(This review is politicized and leans towards the far left: forewarned is forearmed)
Michela Murgia is, to the joy of Isis and the wreckers, a (good) Sardinian writer, best known for her "Accabadora," which earned her the Premio Dessì, the Campiello, and the Supermondello. However, I must admit, I didn't know Murgia until a few days ago when she retorted to the Minister of the Crime Syndic... oops, sorry, of the Interior Matteo Salvini, who called her, how convenient, a "leftist radical chic." The writer's response was the interesting "game of resumes," in which she compared the various jobs she had to take to earn a living with the NOTHINGNESS of Balbini, humiliating him and causing a troublesome anticommunist psychosis in the Captain (...) and all the desperate people riding his wagon, or rather wagonette. Anyway, the final straw for the poor whining baby was Murgia's penultimate work, "Instructions for Becoming Fascists" (Einaudi), which I will briefly try to describe to you.
This book is striking because, essentially, it is what Balbini would think if he had a brain: it is a political pamphlet that consists of a gigantic and ironic provocation related to the (alleged) advantages of (neo)fascism over the outdated, inefficient, costly, and hypocritical democracy for snobs, which today no longer interests anyone. "What Winston Churchill said, that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others, is false: the truth is it is the worst, period [...] This text aims to be a useful tool of understanding especially for the more educated class exhausted by democracy, because the popular masses never needed to be told that fascism is better," says Murgia in the "Necessary Methodological Premise." What follows is a merciless comparison between fascism and democracy, inevitably favoring the former, in a series of chapters that focus on individual points: the advantage of having a leader, unimpeded by democratic dissent, quicker to act, a leader in whom the peaceful people recognize themselves; the simplification of messages, because fear is and must be for everyone; identity built by building a whole series of enemies; the fascist outburst of violence as a natural impulse of the human being; and so on.
A bitter reflection, yet at the same time brilliant and delightful, about the world and particularly Italy today: the main target embodying this neo-fascism is clearly the Lega, complete with typical lexicon (party's over, fluff, bulldozer... radical chic), but it doesn't miss shots at the M5S (the obliteration of skills, the too high cost of politicians) or the Renzi PD (the famous 80 euros); a reflection that in turn makes us reflect and produce, or reinforces, our antibodies against the (tragicomic) current situation.
The pamphlet concludes with a playful Fascistometer: a list of 65 more or less fascistoid (and sometimes controversial) phrases indicating how fascist we are, from the level "Aspirant" (we have a lot to learn) to "Patriot" (the student surpasses the master). Indeed, not if we are fascists, but how much we are. "Those who build walls, those who limit solidarity to their own, those who pit one against the other to control both, those who limit civil liberties, those who deny migration rights with the weapon of law and the alibi of responsibility, these are the fascists today. The problem is establishing who is not partly involved in legitimizing fascism as a method, that is, how much fascism is there in those who believe they are antifascist." Because, though saying it makes one uncomfortable, the germs of fascism lurk within each of us, and if we are not vigilant, the fascist method has the power to make them blossom: as the silhouette of Forrest Gump on the cover says, "fascist is as fascist does."
I conclude by saying that I want, demand, and insist that this review be approved by the Comindeb.
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