let's face it: in italy berlusconi isn't the problem! he isn't the solution either, but he isn't the cause of all the wrongs: he's simply the most visible profitator of the social situation or, put in another way, the most successful incarnator of the italian way of life

usually people smile while i say it, but in italy we still have a feudal society; they smile in approvation, of course, because "feudal" is a polite way to describe a phenomenon that, put in another terms, could be called "mafia"

anyway i insist to call it "feudal" because both the mafia is the actual results of the ancient feudal power in sicily and because, nowadays, "mafia" is a term that stop any conversation, like if it would means "we have no choices for the future"

so i prefer to say "feudal" and proceed with this simple analisys instead to say the other one and stop speaking

every feudal model imply that you have a master in charge of your destiny, your future is at his will and you can only try to have him become benevolent to you

there is no space for your merit: everything you have is a gift from you master and never something you can earn by your ability or expertise

this imply three major conditions:
1) you don't need to become an expert because not only it doesn't help but, instead, it can hurt greatly because
2) your master will dislike you if you'll become more capable than him so
3) the most important social behaviour is to get on the side of all your possible masters: all you need to learn in life is how to do it ... and you need it badly

so what? ... yeah: we italians we are all beggars

here, in trieste, this hurt a little bit more because our grandparents still remember that when we were austrians we was having a dignity ...