The Italian Experience

Editorial

      A friend loaned me a novel not long ago: The Red Horse, published by Ignatius, San Francisco, 10th edition, 1995. I hesitate to read suggested books because I prefer to make my own choices and I seldom read novels because they take a long time to say what could be said in a sentence or two. Additionally, this was the biggest book that I have read, one thousand and fifteen large pages of small type. But once I started to read I did not put it down until I came to the end. It was a complete novel, complete with several love stories of great sensitivity.
      The main thrust of the book was a description of Italy in World War II written by Eugenio Corti, a conscripted soldier in that awful war. My interest in the book was because it described the war from the Italian point of view. I lived through that war. My brother was injured but came home, my boyhood friend was killed in an act of heroism, and many other friends never came home. But our side won. Those described in this war lost and had their country devastated. Not even now has Italy recovered from those tragic years. While the book portrays many heroes, the two main characters are Ambrogio Rivas, whose father owned a factory that employed several hundred, and Michele Tintori, a dreamer who became a writer.
      The Italians described in this book who became soldiers were neither Fascists nor volunteers; they were conscripts. The war was easy for the first twelve months. The Germans broke ground and others followed their advance, on and on into Russia, eating well and with an adequate supply of good wine. The Russians retreated hundred of miles-until winter set in and the temperature went far below freezing and even zero. By this time they had armaments from the United States. Hitler was a fool on two counts. First, how could he think he could rule a land the size of Russia? Second, why did he not realize that Russians hated Communism because of its cruelty and lack of freedom. He was without imagination not to have behaved with generosity to the citizens. They welcomed Hitler until it became clear he was as great a criminal as their Communist despots. "No, not Communism. I'm defending Russia, not Communism, but Russia," spelled the defeat of Nazism.
      The retreat began. Unable to operate in the cold and overwhelmed by the size and power of the Russians, between sporadic fighting defeated soldiers walked. There was no fuel for their machines, for cooking, for anything. Young men in the prime of manhood walked seventeen days, practically without eating. Of three thousand who began a particular march, five hundred survived, the rest collapsing by the side of the road.
      Michele had been captured and held prisoner for several months because it was thought he had information that could be useful, but he was released to a camp of hundreds, with more brought in daily. He was brought to a large horse stable, slept on straw amid indescribable filth, with the newly dead hauled out every day by those with strength enough to move them, and put on a pile of those who had died previously. The living were told food would come, and once in a while it did, a broth brought in large, metal cans. Prisoners would get up from the straw, crawl if they couldn't walk, and rush to the trucks if they could. The armed guards kept them at bay, pointing their sharp bayonets at the chests of the maddened prisoners.
      In the midst of this mad wickedness, some deeds of good were done, an illustration that war is not an adequate description of mankind. Russian peasants, themselves starving, would supply retreating soldiers with bread when they had some. In what was loosely called a hospital, soldiers were shouting in the middle of the night, asking for bed pans; but the orderlies did not come. Some Polish nuns, whose duties were in the laundry room, came quickly, silently took care of the men.

After all they have suffered and go on suffering, all because of us, they only think of doing good, and do just that despite orders to the contrary. Have ever better people been seen living, physically living, the Gospels?

*****

      After serious long illnesses, Ambrogio returned home. Ambrogio ran the family business, which was in economic shambles after the war, but survived and installed new equipment. The people of Italy, however, with little knowledge of the cruel wickedness of Communists, were persuaded of the benefits of Communism. Many priests told their congregations capitalists were exploiters. One factory associated with Ambrogio could no longer stay in business and was occupied by the Communists, who complained about the antiquity of the machinery.

Where have these capitalists hidden the money? In Saint-Moritz, at the casino? Why didn't they buy new machinery instead?

      Sitting in his office, Ambrogio waited for the "informal" meeting with the worker's committee. He looked at a graph showing the number of workers-about two hundred, unchanged in many years; the attendance of employees, plunging into serious absenteeism, a new phenomenon after the war; the cost of labor, running upward and off the graph. The unions were running the country, strong and organized, opposed to capitalism, always making unreasonable demands for raises in pay and social benefits, unaware they were responsible for inflation and unemployment. Ambrogio thought sometimes the industrialists should let the people take over and learn what the Russians had learned. "No," he thought,

. . . there has to be someone keeping up the fight. Things simply can't go on like this. People will be forced to reconsider one of these days.

      Michelle endured cruel marches and confinement in so-called hospitals and prisons, but he also came home at last. Repulsed by what he had seen of cruelty, corruption, and the denial of religious values during the war, he gave all his energy to bringing Italy back to what it was before: a land of decency where people knew right from wrong and had simple, common sense. He became a political activist and writer. In the first election after the war, Christian Democrats won, but the results were different five years after when a combination of Communists and secularists were successful. So it continued for many years and up to the present.
      Michelle became a successful writer, though he had to make a living by teaching, as did his wife. His first book was approved by Croce, Italy's leading philosopher with an international reputation, and by Apollonio, one of the country's leading critics and a devout Christian. In spite of rejection by the popular press. Michelle eventually had a play accepted for presentation in Rome. The director was a good man in many ways, but the intellectual climate of the time compelled him to portray the play in a most unattractive manner: with no acting and only a verbal presentation of the text, with readers standing behind podiums. Even so, the play was a success by those who saw it.
      The critics dripped bile and hatred in their reviews. The author is a corrupter of youth with his condemnation of Communism. Rather than a tragedy, the play is a farce with his "facts" about Marxism and Communism. Even more tragic was the review of the Christian Democrats' newspaper. They said the same thing as the Marxists. A small Catholic newspaper tried to give a favorable review but were afraid they might offend the powers that be. With the exception of the largest daily in Rome, independent papers gave good reviews.
      "What bad people there are in this world," commented Michelle's wife. Michelle smiled and said,

There's nobody shooting into the back of your neck. Nor is anyone dying of hunger. All those poor Chinese farmers, small landowners-maybe owning just a few yards of earth-who are being systematically killed.

*****

. . . demanding to know how a judge will rule on issues is demanding that he violate his judicial oath before taking it.

George Washington said in his Farewell Address,

The Constitution . . . till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. . . . Let there be no change by usurpation. It is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.

      The Constitution of the United States has been changed by usurpation.

*****

      Ambrogio spoke about the attack on capitalism which was present in his experience and has been prevalent in Italy to this day, and which is increasingly prevalent in the United States and in Europe. As Italy became wealthier, the criticism of capitalism became more severe. So it is in the United States and in Europe. The nations of Europe are being homogenized under the rule of unelected bureaucrats, and they are chiefly socialist. One may safely predict Europe will have a decline of wealth and morality.
      The decline of morality was the primary concern of Ambrogio and Michelle, as they saw a rejection of their Christian faith, the growth of prostitution, and the popularization of divorce. The United States has seen the growth of all that our Italian heroes detested, and more.
      In the words of Walter Williams:

Toynbee says the growth phase of civilization is led by a creative minority who have a strong, self-confident sense of style, virtue and purpose. The uncreative majority follows along through attempts to imitate the creative minority.

In disintegrating civilizations, the creative minority (elites) are no longer confident and setting the example. They "lapse into truancy" and "surrender" to a sense of promiscuity (succumb to vulgarization of manners, the arts and language). . . . The upper class, instead of changing trashy behavior, often imitates and placates it.

In earlier days, to be an American gentleman meant one was brave, loyal and true. When one was wrong, he admitted it and took his medicine like a man. Taking advantage of a woman was totally out. A handshake and one's word were more binding than any legal document. The code of the gentleman has collapsed, just as the code of the lady has collapsed.

      Traditional morality and civil behavior have collapsed under litigation based on a denial of the traditional understanding of the United States Constitution.