Fascism Begins at Home “Now the next woman I get, I’ve gotta be the boss.” —Big Bill Broonzy “Every man has secrets and shady nooks that are not to be explored.” —Benito Mussolini “The most vital objective of disciplining a child is to gain and maintain his respect.” —James C. Dobson Mussolini traces his name back to a family “prominent in the city of Bologna in the thirteenth century,” making the point that in “1270 Giovanni Mussolini was the leader of this warlike, aggressive commune…in the rule of Bologna in the days of armored knights,” and feudalism. 1 He describes “the Mussolini coat of arms” as “a rather pleasing and perhaps magnificent design” with its “six black figures in a yellow field-symbols of valor, courage, force.” 2 His autobiography continues narrating his military roots: “Later, in the nineteenth century, the family tie became more clearly defined; my own grandfather was a lieutenant of the National Guard.” 3 The Doctrine of Fascism, co-written with Giovanni Gentile, explains the “Fascist conception of history,” in which “man is man only by virtue of the spiritual process to which he contributes as a member of the family, the social group, the nation, and in function of history to which all nations bring their contribution,” establishing “the great value of tradition in records, in language, in customs, in the rules of social life.” 4 Again we see a rejection of individualism in that a person is only of importance with respect to the contribution to a unit, even as small as the family. As a husband, Mussolini was consistently unfaithful, regularly betraying his actual wife 1 Mussolini, op. cit., Kindle locations 122-124. 2 Ibid. Kindle locations 135-136. 3 Ibid., Kindle location 129. 4 Mussolini and Gentile, op. cit., Kindle locations 83-87.