THE FATHER OF AMERICAN FASCISM
Giovanni Gentile Educated people know that Adam Smith is considered the father of free market capitalism and that Karl Marx is the father of Communism. It is also safe to say that most educated people do not know who the father of Fascism is. They might say Benito Mussolini or Adolph Hitler. Actually the father of Fascism is Giovanni Gentile. His last name sounds like Gentilly. He was an Italian philosopher who was born in 1875 and died in 1944. He would live almost long enough to see the downfall of the two most famous fascist states that were founded from his philosophy. Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy. Gentile believed that all private action should be oriented to serve society. He was against the ideal of individualism. In his view there was no distinction between private and public interest. Gentile defended compulsory state corporatism. He advocated for a state that would not be self sufficient. The basic aspect of Gentile’s logic is th