Careless whispers of a bad friend

What are we if we only care about ourselves?

Earlier this week I wrote a guest post for

Cheryl A. Ossola

’s Substack,

Italicus: a writer's life in Italy

, and I decided to ramble for a whole four minutes (according to

Substack

’s own reading time tool) on about «the word concia, its origin, and a handful of other sister words and sayings that have the same etymological root, but interestingly enough not the same meaning», because Hermione Granger me spiccia casa.

(“spicciare casa” literally means “tidy up home”, but “me spiccia casa” in Rome is dialectal for someone who, to paraphrase St. John the Baptist, “is not worthy to untie the straps of my sandals”, and for once the Roman version is shorter than the English…)

Since I'm still away from Rome, there's another Italian word I'd like to go on about: menefreghismo.

As you can read on Wiktionary, the term comes from “me ne frego” (I don't care), a phrase used by Gabriele d'Annunzio as a motto during the so-called Enterprise of Fiume, which then infamously also became a slogan for Italian fascists, as Mussolini used to repeat that phrase quite often during his speeches (one of which happened in Eboli, on 6th July 1935, just before the second invasion of Ethiopia…).

That alone, for me, would be a good enough reason to loathe the concept of menefreghismo, but truth is I can't stand it no matter who coined it, for what are we if we don't care about anything nor anyone but ourselves?

Menefreghismo goes beyond basic carelessness, it also expresses disdain and a sense of primacy, of entitlement towards everything and everyone else, and that's what kills communities and communication between different cultures, if you ask me. It's detrimental whether it's locals who don't care about their own heritage and rules, or visitors who think they can do whatever they want with the same heritage and rules — again, Cheryl’s insight on this issue is really on point.

It's unfortunately a widespread disease, there's sort of a pandemic going on (alas, it's been going on for a long time…), and it's contagious: every day more and more menefreghisti give their passive contribution for the destruction of what could be beautiful communities.

Anyway, I'll be travelling back to Rome tomorrow, but tonight it's “alzata del panno” night in Eboli. What's that?

“L’alzata del panno” (literally “the rise of the cloth”) happens a month before the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian, (also known here as “i santi medici”, the doctor saints) which is celebrated on 27th September in Eboli (although every calendar says it's on the 26th…), where there's a sanctuary dedicated to the saints. On the evening of 27th August, which is today, a standard (the aforementioned “panno”) with the image of the saints is raised above the entrance of the sanctuary, and stays there for a month, welcoming pilgrims and devotees:

“Alzata del panno” at the sanctuary of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Eboli — source: Co-municare.it

Now, if locals actually cared about this town as much as they care about ceremonies and appearances in general, this would be a really wonderful place where to live.

But “menefreghismo” is a hard disease to cure — perhaps we should ask “i santi medici” to intercede for a miracle?

The statues of the doctors saints, Cosmas and Damian (both eyerolling because of menefreghismo), inside their sanctuary in Eboli.