untitled design (1)

Learn Italian online

Search

Why Mario Monti May Damage Italy’s Mental Health

Yes, it may seem an odd claim to make, but if you read the book Progress or Collapse by Italian academic Roberto de Vogli, you will quickly understand why the assertion that Mario Monti may damage Italy’s mental health is possible.

Now, this is where things may become rather complicated unless you are an economist or someone else who knows about finance.

Economist Mario Monti adheres to a philosophy known as ‘neoliberalism‘. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were neoliberalists too.

In a nutshell, what neoliberalist thinkers believe is that deregulating everything is the way forward – the market must be free to do what it likes. The trouble is, it is not and there are mountains of evidence to demonstrate that the neoliberalist approach to running the world not only does not work, it is plain dangerous, and can make you very unhappy as well.

The crisis in the world’s banking system is down to deregulation, argues di Volgi. Moreover, the neoliberalist approach may well be contributing to increasing levels of mental health issues around the world and, more startlingly, in children. So, Mario Monti is potentially a danger to the mental health of Italians and their children.

Even if you do not live in Italy, look around you to see evidence of mental health problems. Gun crime in the USA could be a product of the nation’s mental health too.

Market Good, Good Greed

For neoliberalist thinkers, the market is a God and greed is good. They also believe that trickle down capitalism will lead the world on a path towards progress and prosperity. In actual fact, as de Vogli argues and demonstrates very successfully in his book, the opposite is true.

Our neoliberalist leaders who guide the Unholy Trinity – IMF, the World Bank and WTO, are actually propelling the world towards disaster, both economically and environmentally. That is a scary claim to make, but the situation is becoming ever more frightening by the day. You do want a future for your children, don’t you?

Victims, So far

Sub-Saharan Africa is a victim of  IMF, the World Bank and WTO neoliberalist meddling and is in a mess, even the Unholy Trinity has just about admitted that its approach does not work.

Mario Monti who is very bank-friendly, as well as being an Unholy Trinity fan, may, instead of helping pick Italy up, actually end up doing the opposite. The effects of austerity on Italy have been painful and may be a portender of what is to come. It is true that some austerity measures were needed in Italy where public spending went out of control years ago, and much public money has quite literally been stolen. However, when austerity goes too far, it can have effects which push economies into even deeper recessions. Perhaps Mario Monti is aware of this, but he still appears to have his feet firmly planted in the neoliberalist camp.

Hoarding Wealth

While the neoliberalists want to deregulate the markets, they also want to hoard wealth and use their influence on inept or friendly politicians to achieve this goal, which, it has to be said, they have already achieved in the United States and elsewhere via something called corporatism.

Fascism Walks Hand in Hand with Corporatism

A certain Benito Mussolini was a fan of corporatism and the rich and powerful loved him for it.  Did you know, for example, that Fortune Magazine lauded Mussolini way back in 1934?

think in italian logo dark bg 1

Stop reading, start speaking

Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.

In the very same year, a group of American power-mongers attempted a coup in the USA. Why? Because fascism played right into their greedy little hands and they wanted America to become as fascist as Mussolini’s Italy. These are two little known facts I gleaned from Roberto de Volgi’s book.

As you may know, Silvio Berlusconi is a huge fan of Mussolini and he too loves the idea of being able to control every aspect of Italy whilst lining his already bulging pockets even further in the process. Berlusconi has already installed a propaganda machine in Italy – part of which is called Mediaset. Berlusconi was also a member of the shadowy P2, a secret organisation which worked hard to place Italy in the hands of the select few.

Monti Berlusconi Parallels

Yes, worryingly, there do seem to be certain parallels between Mario Monti and Silvio Berlusconi.

Whether Italy’s lackluster left, which also appears to be happy to jump into bed with bankers, is also secretly neoliberalist, is hard to tell. There are some indications, such as the shady Mr D’Alema who pulls Italy’s left’s strings and has reputedly made deals with Berlusconi, that it is.

The big problem with neoliberalism is that it caters for the few and not for the many, even if it tries to argue that this is not the case.

Asia has ignored the neoliberalist way and it is doing very well, unlike Europe and the US.

To leave you, here is Roberto de Vogli in action – note how his slides show the relationship between deregulation and banking crises:

From the Great Recession to Healthy De-growth: the role of Social Movements

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/46799633[/vimeo]

Hope? For Italy, it may lie in either Beppe Grillo or and more convincingly, in the Fermare il Declino movement. What about in your country?

If you would like to know more and to understand why Mario Monti and Silvio Berlusconi are both potentially bad for our mental health, go read Roberto de Volgi’s interesting book: Progress or Collapse – then go change the world – for the sake of our children.

I am reading Progress or Collapse which I have used as a source for this article.

 

Most Popular

Just the Ticket for Tricky Truckers

Travelling on Italy’s autostrade, or motorways, can be quite an expensive business, for example for truck drivers the cost from northern Italy to to costs around 70 Euros, but in another classic Italian fiddle, budget tickets were made available.

Categories

Related Posts

Thank you Mr Prodi

Stop reading, start speaking Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.