws the noxious theories of so-called Liberalism upon the rubbish heap. . . . Fascismo has already stepped, and, if need be, will quietly turn around to step once more, over the more or less putrid body of the Goddess Liberty."

Thus spoke Benito Mussolini in 1923, a few months after he seized power. Today the tone of his speeches, at least for foreign consumption is vastly different. Last week, when a correspondent asked, "Are personal Liberty and Fascismo compatible?" Il Duce replied: "The conception of liberty is not absolute because there is no conception that can be absolute. Fascismo is opposed to excessive individualism. It is not opposed to individualism. On the contrary, we believe in variety, differentiation, the essential inequality of man. The 18th and 19th Centuries experimented with democracy. In the 20th Century democracy should reach its maturity. It must find out what it wants. The 20th will be the Century of Fascismo." In a word, when Il Duce is asked about liberty, he weasels, and has now learned to weasel very well.