Narcissism and Dictatorship

Benito Mussolini near the end of his career.

 "Count Carlo Senni has just been talking about his years with Mussolini, to whom he is whole-heartedly, but not wholly uncritically, loyal. He emphasizes one trait which strikes everyone who has ever worked with Mussolini: his unbounded, almost undisguised, utterly cynical contempt for his own human instruments. Except for his brother Arnaldo (now dead) and perhaps, to a lesser extent, his daughter, there is no human being in the world whom he loves and trusts. He believes in the ability of his son-in-law; he does not trust him. A sentimentalist about 'the people' en masse, he is completely cynical about all individuals, and measures them only by the use he can put them to... Yet so great is his personal ascendancy that his underlings - knowing that they themselves will be kicked away as soon as they cease to be useful - still retain their personal devotion to him."

- Iris Origo, A Chill in the Air: An Italian War Diary, 1939-1940 (2017) p. 66.

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