ments of our society are due ”, have been enslaved by the new totalitarian demons : physiology to prove the existence of a chosen race , economics to justify autarchy , history falsified “ in the interests of the ruling class ”.
In a new dialectical reversal , however , the totalitarian monster is described as destined for certain defeat : “ Vast numbers of men and immense wealth are already lined up against the totalitarian powers whose strength has reached its apex and can now only gradually wane . The opposing forces , on the other hand , have already overcome the hardest challenges and they are growing in strength .” Not without noting that in the summer of 1941 - while the authors were giving final shape to the Manifesto and Hitler was still victorious on the continent - either exceptional clairvoyance or extraordinary faith was needed to take this outcome for granted , it is the palingenetic character attributed to the war in progress that brings out the political proposal of the second part : European unity as a post-war task .
It is precisely in this part that the epochal and historical value of the Ventotene Manifesto is revealed , as Norberto Bobbio has acutely noted : “ Federalism must henceforth be thought and action . The detachment from previous attempts is very clear . (...) After all , everything that has been written before in very different
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