kiddingthecity [dot] org

The ex-fascist mayor of Rome Mr. Alemanno made again the headlines lately, when while visiting Israel refused to call on Fascism ‘as absolute evil’ and labeled it as ‘a complex phenomenon’. The outcry of condemnation at this latest ‘slippage’ from the Italian Center-Left and the Jewish community is highly justified, but in my view missed the point: they are in fact rehearsing a view of Fascism (with capital letter) as ‘historical norm’ (see on this Walter Benjamin’s Thesis VIII), missing the true aspects of its strenght. Mr. Alemanno, in fact, suggested a more suttle reading of Fascism when he declared: “Many people joined it in good faith”. It is that ‘good faith’ which should have been addressed, as it highlights the deeply popular roots of fascist ideology, its ability to reinvent itself in many ordinary behaviors and daily actions, and bring back to Rome, for instance, people like Mr. Alemanno.