It’s a great and (now) old song by Tears for Fears. Looks like yesterday, but 1985 is some time in the past.
What’s true more then ever is that everybody still wants to rule the world. I could write at length about (but not only) the USA administration, for example, but today my focus is more on my own country, Italy.
We have a political class that basically represents itself. People to be elected in parliament are chosen by the head office of each political party. If you’re not among the chosen ones, you got no real chance of running for a seat.
This used to be called oligarchy. Well, last time I checked our Constitution, Italy was still supposed to be a democracy. As very well explained by historian Luciano Canfora in his The Democracy - History of an Ideology (a book I read some time ago and cannot but recommend), the electoral mechanism is what in fact determines whether a democracy is actually so, or just a concealed oligarchy.
Politicians declare themselves displeased with the current electoral mechanism, but nobody changed it yet; looks like they’re not that annoyed by it, after all.
Add the fact that the general economic situation in Italy is not really good, but for politicians and rich people of course. They get maybe more money and privileges than they ever had in the past.
Add the fact that the current left-centre government is not carrying out many fundamental points that are part of its electoral program (mainly about work and tax laws).
All that said, is it so surprising that people are really pissed of? V-Day success and all serious reactions to it are just all about that being pissed of.
I may be tempted to ask for help, but looks to me that all the countries that pride themselves in exporting Democracy (a concept as absurd as the Humanitarian War one) exported so much of it that they are actually in need themselves.
