Antonio Socci
Libero Quotidiano
July 3, 2018
Amid the cheerful, colorful streets of Siena, in festivity for “Il Palio della Madonna di Provenzano”, and a week following the electoral tsunami, some of the city’s leftist big-wheels and intellectuals wander around like they are lost; questioned by national newspapers, they admit they are “in shock” and bewildered at the collapse of their ‘red sovereignty’ which had lasted for a period of 70 years.
Even in other major Tuscan cities the Democratic Party (PD) has become the acronym for “Loses Everywhere”. And it can’t even blame the elusive Russian Hacker for its defeat in Massa, Pisa and Siena (MPS) after having lost the other Tuscan towns.
Even in other major Tuscan cities the Democratic Party (PD) has become the acronym for “Loses Everywhere”. And it can’t even blame the elusive Russian Hacker for its defeat in Massa, Pisa and Siena (MPS) after having lost the other Tuscan towns.
The exponents of the left drift around like ghosts on the pages of the newspapers unable to come to terms [with what has happened]. They find it baffling that the electors “fired” them - “the best”, the most civilized, the most enlightened - and in their place chose the nasty ones - the barbarians,.
So, even if they are
tearing each other apart in internal fighting, they make no attempt at
self-criticism (even the “Monte dei Paschi” affair– if you listen to them – was the fault
of “others”).
Tuscany was the last ‘red
empire’ in Europe. It collapsed as a result of the breath of fresh air from a
population grown weary of a Left which
had made a mess of everything and had forgotten the needs and suffering of ordinary people who finally sent them
packing!
It was a Pci (Communist
Party) that had transformed itself into a ‘politically correct’ establishment
and continued to dominate the Tuscan territory with its suffocating block of
power. But in its slick public image, for years now, it had replaced its love
for the USSR and “true socialism” with a psychological and political subjection
towards an unreal America: The White House of Clinton and Obama, the markets
and the European technocracy.
Today, in “progressive” circles from Siena and Pisa to New York,
through to Rome, London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels the same shock and
bewilderment reigns.
They are all asking: how is
it possible that the barbarians won? Why did the people choose the “uncivilized”,
over us, who are – by definition - “civilization
itself” and the light of the world?
In the wealthy Manhattan
penthouses – those immortalized by Tom Wolfe as the “radical chic” , they are
still wondering why the Americans voted for Trump the Monster and how amazingly
he is still in the saddle (sustained by a growing consensus).
In the London tea-houses
they are still wondering even today how
on earth it was possible that the British ‘plebs’ were allowed to win Brexit.
Meanwhile, on the Roman
terraces, in shock after the devastation
of March 4th,, they are
struck with horror at seeing Salvini, The Barbarian, who has won the government and the growing
consensus of the Italians.
These elite are hardly
able to hide their contemptuous discontent behind their bewilderment. It is not by accident – after Brexit and
Trump – that some of these [so-called] enlightened have even begun to question
universal suffrage.
Being unable – at least
for the moment – to impose a government of the elite which abolishes
democracy (even if they had already
imposed technocratic governments in Italy or governments remote-controlled by
the troika elsewhere) they are attempting to muzzle the Net which they can’t control.
But it’s precisely the Net that has enabled people to climb over the lead-wall
of the mass-media, always on the side of the elite.
The establishment now
feel like they are being besieged by the populists: in the White House there is
the World Head of barbaric populism. In the Kremlin the oriental- face of
populism has won hands down.
Then they see all of Eastern
Europe immersed in populism, including Austria (they cite “the Visegrad
countries) with the disgust that they should have - and don’t have - towards certain dictatorships. In Great Britain the Brexit populists won.
It’s comical to see the
Italian Left desperately clinging to Macron and Merkel who are certainly not of
the Left. Even more so since in France
Macron, who won with minority percentages, has many serious problems. And in
Germany Merkel – who was already limping from the elections –is now being destabilized
by the Bavarians in her party, also populists.
In the European Union –
the last hold-out of the elite – the so-called populists have the wind in their
favour and at the European elections next spring are aiming for victory.
In the prevailing narration of today’s mass-media, you become populist if you listen to the people (with their needs) rather than obey the elite. The Left in Italy has in its DNA the habit of degrading and “branding” its opponents: fascist, racist and populist.
Since as Luca Ricolfi* observes, those of the Left are convinced “they represent the best part of the country, of being ethically, culturally and politically superior” and “see the opposing party as barbarians to educate or keep at the doors, underestimating even their good reasons”.
They will never acknowledge their errors. In America as in Italy, seeing as they no longer have the people [on their side] and having seen the uselessness of their monopoly of the mass-media, they are hoping in some overturning of power caused by the Deep State, the judiciary, the European Central Bank, the markets or the European Union.
So that they can award themselves a hypothetical victory after having lost in the field.
In the prevailing narration of today’s mass-media, you become populist if you listen to the people (with their needs) rather than obey the elite. The Left in Italy has in its DNA the habit of degrading and “branding” its opponents: fascist, racist and populist.
Since as Luca Ricolfi* observes, those of the Left are convinced “they represent the best part of the country, of being ethically, culturally and politically superior” and “see the opposing party as barbarians to educate or keep at the doors, underestimating even their good reasons”.
They will never acknowledge their errors. In America as in Italy, seeing as they no longer have the people [on their side] and having seen the uselessness of their monopoly of the mass-media, they are hoping in some overturning of power caused by the Deep State, the judiciary, the European Central Bank, the markets or the European Union.
So that they can award themselves a hypothetical victory after having lost in the field.
*an Italian sociologist
and writer.
Translation: contributor Francesca Romana
