Italian Culture After Fascism

...Thus it is that in the most troublous time in history, we can look forward with confidence to the future...

...in their selection of students they must stress intelligence only and they must be purified from class prejudice...

...One receives an impression of satisfaction and hope from their perusal...

...The Phductiveneet of the area hat grown many-fold—fatter We* hat that of the country a* a whole in that decade...

...Under Fascism, s poet or painter who wanted to be true to himself wss compelled to retire, to detach himself from s world which was interested only in propsgsnda...

...In fact, the nationalistic trend was the third terrific blow dealt . by Fascism to Italian culture...

...Nationalism aims at stressing the differences between nations, at cutting international ties, st inciting one people against another...

...Only in this way will the revival of Italian culture be possible...

...The standard of living has materially in- , creased for nearly all of five million citizens...

...v* * ft m ¦ UUT if freedom Of thought and expression is ths first condition for the revival of Italian culture, other conditions are also necessary...

...They are a tile, therefore, to separate artistic, historical and philosophical problems, from than* relation to politics, and to judge them in accordance with their own value...

...However, one must ignore the fact that different peoples have qualities (together with defects) which . are their own, and that they can contribute culture to the world in different ways...

...The Italian schools of tomorrow must be conceived as s public service...

...Most of the writers of th* weeklies know how to discover the most subtle influences of Fascism, even in idsas which by themselves seem remote from politics...

...We must know what our real resources are, and what the natural laws are - that govern them and us...

...The resent arguments in the New York papers for a bettering ef the humanistic training in ths schools proves that a shortcoming in the education of the mind is generally felt Humanistic culture had its origin in Italy during, the Renaissance, and found always in Italy a favorable ground for its development Even today, in spite of fascism, humanistic culture is very high in Italy...

...Before Fascism, Italy was one of the freest countries in Europe...

...on the contrary, it means to direct the confused and often contradictory aspirstions of the average msa towards ths most elevated human Ideals...

...But in the moral science* it it not so...

...The Tennessee River has been put to work by engineering structures, made to serve as a reliable river channel, as a source of electric power that has multiplied the region's energy resources by ten times in a decade...

...In 1926 Croce became the leader of the intellectuals' opposition to Fascism in the name of freedom of thought and expression, and he is Still the leader in spite of hia old age...

...There are many new facto2j»nd jobs and professional work that didjwt exist ¦f**- Standards of health and educatioii'have gone ¦?j**d...

...JTbs part of the United States where I live and work ¦-"Ins Valley of the Tennessee River—offers some evi•iBe* of what a comprehensive program of economic development can produce, in benefits to the people...

...I remember when I wss a student before the first world war how many German and AustrianN students in Rome admired and envied Italian freedom...

...Intelligence, ia alive...

...In all the weeklies I reed, the Interest in what is going on outside Italy It enormous...

...Neither science nor art esn be restricted to nstional boundaries...

...These visitors, their imaginations stirred and spirits hopeful, sense that what has taken place in this once remote American valley could be msde to happen too in their valleys, in almost any of a thousand valleys the- world over...

...Those who care for the Italian culture of tomorrow t must therefore not only avoid doing what Fascism did, but also create the conditions necessary to the autonomous'life of culture...

...But they also know that the epoch of the ivory tower is finished...

...An attack by the Fascists against him and his library in 1926 aroused throughout the world such indignation fnat Mussolini dared hot trouble him any longer...

...American novelists are highly appreciated, Italians know that the American writers have succeeded in finding a relation between their form snd their social background, which European writers did not discover...

...After te many years of imposed nationalism, Italian intellectuals are _ thirsty for foreign literature, art and music, And they are often up to date in their judgments...

...Now, to b* in contact with ths world does not mean sny longer to obey the interests of dictators...

...they are hungry, and they still do not know when snd if they will .be allowed to be masters of themsslves...

...Under the name of literature they include history, philosophy and the arts...

...They ere moderate in their judgments, even of Fascism, because they feel themselves detached from it...

...There is a resurgence of confidence, a chesty %w*» a dynamic burgeoning of'human energy, s ***»ing of future plena and further development that *%Wan described by observers, among them Thomas Mann, aa a manifestation of the American pioneer spirit at its best...

...However, the technical schools were abolished at the beginning of Fascism, and, as Dr...

...Intelligence and culture are tke beet weapon* for the rebirth ef Italy...

...We must see the forests, soils, minerals, and waters as they are—in unity...

...Lamberto Borghi has demonstrated in a scholarly study which will appear in the next Educational Yearbook of Columbia University, all the reforms and counter-reforms of the schools carried out by the Fascist Government had the constant aim of keeping the people at a distance from the secondary schools and of reserving culture only for the classes that supported Fascism...

...Italians have lost a war...

...Bat 1 we must grasp the possibilities...

...And their culture has not been lost...

...Recently I havs had th* opportunity of reading some of the weeklies which appear in Rome...

...asd the physical achievements would be of dubious value...

...Only by, being in touch with the Bufferings snd ths hopee of his own ruined people csn sn artist draw inspiration...

...But we Italians were aware then and became later much more aware, that cultural freedom was limited to a minority, to the people who had parents wealthy enough to pay for their children's higher education...

...After the repression of individual freedom thio narrowing of educational opportunity wat Faeeittn't graveet blow te Italian culture...

...It is known that Fascism, at its beginning, refused any theory snd any ideal, and that only after the conquest of power it felt the necessity for s theory snd received it, ready-made, from nationalism...

...their industry Is ruined...

...Not only from other American valleys, but from' all over the world have come observers in a steady stream—men from China and Brazil, from India and Italy, Egypt, Bolivia...

...Crocs 2. ,u...

...many ef their most glorious monuments are destroyed...

...The struggle of the Italian intellectuals for the conquest, of their freedom of expression was their best fight, and it wss fought around Benedetto Crocs...

...But the technical schools were still too limited and too costly to absorb the best of the average students...

...Thus, because ef Croce snd thousands of his followers, respect for freedom ef thought snd expression is thoroughly mature in the Italian mind today, snd the last obstacles to be overcome are apt to be found in the mindi of the Italians, as...

...But their intelligence is slivs ss It has always bean...

...the ability of approaching problems and delivering judgment is remarkable...

...Without entering into too many details the reading of Roman weeklies of recent monthe shows in the Italian writers a maturity, a calm, a certainty, which art comforting...

...When ws do thst, we will hsve begun to catch the vision of our own powers...

...A national tradition can only participate, with its own characteristics, in international science and art A scientific discovery has its value not in the fact that it haa been made by an Italian or by an American, but in the fact that it contributed to mankind...

...there would not be public psrticipstion—voluntary and understanding participation by the businessman, the labor leader and worker in the factories, the farmer on the land, the teacher and preacher and librarian and physician and local official...

...There were, it is true, technical schools opsn to those best fitted for entrance to higher engineering schools, schools for average students as distinguished from the humanistic schools frequented by the well-to-do classes...

...The ere weeklies of politics and literature...

...But, today, ths opposite attitude it necessary for the writer as well a* the painter...

...their communications are interrupted...

...This is what any man of culture must resist 0t he does not want to bs lost If he does not resist political interference, he will be lost ss sn intellectual, because his word will be sold to particular interests and will not 1* dedicated to truth but to falsehood, and ha will be lost also as s man, because he will deserve the moral condemnation due all fakers...

...He remained ignored by the government, but his books obtained an audience in Italy much greater than before, and his magatine La Critiea was anxiously awaited and received with Joy by almost all Italian intellectuals...

...Perhaps ae political system oppressed snd distorted csltsre ss much aa" Fascism did Except for a few despicable exceptions, the Italian in tell igensla behaved well enough sad resisted Fsscist "• laterferenee But intellectual* must live end cannot avoid feeling paralited when the whole organiawt avoid feeling paralited when the whole organ!their independence Italian intellectuals did net ¦ • accept the outer organisation that Faeciam imposed eat them, bet they fatally lost the inner organization thst the pre-Fsseist liberal trsdition had allowed them te build ap through generations...

...In the United States, a progressive democracy has given to culture a social importance which is probably the greatest in the world Furthermore, the American genius has perfected physical sciences to s point that European scientists generally find more advanced than their own...

...w».t..0t smi«>A «r u.i...

...A painting by Raphael ia praiaed not because it is Italian, but because it adds beauty te the whole civilised world...

...Some literary magazines like La Nuova Italia, Letteratura, Civilta Moderna which were written hf anti-Fascists, who had not Croce's authority and couldysot dare to criticize openly the regime, were often glad to quote La Vntum, and Croce's opinions, in order to spread their liberal ideas...

...The soil, so lacking in fertility only a decade ago, is fast being restored by farmers and their associations: that soil and farm electricity have become the basis of attractive and prosperous living...

...TlIK nationalistic obstacles which still threaten*the life of culture can be explained by the cowardice of narrow minds before the truVrvelous dawning vision of a unified world of culture...

...Thus n is true that culture must bs kept free from the domination of polities, but it is also true that lines the ,'isf nmlre...

...Ami: we must see ourselves st s psrt of thkt unity...

...of our civilisation political powers have tried jjjjk*, eenejaer snd to reduce culture to s propagsnda weapon...

...Italian Culture After Fascism By Lionello Venturi intelligence Is the Best Weapon for Rebuilding Italy y-^ULTURE It an tutonomout activity of tot human I mind, and obey* only those rules that it creates '.V-4 itself, in sccordance with iu inner nature...

...In teal Valley the people and their institutions—among tsSm the resource development corporation known as TV A—have in a decade completely changed the face of **» region...

...more then any other living Italian appeals to cultivsted people all over the world in such different fields as philosophy, history and literary criticism...

...And, aniens the method of the program's fulfillment be one teat encourages participation—In short, voluntary methods—then freedom and opportunity for individual etvelopment would have lost rather than gained ground...

...Ontario, New Zealand...

...Of course La Critiea could not directly attack the Fascist Government but did attack month after month the ideology of Fascism, and accentuated how foolish and vicious it was...

...The undertaking is too broad, its threads too closely interwoven to be possible ef accomplishment except by voluntary methods...

...tynortunities for interesting work for the young men ¦w women hsve increased...

...Nationalistic ideaa are the source of all the disasters of today...

...Out of the modern tools they now have in their hands the people are fashioning a new Valley/ Millions of visitors from every region of America have come to the Tennessee Valley to see for themselves these dramatic changes, and to observe th* TVA's methods...