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Paolo Orano | |
|---|---|
 Paolo Orano in the 1920s | |
| Born | (1875 -06-15)June 15, 1875 |
| Died | April 7, 1945(1945-04-07) (aged 69) Padula, Kingdom of Italy |
| Alma mater | Sapienza University of Rome |
| Occupations |
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| Employer | University of Perugia |
| Political party | Italian Socialist Party (1904–1906) Sardinian Action Party (1919-1922) National Fascist Party (1924–1945) |
| Spouses | |
| Relatives | André Mallarmé (brother-in-law) |
Paolo Orano (15 June 1875 – 7 April 1945) was an Italianpsychologist, politician and writer. Orano began his political career as arevolutionary syndicalist inItalian Socialist Party. He later became a leading figure within theNational Fascist Party, in part through his legitimization of antisemitism.[1]
Orano was born in 1875 in Rome to a local father and aSardinian mother. He learned literature and philosophy atUniversity of Rome and graduated in 1898. In the next year he began teaching philosophy high schools, including inSiena,Senigallia andTivoli. He also worked with various publishers.
Orano began his political career as one of a number of leading syndicalist thinkers associated with theItalian Socialist Party at the turn of the century. His estrangement from the Socialists began in 1905 when he resigned his position at the newspaperAvanti! following the dismissal of syndicalistEnrico Leone.[2]
Along with fellow syndicalistsArturo Labriola andRobert Michels, as well as nationalistEnrico Corradini, Orano became part of a group of intellectuals who followed the ideals ofGeorges Sorel.[3] To this end he founded his own weekly journal,La Lupa, in October 1910.[4] It came to represent the first collaboration between syndicalists like Orano and nationalists likeEnrico Corradini.[5]Benito Mussolini would later claim that this paper was an influence on his political ideas.[6]Orano became a strong critic of democracy, seeing it as the cause of Italy's ills and his rhetoric, along with that of fellow syndicalists such asFilippo Corridoni andAngelo Olivetti, was by 1914 very similar to that coming from theItalian Nationalist Association.[7] Orano supported theFirst World War, ostensibly because he hoped that it would strengthen both thebourgeoisie andproletariat and thus hasten the process ofclass conflict and revolution. However his views caused considerable controversy within the syndicalist movement and helped to bring about its fragmentation as many of those associated with the movement, in particular Leone, were anti-war.[8] By the end of the war his positions were largely indistinguishable from those of the nationalists.[9]
Orano soon moved over to the Fascists and during theMarch on Rome he served as Mussolini's chief of staff, whilst also occupying a seat on the Grand Council of the party.[10] He enjoyed a high-profile under the fascist government, serving in the parliament and holding the post of rector of theUniversity of Perugia.[11]
His most notable contribution to fascism was hisantisemitism and he was the author in 1937 of the bookThe Jews in Italy.[1] The book was influenced byBernard Lazare in so much as it accepted his thesis that the activities of theJews themselves helped to cause antisemitism, although it made no reference to Lazare's refutations of the prejudice.[12] In the book Orano expressed affection for some individualJews, notablyEttore Ovazza, but nonetheless the book helped to legitimise antisemitism as a part ofItalian fascism and laid the groundwork for later persecutions.[11] Despite this the non-biological nature of his antisemitism meant that he did not go far enough forGiovanni Preziosi, who attacked Orano's work in his journalLa Vita Italiana.[13]
Captured in 1944 he was held along with many fellow fascist officials at a prison camp at Padula where he died the following year following complications with apeptic ulcer haemorrhage.
As well as his political writing Orano was also noted for his psychological and philosophical work. His 1897 bookCristo e Quirino criticisedChristianity from aNietzschean perspective, suggesting that it told people to accept their lot in life and thus solidifiedhierarchy in society.[14] Mussolini would later use these arguments about the parallels between theRoman Catholic Church and theRoman Empire, and thus common ground between fascism and Catholicism, during his negotiations withPius XI, much to horror of the pontiff who considered the very notion heretical.[15]
His 1902 bookPsicologia Sociale sought to attacktranspersonal psychology and instead argued in favour ofmaterialism andinductive reasoning that took into account the works ofKarl Marx andCharles Darwin.[16]
