(video transcript https://youtu.be/bR2uocM2EZg )
Good morning, everyone. Today I’d like to take advantage of the fact that psychotherapy sessions are on hold – it’s the so-called summer break – to step out of my role as a psychologist and discuss with you a few topics that have come up over the summer.
Firstly, Ceuta. I think you all know what happened at the end of July – that many young Moroccans entered Ceuta, which is a city located in Morocco but is a Spanish enclave. Our very own Marco Randisi wrote about this very well on our blog. I just wanted to highlight the absurdity of our government’s actions, because bear in mind that Ceuta is in Morocco; it’s not part of the Schengen Area, meaning that anyone wishing to enter Europe is subject to checks, and our government has managed to suspend the Schengen Agreement with Spain – and bear in mind that, as you are well aware, Spain does not share a border with Italy. What’s more, to reach Europe from Ceuta, you have to cross the Strait of Gibraltar. In short, it’s sheer madness, utter madness. Quite apart from the fact that dozens of young people have died, it’s a madness that has, moreover, resulted in many European countries now sending back to us the so-called ‘Dublin cases’. Do you know who they are? They’re the ones who entered Europe via Italy as their first point of entry, and now many states are sending them back to us. Here too, as if they were parcels in the post – let’s not even get into the absurdity of it. But what interests me now is: are these people daft? Are they obsessed with an ‘invasion’? Are they terrified that Vannacci might overtake them on the right? I mean, it’s a bit… or are they simply crafty operators trying to distract public opinion from the real problems? We experienced one of these first-hand this summer. This absurd heatwave has forced us to face up to what scientists have been saying for many years now: the climate emergency. And what are our leaders doing? They’re investing in weapons. The climate emergency doesn’t exist; they don’t even mention it. They paint a picture of a world full of enemies – weapons, invaders – ‘we’re sovereignists, we must defend our borders’, though from what, we don’t know. But really, it’s a ridiculous situation, completely ridiculous. We’re in the hands of people like this.
Anyway, the other topic I wanted to talk to you about is one that’s been discussed at length and will continue to be discussed at length, namely the so-called Ranucci-Lavitola case, because, look, I think you all know – because everyone’s talking about it – what it’s all about, but to me it seems truly incomprehensible how someone of Ranucci’s calibre could have formed such a close, deep friendship with a convicted wheeler-dealer like Lavitola. To try and understand it better, I went and watched Andrea Scanzi’s videos, because I knew the two of them knew each other – Scanzi and Ranucci know each other personally – and I also went and watched Saviano’s videos. Andrea Scanzi says that this relationship Ranucci has formed with Lavitola is a mistake. He says, ‘He was a right fool to get involved with him.’ Well, that seems a bit of an oversimplification to me, because we’re dealing with someone at the height of his success – a highly respected investigative journalist – and what does he do? He goes and writes this report about this guy at such a high level. Now, I certainly don’t want to put my psychologist’s hat back on, but it occurs to me that there must be something there that perhaps forces us to look at deeper, that is, unconscious levels of what happened. Because, look, on the part of the right-wing newspapers and right-wing politicians, there’s been a disgusting smear campaign against Ranucci – something truly shameful. They’ve gone so far as to say he carried out the attack on himself – in short, truly absurd claims – but I believe there’s something there that I’ve seen… Well, I don’t want to talk about that specific situation because I might end up saying something daft, as I don’t know Ranucci, I don’t know Lavitola; but I have seen situations where people end up forming an unconscious alliance with their own killer. And here we have this Lavitola presenting himself as Ranucci’s great friend, saying ‘I did it for him’ and so on. I’m not convinced by this at all. To me, this Lavitola reminds me very much of Iago, and Ranucci in terms of how… I don’t want to get into dynamics I don’t understand, but there must be something there that causes a person at the height of their success to form a relationship with their own killer.
Anyway, still on the subject of Scanzi’s videos, he brings up the old argument that so many people – especially on the left – have always made: they start from the idea that people are nasty, uncaring and stupid, and he says this quite openly. And he says that only a small minority of people are worthwhile, whilst the rest are just like that. So much so that he even endorses Moni Ovadia’s provocative suggestion that the right to vote should only be granted to people who know the Constitution. Leaving aside the fact that this is obviously a provocation – nobody’s going to touch universal suffrage – it’s the thinking behind it that I really don’t like: the idea that there must be a culture that educates, as if there were some human reality that needs to be educated, because otherwise it’s—well—stupid, indifferent, violent. We’ve heard it all before.
Yet it was precisely at this time – on 6 August, to be precise – that we lost a true giant in the form of Francesco Guccini. And Francesco Guccini always spoke of working-class and peasant culture, and I have never seen the things Guccini says as being linked to a sense of belonging, but rather as something that comes naturally from within. Guccini has always spoken about politics, but he’s spoken from the gut; and speaking in that way means getting the message across. For me, it would be truly desirable if politicians could do the same – if they could genuinely speak from their gut to the guts of others – but as long as their ideas and thoughts are tied to Freudian culture or Foucault, they’ll never manage it. They’ll always be spouting these abstract, rational ramblings that just don’t get through. Because right now, they’re doing the right a huge favour, as the right speaks to people’s gut. Then we can say we don’t like that gut—that it’s where fear, anger and anxiety reside, whatever you want to call it—and we know perfectly well that’s not the true nature of human beings.
Incidentally, going back to Foucault for a moment, Alexandra Cortez’s comments on ‘woke’ culture have caused quite a stir recently, because she said that ‘woke’ culture was madness, crazy… And now, even in America, people are talking about socialism again. And this debate is also taking shape in Italy, though it seems to me that it’s becoming somewhat reduced to a clash between civil rights and social rights, and I don’t think that’s really what the debate is about; in other words, I don’t think it’s entirely accurate to attribute the defence of civil rights as the sole banner of ‘woke’ culture. I believe, instead, that there are theoretical underpinnings within ‘woke’ culture which, from my point of view, don’t work at all. Anyway, let’s leave that aside.
Let’s get back to ‘Political Guccini’. Dear politicians, clear your minds of negative thoughts about human beings. Start to understand – and you too, dear Scanzi – start to realise that it is this kind of politics that fails to stir people’s hearts, but there are plenty of sound-minded people out there, and there are many of them. So, dear politicians, realise that you don’t need to educate anyone at all. You must respond to people’s needs with a political programme, with a vision that revives the hope which you have managed to stifle in so many excellent and capable people. And if you don’t get a move on, we risk being stuck with these leaders for another five years.
Marco Michelini
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