Word: barzini
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Lies for Happiness. The trouble is that the Italians themselves are captivated by these qualities, Barzini suggests. "Watch an Italian mother fondle her baby. If she is alone, she is tender and solicitous like any other mother, in a matter-of-fact way. As soon as somebody enters the room, she will immediately act a tasteful impersonation of Mother Love. Her face will suddenly shine, tears of affection will fill her eyes, she will crush the infant to her breast, sing to him . . ." But even at its most innocent, the trait lends "a theatrical quality which enhances but slightly distorts...
Self-Swindlers. Unfortunately, the deceptions can sometimes be disastrous. In Italy, Barzini argues, "ordinary people must usually choose between the unrestrained expression of counterfeit emotions and the controlled expression of real ones." The inevitable result is automatic distrust of idealism, and a cynicism so widespread that "there is a large part of reality the realistic Italian never grasps...
...Casanova and the swindler Cagliostro who raised deception to a way of life and a high art; Machiavelli who made it a cardinal principle of statecraft; while Mussolini was by no means the first Italian leader to perish finally believing the deceptions he had himself created. At the start, Barzini thinks, Mussolini "watched him self playing the great role he was invent ing as gusto," he but went over the along, years he hamming at it began to with believe the stirring show and the lies and flattery, came to read his own news papers with pleasure, and mistook...
Habits of Mind. "The only fundamental institution in the country" is the family, thinks Barzini. Within the family, Italians practice "virtues other men usually dedicate to the welfare of their country at large; the Italians' family loyalty is their true patriotism." High honor, great love and sacrifice can result. But the strength of the family is not only a defense against disorder, argues Barzini, "but one of its principal causes," forestalling the development of strong political institutions, fostering the habits of nepotism and corruption that every Italian instinctively understands...
...tone of jaunty worldliness, Barzini's is a cry of despair: "The tenacity and the eagerness with which the individual pursues his private interests and defends himself from society, his mistrust of noble ideals and motives, the splendid show, the all-pervading indulgence for man's foibles, make Italian life pleasant and bearable in spite of poverty, tyranny and injustice. They also waste the efforts and the sacrifices of the best Italians and make poverty, tyranny and injustice very difficult to defeat...