(The evaluation of the more or less democratic nature of the acts of the
institutions does not concern this editorial team. However, we share the
final appeal). ---- In recent times, a worrying cultural trend has been
imposing itself, or rather re-proposing, in Piedmont and in particular
in the province of Cuneo: in fact, private and institutional initiatives
of a monarchic nature are multiplying, aimed at glorifying, remembering
and justifying the House of Savoy in its past and in its present, both
of which are unpresentable. ---- In fact, since the return of the male
heirs of the house to Italy was authorized with a specific
constitutional amendment, there have been many opportunities for
nostalgic associations, unlikely militias and decayed nobility (but
still strong in the right economic and political connections) to invite
and praise the so-called failed kings of Italy.
Until recently, this mostly happened with indecent funeral and religious
ceremonies (transfers of bodies and so on), with a large display of
Savoy flags, golden roses, and blessings galore.
So much so, it is not strange to think that churches and mausoleums
wanted and built by the Savoys, like the one in Vicoforte Mondovì (CN),
with its accompanying presbytery, persisted in paying homage to such a
lineage of butchers... Clergy and nobility have always gone arm in arm,
united by the common desire to exploit and dominate the people, and by
the need for the most vulgar obscurantism to maintain their power.
More surprising, however, is the desire of representatives elected in
the so-called republican and democratic institutions to re-submit to the
monarchy, to pay homage and honors to the former reigning house.
Among the many -too many- expressions of nostalgia for submission to a
monarch, between tourist organizations called 'Terre dei Savoia',
restored palaces then rented for noble parties (Racconigi CN), lovers
who have become symbols and memories of various villages (la Bela
Rosin), translations of the bodies of cousins' cousins honored and
publicized, pseudo-cultural evenings of rewriting history, ridiculous
militias of guardians of the honor that was and so on, one example in
particular is emblematic.
This is the initiative of the municipality of Valdieri (CN), already a
hunting reserve and locus amoenus of the Savoys in the past, which
recently awarded honorary citizenship to their last descendant.
Leaving aside the obvious need for tourist and media visibility that
motivated this new genuflection, and the illusion evidently cultivated
by some that bringing the Savoys and their friends back to those
mountains would generate some induced business, there remain some
interesting points to underline:
First of all, on that occasion the mayor addressed that guy, the one
from the ridiculous television appearances on the Island of the Famous,
the son of the guy who shot from boats and who got lost in casinos,
calling him "his highness", taking him seriously in short, paying him
respect and deference from times gone by: an event specially packaged
around his presence with a band and claque, museum and even culinary
retrospectives of his grandmother, mother, aunt, a slick presence of
representatives of the Police, the Curia and politics, giving a speech
on that occasion that seemed like he was receiving the head of the world.
An endorsement, as they would say today, in the round: a prostration of
the mayor and the village to the last of the parvenus. An
anti-democratic, revanchist act, which shows us how far some
administrators of today are from the minimal historical contribution,
from the minimal founding conscience of the State that they claim to
represent.
Moreover, a demonstration against, which in its own way contributed to
the media visibility of the event, had also attempted to remind the
distracted mayor of the constitution that he should theoretically
follow: a group of "children of partisans" in fact contested the heir's
undeniable responsibility of his family in the twenty years, the
promulgation of the racial laws, the late choice of the armistice and
the repression of the partisans - Valdieri, moreover, with its valley,
was the cradle and base of a famous Brigade.
All right, seasoned with a discreet presence, which with the singing of
Bella Ciao tried to disturb the official ceremony.
However, it was quite easy for those involved to bounce the criticism,
recalling last-minute second thoughts, and then being an ordinary
citizen, tied to that land by bucolic memories and family nostalgia,
even admitting the wrong choices and thus regaining an easy virginity...
excuses similar to those of the Catholic Church, which first burns you
and then repents, remaining firmly on its mountain of gold and hypocrisy.
It would have been perhaps more correct to remind the Savoys of some of
their other dark moments, beyond their support for Mussolini: the
cannonades (and subsequent praise) of Bava Beccaris against the people
who were asking for bread, the ferocious repression of brigandage with
the sad fort of Fenestrelle to remind us of the death by cold and
hardship of thousands of southerners, the tragic military adventures of
Libya and the Great War with their tributes of peasant blood (and the
business and incompetence of the nobles and generals), the crude
posthumous revenge on the remains of Passannante (decapitated and
exposed post-mortem to everlasting condemnation), the decades of
intrigues with the landowners, industrialists and the clergy, and I
leave some, but history can be consulted and does not lie.
The point is: it is not that the Savoys were wrong only with their
support for fascism; It is not that by acknowledging the errors of the
racial laws or by apologizing they cleanse themselves of every sin and
magically become respectable protagonists of our history.
The Savoys - like all kings, their families and the relative nobility -
have stolen, killed, repressed, exploited and plundered the populations
and lands subjected to them, always, with ferocity and carelessness,
often with open contempt for the life and conditions of their subjects.
They are where they are only for this; they have what they have, whether
in the golden exile in Switzerland or in Italy makes little difference,
only thanks to theft, murder, organized abuse: protagonists of history
on the wrong side, that of violence and absolute power, by divine will
and through weakness, ignorance and enslavement of the masses.
Finding in modernity, and even in institutions, the nostalgia of
submission to an entity so harshly condemned by history takes us beyond
the concept of voluntary servitude expressed by de La Boétie, we arrive
at the desired servitude.
More Bresci, less Savoy!
Luther Blisset
https://umanitanova.org/savoiardi-nel-caffellatte/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
institutions does not concern this editorial team. However, we share the
final appeal). ---- In recent times, a worrying cultural trend has been
imposing itself, or rather re-proposing, in Piedmont and in particular
in the province of Cuneo: in fact, private and institutional initiatives
of a monarchic nature are multiplying, aimed at glorifying, remembering
and justifying the House of Savoy in its past and in its present, both
of which are unpresentable. ---- In fact, since the return of the male
heirs of the house to Italy was authorized with a specific
constitutional amendment, there have been many opportunities for
nostalgic associations, unlikely militias and decayed nobility (but
still strong in the right economic and political connections) to invite
and praise the so-called failed kings of Italy.
Until recently, this mostly happened with indecent funeral and religious
ceremonies (transfers of bodies and so on), with a large display of
Savoy flags, golden roses, and blessings galore.
So much so, it is not strange to think that churches and mausoleums
wanted and built by the Savoys, like the one in Vicoforte Mondovì (CN),
with its accompanying presbytery, persisted in paying homage to such a
lineage of butchers... Clergy and nobility have always gone arm in arm,
united by the common desire to exploit and dominate the people, and by
the need for the most vulgar obscurantism to maintain their power.
More surprising, however, is the desire of representatives elected in
the so-called republican and democratic institutions to re-submit to the
monarchy, to pay homage and honors to the former reigning house.
Among the many -too many- expressions of nostalgia for submission to a
monarch, between tourist organizations called 'Terre dei Savoia',
restored palaces then rented for noble parties (Racconigi CN), lovers
who have become symbols and memories of various villages (la Bela
Rosin), translations of the bodies of cousins' cousins honored and
publicized, pseudo-cultural evenings of rewriting history, ridiculous
militias of guardians of the honor that was and so on, one example in
particular is emblematic.
This is the initiative of the municipality of Valdieri (CN), already a
hunting reserve and locus amoenus of the Savoys in the past, which
recently awarded honorary citizenship to their last descendant.
Leaving aside the obvious need for tourist and media visibility that
motivated this new genuflection, and the illusion evidently cultivated
by some that bringing the Savoys and their friends back to those
mountains would generate some induced business, there remain some
interesting points to underline:
First of all, on that occasion the mayor addressed that guy, the one
from the ridiculous television appearances on the Island of the Famous,
the son of the guy who shot from boats and who got lost in casinos,
calling him "his highness", taking him seriously in short, paying him
respect and deference from times gone by: an event specially packaged
around his presence with a band and claque, museum and even culinary
retrospectives of his grandmother, mother, aunt, a slick presence of
representatives of the Police, the Curia and politics, giving a speech
on that occasion that seemed like he was receiving the head of the world.
An endorsement, as they would say today, in the round: a prostration of
the mayor and the village to the last of the parvenus. An
anti-democratic, revanchist act, which shows us how far some
administrators of today are from the minimal historical contribution,
from the minimal founding conscience of the State that they claim to
represent.
Moreover, a demonstration against, which in its own way contributed to
the media visibility of the event, had also attempted to remind the
distracted mayor of the constitution that he should theoretically
follow: a group of "children of partisans" in fact contested the heir's
undeniable responsibility of his family in the twenty years, the
promulgation of the racial laws, the late choice of the armistice and
the repression of the partisans - Valdieri, moreover, with its valley,
was the cradle and base of a famous Brigade.
All right, seasoned with a discreet presence, which with the singing of
Bella Ciao tried to disturb the official ceremony.
However, it was quite easy for those involved to bounce the criticism,
recalling last-minute second thoughts, and then being an ordinary
citizen, tied to that land by bucolic memories and family nostalgia,
even admitting the wrong choices and thus regaining an easy virginity...
excuses similar to those of the Catholic Church, which first burns you
and then repents, remaining firmly on its mountain of gold and hypocrisy.
It would have been perhaps more correct to remind the Savoys of some of
their other dark moments, beyond their support for Mussolini: the
cannonades (and subsequent praise) of Bava Beccaris against the people
who were asking for bread, the ferocious repression of brigandage with
the sad fort of Fenestrelle to remind us of the death by cold and
hardship of thousands of southerners, the tragic military adventures of
Libya and the Great War with their tributes of peasant blood (and the
business and incompetence of the nobles and generals), the crude
posthumous revenge on the remains of Passannante (decapitated and
exposed post-mortem to everlasting condemnation), the decades of
intrigues with the landowners, industrialists and the clergy, and I
leave some, but history can be consulted and does not lie.
The point is: it is not that the Savoys were wrong only with their
support for fascism; It is not that by acknowledging the errors of the
racial laws or by apologizing they cleanse themselves of every sin and
magically become respectable protagonists of our history.
The Savoys - like all kings, their families and the relative nobility -
have stolen, killed, repressed, exploited and plundered the populations
and lands subjected to them, always, with ferocity and carelessness,
often with open contempt for the life and conditions of their subjects.
They are where they are only for this; they have what they have, whether
in the golden exile in Switzerland or in Italy makes little difference,
only thanks to theft, murder, organized abuse: protagonists of history
on the wrong side, that of violence and absolute power, by divine will
and through weakness, ignorance and enslavement of the masses.
Finding in modernity, and even in institutions, the nostalgia of
submission to an entity so harshly condemned by history takes us beyond
the concept of voluntary servitude expressed by de La Boétie, we arrive
at the desired servitude.
More Bresci, less Savoy!
Luther Blisset
https://umanitanova.org/savoiardi-nel-caffellatte/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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