The surrender of the Italians to state paternalism: addiction to illiberal measures and empty ballot boxes
It is physiological that, in a democracy, a small slice of voters do not want to go to the polls and cast their votes. This is a widespread phenomenon in Italy which recurs periodically since the beginning of the Second Republic. Before Mani Pulite, the judicial investigation that upset the political system, parties were capable of mobilizing masses and individuals. From the Christian Democrats to the Communist Party, they promoted opposing views of society, but at the same time clear and defined. Nowadays, parties are no longer able to arouse passion and much less sense of belonging.
However, the abstention recorded in the last administrative elections represents a political fact that is as unprecedented as it is alarming. The intolerance for “traditional” parties, which has manifested itself several times in the course of our recent history through the protest vote for the 5 Star Movement and the Lega, has undergone a sudden evolution in recent months. It is as if, after a year and a half of restrictions on individual freedoms, citizens have lost all interest in public affairs. The initial indignation of some, indeed, of a few for the squeezing of fundamental rights, was replaced by the indifference of most.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, dissent has been criminalized using all political and media means. With the necessary exceptions, newspapers and television broadcasts have supported the illiberal measures implemented in the name of the health emergency rather than subject them to the scrutiny of a responsible public opinion. Anyone who criticized the lockdown and the Dpcm has been accused of "denial". Even Sabino Cassese, a well-known jurist, was addressed with this epithet for having questioned the constitutionality of the decrees passed by the Conte 2 government. The same treatment is reserved today for those who contest the Green Pass , a contradictory instrument of which Atlantico Quotidiano has repeatedly highlighted the critical issues.
To fuel the intolerance towards politics, which culminated in the abstention of the last electoral round, the magmatic and deformed climate in which we find ourselves contributed in a decisive way: on the one hand an opposition party, the Brothers of Italy, with a strong consensus in the country, but with weak parliamentary representation; on the other, a government of national unity supported by the overwhelming majority of parties. A situation that, despite being dictated by historical contingency, risks in the long run to discourage voters, instilling the doubt that in the end the vote is not all that important and that popular representation, at the basis of every democracy, can be sacrificed for a upper end.
As the philosopher Giorgio Agamben explained very clearly, “our society no longer believes in anything except in bare life. It is clear that Italians are willing to sacrifice practically everything, normal living conditions, social relationships, work, even friendships, affections and religious and political beliefs in order to fall ill ”. Now everything seems normal to us: the extension of the state of emergency to 31 December, the Green Pass to go to work, the Dpcm that follow one another at more or less regular intervals. Instead of horrifying us, state paternalism reassures us. And when we have the opportunity to express our dissent in the polls, we do not take the opportunity. Indeed, we ignore it.
As we said at the beginning, the schizophrenic management of the pandemic has renewed the distrust of many Italians towards the importance of voting, that is, to assert their opinion in the democratic arena. With all due respect to Winston Churchill who, in a speech to the House of Commons in November 1947, stated: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those forms that have been tried up to now". And we agree with him.
The post The surrender of Italians to state paternalism: addiction to illiberal measures and empty ballot boxes appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/la-resa-degli-italiani-al-paternalismo-di-stato-assuefazione-alle-misure-illiberali-e-urne-vuote/ on Mon, 11 Oct 2021 03:52:00 +0000.