48
PARTISAN REVIEW
cozened in every other way possible. It was necessary to promote
on a much more grandiose style than in the democracies the illu·
sion that the masses actually rule. The literature and art they enjoy
and understand were to he proclaimed the only true art and litera–
ture and any other kind was to he suppressed. Under these circum·
stances people like Gottfried Benn, no matter how ardently they
support Hitler, become a liability; and we hear no more of them in
Nazi Germany.
We can see then that although from one point of view the per·
sonal philistinism of Hitler and Stalin is not accidental to the
political roles they play, from another point of view it is only an
incidentally contributory factor in determiniilg the cultural policies
of their respective regimes. Their personal philistinism simply
adds brutality and double-darkness to policies they would he forced
to support anyhow by the pressure of all their other policies-even
were they, personally, devotees of avant-garde culture. What the
acceptance of the isolation of the Russian Revolution forces Stalin
to do, Hitler is compelled to do by his acceptance of the contradic·
tions of capitalism and his efforts to freeze them. As for Mussolini
-his case is a perfect example of the
disponibilite
of a realist in
these matters. For years he bent a benevolent eye on the Futurists
and built modernistic railroad stations and government-owned
apartment houses. One can still see in the suburbs of Rome more
modernistic apartments than almost anywhere else in the world.
Perhaps Fascism wanted to show its up-to-datedness, to conceal the
fact that it was a retrogression; perhaps it wanted to conform to
the tastes of the wealthy elite it served. At any rate Mussolini seems
to have realized lately that it would he more useful to him to please
the cultural tastes of the Italian masses than those of their masters.
The masses must be provided with objects of admiration and won–
der; the latter can dispense with them. And so we find Mussolini
announcing a "new Imperial style." Marinetti, Chirico, et al. are
sent into the outer darkness, and the new railroad station in Rome
will not be modernistic. That Mussolini was late in coming to this
only illustrates again the relative hesitancy with which Italian
fascism has drawn the necessary implications of its role....
Capitalism in decline finds that whatever of quality it is still
capable of producing becomes almost invariably a threat to its own
existence. Advances in culture no less than advances in science and
