Reading about the Berlusconi government’s attempts to rehabilitate fascism, I had to think once again about how society is losing its core values. We live in dangerous times: history is being rewritten as we speak, and our most basic concepts of morality are being thrown out the window.
Not too long ago, it was not a matter of debate whether we should torture people. Torture is a word that describes something evil, something immoral. Like murder. Suddenly we’re told it’s acceptable, even good.
Not too long ago, building concentration camps was something the Nazis did. Now we’re told it’s OK.
Not too long ago, we all agreed that fascism was bad and World War 2 not so very pleasant. But now both Franco and Mussolini are being rehabilitated. And not just by some crazy idiots in their countries: Franco was praised in American newspapers, too. So now suddenly murderous dictators can be good, after all…
And we’re told, over and over, that our core values are things like ‘family’. Families are not a value. They can be good, bad or indifferent. They’re an aspect of social life. Not torturing people is a value. Not being a Nazi is a value. Democracy is a value. But the more capitalism falls apart, the more the financial elite and their representatives will go to extremes to maintain the status quo. And Hitler built roads, you know…
