Salubre è la diffidenza nei confronti degli sguardi languorosi e ripiegati sul passato. Perché è inevitabile che la componente psicologica influisca pesantemente sul giudizio: quello che è, appunto, passato è meglio semplicemente perché non ci sarà dato viverlo mai più.
The Legacy of Thatcherism. Assessing and Exploring Thatcherite Social and Economic Policies, edited by Stephen Farrall and Colin Hay. Oxford University Press for the British Academy. 352 pp. £25.00.
The legacy of Thatcherism: how not to assess it? Even beyond the ‘Anglo-liberal’ shores, Margaret Thatcher is such a totemic figure that it could be argued—without fear of opprobrium—that the present British political settlement is still cast in a Thatcherite mould.
Avevo già fatto una chiacchiera con Perry mesi orsono, per l’Espresso. Ora ne ho fatta un’altra per “il Manifesto.” Perry Anderson, docente della University of California di Los Angeles, nonché tra i teorici fondatori della «New Left» anglosassone e della rivista «New Left Review», è osservatore meticoloso della scena europea e di quella italiana in particolare, da lui studiate secondo un metodo comparativo delle strutture politiche e assetti culturali che tiene ben presente il magistero gramsciano. Continue reading “Sul neopopulismo continentale – nuova intervista a Perry Anderson”
«Voglio sgonfiare il mito della meritocrazia come la via da seguire per tutti. E credo che in una certa misura si stia già sgonfiando da sé: le persone sanno che non c’è più la mobilità sociale di un tempo. Come disse Raymond Williams anni fa, la meritocrazia inocula l’idea velenosa della legittimità delle gerarchie. Che sulla “scala” sociale possano salire solo alcuni». Continue reading “La bufala meritocratica”
Margaret Thatcher said that New Labour was her greatest achievement. Silvio Berlusconi could say the same of his ally/rival, the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi.
La triste kermesse zootecnica della Leopolda, oltre a dettarmi qualche considerazione altrove, mi esorta a condividere questo strepitoso pezzo. Così, per pura resistenza umana.
You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and
skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.
There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8: 32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.
Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.
There will be no highlights on the eleven o’clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be right back
after a message about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat.
The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.
Writer(s): Gil Scott-Heron
Considerazioni sparse su una parola usata come un manganello.
Perry Anderson non la manda a dire. L’ultimo saggio sulla “London Review of Books” dell’insigne storico inglese, nume tutelare della New Left, è una lucida scorreria nella storia italiana recente. S’intitola, senza troppi guizzi metaforici, “The Italian Disaster.”
Ho sempre avuto problemi con il concetto di patria. Non mi ci sono mai riconosciuto, non appartiene alla mia cultura politica, lo trovo fastidiosamente retorico il più delle volte. Continue reading “Patrioti please, non ribelli”
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