Mussolini-like Stratagems Jockey Italian Mass Media

8/14/2019 Mussolini-like Stratagems Jockey Italian Mass Media

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Mussolini-like StratagemsWielded by Italian Journalism, PublicTelevision, PrivateTelevision & Radio

s so manyothereighteenth-

century thinkers were, Jean-Jacques Rousseauwas not very partial toRoman culture firstand foremost in itsdecline when most of the world at largeexcept the natives of

Rome themselvesfathomed that the endwas forthcoming. Topoint to theludicrousness of thestate of affairs in thethen-capital of theworld, Rousseauironized: the veryday of its fall was theeve of that on which itconferred on one of itscitizens the title of

Arbiter of Good Taste. 1 AncientRome did not fall inone day; ModernRome will not, either.

A

Italy is falling apartat the seams!

Yet again there theyarethe Italiansthemselvesdenyingany and/or all hints

with contrarieties. Infact, one is forked overthis disbosoming

bromide: All nationsin the world have thesame problems thatItaly does. We are allstewing in the samesauce: Tutto il mondo paese. Lets closeItalian businesses inAugust, go onvacation, and forget itall. Lets take a ferryfrom Ancona and go toCroatia where we canat least get a goodexchange for our weaklire .

There are someItalians who thinkotherwise: ItalianIndustrial PrinceGianni Agnelli, veryclose friend of UnitedStates Department of State guru HenryCarpet BomberKissinger, put it thisway: Italy has onefoot in the grave andthe other on a bananapeel. 2 And he shouldknow! From 1938 to1975, his FIAT almostsingle-handedlybrought the Italianautomotive headcount from 750,000 to15,000,000 cars! In1990 there wereseventy three cars forevery kilometre of


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road in Italythehighest density of autos in the world.Every major Italiancity is an open-air gaschamber. The

pollution is destroyinghistorical monumentsand human andanimal respiratorysystems. La DolceVita?

Italy, Inc. is a nationbeing held together bybubble gum, rubberbands and the occultmachinations of international financial

and political wizardryboth licit and illicit.Its geographic positionand status as thehome base of theChristian Club, makeit very valuable toWestern civilization,and all is being doneto keep Italy, Inc.attached to life-support systems. Thattask becomes more

difficult every day asItaly, Inc. slides allover the place tryingto live up to its rank asbeing one of thesolvent members of the so-called eliteG7or is that G8?Italy, Inc. is doing itsbest to make believe itis equal to the othergrand industrialnations, and it is

preparedthrough itspropagandistic massmediato fudge forthe whole world thereality which Italy, Inc.is.

Upon close scrutiny,one discovers thatmany of Italysproblems are not trulythe worlds. Onlythree of them

frequently deliberatelydistorted in the Italian

mass mediaarethese:

I. Italys waterdilemma is slowlybut surely risingto the nightmarelevel. Droughtsin the summer;inundations inautumn andwinter. Little bylittle, thehydraulic goldenmean is floatingout of sight.Italians,obsessive waterusers andindifferent waterwasters, areunconcerned.

Their publicworks system isso inadequateand outdatedthat when theflooding seasonsarrive, Italianshold their breathsand cross theirfingers and lightcandles prayingthat disaster willnot flow into theirhomes andfactories stillagain. Wateritself is not sucha bargain. It isnot wise to drinktap water, andhere it is alreadyeasy to pay Lire1,500 (.78 Euro)for a half-literplastic bottle of mineral water.Italian urbanplanners havefailed to take twovariables intoconsideration:water runoff frombroken pipingand the tendency

that Italianclimate is foreverwarming more.


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To remedy theexisting state of affairs, exorbitantsums of moneyare needed toreplace

antiquated waterduct lines whichin some areasoccasion as muchas a stunningsixty percentsquandering.

The condition of these conduitsworsen as theyears pass. Italyis usuallyblessed with

abundant rainfallin autumn andwinter (Whoneeds to repairwater pipes?)but how long willits luck hold outwith globalwarming trendsthreatening andconcrete junglesabrading thefragile Italian

ecosystem? Italyis a smallcountry; thirtytwo Italies arerequired to makeone UnitedStates. Even itssize is an omenof itsvulnerability.From where willcome thefinancing to

support thecreation of desperately-neededinfrastructuredevelopmentover the nextdecadeeven if it is decided tobegin such work?More miracles?Tutto il mondo

paese?

II. Italys publicdebt makesfinancial analystsat Moodys andStandard & Poorssprinkle extra

peperoncini ontheir spaghetti tokeep their bloodflowing whenthey brood overItalian debtprintouts. Italyspublic debt isgrowinginexorablyandhas been foryearswith fewbatting aneyelash. There isno reason tobelieve that thisquandary willright itself in thenear future, andonly weeks agowith no realnational debateto mark theeventthe Italiandebt turned theLire2,000,000,000,000,000 corner!How long it willtake before the57,000,000Italian populationreaches the pointwhere each andevery citizen hasto pay more than$50,000 toliquidate theItalian debt? Andthese figures donot include thevalue of Italysunfoundedpensionindebtedness!Italys public debtis roughly 123%of its GDP. It isnot difficult todeduce that

inflation is to playan important partin Italys


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economic future.Printing money isbig business inItaly, and at thiswriting, there arethree different

50- and 100-lirecoins incirculation.Money, paperwithout value, isall over the place.Forty dollars areneeded to buyone hundredaspirins, butItalian journalistsheadline that thebrakes the

government isapplying torunaway inflationare having theireffect. Italy is ina quagmiresomewhat similarto that of Venezuelas inthe early 1980s.

There is aneconomic timebomb ticking in

Rome, theEternal Fountainof Cultural andHistoricalResources, theMatrix of WesternCivilization, theSpiritual Home of EveryWesterner. 3Tutto il mondo

paese?

III. Italians aremost incongruouswhen the subjectof natality isbroached. Theirbirthrate is thelowest in theworld and 40% of all Italian familieshave only onechildinCalenzano where

I live 20% of thepopulation is over65 years of age

Italy is becomingthe Miami Beachof Europethenumber of residents in all of Italy over 65

years of age isnow 15%, butthat figure isexpected to jumpto 17.6% at thebeginning of thenew century 4GuidalbertoGuidi, presidentof theIndustrialists of Emilia Romagna,one of Italys

most propagableregions says:Our companiesneed more than5000 qualifiedworkers and we

just cant findthem. It seemsincredible, but itis so. 5Italianhouseholdsspend twice asmuch on

prepared petfood as they doon prepared babyfoodpet foodsales are growingby leaps andboundsannually 6astaggering 20%of Italian birthsare performed byCaesareansections! There

is an epidemic of them. Why? Tworeasons offeredby Italianobstetricians:The hunger of private clinicsand obstetriciansto make theadditional profitthat comes withperformingCaesarean

sections; and thestress trying toorganize time


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and to use fixedhospital hoursinstead of beingcalled in themiddle of thenight. 7. Again

Rousseau: Formy part, I amcontinuallyastonished that amark so simple isnot recognized,or that men areof so bad faith asnot to admit it.What is the endof politicalassociation? Thepreservation and

prosperity of itsmembers. Andwhat is the surestmark of theirpreservation andprosperity? Theirnumbers andpopulation. Seekthen nowhereelse this markthat is in dispute.

The rest beingequal, the

governmentunder which,without externalaids, withoutnaturalization orcolonies, thecitizens increaseand multiplymost is beyondquestion thebest. Thegovernmentunder which a

people wanesand diminishes isthe worst.Calculators, it isleft for you tocount, tomeasure, tocompare. 8Tutto il mondo

paese?

Other subjects worthyof note are these:

Why has Italy notcomplied with dozensupon dozens of

European Uniondirectives? Why donot 21 of every 100households in Italypossess a book? Whyis a sports newspaper

the one sold mostly inItaly? Why do only11% of the Italianpopulation buy anewspaper every day?Why are Italysbeaches so polluted?Why do only 35 of every 100 studentswho enter theuniversity finish andonly 5% of themterminate their

courses in the timeallocated? Why so fewcomputers in Italianbusinesses? Why donot Italians speakforeign languages?Why does not anyother Europeancountry possess thedisaster that is themezzogiorno theblighted southern partof Italy? Why is Rome

red tape and racketswhile Milano is tryingto be strong, on-the-goand operative? Whydid the University of Goettingen inGermany (Italysbiggest trade partner)classify Italy as one of the top ten corruptnations in the world?Why do Italians takethe longest in Europe

to pay their bills? Whydid the Italian railwaysystem suggest totheir employees thatin time of emergencythey should throw aroll of toilet paper witha message on it at thenearest station? Whyare Italians, who thinkof themselves asbeing very particularly individualistic, capable

of organizing strikeswith a vengeance thatbring them to Rome in


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masses almostreaching a million?Why are the Italianpolitical and judicialsystems so corrupt itis impossible to find

anyone who believesin them? Why is theonly Italian FM radiostation, which playsclassical musicexclusively 24 hours aday, always on theverge of going out of business? Why noItalian languagelessons for immigrantsfrom the Third World?Why do bus drivers on

the coast of Versiliawhen no one islooking refuse tostop for African peoplewho are waiting forthem in the torrid sunat bus stops?

These are questionsthat not only Italymust ask of itself, theyare questions WesternCivilization must ask

of Italy.

uring thereign of thedespot

Mussolini, still todayfor millions andmillions of elderlyItalians the good olddays; anything wouldbe better than themess we have now, itwas standardoperating procedurefor fascist clean-upsquads to paint whitethe houses along theroutes Mussolini wouldpass triumphantly.And with a final touchof class, flowerswere put in front of homes and buildingsand shops to highlight

for filmmakers thesuccess of the fascistregime which had

D

learnt well from itsNazi counterparts atthe Ministry of Propaganda in Berlin.

The lie that Fascismwas alive and

functioning well had toflick across cinemascreens throughoutItaly to prop up thedelusions of grandeurof both the DuceBenito Mussolini andthe Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.

Italians are veryproud, obstinatepeople and they arevery chauvinistic. It

has not been easy forthem to digest thedefeat they withstoodat the end of WorldWar II and manyItalians, even today,do not want to believethat that event evenever occurred. Whilethe structure of Fascism has been torndown bomb by bomb,brick by brick, the

notion of an extremenationalismexaltingboth race and countryabove the individualand standing for acentralized autocraticgovernment headedby a dictatorial leaderwho wields severeeconomic and socialregimentation and theforcible suppression of the oppositionis

ever-presentlyattractive to thesubconscious thinkingof a vast number of Italian psyches.Sweet Despotism isthe leftisteuphemism for thisItalian innatecharacter trait.

When pushed, Italianscan rise up

passionately,fanatically with anexcessive devotion to


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their culture, historyand country. Forforeigners who havecome to Italy to livenot to vacation for acouple of weeks

there is this unwrittenlaw: Let the Italiansspeak as badly as theywant to about Italy,but dont you everagree with them orberate Italy.

Tormented Italy hasbeen subjected tomuch tribulation in itslong history, and thathas hardened theItalian ego to all that is

tramontane . A verylong time is stillneeded beforenewcomers will beaccepted into anyItalian social strata orcommunity. Italiansdo it best!Another Italianpsychological twitch isthe intense desire tobe taken seriously andto be treated as one of

the biggies on theworld political andeconomic mise enscne . Italians are sofervent in their desireto be consideredgrand, they oftencome off puerile as aresult of theirextraordinary effortsto conform. Again, theintense hurt thisLilliputian peninsula

has been subjected tothrough the centuries,has left scars of humiliation anddistress upon theconsciousnesses of itspeople, and Italianshave had to do muchto show that they are

just as acceptable asothers are. And it is apity they feel so. Whyshould they? The

whole world says theyare one of the sevenstrongest industrial

nations, does it not?Are they indeed? (AnEnglish-speakingjoke: If Italy is oneof the G7, imaginehow poor the other

countries which arenot are?) When anItalian-Americanachieves noteworthysuccess, he is calledan Italian in Italiannewspapers; but,when he is arrested formafia dealings, he isrelegated to being anAmerican. Afinancial publicationthat speaks well of the

Italian economy isauthoritative, well-known and read by theworlds movers andshakers. One thatdoes not renderhomage, is American,English,controversial. Or,as this headlinedemonstrates, there isthe subliminal urge tobe considered up

there with thegreats: THE GREATNATIONSTHREATEN, THESERBS BOMB, ITALY OFFERS AIRPLANES( ! ).

Italians are masters of The Look. They arefamous all over theworld for theirautomotive designs,

furniture, machines,clothing and jewelrythe number one Italianexport to the UnitedStates!

They were oncefamous for their art,for their music.Italians would like tobelieve that theireconomic and politicalpower is as well-

known as theirsweaters and dresses,and knowing it is not,


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they all the moreconnive to push theidea and the imagethat it is. Bizarre

journalisticdeclarations often

supervene.Since only a smallportion of thepopulation buys anewspaper every day,the obviouswhereabouts of thebig Italian Stretchingof the Truth about theactual state of SweetDespotism, isyouguessed it!The

Italian Idiot Box!George Orwell, shouldhe be alive today,would have to make avisit to the RAI andFININVEST studios. Hewould burst outlaughing watchingItalian televisionexecutives,brainwashed to spitout democratic golden

coins but biting the bitto be regimentatorsof state affairs, livingout their electronic

Animal Farm withLaurel and Hardy-likeside shows.

n twooccasions Ihad the

chance to appear on aFININVEST network(privately owned);another time onRAIUNO (state owned);and, two other timeson RAIDUE (stateowned). Before wereturn to 1984, sitback, relax, and grabyour channel-zapper!I promise there will beno breaks to sell you

soap or insuranceduring my showwhich will reveal some

O

of the insides of theItalian electronicpropaganda peckingorder! 9

I got on because a

friend of mine thoughtI was simpatico ,really simpatico , andintelligent and tunedto the Italian scene,and she told a friendwho told a friend whotold a friend who knewthe brother of the hostof the MAURIZIOCOSTANZO SHOW.

To pass inspection

before my idiot boxdebut, I had toundergo an hoursdrilling by telephoneby an American lady,Carol, who worked forMaurizio, one of Italysfavorite Freemasons.

The interview, inEnglish (Italianprograms are stillbroadcast in Italian!),gently opened my

brain to feel for mypolitical inclinationsand my general stateof mind. Clever Carolknew what she wasdoing. She and I bothagreed that the newambassador to Italyfrom the UnitedStates, Peter Secchia,was a dummkopf butwe, Carol and I,should not say things

like that over the airbecause that mightcause trouble for all of us. She instructedthat I should stick tothe format of theshow, and the reason Ihad been called toguest in the firstplace: I am a Vietnamveteran and February,1991 was time for theIraq war, and it was

thought my presencewould be interestingfor all who wanted to


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know what one UnitedStates war veteranthought about anotherwar. ( War is hell! ) Itwas very wise of menot to tell Carol what I

thought about theVietnam Warbecause if I had, Inever would havemade it to theMAURIZIO COSTANZOSHOW. As it turnedout, hardly anythingwas talked about Iraqor my impressionsabout it or Vietnamalthough behind us, ona huge screen, images

from Iraq kept flashingduring the program.

My Italian televisionfirst time up deadliftedon the nineteenth of February, 1991 in theevening at the TeatroParioli in the SpiritualHome of EveryWesterner. Thetheatre is not within

any of the fenced-in,dog-patrolled, super-surveilled mediacamps of theFININVEST mediacitadels, so theresome formalities (I.D.badges, guards toaccompanyguests/visitors to thetoilet, anti- mafiaaffidavits to sign afterones performance,

bullet-proof glass, et cetera ) went by theboards. 10

The atmospherebefore airtime wasdeadpan, and aftermakeup, a FININVESTofficial came to pay, incash, the cost of myfirst-class train tripfrom Firenze (touristscall it Florence) to

the Matrix of WesternCivilization. I hadbeen lodged in a dingy

hotel of their choiceand my meals for theovernight stay werefree, too. Norecompense for myenactment was

offered.Before the beginningof the MAURIZIOCOSTANZO SHOW, Iwas told to visitMaurizio in hisdressing room. As Ientered, it crossed mymind that Maurizio is afull-fledged member of a Freemason secretsociety once

investigated by theItalian government.He is a very powerful

journalist and primemover in Italianpolitical circles, is anintimate friend of Silvio Berlusconi, andis credited with havingdiscovered theobnoxious VittorioSgarbi thought byItalys left to be an

intellectual gangsterand one who givessense to that SweetDespotism found onthe controversialBerlusconi FININVESTnetworks for whichMaurizio, too, slaves.(A couple of yearsafter my show,Maurizio was almostkilled in a bombexplosion near Teatro

Parioli and said tohave been ordered bythe mafia . Othershave told me it wasprobably a hoax to gethigher viewer ratings.It is impossible to getto the heart of thesematters in Italy,unfortunately, and oneis best left to thinkwhat is the worst. 11 )

I found this Italianmedia mogul relaxed,serious, alert. Not an


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inkling of a sense of humor. My firstimpression was asheavy as he is:Maurizio is so shortand overweight

(Buddha-like) onewants to offer upimmediately a warningto him: Please, watchyour weight, Maurizio!

Youre going to killyourself if you dontgo on a diet. Whenhe spoke with me atclosed quarters, ahorrible odor camefrom his mouth and Ithought right off his

liver must be under anenormous stress.

A heavy-hearted man,Maurizio is all nuts andbolts about hisprogram, and he hadtaken control of it withan iron hand orderingthis, then that, andgetting his way alwayswithin the hecticmoments before

airtime. No one had toguess who the bosswas at Teatro Parioli.

Mine was the kick-off part of the program.

The format of theshow is interesting.Seven or eight chairsare set in an ovality onstage, facing theaudience. Mauriziofloats from chair to

chair picking out thecomments of hisguests as he sees fitif a brawl is not inprogress. Visitors viefor their camera time,and more frequentlythan not, debates boilto the point whereinsults are hurled notonly onstage, but evenfrom the audienceitself. Maurizio bluffs

that he is contrary toall this childishness,but his efforts to halt it

are limp-wristedbecauselike a goodfightMaurizio knowshis ratings (more orless 1-1.5 millionpeople watch him)

soar the morethemore blood is spilt.

The show begancordially and I at oncesteered the way, my way , to the topic of Peter Secchia, theDream Machine of on-the-take politicalscience professors inItaly. Secchia hadencountered

resistance in theUnited StatesCongress to hisassignment becausehe had insultedfeminists, was astentorian, gung-hoex-Marine, andbecause he hadcarried the state of Michigan for PresidentBushs White Houseelection victory. He

had no diplomaticexperience, did notspeak Italian, and haddifficulty finding Italyon a map. Democratswere gunning for himand rightly soIsurmised. I believedItalyin the terriblestate of affairs it isfixed indeserved aprofessional diplomatat least, and not a

political crony out fora payoff. (There wasthis joke going aroundItaly at the time:Secchia is so dumb,even the terroristsdont want to kill him.With enemies like this,who needs friends!)Peter was said to be agreat party-giver in

The Boots businesscircles.

I called Secchia avulgar incompetent on


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The Italian Idiot Box tosimply restate acommon fact Ifoolishly thoughtItalians would befamiliar with. If Italian

folk had known whathad been said aboutSecchia during hisnomination hearings,my accusation wouldnot have appeared asprovoking as it did onthe airwaves.Maurizio, his browbeaded with sweatdrops that keptsplashing to the flooras he leant towards

me to interrogate me,hoped for a break tosell soap. I said it allwith a vengeance andwaited to hear theapplause of theaudience which Ireckoned orandumest ut sit mens sana incorpore sano wouldbreak out in joyfulbravos happy to hearme make game of the

potentate, the UnitedStates AmbassadorPeter Secchia.

The silence in theaudience nearly killedme! I raised up myhands gesturingdesperately to seekthe support of thepassionless crowd.Some of themresponded weakly, but

overall their R.S.V.P.was lacklustre. Iretreated inembarrassment, andMaurizio went off tointerview other guestsone of whom hadattempted suicideeight times and hadwritten a book abouthis experiences whichhe thought might helpothers; and, another

who had beensearching for hisfather for forty years

and believedMaurizios show couldhelp him. Some otherauthor who had cometo pitch the sale of hisbook, lent it to me on

stage, and I began toread it, on the air,trying to forget how Ihad failed to rally theItalian television publicto my sideagainstthe United Statesambassador and thewar in the Gulf. I feltlike an idiot. No morethat night aboutUnited Statesambassadors, no more

even about the war inIraq.

The next morning Icalled Carol to askinEnglish!how thingshad gone (hhhhmmmmmmmm),and she told me rightoff that the UnitedStates Embassy hadcalled asking for avideo-cassette copy of

the show. I begged toknow if she had giventhem one. Of coursewe did, she repliednonchalantly.

week later,26 February1991, my

next exhibition on TheItalian Idiot Box came.

The show, I FATTIVOSTRI on RAIDUE,was conducted byFabrizio Frizzi one of Italys mostpersonable andpromising televisionpersonalities.

A

Please switch channelsto RAIDUE!!!

I FATTI VOSTRIagain

a talk show formatispositioned on stage inthe form of an outdoor


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piazza . Its productionfacilities in Via Mazziniin the Eternal City arestupendous and in thisstudio I got an idea of what a gargantuan

industry RAI actuallyis. Much had beeninvested in theconstruction of the IFATTI VOSTRI set, andto give the effect of areal piazza , aboutthirty tables werescattered about it torender the feeling of being truly outdoors.About seventy peopleoccupied the tables

and they constitutedan audience duringairtime.

On this occasion I waspaid Lire 300,000 fortravel and hotelexpenses (again I wastold what flophouse togo to), and I managedto get still another Lire300,000 when Iexplained head-

strongly that I wouldbe losing two dayswork by coming for anovernight visit to theEternal Fountain of Cultural and HistoricalResources. (My600,000 check arrivedeight months later!)

Before the show I hadthree or four longtelephone interviews

in my home.Questions aboutVietnam were asked of me anew, and somequeries about mypolitical ideas andthoughts on Italy werealso made. (Imdecidedly to theleftwhatever thatmeans!my heartbeats to the left, andfor my notions about

Vietnam Im stillconsidered a pinkocommunist bastard

back home in New York!) The RAIDUE journalist liked my self-assurance and anti-war stance. From allthe questions asked of

me and answered byme, a television scriptwas composed. Acopy was FAXed to meand I was told tomemorize it beforeshow time. During thetelephone interviews Imade some cutecomments about theUnited Statesgovernment and itsobtuse Italian

ambassador, but thesehad been neatlyexcluded from thescript along with therevelations I hadvolunteeredconcerning thestupidity of the UnitedStates Army duringthe Vietnam conflict. Igot the hint.

The same nice lady,

Pina, who hadinterviewed me bytelephone, was theindividual who cameto meet me at thehotel and laterescorted me throughthe RAI fortresssentrance in ViaMazzini. With heralways by my side, wepassed through bullet-proof rooms with

magnetic plasticpasses, and evenwhen I went to thetoilet, Pina was rightthere waiting for meoutside the door. Thesecurity wasimpressive.

On my way to thestudio where the showwas to be presented,we flowed through an

Italian Disneyland of beautiful girls,stunning set


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constructions, expertmakeup staff, talentedmusicians, elegantlydressed RAIexecutives, uniformedelectricians and

lighting personnelallhustling and bustlingin the stimulatingshowbiz milieu. Westopped for a coffee atthe RAI bar, and thereI recognized someperformers andcelebrities I had seenat home on my owntelevision for years. Iwas excited. Theatmosphere was

exuberant and the factthat in a very shorttime I would bepresented to millionsof people in their livingrooms and kitchensthroughout Italy, mademe very, verynervous. The RAIplant wasoverwhelming; I couldfeel the power of it.

We moseyed to the IFATTI VOSTRI studioarea, and I at once re-identifiedthis time inthe fleshFabrizioFrizzi who waspresented to mestraightaway. Fabrizio,the simpaticone ,offered me a drink, aCOMPARI soda, and heinvited me to sit with

him at one of themany tables on thepiazza set. Then,almost immediately,Fabrizio gave me oneof the most preciousacts of politicalfreedom I have everexperienced in my life.He had a copy of ourscript in his handtheone I had been told tomemorizeand he

asked me if I hadlearnt it by heart. Ihad no sooner began

looking for the wordsto tell him I had notwhen he tossed hiscopy up and then overand to the back of hishead laughing and

saying to me: Dontworry, Tony, I didntmemorize it either!Lets make our owninterview togetheryou and I!Fabrizio did notunderstand clearlyhow glad I was to hearthose words, and agreat deal of tensionthat had accumulatedin me in anticipation of

my live presentation,oozed out of me and Ibegan to enjoy myself a lot more in thecaverns of the dynast,RAIthe biggestsource material at thetime for The ItalianIdiot Box.

After our short,pleasant powwow Iwas instructed by a

studio hand to wait formy airtime, so I took inmore of the excitinggoings-on which werepercolating about me.

The countdown timeto show timesomething exhilaratingin any part of theworldclicked for anervous me and everyso often someoneshouted out the

minutes remaining tothe on the air signal. Ten minutes before thego sign, the directorspoke to the almosttwo hundred people,crews and visitorsfrom other studios,and when somefidgety girls kepttalking and laughing,he threatened,autocratically, to

report them to theoffice if they did notremain silent. Silence


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held sway. Lasttouches were beingmade here and there:makeup for Fabrizio;people were beingpushed away from the

camera line; men withearphones testedmicrophones;musicians played longpractice notes; and,my remotemicrophone waspinned to my sweater.We were getting readyto blast off into thehomes of about fourmillion Italians!

Seated in my interviewspot at one of thetables with only aboutfour or five minutes togo, I turned to speakto a young manbehind me to helpmyself break the iceand keep my mind off the fact that in a veryshort time I would belive all over Italy andparts of Switzerland. I

was petrified! I askedthe gentleman whathe did for a living andhe told me he workedfor Mamma RAI inthe mornings andattended university inthe afternoons.

What work do youperform for MammaRAI? I quizzed.

I sit in the audience.

You sit in theaudience?

Yes. All of us hereare paid to be part of the audience.

Paid to be part of theaudience? I could notbelieve what I hadheard.

The young mancontinued for me:

We are paid Lire800,000 a month forten hours a weeksitting in this studioaudience, he went onloquaciously as if to

say I should be solucky. (I was not!)Very, veryinteresting, I said.

He pointed his hand ata woman seated atanother table and toldme that she workedfor another show, theMAURIZIO COSTANZOSHOW and she earnedLire 1,600,000 a

month working twentyhours a week!

The MAURIZIOCOSTANZO SHOW?

Yes, the MAURIZIOCOSTANZO SHOW, heconfirmed.

Eureka! With oneminute before air time,I put two and two

together and deducedwhy no one had kickedin to encourage mewhen I calledAmbassador PeterSecchia, the imbecile,a vulgar incompetent!In Italy the televisionaudiences are paid !

After the I FATTIVOSTRI show, whichwas the best of them

all for me, while I waswalking to the busstop, a helmetedFabrizio Frizzi spottedme, made a huge U-turn on his big blueHONDA, and came tothank me again forappearing on his show.I was really happy hehad done so. He saidhe would call me oneday and ask me to go

out and have a drinkwith him. Then hebuzzed off. To this day


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I remember Fabriziofor his thoughtfulnessand friendly characterand I would have beenhonored to have beenone of his friends.

Most importantly,Fabrizio had aninstinct to be freeavirtue which many of his colleagues at RAIand FININVEST nevereven ever thoughtabout possessing.

y third,and themost

distasteful of all,staging was on theRAIDUE DOMENICA INFAMIGLIA show, 27March 1994. If Fabrizio had beencordial and respectful,Alessandro CecchiPaone, the showshost, was just theopposite. Again, theinterviews bytelephone, the FAXedscript sent to myhome, and the ordersthis time more stonyto be sure tomemorize every line.

The journalist/interviewerwas curt and oftenrude with me on thetelephone, andbecause I insisted onbeing paid a measlyLire 800,000 for thisshow, I almost lost thechance to go on.

M

After a couple of daysthe approval to payme Lire 800,000 (thatcheck arrived fivemonths later) wasauthorized, and Imade plans to go tothe Matrix City, not tothe Via Mazzini

studios, but to thenew, really out-of-this-

world DEAR (sic)studios.

The transcript for theshow had the usualquestions about

Southeast Asia that Ihave been hearingever since I leftVietnam in 1968.Each query could havebeen answered with abook chapter, and thearrangement of themwith their answers,which had beencondensed for me bythe RAI journalist whocomposed the script,

made for what Ithought was a verysuperficialconversation. Sogeneral were thequestions, and soabbreviated my ghost-written answers, Icould not bring myself to even think to goabout putting thetranscript to memory.Working around the

truthmy truth!thequestions and answersnever reached theheart of the verity Ihad talked about overthe telephone with theRAIDUE journalist idest, the interestingand special insights Iwanted to revealabout Vietnam werenot included.Mamma RAIs

treatment of myversion about Vietnamwas very evasive andshrewdly constructedand some of my morecuspidate elucidationsconcerning the UnitedStates governmentand its role infomenting the VietnamWar, had beendeleted, again , fromthe script pages FAXed

to me.


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The DEAR studioswere very much moresecurity-clad thanwere the Via Mazziniones. The hugecomplex is similar to a

military base, and it isobvious, just lookingat it, no one is goingto get into it withoutthe properauthorization.

A hotel was assignedto me. It was far fromthe studios, so alimousine came to pickme up for my morningtransmission. The

show aired everySundaystarting atabout seven oclockwhen there were notmany people in thesurrounding studioareas which hostmany famousMamma RAItelevision productions.Once more, bullet-proof glass, electronicpasses, armed guards,

and well-delineatedaccess zones andprohibited areas.Security was extra-heavy 27 March 1994because it was anational election dayin Italy, and the daySilvio Berlusconi,media magnet andowner of FININVEST,won his electronically-manipulated victory

shocking the pants off the Italian left.

There are twomemoriesbothdisagreeableI haveof Alessandro CecchiPaone. He wasautocratic with his co-workers and did nothave the smile on his

face when he was off-camera that he almostalways possessed on-

cameraa bigdifference betweenhim and Fabrizio.Alessandro wasconstantly,excessively skittish.

When I arrived CecchiPaone had beenalready interviewingother guests.Between commercialbreaks he came off stage to give ordersand complain abouthow things wereprogressing. He keptthe atmosphere tenseand unpleasant for all.

There was a man, mid-

forties, all this whilestanding aroundwaiting for something Icould not imagine. Hewore a very brightblue-green jacket andhe looked strange. Ithought he might havebeen one of the guestsbut he told me he wasnot. At a break,Alessandro came off stage to him, sat stiff

on the edge of a chair,and pointed to the leftside of his necksaying: I have a kinkhere. See what youcan do to get rid of it!

The man begancreating a magicalfield, he told melater, by rotating hishands in circlesaround the neck areaof Cecchi Paone! This

magical field wassupposed to relieve allthe tension CecchiPaone hadaccumulated in hisneck area during hisshowand during thebreak for publicity!When Cecchi Paonewent back onstage, Iwent to the mago toget from him thereasons for his

success. Its in thehands! he told me.


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My turn came to gobefore the camerasand because I had notmemorized my scriptCecchi Paone wasfurious with me during

all the time of ourinterview. I kept goingoff the track thathad been laid out forme by the journalistworking for MammaRAI. But wheneverthe camera was onCecchi Paone, hesmiled as if he were acrazy man.

EPILOGUE

Having taken a long,hard look at the UnitedStates Department of State for more thanthirty years in aninductive fashionpoking at particularsto arrive at

generalities andalways rememberingthat as a being is, so itacts!and at closerange in the UnitedStates, Vietnam,Venezuela and Italy, Ihave come to theconclusion that thereexists twoconfederacies inWashington whichtender boundless

devotion to the ideathat the United Statesis by far the bestavailable to lead theworld we all live in:

The Foggy Bottom Cultand The John FosterDulles Cult.

The first is the moreeccentric, egg-headed.Acolytes are theleftists, the doves.

They are forward-looking, too, andmight even have a

sense of humor callingforafter three or fourScotch whiskiesachange in the name of the C.I.A. from theCentral Intelligence

Agency to the CentralStupidity Agency! TheFoggy Bottom Cult ismore open-mindedthan theircounterparts, andbecause they are moreeasy-going, they tendto fly less off thediplomatic handle.Naturally, they areoften consideredcream puffs.

The other persuasionis the right-wingbranch and that whichhas the final sayusually. These are thepragmatists, theconservatives, theconservators. Nutsand bolts. Characterswho do not dwell in anIvory Tower, nor dothey lack concern or

interest in urgentproblems and practicalmatters. They are notescapists; they like toconfront eventsdirectly. They aregreat players of boardgames, and they willwait a hundred yearsto make a move if they think that is theonly way they can gettheir way. They

believeas did onceone professor of philosophy atHeidelbergthat theworld is constantlyevolving, by force, andevery system, byitself, causes areaction to it.

The first bloc hasgiven us The Best andthe Brightest myth,

and the second hashanded overidiosyncrasies such as


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Barry Goldwater and Jesse Helms, and forItaly, gems such asClare Boothe Luce andPeter Secchia! (By theway, back in Michigan

Secchia, Pete to hisfriends, AmbassadorPete when he wantsto get at something, isproud to participate inany Independence Dayparade where he ridesin the back seat of aCadillac convertiblewith AmbassadorPeter Secchiaemblazoned on itssides! And people

look at him as if he issomeone who hasbenefited mankindwith his stay in theUnited StatesEmbassy in the EternalCity!)

Together, The FoggyBottom Cult and The

John Foster Dulles Culthave come up withsome really majesticpolitical boo-boos:

Cuba, Vietnam,Colombia, Iraq,Mexico, Venezuelathe list is actuallyinterminable. One isleft with the suspicionthat the United StatesDepartment of State ismore fatuitous than itis penetrating. (TheWorst and TheDullest?) Yet as thecase may be, if

Southamerica doesnot turn out to be itsmost terriblediplomatic faux pas,Europe surely will.

For almost sixty years,the two cults kept thetightest lid possible ona razed WesternEurope andcheckmated Eastern

Europe so cleverly, sosuccessfully, theschismatics have

become drunk withdelight over theirability to understandthe fact that if dominoes are stood onend one slightly

behind the other, aslight push on the firstwill topple the others!Geopolitical genii!

They pontificate inTime, in TheEconomist, in NationalReview, in Foreign

Affairs, in The TimesLiterary Supplement,et cetera. Theyspeak with passionand gnaw at the

enemy with thisconceptualisation:BETTER DEAD THANRED! They arepolitical missionariesand proselytise allover the worldpreaching toundemocraticheathens to vote andgo to churchon Sundays. Many do.Many are paid very

well in dollars.1989 came along andthe victorycelebrations appearednever to end. In theeuphoria it wasrealized that EasternEurope needs to bebuilt, that EasternEurope wants what itdoes not have, thatEastern Europe has

everything to gain.But, it wasconveniently forgottenthat Southern Europeneeds to be rebuilt,that Southern Europewants more of what ithas, that SouthernEurope haseverything to lose.

The genii, for all theseyears, rode a magic

carpet protecting andpreserving theircrowned checker,


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Germany, bluffing allthe while a veryspecial big move: theUnited States of Europe. The cuteruse, naturally, was

never brought to passbecause the intendedtactic of this point dappui was thefollowing: to keepfrom their Germancommand postsWestern Europefragmented intoseparate constituents,dominoes,guaranteeing that itsunification would

never be actualised.Divide et impera.

European intellectualsand political scientistsfrothed at theirmouths in anger.Clare Boothe Luce andPeter Secchia went toEnglish-speakingItalian industrialistsand political leadersand organized anti-

communist cocktailparties. Then, in thesame evening, went tothe English andNorthern Europeandiplomaticbrotherhoods andvoiced their off-the-cuff, not-for-the-record opinions:Would you be foolishenough to want aEuropean Union with

bankrupt memberssuch as Italy, Spain,Portugal and Greecebreathing down yournecks to pay for theirpublic debts andbroken water pipes?

Youre not crazy, areyou?

And so, the German-Swiss-Austrian-Hungarian axis takes

hold ever so gently,slowly but surely, andstrives to reach that

point where it will bethe political andeconomic expedient inWestern Europe(again!) to bereckoned with. (Is not

treuhandanstalt justanother HarvardUniversity BusinessSchool case study?)

The Germans aresitting pretty, and theymust be given creditfor their efforts inbringing their westand east togetheraneconomic feat plannedwell before 1989!

Henry Miller said theGermansthe biggestethnic group in theUnited States followedby the Irish-Americansand the English-Americansmake thebest Americansbecause in the UnitedStates they do not feelhemmed in as theyare in Europe.Hemmed in?

Sandwiched betweena hungry EasternEurope and adevastated SouthernEurope? Can theEuropean Germansremain forever sereneseated squashedbetween these twospheres of economicdisaster? Are we onthe way to World War

Three or Le continent

du Chaos?12

Remember MurphysLaw?: Anything thatcan go wrong will gowrong!

Instead of a EuropeanUnion that standsvaliant, that addressesthe seriousness of theproblem not only as itregards EasternEurope, but even as it

regards, for example,the fact that there aremore pension checks


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cut in Italy everymonth than there aresalary checks,Europeans must nowlook to the Fatherland,hold their breaths, and

live in quietdesperation crossingtheir fingers that theGermans and theRussians will not haveanother go at it. (Theonly issues WesternEurope agrees on arethat the MARLBOROman smokes the bestcigarette andHollywood andhamburgers are

dangerous to yourhealth. Brusselslegislators cannoteven agree on acommon shoe size forthe European Union.Sure, Northamericanshave been dumb fortwo hundred years;Europeans have beendumb for twothousand years!)

It is to this pointmarshalling alltheir forces andplanning with all theirdominoesthat thetwo confused cultshave lead WesternEurope. They havedone everything, forsixty years, to keepEurope in a politicaland economic deep-freeze banking on

Italies always, senzadubbio, to help keepany idea of a unifiedEurope an absurdpropositionantecedentlysupposed and provedas a basis of argument. Italy, et alia, have been used.

They have beenabused.

Oh, Eternal Fountain of Cultural and HistoricalResources, how could

you have been soridiculous? Oh, Matrixof Western Civilization,how could you havebeen so compliant?Oh, Spiritual Home of

Every Westerner, howcould you have beenso unconceited? Whathave you got to showfor it?

Tutto il mondo paese?

* * *

Written by:

Anthony St. JohnCasella Postale 38

50041 CALENZANO FIItalia

1 September 1995

NOTES

1Jean-Jacques

Rousseau, A Discourseon the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences(New York:Everymans Library,1973), p. 8.

2Gianni Agnelli,

La Stampa , 1995.

3The American

University of Rome,Admissions Catalog, p.9.

4Franco Torelli,

Gli italiani al 2003, Largo Consumo , January, 1995, p. 17.


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5Giuseppe Turani,

Affari & Politica, laRepubblica , 16 July1995, p. 19.

6Jane Williams,

SupremeChampions,EuroBusiness , May,1995, p. 82.

7Mario Pirani,

Donna partorirai conil cesareo, laRepubblica, 1995.

8Jean-Jacques

Rousseau, The SocialContract (New York :Everymans Library,1973), p. 231.

9

__________________,The X againstFininvest, TheEconomist, 25 March1995, p. 85.

10John Glover,

Factions and Fiction,The Guardian, 28February 1995, p. 10(Media).

11Glover, p. 10.

12Alain Minc, Le

Nouveau Moyen Age(Paris : Gallimard,1993), pps. 15-43.

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