Rules in reverse

At the end of July and the first few days of August, as is often the case every year, television and newspapers herald the new summer with big headlines, features, and bombastic reports about the numbers, percentages, and record tourist numbers that shatter the data from the previous summer. It's a classic that reassures us, banishes the worries and gloomy thoughts that the fate of the world suggests, allows us to close our eyes and dream for a while, makes us all feel more equal in the carefree joy that holidays bring. In reality, holidays are a privilege of rich countries, and the West in particular, but this, in the summer heat, isn't our problem if, as the Interior Ministry declares, in the first 10 days of August, a full 18 million Italians set off on a journey across the Bel Paese. Other official figures put summer leisure spending at around €18 billion, and it's difficult to discern, amid this whirlwind of positive data and numbers, the Italy of unemployment, starvation wages, precarious work, and zero growth that perpetually underpins the political debate that never calms down, even in the August heat. But under the beach umbrella, for Italians, reality filters through a different light, relaxation pleasantly clouds our worries and anxieties, the echoes of wars near and far seem to fade on the horizon, and the sweet idleness seems to lull the entire world into a sort of suspended peace that seems to envelop all of humanity. Unfortunately, this isn't the case—we're all perfectly aware of this, there's no point in hiding it—but to all of us, the world seems more beautiful, and our positive outlook, in its own small way, confirms this.

If we want to make our planet a better place, we have to believe in it and start with ourselves, making our small investment in positivity the rule of every day. It's not an easy exercise. It's easier to complain, on TV if possible, than to commit to something positive, which, as the facts demonstrate, requires greater effort, even just mental. A few generations ago, in the timely nursery rhyme of our parents' recommendations, the exhortation to perform a good deed every day was never missing, an endlessly repeated vocal mantra that today exudes the light but uncompromised rigor that accompanied and marked our growth. Fifty years have passed, and those simple words, like so many others—"behave"... "stay in your place"... "don't swear"—seem like the faded outlines of a black-and-white photo/memory that tends to fade. Today, the entire television world, politicians in the lead, is united from right to left in a common effort to apply those basic rules/recommendations in reverse: yelling, attacking others, and showering them with insults and swear words is the example that comes to us from above, and, like good sheep, we are all committed to imitating and following it... the results are there for all to see... but perhaps the worst is yet to come.


Michelangelo Dotta
NP August / September 2025