We came out of the storm several. Worse or better? I would say: we have not gone back. In our own way, we have moved on. The pandemic has forced us to find within ourselves – in our cities, in our families, in our heads, in our hearts – resources we didn’t know we had. Not because we are foolish, but because we were distracted and quarrelsome. History shows that human societies collapse due to distraction, indolence, whims. The dictatorship of the superfluous does not proclaim martial law, it does not stalk the streets. He wins without a fight, after having weakened us.
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What you are about to read is a book I have been thinking about for some time. I tried to summarize the nation fifteen years ago for the benefit of foreigners. The head of the Italians (Rizzoli 2005) has been translated into fourteen languages, but has also served as a mirror for many compatriots. Not everyone liked the reflected image; and someone took it out on the author who held the mirror. But the majority of Italian readers understood what I had tried to do: an honest and affectionate synthesis. The two adjectives are not incompatible.
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The viral season we’ve been through has changed several things; others had already changed over the past few years. It’s time to tell the Neo-Italians, I thought. The pandemic is a lie detector. Not only did it reveal who we are; it allowed us to think about who we might be. We have learned something, as individuals and as a collective. Of course, these are lessons that we would have liked to have learned in another way. But when life decides to teach us something, it doesn’t ask for permission.
Here are some of the fifty reasons to be Italian.
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Because we know how to be serious, but we grudgingly admit it
Forty years ago, when I wrote for “La Provincia” in Cremona to distract myself from my law studies, I held a weekly column entitled Talk Seriously. A predictable play on words – Serio is the name of the river that crosses Crema – but a game, so to speak, accurate. We are serious in our country, as Italians know how to be serious. But it hurts us to admit it.
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We have cultivated a reputation as unreliable geniuses. Reliability, in Italy, is an unconscious quality. One of many in a nation that fears praise, almost ruining her reputation. We know how to be serious, but we grudgingly admit it. Then come the days of the virus and the scare, and we find ourselves different. More solid, cohesive and reactive.
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Try saying it around. They will tell you that we have remained a band of individualists, resigned and indifferent. There are also those in Italy, and there are not a few. The majority respond to the challenges by protesting, accusing, suspecting, complaining. But he answers. Too many have happened in this long and old country: if we were unable to react, the idea of Italy would no longer exist. There is a trace of optimism in our national character of which we are secretly proud. “The man who does not delude himself is sensible to his detriment,” St. Augustine argued. We see that we have been like that ever since.
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Because we are unpredictable if we don’t become unreliable
Years ago, during a public meeting in the United States, they asked me to summarize Italy in one sentence. I replied: “Neither hell nor heaven. A fascinating purgatory full of restless souls, each one convinced of being special ». Here: the souls in question have shown that special people, in exceptional times, are saved by doing normal things. For example, by respecting the rules.
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Many doubted that we would be able to. Prejudices die hard. There is a methodical suspicion of unreliability about us. In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), at the beginning of the lockdown, I didn’t hold back: instead of doubting that we in Italy will make it, why don’t you in America start organizing yourselves? Also because in the United States you don’t have our NHS, where everyone is treated, no questions asked before and no bills after.
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Were we afraid when the epidemic was advancing? And even if it were? Fear is often a form of wisdom. Unconsciousness is almost always a proof of immaturity. If we managed not to lose our head, while many around us seemed to have lost it; if we have known how to trust ourselves, despite everything and everyone; if we have taken into account the skepticism of the world, disproving it with facts, then perhaps we can say: we are Italians.
Never underestimate us.
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Because we instinctively know what is good and genuine
An Italian brand of coffee, immediately after the lockdown, filled the shop windows with a sign saying: “Distant the right, united in taste”. Let’s say that, between the two statements, the second is more convincing, and easier to verify.
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Physical distance – which we call, for some reason, “social distance” – should be a passing phenomenon, and has given rise to numerous interpretations. National unity in terms of taste is, however, out of the question. There are individual and geographical differences, but the food competence of Italians crosses the income classes, and it is evident. No country in the world can boast the same variety and quality of raw materials, the same imagination in the kitchen, the same widespread knowledge. An Italian does not think that a dish is good and a pasta is cooked properly. He knows.
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Because we are lenient with cheaters and incompetents, but we recognize them right away
Incompetence is also a feature that rarely escapes us. A country of talented artisans – with thoughts, words, sounds, images, dishes, things, ideas – cannot fail to recognize a presumptuous apprentice. Yet, in recent years, someone has tried to convince us that knowledge was a fault – think of certain populists, conspiracy theorists, technophobes – and many have come to believe it.
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The coronavirus scare should have convinced us that experts are needed. Attacked by an invisible enemy, we relied on doctors, nurses, scientists and political decision-makers (in the embarrassed silence of sorcerers and no-vax, who resumed ranting when the emergency returned). But also to decide whether to introduce citizenship income, to assess the impact of a railway line or to save an airline – yes, the usual one – it would have been appropriate to rely on those who know the labor market, railways, air transport . It is not enough for a person to be honest, to do their job well. He must be competent.
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Because we love to confuse those who judge us
The absence of political violence is a credit and a credit that we Italians should spend in Europe and beyond. To those who treat our democracy with disdain, we remind that in Italy organized violent people do not invade the capital for months in a row, as happened in France; that the conflicts over autonomy do not lead to clashes and arrests, as happened in Spain; that our collective life is not marked by massacres and shootings, as in the US. Our disgust for violence is also evident at the moment of the vote: the hard-hitting extremists – there are some – take very low percentages.
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I explained, whenever I could: there is an operatic aspect to Italian political life. How many times does the soprano threaten to throw herself off the tower or stab herself with a dagger? Then, it doesn’t. Italians quarrel in a spectacular way (in Parliament, on television, at the Sanremo Festival, in bars and in homes, wherever it happens); but, when making decisions, the majority show surprising caution. We know that Europe is our home. We know that our allies are in Brussels, London and Washington, not Moscow. We know that violence sucks and leads nowhere, because we have known it.
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Because every now and then our arms fall off, but then we pull them up
What should we hope for? Let reasonable people show courage. Being moderate is not enough. Those who believe in progress, collaboration and an open society must make themselves heard. He must dare. The frightened management of many small crises is no longer enough. On the contrary: it was never enough.
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Being moderate doesn’t mean being sloth, it means being far-sighted. The social achievements that make us proud – the national health service, public education, social security, the judiciary not subject to political power – arrived in the West after great traumas: dictatorships or wars. Even today, in Italy, there are important things to do. School, health, public administration and justice need to be updated, simplified, speeded up. The tax system is a threadbare fabric full of mending: it must be replaced. The rail and road network needs to be modernized. The Italian territory is fragile, and urgent action is needed.
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We do not wait for the cataclysm to move. The arms do not rise by themselves: you have to pull them up. We are too smart not to understand it.
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Because we are what others would like to be, and they don’t dare
Beauty is not a privilege. Beauty is not a screen. Beauty is not a mitigating factor. Italian beauty is a responsibility. It’s a simple concept, and it’s clear to the world. To Italy and to us Italians, not the same. Those who talk about beauty often intend to cover a series of ugliness: in the landscape and in planning, in maintenance and management.
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Too many Italians justify the meanness of their behavior with the splendor of their intentions. A hypocrisy that has cost us dearly, in terms of reputation. International public opinion is not sophisticated. If we say “Italy is not working as it should, but it is so beautiful!”, Someone will applaud. But those applause absolve and distract; they are not needed. Beauty, like any important legacy, requires commitment. The spectacular human, climatic, landscape, artistic and food variety of our country cannot be just a refrain on the lips of resigned citizens or a mitigating factor for smart administrators and sloppy politicians. Beauty is silent: it cannot defend itself when it is offended. It’s up to us to react.
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The appointments in Mantua, Camogli and Pordenonelegge
On the occasion of the release of his book Neo-Italians, from 8 September in the bookshop for Rizzoli, Beppe Severgnini will meet his readers in various events. It begins on 9 September, at the Mantua Literature Festival, where the author will first participate in the meeting «PPP. Pieces of the recent past “(at 6 pm, Carlo Poma Hospital, entrance square, free access) and then in the evening he will talk with Stefano Scansani on” Why we have changed “(at 9 pm in Piazza Castello). Saturday 12 September will be in Camogli to talk about Neo-Italians at the Communication Festival (5 pm, piazza Ido Battistone). Two appointments at the Pordenonelegge festival: Friday 18 September Severgnini will talk about the book with Valentina Gasparet (9 pm, Teatro Verdi di Maniago) and, the next day, Saturday 19 September, he will be the protagonist of the meeting “50 reasons to be Italian” ( 11.30 in Piazza San Marco, in Pordenone).
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September 7, 2020 (change September 7, 2020 | 21:35)
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