Journalists From Italy

"…laws should always embody justice, otherwise justice becomes what laws arbitrarily decide it to be. And, as the Tai Ji Men case shows all too well after 29 years, and in this special year 2025, laws can sometimes be unjust."

"If an arrogant bureaucrat is regarded as a servant of the public good only because he robs aboard of a larger ship than common thieves do, what is really social justice?"

"Before discussing specific situations and conflicts it is essential to acknowledge that problems can be solved only after the primacy of conscience has been recognized."

"(...) aumentare agli opportunisti il costo della non vaccinazione; come glielo aumenti agli opportunisti, qual è la logica, devo dire geniale del green pass? Tu dici "o ti vaccini", no non mi vaccino – benissimo, "o guarisci", e va be' se non lo ha preso... "e allora ti fai i tamponi". I tamponi sono un costo psichico – il fatto di infilare dentro al naso, fino al cervello, i cotton fioc lunghi – è un costo psichico, e un costo monetario - 50 euro, due volte 60 euro - più il costo organizzativo! Tu gli aumenti il costo; aumentandogli il costo, tu lo spingi a ridurre lo zoccolo (...)"

"Il green pass è una patente, è una patente di libertà, che è nelle mani di chi è guarito dal covid o ha fatto i tamponi o, ancor meglio, ha fatto il vaccino. (...) se non hai la patente non puoi, non potrai lavorare, non potrai accedere ai luoghi di socializzazione."

"C'è un solo allenatore in piedi, c'è un solo allenatore in piedi! È il nostro! C'è un solo allenatore in piedi! Si chiama Massimiliano, il suo cognome è Allegri! Ce n'è solo uno in piedi! Allenava l'Aglianese, sì e allora?! Problemi?! Problemi?!"

"Suma: Ciao Paolo, ciao Umberto, ciao a tutti voi che siete in studio! Qui a S.Siro fa freddo, ma doppio- Mosca: Cerca e ricerca- Ciao Mauro! Suma: Ciao Maurizio! Mosca: Cerca e ricerca di salutare tutti, sei il solito villano! Suma: No, no, no... Mosca: Sì, sei il solito villano! Suma: Ma no, non sono un villano, Mauri- Mosca: Sì, sei un villano! Suma: No, ho sentito il salu- Mosca: Sei un villano! Suma: Ho sentito il saluto di Paolo- Mosca: Sei un villano! Suma: Mi fai parlare? Mosca: Sei un v- Ma che lo las- Stai zitto!"

"Suma: Pronto? A TV viewer: Faccia da pirla! Suma: Chi è? Beh c'è chi si esprime- probabilmente era una telefonata non- interna, al nostro interno, qualche scherzo."

"Tiziano Crudeli: C'è qui una persona che vuole salutare- Fabio Ravezzani: Elio Corno- Mauro Suma: La stiamo vincendo, la stiamo vincendo, e consiglio ai gufi di cambiar- [Interference during the call] Perdonami Fabio, scusami, ne abbiamo subite tante fino adesso, non è ancora finita, speriamo bene, ma adesso la stiamo vincendo noi, speriamo bene! Ravezzani: [Wrongly attributing the voice to Milan supporter and commentator Carlo Pellegatti] Questo è Pellegatti! Questo è il mitico Pellegatti! Vedo Scarpini che ride! Suma: Scarpini! Scarpini! Scarpini! Roberto Scarpini: Eccallà! Lo sai che però non è finita però ancora eh! Quindi tieni i tuoi amuleti lì... Ravezzani: [Correcting himself for the previous voice attribution] Ma questo è Suma! Suma: Vai a La Coruña, Scarpini! Vai a La Coruña, Scarpini! Vai a La Coruña! Scarpini: Voi ci siete già andati e avete lasciato come si dice! Suma: Fabio ci sentiamo dopo, speriamo bene, non è ancora finita, speriamo bene!"

"Voglio morire in questo momento, voglio morire adesso, senza pietà... Uscita a vuoto di Donnarumma, gol di Icardi... Voglio morire adesso... Una roba pazzesca, una roba che ci perseguiterà per tutta la stagione, Dio mio! Dal nulla, questi cavano fuori gol dal nulla... Danno una pesciata al pallone e noi poi svolazziamo per- svolazziamo per niente... Incredibile, incredibile! Sono incazzato come una bestia rara! Guarda che cosa facciamo... guarda, palla nostra, in con- guarda che cosa gli regaliamo... È tutto il campionato che regaliamo gol, e questo è il più crudele, il più brutto, il più beffardo... (After a deep breath) Vincere di regalo al 93', pazzesco, pazzesco, pazzesco! Una roba più brutta che più brutta non si può, però la dobbiamo smettere di andare in giro a regalare gol per niente, ragazzi... la dobbiamo smettere di regalare gol per niente... È una roba di un brutto, e questi saltano- c'hanno un culo che è più grande di una casa... E noi siamo fessi, siamo polli... Siamo i polli più grandi del mondo!"

"Palettone non demorde, non rinun- Abbiamo visto abbastanza, ciao a tutti, ciao a tutti, ciao a tutti!"

"Ha pareggiato il Cesena! Ha pareggiato il Cesena! Ha pareggiato il Cesena! Ragazzi, ha pareggiato il Cesena! Vai Mario Beretta, io ti amo! Mario Beretta, io ti amo! Guardo il cielo di San Siro e ti amo! Vai Mario! Vai Mario, pareggio Mario! Vai Mario, pareggio Mario!"

"Gol! Gol! Gol! Sulley! Sulley! (Noticing that the goal was not convalidated) Cos'è? Ma non era gol? Ma non era gol? È ripartita la Juve in contropiede... (After watching the replay) Era gol! Ma era dentro! Ma è dentro clamorosa! Ma è dentro clamorosa! Ma non si può vivere così! Ma è dentro clamorosa! Ma basta! Ma basta! Basta, questi qui! L'ha presa dentro Buffon! Gigi, perché non l'hai detto?! Gigi, perché non l'hai detto?! Gigi! Guardami negli occhi, Gigi! Perché non l'hai detto, grande campione, Gigi?! Ma che roba brutta! Piangi, Conte! Guarda l'azione e piangi!"

"Fate entrare Yepes! Fate entrare Yepes! Non entra Yepes, perché non entra Yepes? Perché non entra Yepes? Perché non entra Yepes? (...) Facciamo entrare Yepes, ragazzi, vi prego?! Sono in preda a un delirio, lo so, però io- però io lo voglio! (...) Ma perché non entra Yepes, perché? (...) Mi fate entrare- vi prego una cosa voglio nella vita d'ora in poi: l'ingresso in campo di Mario Yepes, posso? (...) L'arbitro non dà l'ok, perché non deve dare l'ok?"

"Pellegatti: Buongiorno! Ibrahimovic: Come va cavallo? Pellegatti: Allora, il mio cavallo, Ibra Supremacy, andava così forte che tu a piedi lo battevi. Ibrahimovic: Dovevi prendere me! Pellegatti: Esatto!"

"Pellegatti: Carlo, ehm... (in German) du hast trainiert in viele- Ancelotti: No, grande! Parli tedesco!"

"Ho tanti dubbi sulla posizione di partenza di Tevez... ho tanti dubbi sulla posizione di partenza di Tevez... ho tanti dubbi... almeno cosi avanti... ho tanti dubbi sulla posizione... tanto così... ho tanti dubbi sulla posizione di Tevez... è sempre così!"

"Che bello quando vengono questi gol! 1-2-3, 1-2-3! È un'azione bellissima, il gol dei ragazzi! Jon Dahl Tomasson! Che azione, che azione! Subito al Musée d'Orsay, prendi la registrazione, Claudio Lippi! Tiziana, porta - prendi il primo aereo per Parigi, è da mettere al Louvre! Signori, Monet non può far meglio! Che azione! (Watching the replay) Dentro, Tomasson, pallone dentro... ed è il gol di Sheva, il gol, lo vediamo, di Sheva... ecco Shevchenko che riceve sul primo palo, ed è il gol di Sheva di prima! {{small|[When Milan scored an amazing team goal in a Serie A away 3-0 against Sampdoria on 26 October 2003] {{cite web|url=https://www.repubblica.it/2003/j/sezioni/sport/calcio/serie_a/giornata7/sampdoriamilan/sampdoriamilan.html|title=Shevchenko travolge la Doria"

"Il Milan tenta di venire avanti ancora con Pegaso, il Cavallo Alato Rossonero, sulla fascia di destra! È proprio Cafu che cerca di darla in mezzo! Attenzione, Pippo lavora la palla, può far tutto Pippo, può far tutto Pippo, e c'è il gol di Pippo! Il gol di Pippo! Può far tutto Pippo! Può far tutto Pippo! Può far tutto Pippo! Può far tutto Pippo! Può far tutto Pippo! Può far tutto! Alta tensione mia! Può far tutto Pippo! Può far tutto Pippo! Può far tutto Pippo! Pippo, Pippo mio! Alta tensione! E sono 5 gol in una settimana! Lasciagli una palla morta a Pippo, lasciagli una palla sporca, è più bello del Dash: te la pulisce! {{small|[When Filippo Inzaghi scored the winning goal in the Serie A home 2-1 win Milan-Bologna on 13 September 2003] {{cite web|url=https://www.repubblica.it/2003/i/sezioni/sport/calcio/serie_a/giornata2/milanbologna/milanbologna.html|title=Il superlavoro di Superpippo"

"When music speaks, everybody understands."

"For some time now, the Constitution has been under attack in some fundamental areas. The autonomy and independence of the judiciary has been under constant siege for years, as has the principle of equality. Article 3 of the Constitution, thanks in part to an upright judiciary, has not remained an abstract principle. All the most recent bills, however, aim to create a two-tiered justice system: efficient and harsh with the weak, soft and sluggish with the powerful. A justice system that ensures impunity for the powerful."

"(About the takeover of the ‘Why Not’ investigation) De Magistris calls it illegitimate, I call it unthinkable. [...] My feeling is that we found ourselves in a situation where autonomy and independence, both internal and external, reached a breaking point. We are truly in a moment of crisis for the rule of law."

"As far as we have been able to ascertain, De Magistris' investigation went far beyond what has become widely known. It went well beyond the wiretapping of Clemente Mastella or the inclusion of Romano Prodi in the register of suspects. I believe that the core of the investigation was precisely the intertwining of criminal powers and other powers in the area. I believe that his case cannot be addressed without taking into account the reality in which De Magistris, often in institutional isolation, operated."

"The union between occult powers and the mafia is the famous “big game” that Giovanni Falcone was working on. And for which he probably died: and the real instigators of the Capaci bombing have never been found."

"I would define the case De Magistris as emblematic of what happens when a magistrate finds himself isolated and overexposed, managing an extremely complex and delicate investigation into a tangle of legal and illegal interests involving diverse individuals and circles, on the cusp where criminal, political, and institutional spheres meet. As often happens in areas where integrated criminal systems operate. And I am referring, of course, to the criminal systems associated with the mafia in Sicily and the 'ndrangheta in Calabria."

"Borsellino once, we were at his house in Marsala one evening, so before he even arrived in Palermo, I remember it clearly even though he didn't give me any precise explanations about it, he said to me, and I quote: "w:it:Pietro Giammanco is a man of Lima," a statement that obviously upset me."

"(About the law on the so-called “short trial”) Should be defined as: the law of the short death of trials. It is right to ensure speedy trials, but here we have a trial that remains long and only sets a maximum time limit that can never be met. We need a reform of the justice system that shortens the timeframes but gives the judiciary human and operational resources and funding. There are 30 percent shortages in the public prosecutor's offices in Palermo and Catania, cuts in funding for overtime for staff and court clerks. Hearings are only held in the morning. At full speed, the timeframes would be halved."

"As a people, we have been stripped of monetary sovereignty, but not only monetary sovereignty. We have been stripped of financial sovereignty, we have been stripped of political sovereignty. We are subjects, we are not sovereign in our own country. [...] And this lack of sovereignty, this expropriation of sovereignty, is not an accident, it is not a coincidence. It is part of a precise plan, which is not only Italian [...]. I believe that it is a rearguard battle to say, “We want another Europe, we will build another Europe”: within these institutions and within this Europe, another Europe is impossible. We must tear down this Europe, as it is today, as it is constructed, with its institutions and the primacy of finance over politics that has been established. [...] We must withdraw from the European treaties."

"(About the ideal government) I am a candidate for Prime Minister, so I will be the president of the Council and also take on the role of interim Minister of Justice. Travaglio would be an excellent choice for the Ministry of Information, as he is outside the political sphere, while I would put Fiorella Mannoia in charge of Culture. Then I would put the economist w:it:Vladimiro Giacché in charge of the Economy, a worker in charge of Labor, and a police officer in charge of the Interior. We need competent people, not like Castelli, who was an engineer, and Carfagna, let's not even go there..."

"Today we have a more civilized mafia and a more mafia-like society. A mafia that increasingly wears suits and ties and a society that changes its clothes too many times a day and chooses to disguise itself. In short, we have entire sections of society that have now internalized the behavioral models of mafiosi. And you can see it in all areas."

"Azione Civile è un movimento civico puro, fuori dai partiti, che oggi avvia una campagna di adesione aperta ai cittadini che credono in questo progetto per radicarsi sul territorio."

"Un magistrato deve essere imparziale quando esercita le sue funzioni ma io confesso che non mi sento del tutto imparziale. Anzi, mi sento partigiano, sono un partigiano della Costituzione."

"(About Pietro Grasso) He was a magistrate of great experience, courage, and professional ability, but it must be remembered that he became national anti-Mafia prosecutor thanks to a law passed ad personam by Silvio Berlusconi, which excluded Gian Carlo Caselli, who had more qualifications than Pietro Grasso. Grasso himself said in a famous interview that the Berlusconi government deserved a special award for its anti-Mafia activities. Pietro Grasso is certainly not left-wing, nor has he ever been in his brief forays into politics. Even when Caselli was appointed prosecutor of Palermo in 1992, Grasso was his opponent, the candidate of the then Minister of Justice Martelli. Therefore, he did not have a left-wing position, as the founders of Liberi e Uguali do. He was then supported by the Berlusconi government against Caselli. [...] Grasso has always taken a very cautious stance on many of the Palermo prosecutor's initiatives. He did not want to sign the Palermo prosecutor's appeal against the acquittal of Andreotti in the first instance. When he was my boss, he was very lukewarm about the investigations I had carried out into criminal networks, the State-Mafia negotiations, and the Dell'Utri trial. He has always been a prudent man, legitimately so, but also a cautious magistrate."

"This legal and moral basis, or principle, on which the power of the political class rests, is what we have elsewhere called, and shall continue here to call, the “political formula.’ (Writers on the philosophy of law generally call it the “principle of sovereignty.”) The political formula can hardly be the same in two or more different societies; and fundamental or even notable similarities between two or more political formulas appear only where the peoples professing them have the same type of civilization [...]. According to the level of civilization in the peoples among whom they are current, the various political formulas may be based either upon supernatural beliefs or upon concepts which, if they do not correspond to positive realities, at least appear to be rational. We shall not say that they correspond in either case to scientific truths. A conscientious observer would be obliged to confess that, if no one has ever seen the authentic document by which the Lord empowered certain privileged persons or families to rule his people on his behalf, neither can it be maintained that a popular election, however liberal the suffrage may be, is ordinarily the expression of the will of a people, or even of the will of the majority of a people. And yet that does not mean that political formulas are mere quackeries aptly invented to trick the masses into obedience. Anyone who viewed them in that light would fall into grave error. The truth is that they answer a real need in man’s social nature; and this need, so universally felt, of governing and knowing that one is governed not on the basis of mere material or intellectual force, but on the basis of a moral principle, has beyond any doubt a practical and a real importance."

"In reality the dominion of an organized minority, obeying a single impulse, over the unorganized majority is inevitable. The power of any minority is irresistible as against each single individual in the majority, who stands alone before the totality of the organized minority. At the same time, the minority is organized for the very reason that it is a minority. A hundred men acting uniformly in concert, with a common understanding, will triumph over a thousand men who are not in accord and can therefore be dealt with one by one. Meanwhile it will be easier for the former to act in concert and have a mutual understanding simply because they are a hundred and not a thousand. It follows that the larger the political community, the smaller will the proportion of the governing minority to the governed majority be, and the more difficult will it be for the majority to organize for reaction against the minority."

"I can certainly call myself an anti-democrat, but I am not an anti-liberal; indeed I am opposed to pure democracy precisely because I am a liberal. I believe that the ruling class ought not to be monolithic and homogeneous but ought to consist of elements which are diverse in regard to origin and interests; when, instead, political power originates from a single source, even if this be elections with universal suffrage, I regard it as dangerous and liable to become oppressive. Democratic Jacobinism is an illiberal doctrine precisely because it subordinates everything to a single force, that of the so-called majority, on which it does not set any limits."

"The psychological sword of the state is the political formula. A political formula is any thought—good or bad, true or false, crazy or sane—that convinces the subject to love, serve, and obey the officials. For instance, the slogan “Black Lives Matter” is a political formula. It exhorts us to support those forces, persons, and institutions that promote, or are purported to promote, “Black Lives.” ...The ideal formula has a message for each culture. For the regime, the best formula is self-affirming; it convinces the official class that it is doing the right thing. For the clientele, the best formula is self-interested; it convinces the clients that the regime is working for them. For the commons, the best formula is self-deprecating; it convinces the commoners to stay humble and pay their taxes."

"Mosca, founder of the "Italian elitist" school, arguably the Darwin of his field, today known only even to specialists as a precursor of fascism, saw that within every governed society, all human beings can be divided into three clear sets. One is the officials, people “in the loop” who have the power to control or affect government decisions. Anyone who isn’t an official is a subject. The set of all officials is the regime. The set of all nonofficials is the public. Subjects are divided into two sets by a simple accounting: clients, who are economically dependent on the regime; commoners, on whom the regime is economically dependent. Clients naturally admire the regime; commoners naturally resent it. Individual human opinion is never deterministic. But these three human perspectives—regime, commons, and clientele—nourish three kinds of political cultures, classes, or traditions. And while there may be many distinct common and client cultures, there is almost never more than one official culture: the people who govern, plus the people who think like them. Every objective political theory is a theory of this official class. Sovereignty, the absolute power of all officials over all subjects, is conserved. All government is unconditional. All “freedoms” are conditional privileges granted by the regime — what are “judges” but officials?"

"What is the secret of the amazing subordination of the armies of the West? Mosca finds the answer in the aristocratic character, so to say, of the army, first in the fact that there is a wide and absolute social distinction between private and officer, and second that the corps of officers, which comes from the ruling class, reflects the balance of multiple and varied social forces which are recognized by and within that class. The logical implications of this theory are well worth pondering. If the theory be regarded as sound, steps toward the democratization of armies—the policy of Mr. Hore-Belisha, for instance—are mistaken steps which in the end lead toward military dictatorships; for any considerable democratization of armies would make them active social forces reflecting all the vicissitudes of social conflict and, therefore, preponderant social forces. On the other hand, army officers have to be completely eliminated from political life proper. When army officers figure actively and ex officio in political councils, they are certain eventually to dominate those councils and replace the civil authority — the seemingly incurable cancer of the Spanish world, for an example."

"We must not infer from [the decline of religion] that rationalistic or scientific education has made any great progress in the lower classes. A person may not only question the truth of religious doctrines — he may also be convinced that all religions are historical phenomena born of innate and profound needs of the human spirit, and that attitude may be arrived at through a realistic mental training based on comprehensive studies that have gradually accustomed the mind not to accept as true anything that is not scientifically proved. In such a case, on losing one system of illusions, the individual is left so well balanced that he will not be inclined to embrace another, and certainly not the first that comes along. But the mass of lower-class unbelievers that we have in nations of European civilization today — and also, it must be confessed, the great majority of unbelievers who are not exactly lower-class, do not arrive at rationalism over any such road. They disbelieve, and they scoff, simply because they have grown up in environments in which they have been taught to disbelieve and to scoff. Under those circumstances, the mind that rejects Christianity because it is based on the supernatural is quite ready to accept other beliefs, and beliefs that may well be cruder and more vulgar. [...] Instead of believing blindly in the priest they believe blindly in the revolutionary agitator. They pride themselves on being in the vanguard of civilization, and their minds are open to all sorts of superstitions and sophistries. The moral and intellectual status which they have attained, far from being an enlightened positivism, is just a vulgar, sensuous, degrading materialism — it is “‘indifferentism,” if one prefers to call it that."

"The feeling that springs spontaneously from an unprejudiced judgment of the history of humanity is compassion for the contradictory qualities of this poor human race of ours, so rich in abnegation, so ready at times for personal sacrifice, yet whose every attempt, whether more or less successful or not at all successful, to attain moral and material betterment, is coupled with an unleashing of hates, rancors and the basest passions. A tragic destiny is that of men! Aspiring ever to pursue and achieve what they think.is the good, they ever find pretexts for slaughtering and persecuting each other. Once they slaughtered and persecuted over the interpretation of a dogma, or of a passage in the Bible. Then they slaughtered and persecuted in order to inaugurate the kingdom of liberty, equality and fraternity. Today they are slaughtering and persecuting and fiendishly torturing each other in the name of other creeds. Perhaps tomorrow they will slaughter and torment each other in an effort to banish the last trace of violence and injustice from the earth!"

"The day can hardly come when conflicts and rivalries among different religions and parties will end. [...] Even granting that such a world could be realized, it does not seem to us a desirable sort of world. So far in history, freedom to think, to observe, to judge men and things serenely and dispassionately, has been possible—always be it understood, for a few individuals—only in those societies in which numbers of different religious and political currents have been struggling for dominion. That same condition [...] is almost indispensable for the attainment of what is commonly called “political liberty’” — in other words, the highest possible degree of justice in the relations between governors and governed that is compatible with our imperfect human nature. In fact, in societies where choice among a number of religious and political currents has ceased to be possible because one such current has succeeded in gaining exclusive control, the isolated and original thinker has to be silent, and moral and intellectual monopoly is infallibly associated with political monopoly, to the advantage of a caste or of a very few social forces."

"From our point of view there can be no antagonism between state and society. The state is to be looked upon merely as that part of society which performs the political function. Consider in this light, all questions touching interference or non-interference by the state come to assume a new aspect. Instead of asking what the limits of state activity ought to be, we try to find out what the best type of political organization is, which type, in order words, enables all the elements that have a political significance in a given society to be best utilized and specialized, best subjected to reciprocal control and to the principle of individual responsibility for the things that are done in the respective domains."

"Down to a few generations ago—and even today in the eyes of many writers and statesmen—all flaws in representative government were attributed to incomplete or mistaken applications of the principles of representation and suffrage. Louis Blanc, Lamartine and indeed all the democratic writers in France before 1848 ascribed the alleged corruption of the July Monarchy and all the drawbacks of the French parliamentary system to interference by the monarch with the elective bodies and, especially, to limited suffrage. Similar beliefs were widely current in Italy down to thirty years ago. For instance, they formed, as they still form, the groundwork of the Mazzinian school [...] [And yet precisely] [w]hat happens in other forms of government — namely, that an organized minority imposes its will on the disorganized majority — happens also and to perfection, whatever the appearances to the contrary, under the representative system. When we say that the voters “choose” their representative, we are using a language that is very inexact. The truth is that the representative has himself elected by the voters, and, if that phrase should seem too inflexible and too harsh to fit some cases, we might qualify it by saying that his friends have him elected. In elections, as in all other manifestations of social life, those who have the will and, especially, the moral, intellectual and material means to force their will upon others take the lead over the others and command them."

"There is no use either in cherishing illusions as to the practical consequences of a system in which political power and control of economic production and distribution are irrevocably delegated to, or conferred upon, the same persons. In so far as the state absorbs and distributes a larger and larger portion of the public wealth, the leaders of the ruling class come to possess greater and greater facilities for influencing and commanding their subordinates, and more and more easily evade control by anybody."

"[W]hen the class that monopolizes wealth and arms embodies its power in a centralized bureaucracy and an irresistible standing army, we get a despotism in its worst form – namely, a barbarous and primitive system of government that has the instruments of an advanced civilization at its disposal, a yoke of iron which is applied by rough and reckless hands and which is very hard to break, since it has been steeled and tempered by practical artisans."

"One should note, as an example, that in the course of the nineteenth century England adopted peacefully and without violent shocks almost all the basic civil and political reforms that France paid so heavily to achieve through the great Revolution. Undeniably, the great advantage of England lay in the greater energy, the greater practical wisdom, the better political training, that her ruling class possessed down to the very end of the past century."

"As social organization progresses and the governing class begins to reap the benefits of an improved bureaucratic machine, its superiority in culture and wealth, and especially its better organization and firmer cohesion, may compensate to some extent for the lack of individual energy; and so it may come about that considerable portions of the governing class, especially the circles that give the society its intellectual tone and direction, lose the habit of dealing with people of the lower classes and command them directly. This state of affairs generally enables frivolousness, and a sort of culture that is wholly abstract and conventional, to supplant a vivid sense of realities and a sound and accurate knowledge of human nature. Thinking loses virility. Sentimental and exaggeratedly humanitarian theories come to the fore, theories that proclaim the innate goodness of men, especially when they are not spoiled by civilization, or theories that uphold the absolute preferableness, in the arts of government, of gentle and persuasive means to severe authoritarian measures. People imagine, as Taine puts it, that since social life has flowed blandly and smoothly on for centuries, like an impetuous river confined withing sturdy dikes, the dikes have become superfluous and can readily be dispensed with, now that the river has learned its lesson. […] It would seem therefore that there is a frequent, if not a universal, tendency in very mature civilizations, where ruling classes have acquired highly refined literary cultures, to wax enthusiastic, by a sort of antithesis, over the simple ways of savages, barbarians and peasants (the case of Arcadia!), and to clothe them with all sorts of virtues and sentiments that are as stereotyped as they are imaginary. Invariably underlying all such tendencies is the concept that was so aptly phrased by Rousseau, that man is good by nature but spoiled by society and civilization. This notion has had a very great influence on political thinking during the past hundred and fifty years. […] [W]hen the ruling class has degenerated in the manner described, it loses its ability to provide against its own dangers and against those of the society that has the misfortune to be guided by it. So the state crashes at the first appreciable shock from the outside foe. Those who govern are unable to deal with the least flurry; and the changes that a strong and intelligent ruling class would have carried out at a negligible cost in wealth, blood and human dignity take on the proportions of a social cataclysm."

"Spencer wrote that the divine right of kings was the great superstition of past ages, and that the divine right of elected assemblies is the great superstition of our present age. The idea cannot be called wholly mistaken, but certainly it does not consider or exhaust all aspects of the question. It is further necessary to see whether a society can hold together without one of these “great superstitions”—whether a universal illusion is not a social force that contributes powerfully to consolidating political organization and unifying peoples or even whole civilizations."

"Chi non vede che la colpa di questo ritorno all'età ferina non è dei soldati che nel furor della lotta diventano barbari e feroci, ma di quelle potenze e di quei governi che, tenendo schiavi popoli anelanti a libertà, rendono le guerre inevitabili?"