Here is the silly of Labor on Clean Hands
Because I appreciate little, indeed nothing, of the book "Mani Pulite" by Marco Travaglio. Gianfranco Polillo's comment
If we were at the time of "Quaderni Piacentini", a swamped magazine of the snobbish left, the latest book by Marco Travaglio, Peter Gomez and Gianni Barbacetto (inverted order to take into account the caliber of the individual co-authors) " Mani clean" would have been placed among those not to be read. We are more tolerant and do not go that far. For those who love to read a sort of morning paper, they will find in that thousand pages (912 to be exact) a myriad of news and the description of as many episodes described with the lens of the inquisitor.
He will also find distant reminiscences there. That long essay by the same authors (then it was 712 pages), published twenty years ago and now republished, with some additions, to remember that distant day 30 years ago – it was February 17, 1992 – when Mario Chiesa, the "thug ”, According to the definition of Bettino Craxi, was taken with the hands of the sack. Giving rise to that great slaughter that will later be "clean hands". We therefore expect a future update – we will not know if in five or ten years – to celebrate the anniversary again.
Someone may suspect a sort of obsession in this insistence. The truth is more prosaic. Travaglio & Co is a profitable business. It continues to tickle a part – hopefully less and less – of public opinion, which obviously, in the large communication market, proves to be sensitive to those products. Probably this activity will not bring them to the top of power, but, as Edoardo Bennato sang, it is also possible to live on "songs" alone. Which, however, to work must meet a minimum of aesthetic standards.
Does the new / old text pass the pudding test? The doubts are many and numerous. In Travaglio's imagination the epic of "clean hands" represents the "brightest chapter" in Italian history of the last thirty years. It is difficult to understand on what basis this judgment is based: perhaps on the involvement of over 3,800 people in criminal matters? It should be considered a sad story, not a bright one, considering how long it had been going on. The story of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio was only the tip of the iceberg, whose submerged platform had characterized the entire history of the Italian post-war period.
On the one hand, "Moscow's gold", on the other, American funding. On the one hand, the donations of large companies in favor especially of government parties, on the other the action of the red cooperatives towards the left-wing opposition. In both cases, illegal funding, but tolerated as it is the children of a war that was fought in the harsh opposition between the West and the Empire of evil. Money that was used to keep the "troops". Those millions of militants destined, on both sides, to keep alive the impossibility of any victory over each other.
Was there anyone getting rich? Of course there was. But tolerating it was inevitable if the system as a whole was to work. "Clean hands" have only uncovered this gigantic worm. Known for some time, but tolerated in the name of a higher need. To avoid the country worse troubles, such as those that could derive from its sudden change of face, albeit determined by the results of free elections. Those who, as in Greece immediately after the war, did not take into account the international bond had paid heavily for this act of pride.
And then the mystery of the sudden national awareness is revealed. The moment of truth was not 1992, but 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the "end of history", as someone dared to say. Not of the universal one, but of that of the 20th century with its enormous contradictions. An Italy, finally liberated, could come to terms with itself, and put an end to a system that, in the meantime, had degenerated.
Travaglio & Co think instead that that turning point was determined by the dimension of corruption, which had emptied the coffers of the state. With due respect: a sound nonsense, without detracting from the actual dimension of the corruption phenomena. But in the logic of large numbers, which describe the macroeconomic equilibrium of a country, there are other phenomena that lead to the crisis. And from 1992 onwards it was above all German reunification that put the European Monetary System in crisis, expelling the most fragile countries: Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland.
And who wanted to resist, like Sweden was forced to raise short-term interest rates to 500 percent. It was these events, completely independent of corruption, that led to the popular reaction in Italy that allowed the Milan pool to carry on the work, overcoming those resistances that, in the past, had (from P2 to IRI black funds) all covered up .
There is no trace of all this in the mighty tome of our heroes. We are led to know the most insignificant details of everyday life. But no mention of those fundamentals capable of conditioning its development. Task of analysts and historians: it will be said. Not reporters. But then what is the point of putting up with almost a thousand pages, if the meaning of the story being told is not clear?
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/ecco-la-sciocchezzona-di-travaglio-su-mani-pulite/ on Sun, 20 Feb 2022 09:34:26 +0000.