"Who may you confide in, who may you turn to to alleviate the anguish and loneliness a little? [...] Will you then turn to the politician, the trade unionist, the sociologist? But all these gentlemen have to sell theories and strategies only for the strong, the healthy, the young. The old man and his prospect of death are doubly taboo because they undermine both their power and their depth: what will become of their authority and their words when they themselves are nothing but exes?Think of one of the new, truly powerful people of Western societies: the union boss, at least in certain contemporary Italian versions; not, it’s clear, in the courageous and beneficial ones of past eras, or even today in many countries, perhaps in those where - according to the theories - trade unionists would no longer be necessary because the workers themselves would already have the power... Someone, here, it’ll risk scandal more than ever: unions and trade unionists - a revered dogma dictates - cannot be spoken of except well, or rather very well. Here we should always speak in terms of noble, disinterested champions of the ideal, of knights without blemish and without fear of Humanity. But I laugh at those who break the statuettes of old saints to build new ones. I refuse to consider categories or people not on a case-by-case basis, based on objectivity but on the basis of prejudices, whether favorable or unfavorable. I do not recognize any human institution as sacred: if I want the "Sacred" I know where to look for it; I prefer the original, not the imitations. (Chapter II, Years to life and not life to years)"