Italy is Not Going to Die
David Gilmour, apparently in between solos on "Comfortably Numb"*, writes that Italy's fractured history makes it little surprise that it's falling apart now.
I'm not sure whether this article offends me more as an Italian-American or as a graduate student in international affairs. Yes, Italy was once comprised of many different states. So was Germany. Yes, Italy was once the home of many different languages. So was- and is- present-day Indonesia. Italy has a strong north-south divide. Guess what? So does the United States. And, to a lesser extent, China.
This isn't to say Italy doesn't have problems, of course. But nobody was suggesting that the country "was barely real to begin with" prior to this most recent economic crisis.
As someone who has lived in Italy, speaks Italian, and met very many Italian people, I can assure Gilmour that the Italian sense of national identity has far stronger expressions than simply soccer. The entire nation takes pride in the country's cultural heritage, which includes some of the world's most magnificent art and literature as well as scientific accomplishments. Not only Romans take pride in Michelangelo, or Florentines the David, or Venetians the canals and St. Mark's Square. I once made the mistake of suggesting to an Italian that pizza came from Chicago. It didn't go over well.
Italians from the north are certainly critical of their southern siblings, with "the North works for the South" being a popular refrain. Yet I've heard far worse from Americans regarding our own Southerners, who unlike their Italian counterparts once actually did try to form a union and secede from the country. It isn't at all unusual for a New Yorker to vilify the Mississippi "personhood" initiative but still hold William Faulkner and ante-bellum architecture in high regard. Similarly, Italians from the north often speak fondly of the rugged beauty of the mezzogiorno even in the same breath as denouncing the Mafia.
Whomever eventually assumes the reins of the Italian government will have a lot of work to do. But to suggest that Italy's current problems mean it isn't somehow as "real" as other countries is asinine and beneath FP's usual standards.
*Yes, I know it's not that David Gilmour.
