During a meeting that took place back in the 70s, before a crowd demonstrating in Rome in the eve of Italian elections, Pier Paolo Pasolini said about the situation lived in Italy by that time, that it was even worse than the once lived in the past under the dominance of fascism and clericalism. As I have referred, that happened to be his view in those days when the country was going through harsh social, economic and political turmoil. Now, can we imagine what his thoughts would be if he could wake up from his grave and watch our nowadays situation.

The signs pointed out by the brilliant Italian artist were, said in few words, hedonism till imbecility, rampant corruption, “the will for ignorance” (“la volontà d’ignoranza”) and subserviency or servility, to what I would add an out-of-control consumerism, all of which brutally embedded in our society, and an increasing censorship of freedom of speech and information, with an also increasing surveillance by the governments on all of us, the citizens.

Well, these words came to me as the expression of the actual landslide of values and the sense that our leaders and authorities are acting with utter disregard to the most elementary ethics and with utter contempt towards their people.

An example of the latter – among so many – has been given by someone called Lindsay Graham. It has been reported that this grotesque character, a US Senator for South Carolina, said that ‘the Russians are dying’ and ‘it’s the best money we’ve ever spent’, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky, in Kyiv last week (see the Daily Mail online, The Independent online, Newsweek online, etc.). To celebrate the death and the killing of others, no matter what their nationality may be, is an odious and outrageous statement, and the more it is if it is pronounced by an authority that represents, by one side, the Senate of the United States, and by other side, represents the people of South Carolina which brings up the serious question of whether this miserable character is a truthful and faithful representative of their constituents, for, if the answer is positive, there we have the issue.

Marco Rodríguez-Farge Ricetti