In the post office you find the bank. At the station, you find the shopping centres. You cannot yet send a parcel from the counter at the bank, but it’s just a matter of time. It’s the triumph of universality. The politician spends his time on TV but not in Parliament, he’s an actor, he doesn’t make laws. Anyone who is elected, in all senses, it’s as though he has been given employment by the public broadcasting company, the RAI. There’s a growing repulsion in relation to one’s own job that pushes one to do something else. For Moretti, it’s less important to have the trains running to time than having the supermarkets in the Big Stations. In theory, Benetton makes jumpers, in practice it manages motorways, an activity of which it has no experience but that allows it to rake in billions of euro in tolls. Colaninno, ex Telecom, ex Olivetti, ex everything, goes by Vespa and he’s dealing with Alitalia though he knows not a jot about air transport. It’s the apotheosis of incompetence.
The escorts become Ministers, the judges are deputies and many deputies would like to be judges, the government issues laws instead of governing, and the Opposition, as well as opposing, finds time to collaborate. The oncologist Veronesi improvises as a nuclear expert. Doing something else is useful to fight the boredom of one’s own job. It’s better to be an amateur every day, than to be a professional for the whole of your life. Only the one who tackles his activity with the spirit of a pure amateur can carry it out without distractions, with the thoughtlessness of improvisation. For example, Bertolaso of the catastrophes, or Gasparri when he was an unknowing Minister of Telecommunications.
Obviously, doing something else doesn’t mean renouncing the salary that one is paid to do something else. In fact, "altrismo" {other-ism} mustn’t be confused with altruism, even though it sounds similar. If the crime doesn’t pay, exactly as for Tremorti, being a Mayor and a Senator, theatre actor and a deputy, lawyer and parliamentarian, pays double and even triple. "Altrismo" develops unthinkable synergies together with the wallet. The important thing is to participate (in getting the money). To find a Minister who does the job of a Minister, a euro-deputy who does the job of a euro-deputy, a whore who does the job of a whore, is a forlorn task. There’s even the one who improvises as leader while he’s President of the Lower House, and there’s the one who participates in the drafting of laws like the President of the Republic.
The neighbour’s activity is always greener. Father Christmas will also be the “Befana” {the witch who comes for the Epiphany} and the three Kings together with St Joseph. “Trasformismo”, an old sickness of the country that relentlessly strikes the Italians, from Giolitti to Scilipoti (with all due respect) has transformed itself into social schizophrenia. Each one is also other. The important thing, as always, is not to work, and above all, not to accept one’s own responsibilities.