Does Gentile conceive of the state as something separate from the collective, that is only united with the individual/the collective, in fascism? In the Philosophical Basis of Fascism he really emphasizes that the state for him is an active spiritual creation of the collective, but in passages like these, it almost sounds like there is a synthesis between collective and the state, in favor of the state (the collective will becomes the will of the state, not the other way around), which presupposes a separateness between the two at least at the stage before fascism.
"That explains the necessity of the Fascist Party and of all the institutions of propaganda and education that foster the political and moral ideals of Fascism, so that the thought and the will of the solitary person, the Duce, becomes the thought and the will of the masses."
