It can be rightly stated that in the current historical phase our country has to solve a difficult equation, which can be summarized in the following terms: Are the critical analyzes of the mistakes of the past, of the current difficult situation and of the choices of the various public and private subjects, primarily the government, such as to fuel hope or discouragement?
A prime example is given by comments on the results of the summit of European heads of state held on 28 and 29 June. Many analysts, above all in the early hours, they underlined the positive contents of the agreement, and doubts increased in the following days concerning the foreseeable difficulties in implementing the agreements, the critical assessments on the limited effectiveness of the decisions with regard to market confidence, the considerations on the effects that would only be long-term, while the needs would be those of coping with the current and short-term difficulties period. They are all legitimate considerations but what strikes, not so much in the positions of the parties which are undoubtedly dictated by the electoral perspective which is however approaching, it is the tone assumed by many commentators, especially those who have an economic background.
Many of them indeed tend to accentuate that “not done enough” and that it was necessary to be even more rigid on the road to rigor. This is the position of the pundits who are mostly critical of Premier Monti and who evaluate the agreements above all from the perspective of Germany or of the countries that are included in the ranks of the so-called penalty takers. Without going into the merits it can be observed that on the one hand, these analyzes do not recognize the undoubted effort made by the Italian Government, with the support above all of France and Spain, to stimulate Europe to take the path of growth policies, on the other, they spread the idea in public opinion that "small steps are useless".
There are many theories according to which the change of complex systems in which there are interests, expectations, cultures, political relationships, diversified and often divergent social relationships can change in a positive sense, not through traumas but through interventions which, having a objective of structural reforms, pass through the strategy of "small steps", possibly in rapid succession as long as always in the right direction.
A second example is given by the many articles and by the interventions of various talk shows denouncing waste and inefficiencies. Right! But who would dare not share these criticisms? However, if this approach dominates, a generalized defeatism spreads throughout the country, since in addition to the costs of politics, waste and inefficiencies of public administrations, inefficiencies can be added, if not even blatant fraud (see the scandal on the fake rates by Barclays and it seems by many other leading banks, not only the UK), of that finance system which the world seems to have to bow down, the list of entrepreneurs who have stopped dealing with the real economy to throw themselves into the world of public service concessions and finance (from which they have obtained easy profits). Not to mention the criticisms addressed to the deficiencies of the university, in which merit would not be recognized, to the dysfunctions of professional orders, to the real or presumed income from positions of various categories.
Public opinion and especially young people are led to think that the rottenness is now everywhere and that no one can be trusted now. But this obviously it blocks any drive for innovation and dampens hope. It would be very important that every commentator who tries his hand at the easy exercise of criticism also tries his hand at the difficult exercise of pointing out an element of positivity. Recently I happened to see numerous articles in the national press on the "incredible inefficiencies" of the Sicilian Region. I have not seen any article that has highlighted a significant and significant result of that region, in which the deficit of 675 million in health care was practically zeroed from 2008 to 2010, a result recognized by the Court of Auditors in the budget equalization judgment. Why not highlight this and other positive results too?
If the country is to recover and decisively move away from the edge of the abyss, in addition to adopting some solutions that are coherent with the economic and social context, it is also necessary to give messages that create hope, obviously without renouncing criticism, provided it is constructive and not dictated by economic ideologies, which are just as dangerous, if not more so, than political ones.
