Beppe Grillo's Blog

Monti, the exorcist

Monti is doing the dirty work, the work that the parties can no longer do. He is rinsing the clothes in the sewer, instead of in the Arno. Anyway, he has no choice. Every river in Italy is a sewer. The water courses can be differentiated only for the number of colibatteri. The “rights of the workers” have become a phrase without meaning, a mantra to be recited on TV by the trade unionists assimilated into the system like French poodles to bob around with. The pension is a memory from the golden age, destined only for the luckiest few, like Amato, but also Veltroni, Scalfari and the wives of Boss(ol)i and Bevtinotti. It’s they that have achieved something in life. The lengthening of the working age has two effects: for some old people, to remove a few years of serenity before death and to prevent the entrance of young people into the world of work. We will have an army of old people with the prostate a bit gaga that will give the weekly pocket money to the forty year old unemployed son. They are crutches, necessary supports to keep the System on its feet. Monti is the offspring of this System, perhaps the best one in circulation, but he will never go against the one who brought him into the world and lovingly looked after for a good seventy years.
Monti reminds one of Merrin, the exorcist. Long and lanky beneath the lamp post, in the first fog of the evening. The exorcism is however not against the demon of capitalism, but against its victims. Capitalism is good. Growth is necessary. The GDP is like the Holy Spirit. Monti came to fight the heresy of change, the campaign groups, and at the same time, the excesses of a church, that of the parties, at its sunset. Like Father Merrin, he’s at risk of dying of a heart attack in a freezing room.
What’s waiting for us after the recession is the depression. It will last at least three or four years. Prices will go up. Salaries will go down. Belts will be tightened right up to the last hole. The spread will go down and the BTP will be saved. The operation will be a success and the patient will go into a coma. Many people ask me “Are there alternatives?” This question always leaves me speechless. One should ask why we got to this point and what the causes are; who are the GUILTY ones, Confindustria-people, politicians, bankers, trade unionists and journalists that have brought the nation to the economic abyss and outside democracy, and put them outside public life forever. The assassin always goes back to the scene of the crime. But this lot have never gone away. Those who don’t know History are destined to live it again.

Silenzio si ruba {Silence, there’s thieving}, by Marco Travaglio.
Un anno di illegalità permanente {a year of permanent illegality}
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Comments

It is worth remembering that some of these gentlemen brought in to solve Italy's financial problems once worked for Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs had considerable responsibility for creating this crisis at least in the US. When they ended up with their own desperate situation the US government, also served by past employees of GS, bailed them out with the presentation of many billions of dollars. Within a few months of this bail-out GS awarded its own luminaries a total of billions in bonuses. It seems perfectly reasonable to ask some of these gentlemen what their connections are/were with Goldman Sachs,since the tax payers of Italy, in a real sense, are being asked for a bail-out to help whom?

Posted by: Ivan Danziger | December 9, 2011 10:39 AM

Good question, Chris! Sounds a bit like demagoguery. In Italy blaming unionists for the country's woes is a national past-time. I know, in this case including unionist echoes rabid reactionaries like Bel Pietro, Sallusti, Feltri or editorialists from Corriere, Tempo, Il Giornale. Sometimes Beppe lashes out at friends and foes but I think Beppe's list included unionists for failing to protect workers' rights in the past. However, that can't be said about Landini. He is a stand-up guy resisting Fiat's union-busting, blackmail tactics. But you address Beppe. He should answer your question, even for our sakes. That way he clears up where he stands vis-a-vis the working class.

Posted by: louis pacella | December 8, 2011 04:16 PM

Carved into the temple were three phrases: gnōthi seautón ("know thyself") and mēdén ágan ("nothing in excess"), and engýa pára d'atē ("make a pledge and mischief is nigh").

A month of no-Berlusconi does not erase 17, nay 30, nay 92, nay 151 years of brainwashing..
Is it not clear that the Italian government is murdering the country Italy in a suicidal act of pseudo-austerity. While the bookkeepers are highlighting their spreadsheets and balances, their measures are locking down and drying up the economy of which the financial policy is only a shadow.
Instead of doing useful things Italy seems to be swinging to the side of hypocritical goody-goody sort of collective masochism.
And it's all show.. To reassure the transparancy-hungry global web of high-frequency trading which in it's mathematical optimized algorithms has no clue of long-term historical nuances and the ambiguity of multi-valued truths. The only way is to come clear, expose the many truths, and not to keep on cutting oneself one stroke at a time, in order to draw attention but eventually bleeding to death.

Posted by: Paul | December 8, 2011 01:18 PM

I tuned into the Fiorello show tonight. Who is Fiorello? He is considered the top showman and entertainer on Italy's national idiot-box. His shows are tuned into by thirteen million Italians. In Italy he is a superstar. That's a bit over the top, I know. In any event, together with Benigni he sang a song about shit, they called it a hymn to the loose body. Imagine Fiorello, or little flower, singing a cacca song. "Wow!" I thought, "Classy show for a classy audience! They should make it Italy's national anthem." After all, their former first Prime Minister labelled the country a shitty country. A shitty hymn for a shitty country. What else can one conclude? Italians seem to have a shitty fetish. What the heck is wrong with Italians anyway?

Posted by: louis pacella | December 8, 2011 05:19 AM

The debt is necessary to keep you fools paying 85% of your hard earned money in taxes to BankItalia S.p.A. and its board.

And the remaining 15% goes to pay the carbon tax, straight to the pockets of the IMF.

You really believed it was used for the environment!?

Italian zombies wake up before it is too late!

Posted by: Steve Stones | December 8, 2011 04:26 AM

How exactly are the trade unionists to blame for the coming depression? Just curious.

Posted by: chris regalado | December 8, 2011 03:43 AM