Some southern questions¶
Reading selected highlights from author⁄Gramsci’s notes on the bib⁄Southern Question I wonder, which forces are at work producing social disintegration at one level of society and unity at other levels? What leads to the (re-)production of difference within such unity while maintaining that unity?
If, after all, the south of Italy is held by the north to be economically and culturally backward and savage, what is it that that allows those in the north to see the south as their own country, despite these differences? Likewise, what is it that causes those in the south to find unity with the north, despite their disadvantageous position within this unequal relation?
Gramsci suggests that the south had become the scapegoat of northern propagandists to explain away the failures and contradictions of capitalism. In such a case, the presence of an economically and culturally “backward” region serves as a necessary foil against the accusations of those who seek to abandon the system altogether. This leads me to wonder, what scapegoats are used today to deflect the failings of capitalism?
At the level of the European Union, do the “southern” countries (Greece, Italy, Spain, etc) with their “laziness” and “Mediterranean mentality” serve the same role in deflecting criticisms of the capitalism system that southern Italy once held? How do such geographies enable capitalism to transcend its contradictions (cf. author⁄David Harvey), and how are these geographies produced ideologically?
At a more local level of discourse, what scapegoats are created to describe local failures? To what extent have narratives of the “lazy and backward south” been internalized? Have migrants and other marginalized groups now assumed the role of the south as the purported cause of the problems facing Italy?