Sociologically Italy is a country full of ideas; those who study the history and evolution of the countries within them, in the Peninsula find such a mass of topics that they have to sweat the classic 7 shirts to be able to understand something.
In times not too long, the Belpaese was appreciated for its ability to produce comedies and melodies; rich Englishmen abandoned their wet and gray lands to land here, where sun, sea and joy of living they have always made their weight felt for the highest souls. The elect, then returned to their lands, placed in the album of memories the wonderful holiday, began to look again at the concrete, leaving the Italians to their funeral. Too bad that very often the concreteness of the sad Nordics ended up in lise and italic saccocce.
Tran tran past? Well, not so much ... also because pockets remained the same .. more or less. Usual neo-Latin whining? No ... an urgent need for awareness that is slow to take shape. In short, if something happens there will also be a liability, or at least a cause. And here the fault remains solely and exclusively against a people who, in the face of the various oleographs that have taken place over time, have remained divided, resentful, absolutely unable to look to the future, eagerly wrapped in the blanket of a torpid ignorance that, in addition to mobile phones , cars a la page and holidays in Ibiza (bought with very expensive loans), does not know and does not want to go.
Italian history, from the moment of a controversial unification, is full of peaks that have seen the irrepressible explosion of bloody angers and comfortable acquiescences. The Risorgimento, analyzed with the calm due to the elapsed time, perhaps was not as bright and immaculate as it was imagined by schoolchildren. As soon as they united, Southern Italy discovered the compulsory conscription service; that of the North, except Piedmont, has taken note of a frightening deficit, with an outline of recurrent wars and consequent losses.
Taking into account successive dictatorships and world conflicts, how could a people be formed under these auspices? Just as it is, with as many regrettable peaks, a people who have only learned not to draw any lessons from history, who cannot accept what has happened, who a priori refuses any analysis or comparison, as Giampaolo Pansa learned on his skin.
What does not seem, but is actually even more deplorable, is the progressive crumbling of the latest institutions which, by their very nature, should have been the glue for the shards of an increasingly cracked vase: the Armed Forces.
Italy, almost wanting to spite anyone who intended to join it, is a peninsula, that is, a strip of land stretched out into the sea, in a geographic position, however, so precious and particular and yet never fully understood or fully valued by the governess on duty; England, although for some perfidious, she learned the lesson immediately enough to become a teacher, teaching the world how an island, in a difficult context, with a motivated and fierce prepared Navy, could impose a global domination. Out of pure curiosity, on a map, put Afro-British colonies and India near the UK, and then let me tell you.
Imperialists? Colonialists? No doubt; as a note of color to their value it should be remembered how they were surpassed by small Belgium, whose King Leopold the Congo has kept it as personal property.
Nationalists? Yes, certainly; but equally frankly it does not seem to hear popular expressions of national flags or values from the Champs Elysees or from the Trooping the Color.
A well-known Italian writer of historical novels, VM Manfredi, claimed that the Italian it is so because it comes from afar; one wonders if, having traveled so much in history, he has not lost his way and compass.
We have mentioned the Armed Forces; what greater (ideal) example of national cohesion? Tanghetes! Here is the painful note.
The Navy should be the weapon closest to the feeling of a country immersed in the Mediterranean. But no; after all if the children of the Italic elementary schools believe that milk comes petally produced by some machine, why should their august parents ask themselves the question of how energy and resources arrive on the (once) sacred banks? But who cares, just that the transfer market is fine.
But even worse, it is the need to lately witness the repeated absence of the maximum military representative (the Chief of Defense Staff), at any event of relevance naval. The solemn oath of Livorno evidently does not attract, as it does not appear perturbing the delivery of a new ship which, apart from the war itself, a lot of work and wages has ensured for workers otherwise destined for layoffs.
All this leads to other considerations, neither worthy nor rewarding. The color of the uniform remains the prevailing factor, and the Mussolini experience of the large aircraft carrier reaching into the sea, with all the solemn bludgeons taken, little has taught; what has been understood is that, probably, the problem of dislikes did not lie so much in a past Chief of Staff unpopular for his way of being (probably also), but in basic considerations that want the Blue Weapon relegated to a poor supporting role.
All the fault of those bad guys in blue? No, for the sake of honesty we have to say no. Very often, those who cause his illness must cry themselves ... or make those around them cry or, worse, under.
With a view to limiting spending, we did not realize (really?) The insane depletion of staff and valuable technical skills, paying attention only to a self-reference aimed at justifying shortcomings in our own small way, with self-absolutive forms devoid of real conscience . The staff is numerically scarce, and what is there is largely unmotivated, with peaks of defections that should worry. Why should an Officer prefer Amazon after all he has studied? Beyond backyard quarrels, who is really thinking about an increasingly small human capital? In addition to bureaucracies that seem to recall the Mel Brooks of the golden age, that of the "Crazy history of the world”, What do you intend to change, in addition to continuing to rely on the most old?
As happened on the Titanic, while on the upper decks we continued to dance, in the third class we died drowned, with the background of an immobility that, frantically, blocks any yearning.
Photo: Ministry of Defense
