IMBECILTY OF POWER

Thanks to Karen at Eurocrime for pointing me to an interesting article on Andrea Camilleri in The Independent.
I selected this passage to quote because it is an education in the real cost of not facing up to reality.

"Let me tell you a personal story to give you an idea of how much of my father has passed on to Montalbano. My father was a real Fascist, one of the true believers. Then one day in 1938, a school friend of mine called Marcello Pera came to me and said goodbye. He said, 'Tomorrow I'm not coming to school.' I said 'Why not, Marcello?' 'Because I'm a Jew.' What it meant to be Jewish hit me like a bolt from the blue... So I went home to my supper and I said to my dad: 'You know my friend Marcello Pera? He can't come to school any more because he's Jewish.' My father hit the roof, saying 'That bastard,' referring to Mussolini - and he was a squadrista, a hard-line Fascist. 'The Jews are just like us,' he roared. That was my father. And I've always tried to make Montalbano critical about the behaviour and orders of his bosses, the imbecility of power."

full article at http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article2124934.ece

While failing to outline a coherent program, fascism evolved into a new political and economic system that combined totalitarianism, nationalism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism in a state designed to bind all classes together under a corparist system (The "Third Way"). This was a new system in which the state seized control of the organization of vital industries. Under the banners of nationalism and state power, Fascism seemed to synthesize the glorious Roman past with a futuristic utopia. [from Wikpedia]