Italy - One Step Closer To Dictatorship

For years, Italy's elite have understood that a major stepping stone towards a dictatorial regime has been the impossible task of creating a nationalistic movement, or more generally a national identity, something that seems laughable to most Italians. Berlusconi went as far as to name his party "Forza Italia!" (literally "Go Italy!") a telling name because it is a football slogan, and Mr Berlusconi realizes that the only time Italians unite is for a football match (despite sounding like a generalization, it is quite true).

Berlusconi's latest term has attempted another route. He has preyed on Italy's post-war xenophobia and tightened his choke on the media. All of this supported by legislation which now allows the military to perform civil duties, and believe me that they are now everywhere in Rome. On my way to work (6 kilometres) there are two military patrols that decorate the sidewalk with machine-gun armed soldiers. All of this of course, unheard of in a country where the second-world war left a huge distrust and fear of war. Having to threat my Fiat through military patrols at 8am is both eery and disquieting.

Early on in Berlusconi's latest term, the international (national headlines were notoriously absent from reporting these occurences) headlines were littered with reports of neo-fascist mobs burning and tearing their way across Rome. Rome's new major Alemanno, was a relic from Italy's fascist past, remembered for leading violent youth demonstrations:

A former street-fighting neo-fascist won a crushing victory in Rome’s mayoral election last night, crowning the victory two weeks ago of Silvio Berlusconi and the centre-right in the general election, and fuelling fears that Italy is now set for an unprecedented assault on immigrants.

www.independent.co.uk... fascist-sweeps-in-as-romes-mayor-817128.html

It was the beginning and the foundation of a new trend.

Today, the situation has worsened. We are being silenced en masse. The internet is the new battleground that has been the focus of attempts by the government of shutting down the only avenue left to most Italians to express their anger and to communicate abuse. Watchdog website sights such as beppegrillo.it... have become some of the largest in the world. But are under fire, and laws that seek to make every Italian register their blogs and websites, and abide by subjective journalistic principles, are making their way though the houses in parliament. Traditional, party-owned media of course, are the laughing stock of the entire world.

Today's heavy-handed approach to censorship extends to physical suppression.

In June a student was arrested, and removed from a public place because he had the nerve to laugh at a politican.



There are an innumerable example of this kind of censorship. Involving beatings and arrest. Here are a couple more:
Prohibited from peaceful protest

Protesting mafia projects is another no-no

The country which prides itself on being a G8 member is quickly falling into an oubliette. It seems a common process nowadays, punctuated by a healthy dose of Miltonian capitalism and disaster economics in order to coax us into acceptance. I'm not sure whether I should be suprised that if anything, Italy's diplomatic ties and international deals seem be strengthening.

My Father has been saying for 30 years or more that WWIII and the prophesized things to come will begin in Italy!! A couple of days ago a thread was started with Nostradamus Quattrains keying in on Italy as the catalyst!

The U.S. does not get a lot of this Italian news, so we assume it is not a major player, but we thought that once before and were proven wrong!

Starred and Flagged!

Thank you for your points, I believe that while Italy is in no way a global role-model or economic power-house. It's close ties with Russia and place within the EU make it an important player within the Russia-Nato chess game, that really could end up being news.

But the bigger point for me was to show that the processes that happen within larger economics such as the U.S are echoed by other small powers, which if gather momentum could lead to a disastrous trend.

Thanks again

reply to post by Oscitate


Don't forget the massive influence of the Vatican! Inside Italy and Worldwide. Italy has a lot more influence on World politics than we realize. A Mussolini-type in today's political climate could be devastating!

I visited Rome a few years ago. I met and hung out with some young people there and they all seem to think Mussolini was a great person. They have t-shirts and even cooking aprons plastered with Mussolini's face and slogans for sale on every corner!

reply to post by lucentenigma


Yup. My family would -- with me being the exception -- welcome another Mussolini. They would willingly accept another dictatorship if it meant curtailing corrpution.