From the terror of spread to the spread of terror.

I knew that the Italian media would not deceive disappoint us, and I was right.

After having kept us for four years under the terror of the interest rate spread, they now switch the words, and devote themselves to another task: to spread the terror. Upon switching the words, the result is the same: “more Europe”. And it is a despicable lie.

Let us begin from the terror of spread. On November 10th, 2011, the Sole 24 Ore (I could define it the Italian equivalent of the Financial Times, but this comparison would depress me too much...), opened with such an iconic title:

Translation: “HURRY UP!” These words were addressed to the Italian political class. According to Roberto Napoletano, the editor, Italian politicians should have surrendered much faster their mandate in the hands of an unelected technocrat, Mario Monti, as this sacrifice, and only this sacrifice, would have rescued Italy from the rage of the markets. Needless to say, I was not exactly of the same opinion. On next November 16th, the day in which the Commission approved the Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure, and Monti took office, I decided to open this blog, with a self-explanatory post: “The rescue that will not rescue us”. The technical government was bound to fail (in a sense), because its task was to reassure external creditors, and in order to accomplish this task quickly, the only possible way was to destroy domestic demand, in order to stop imports, and to foster exports through internal devaluation, i.e., through unemployment, at the risk of entering a deflationary spiral.

Everybody knows that I was right. Italy is much worse off now, but the external creditors are not. Therefore, in a sense Monti has not failed. It is just a matter of standpoint... But it is worth noting that Il Sole 24 Ore was lying. Its argument, according to which we, the lazy Italians, were under attack because of our huge public debt, was proved wrong by a vast amount of evidence: the European Commission would certify, about one year later, that Italian public debt was the most sustainable within the Eurozone, on a long-term basis, and that Italy had never had a serious fiscal sustainability problem even on a short term basis; about two years later, ECB vice-president Constâncio would endorse the main argument of my post, namely, that what we were (and still are) experiencing was an external debt crisis, determined by unwise private lending from Northern creditors to the Southern private sectors (private, you know, does not mean sovereign...); about three years later we would learn from Geithner that the issue at stake were somewhat different from what our media had represented. For most of this time, Italy has lived under the terror of spread, fostered by the Italian press, according to which the solution was at your fingertips: the United States of Europe, that nobody really wanted (certainly not the creditors, and probably not the debtors), but that were invariably evoked as the only true solution to all our economic evils. Only by surrendering our sovereignty (and our democracy) we, the Italians, could have redeemed ourselves from our original sin: that of having dared to rule ourselves, as dozens of other nations do, all around the world!

You probably know that in Italy we use to say that “all roads lead to Rome”. In Italian newspapers all roads lead to the United States of Europe.

A nice example today, here:

Translation for differently Italian readers: according to Napoletano (the same guy of the “hurry up” lie), in order to protect ourselves from the terror, we should move faster towards the United States of Europe (“Western countries should answer with the United States of Europe, namely, having the political strength of the largest market in the world, it’s high time for Europe to decide to having a say not only through a single currency, but also through a single army”).

In fact, as you may have noticed, thanks to its federal structure, the United States of America was able to avert 9/11.

Or?

Yes, it did not (unfortunately, for the many victims, and for all of us). But apparently Napoletano failed to perceive this little detail!

He is so keen to exploit a tragedy, he is so anxious to deliver his country to “the markets” (his instigators), that he fails to notice the oddities of his reasoning. They all amount to a single question: how can we suppose Europe to be able to manage weapons (which in principle are designed, built, sold, and bought to kill people), if it cannot ever manage a currency (which in principle is a relatively harmless device – although our governments were so wise as to transform ours in an engine of destruction)? The very reason why we cannot afford to have a single army is the same why we cannot afford a single currency: because we do not have, and will never have, a common political will. Never. Never. Never. Because for a common will to emerge in a democratic way, we should be able to speak the same language, and we are not (as my English, for sure, will prove enough).

Without logos there is no polis. We do not have a common logos, we are not a single polis.

As simple as that.

Until our politicians will not be as kind as to acknowledge this self-evident truth, life will be very hard for us, but never as hard as for Roberto Napoletano’s family.

“Roberto! The washing machine broke! What should I do?” “Did you try more Europe?”

“Dear, may I ask your advice? Should I add more salt?” “I’d rather say more Europe”.

“Dad, could you please help me? I need to translate this sentence: ‘Quos vult perdere dementat prius’”. “Come on, junior, it’s easy: ‘United States of Europe’!”

A real nightmare.

But, you know, there is a difference between us and Roberto’s wife. She chose him, for some unspecified and uninteresting reason. We did not. This is the journalism we did not choose, the journalism we do not deserve, the journalism we are all fed up with, the journalism that is killing our democracy. There are no words to deprecate the jackal that is so keen to take advantage of a tragedy for putting forward his insane arguments. What a shameful lack of respect for those victims, and what an unscrupulous use of spin techniques!

And how are things going in our countries, you European fellows? Do you also have jackals spreading terror, in order to ask for more Europe? It must really a bad thing “Europe”, if you need to spread terror in order to convince people to accept it, don’t you think so?

I do not think so. But I am not Roberto, I am Alberto. My Europe is not his. This is mine: better notes than banknotes.

Unicuique suum.

(I kindly ask my readers, who are much more proficient in English than I am, to correct me. They are ready for Europe. I am ready only for Vivaldi, but I am studying some Bach right now. In a few centuries - after adding Byrd, Froberger, Rameau, Soler... - I will be ready for Europe, and so will Europe. But now, please help me to put an end to this insanity, and to fight the jackals...)