Fatalism is real will dressed in the clothing of weakness

Evidence

But even yesterday was it ever mere “resistance”, a mere “thing”, mere “non-responsibility”? Certainly not. Indeed one should emphasise how fatalism is nothing other than the clothing worn by real and active will when in a weak position. This is why it is essential at all times to demonstrate the futility of mechanical determinism: for, although it is explicable as a naive philosophy of the mass and as such, but only as such, can be an intrinsic element of strength, nevertheless when it is adopted as a thought-out and coherent philosophy on the part of the intellectuals, it becomes a cause of passivity, of idiotic self-sufficiency. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1208

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Dense, layered claim: fatalism is active will in weak position; what sustains the masses as strength becomes passivity when intellectuals adopt it as philosophy. Resists one-sentence summary.
• XREF: Connects to how colonized populations’ apparent passivity is often misread; relevant to the Orientalism toolkit on representations of the passive colonized.