Carlo Levi and Primo Levi: Two critiques of eternal fascism

Carlo Levi and Primo Levi both came from the extraordinarily fertile soil of Turinese antifascism. The two were fundamentally different in character and outlook: Carlo gregarious, extroverted, expansive; Primo reserved, introverted, even shy. Their critique of an “eternal fascism” shared a lineage from Piero Gobetti to Norberto Bobbio, passing through Giustizia e Libertà and the Partito d’Azione. The two Levis shared this theory of fascism's irradicable persistence as well as a radical humanism that they felt was our last remaining weapon against tyranny. This must be seen not just as a bulwark against fascism but as the only possible way of organizing human society in the 21st century.