1945: Elsa Morante wrote these words about Benito Mussolini. It 's amazing: seems to be written today.
"The head of the government became stained repeatedly during his career of crime that, in the presence of an honest people, they would have deserved the condemnation, shame and deprivation of all authority of government. Because the people tolerate and even applauded these crimes? A party for moral insensitivity, some for cunning, one part self-interest and personal gain. The majority is of course made on behalf of his criminal activities, but he preferred to give his vote to the strong rather than the right. Unfortunately, the Italian people, if you must choose between duty and advantage, despite knowing what would be his duty, always choose the self-interest.
So a mediocre man, coarse, vulgar eloquence but easy to effect, is a perfect specimen of his contemporaries. In an honest people, would be at most the leader of a small party later, a slightly 'ridicule for his manners, his attitudes, his delusions of grandeur, offensive to the common sense of people and causes his emphatic style and shameless. In Italy he became the head of government. And it's hard to find a more complete Italian example.
admirer of force, venal, corruptible and corrupt Catholic without believing in God, conceited, vain, fake good-natured, good father, but with many lovers, he uses those whom he despises, surrounded himself with dishonest, of liars, incapable of , profit, clever mime, and should take effect on a public vernacular, but, like any mime, without its own character, you always imagine to be the person who wants to represent. "
Elsa Morante, Collected Works, vol. I, Mondadori (Meridians), Milan 1988, L-LII
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