Manifestatio

It seems that italy is in revolt. STudents have been blockading (peacefully, i add) universities and schools to oppose a recent reform (law #133) that sacrifices a large sum of public money away from education to fix italy's budgetary problems. The need for a better management of italian public finances is beyond any sane man's questioning, and it has undoubtedly been exacerbated by the current crisis - bloody yanks - but the solution for it cannot possibly be sought through cuts in education.

"My polls tell me I enjoy the highest level of popular support in the history of this country! Haha, frankly its embarassing" S.B.

Here's what some have suggested is also (or 'actually') happening, an idea that i do not feel ready to categorically reject: Berlusconi has some sort of a 'positive' or 'soft' dictatorship going on in italy, the keyword of which is consent. Baffling, i know, but Berlusconi belieives (excuse the alliteration) that once the consent of those governed is expressed, those who govern enjoy a form of carte balanche mandate enabling them to elude all forms of constitutional guarantees, thereby slowling biting away at italy's social and political plurality. His instruments to achieve this are his televisions, his newspapars, his publishing house, his football team and, last but by no means least, what he perceives as his parliament.

The only lively oppositiion to this system for the control of italian's hearts and minds (which, remember, even according to him is the foundation of his absolute power) is represented by a few lonely voices (Marco Travaglio, Michele Santoro, Enzo Biagi) that SB and his TV's have managed to depict as communist radicals culpable of persecuting him, also thanks to the spinelessness of the rest of italy's journalists. Mildly critical journalists abound, but these only serve to provide a veneer of legitimacy to his subtle, mediatic despotism.

But the real crease in the system that prevents him from achieving total control of the social and cultural fora where destabilising forces may potentially emerge is the education system. Sinking an autonomous university system makes people watch more TV, and if you own most of the TVs in your country, that goes to your unmistakable advantage. Now, I'm not saying that this is the reason for which the cuts in education spending have been adopted, or that there is some kind of explicit plan laid out for the mediatic control of italy that Berlusconi reveiws every night before going to bed. But this is definitely a dynamic that is at play.

The most powerful weapon in the hands of a dictator is the mind of the oppressed. The dumbing down of people and stifling of institutions where autonomous modes of thinking can develop helps every dictator achieve the subjugation of those he governs, even when the dictator is the most subtle, smiling and surgically ameliorated one.