From Guareschi to Fallaci, from Montanelli to Pansa. Checkmate the cultural hegemony of the left

Fearsome, pervasive, omnipresent,”the cultural hegemony of the left” in Italy. Certain. But it is paradoxical that in the golden age of the cultural hegemony of the left, the best-selling books were (almost) always from the “right”. Or in any case vilified and labeled as such, wholesale, without nuances. A curse for those obsessed with populism as an eternal perversion of democratic bon ton. Or maybe not: simply further proof that even through books, in the golden shelter that should keep its inviolability from the onslaught of the overheated populist soldiery, the permanent symptom of an incurable fracture has manifested itself in Italy, in the post-fascist post-war period. The separation between the people and the establishment, which also seems so new to us. The paper world divided in two. On the one hand – that of the outcasts of course – the sales in the millions, the popularity, the commercial triumph. On the other, refined publishing. The academic aristocracy. Quality necklaces. The ideological licenses granted with elegant parsimony and incomparable snobbery. The arrogance of culture that is one with the pedagogical haughtiness.