Fascist mysticism

Fascist mysticism (Italian: Mistica fascista) was a current of political and religious thought in Fascist Italy, based on Fideism, a belief that faith existed without reason, and that Fascism should be based on a mythology and spiritual mysticism. A School of Fascist Mysticism was founded in Milan on April 10, 1930 and active until 1943, and its main objective was the training of future Fascist leaders, indoctrinated in the study of various Fascist intellectuals who tried to abandon the purely political to create a spiritual understanding of Fascism. Fascist mysticism in Italy developed through the work of Niccolò Giani with the decisive support of Arnaldo Mussolini.

Niccolò Giani took the definition of mysticism from the writing of French philosopher Louis Rougier:

Mysticism is a set of propositions which adheres to tradition or sentiment, even if these propositions cannot be justified rationally and very often forgetting the primary reasons that led to state them.

In line with Rougier, Giani stressed in his manifesto for the School of Fascist Mysticism, "that fascism has its 'mystical' aspect, as it postulates a complex of moral, social and political, categorical and dogmatic beliefs, accepted and not questioned by the masses and minorities ... [A Fascist] puts his belief in the infallible Duce Benito Mussolini, the fascist and creator of civilization; [a Fascist] denies that anything outside of the Duce has spiritual or putative antecedents.

The establishment of the School was made to allow his followers to devote themselves fully to the worship of Mussolini, meditating on the writings and speeches of Mussolini, and living according to his words, in a spirit of absolute loyalty and unquestioningly, as specified in the article "Fascist mysticism" in the Political Dictionary edited by the National Fascist Party in 1940:

In this sense "mystical fascism" means belief in the absolute truth of the doctrine established by the Duce and the same belief in the necessity of this doctrine, as a way of greatness and power of the nation (...). With this fascist mysticism is called the preparation for more energetic action and more on which the ideals of Fascist statements tend to translate into reality ... The mystical fascism ... can best be described as the Fascist action determined by a stronger faith in the absolute truth of Fascist propositions. In this sense we can understand how one can speak of a mystical part of the Fascist doctrine or the best of the doctrine of Fascism, and how to prepare a school that is appropriate and addresses the best part of the Italian youth towards this mysticism, that is, towards this "more fascist" action.

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