of society; hence the true explanation of war, eternal law of mankind,
interpreted by the liberal-democratic doctrines as a degenerate
absurdity or as a maddened monstrosity.

For Liberalism, society has no life distinct from the life of the
individuals, or as the phrase goes: solvitur in singularitates. For
Fascism, the life of society overlaps the existence of individuals and
projects itself into the succeeding generations through centuries and
millennia. Individuals come into being, grow, and die, followed by
others, unceasingly; social unity remains always identical to itself.
For Liberalism, the individual is the end and society the means; nor
is it conceivable that the individual, considered in the dignity of an
ultimate finality, be lowered to mere instrumentality. For Fascism,
society is the end, individuals the means, and its whole life consists
in using individuals as instruments for its social ends. The state
therefore guards and protects the welfare and development of
individuals not for their exclusive interest, but because of the
identity of the needs of individuals with those of society as a whole.
We can thus accept and explain institutions and practices, which like
the death penalty, are condemned by Liberalism in the name of the
preeminence of individualism.

The fundamental problem of society in the old doctrines is the
question of the rights of individuals. It may be the right to freedom
as the Liberals would have it; or the right to the government of the
commonwealth as the Democrats claim it, or the right to economic
justice as the Socialists contend; but in every case it is the right
of individuals, or groups of individuals (classes). Fascism on the
other hand faces squarely the problem of the right of the state and of
the duty of individuals. Individual rights are only recognized in so