"Absolute Evil": Reflections on the political reality in Italy

Recently, Gianfranco Fini, President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, gave the following lapidary definition about Fascism, that it is "absolute evil". The very fact that this definition came from a politician whose career was built up inside the neo-fascist party "Movimento Sociale Italiano" and the fact that just before assuming his present position he declared Benito Mussolini to have been "the greatest Statesman of the twentieth century", are not of real interest to scholars as they well know how easy it is to pass from Athens to Sparta, and from Sparta to Tissafernes, as Alcibiades did, when the goal is personal ascendancy and power.<p> Much more interesting than Gianfranco Fini, the new Alcibiades, is, as far as the scholars are concerned, the analysis of this definition; i.e. how does it work on mass psychology, whether it is based on historical and philosophical levels and, of course, its impact.