EDITORIAL
“Dreams and pragmatism”
America’s lesson for Europe by Flavia Pankiewicz
“A
n America open to dreams”. One of the first words uttered by Barak Obama, newly-re-elected President of the United States, was this cardinal word in that school of American thought that over only a few centuries of history has created what, apart from the inevitable imperfections, is still the greatest democracy on the planet: “dream”.
Dream as a goal, apparently impossible to make real or concrete. A dream that, in a land in which only a few decades ago apartheid was still a reality and that produced monsters like the Ku Klux Klan, has made it possible for an African American to achieve and be re-confirmed in the most powerful institutional role on the face of the planet.
“We believe in a generous America, in a tolerant America open to dreams – said the President. – The arguments we have are a mark of our liberty. The best is yet to come”.
These few words are the essence of American thought. The “contrasts” interpreted by positive thinking are actually only possible in a democracy, and so should be appreciated as a factor which enriches it. And the strong exhortation to be optimistic with the expression “the best is yet to come” reminds us that no upturn, whether it be an economic one or of any other kind, is possible if the reviving winds of hope and optimism do not blow.
Some days ago, Romney, the anti-European and anti-Italian, predicted that if Obama was to win, there would be a crisis along the lines of the European, Italian and Spanish ones; he has been defeated, and swiftly stepped back into the ranks of what is “politically correct” by calling Obama to concede defeat and wish him success. With an even more generous sense of fair play the new President replied: “In the weeks ahead we’ll meet to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward”. An unthinkable scene in the Italy of spite and venom, where the instances of the factions working together for the good of the country are few and far between.
We can’t not mention Michelle Obama, maybe the best first lady ever to appear on the international scene. The trump card that definitely had a role in Barak’s re-election. Solid, sunny, positive, she had carried out valid, intelligent campaigns like that against obesity and in favor of the Mediterranean diet, of learning about healthy eating, of tending your own plot. Her latest smart move was to wear, for her husband’s re-election, a dress she had worn on other occasions. “No waste”, a way of standing alongside the families who are being ground down by the crisis, and to show to the world, after decades of the philosophy of luxury goods, that sobriety, for many a forced option, can also be a choice, a winning choice, a classy choice.
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