Let's debunk some clichés. It’s high time, in this bleak post-pandemic and warmongering world, to stop saying that people who cheat their neighbors are smarter and people who don't pay taxes are shrewd. And let's also put an end to accepting that slander and lies can be used as communication tools, and insults as an effective debating tactic. Yelling and interrupting the person who has the floor is not assertiveness but rudeness, and envy is a vulgar reaction to the generosity of those who share their knowledge and wealth. Denigrating one’s own country and spitting on your plate is self-defeating; anyone who really is superior to the people he or she denigrates should be somewhere else, not wasting their time with people they deem inadequate.
Yet a well-respected government collapses in order to maintain the privileges of a political base that has always evaded taxes and social security costs, and then demands that public services and infrastructure work at their best, obviously paid for by the few who have the dignity to live by the rules.
I’m talking about recent events in Italy, where recent competition legislation exempted taxi drivers yet again (and also kept licenses to operate beach resorts at ridiculously low prices), an Italian tradition. Where we have seen the smiling faces of those who have attained their much-coveted pension, in a country where some will never have a pension at all, or will only receive the bare minimum, which in any case is lower than the “basic income” plan approved by the former government (and certainly far below the pension received by members of the exiting parliament).
Michelangelo-Cappella-Sistina-Vatican-detail
This is what our world today looks like: exponential ignorance wins out over intellectual sophistication; those who trash their neighbor (even in the family) think they are cool. And, like the narrowing circles of Dante’s Inferno, today’s teenagers are learning that a person makes a living on Tik Tok and other hand-to-mouth expedients. Not a good example.
And in order to condemn the stereotype of the smart guy who pads his expense account and rips off his organization (instead of worrying about protecting its interests and sustainability), we first need to return to a concept of dignity and pride that is personal first before it is national. It is a popular sport to go around pointing the finger at other people, holding them guilty for everything, instead of looking at one's own limitations and taking responsibility for what one has done, trying to figure out how to improve and do more next time.
I would not know how to dismantle this hypocritical and big-headed way of reasoning, self-referential, and so inadequate as to become sick and repugnant. But it is nonetheless rampant and widespread. It has deep roots, cultivated for at least the last 60 years. It began with the economic boom of the 1960s and the proliferation of a petty-bourgeois class that spread everywhere, even to places where greater rigor and intellectual standing would have been more appropriate. This class has raised spoiled, selfish, navel-gazing and mediocre children — a hopeless mediocrity that has led to the loss of human value and the dignity of existence, going far beyond the boundaries of bourgeoisie.
Today we are witnessing widespread examples of inept and incapable people rejoicing at the disaster of an embarrassing world leadership, and the emptiness of a future that is no more. But it matters little; there is always something to steal somewhere, and that’s where they focus their miserable efforts. I feel sorry for Italy, I feel sorry for Europe, and I feel sorry for the world, a place that is now cramped, but only for those who can still truly appreciate the taste of pure, fresh air. There are few of us left. Dignity is obsolete and rare. It is even annoying for some; for others, it is the only salvation we can aspire to, if we really want to make the Earth a better place. Do we still have enough time?
