Vitruvius
Active member
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- 408
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- Ethnic group
- Italian
I agree in whole with your general point, if I may I would just add that, very oddly, some of "those who have a bone to pick with the Italian sense of identity and the idiots that are naive enough to believe them" are indeed Italian themselves.
That's a curious phenomenon I have observed on other boards, Italians seeking connections with more geographically southern and eastern peoples and it has no parallelism with any other peoples, who instead often try to establish links with more northern regions for themselves.
It would seem that if there's one thing that modern Italians have retained from the Roman era is a taste for the exotic.
Absit iniuria verbis: what you cite is partly determined in my opinion by an unconscious or semi-conscious psychological mechanism (an inferiority complex?), according to which many of my compatriots - not considering themselves (or not being perceived) as true Europeans - prefer to pass themselves off as Middle Easterners/North Africans, with the hope of thus climbing up at least a few positions in that group, in their imaginary ranking of advanced and civilized peoples.
On the other hand, an interested, insistent and effective local left-wing political campaign of self-denigrating and anti-nationalism completes everything else.
Agreed. Any ethnic Italian who likens himself to a Syrian, Egyptian, German, Nord or Celt is a deranged individual, regardless of reason and I say this with close friends from many of these backgrounds and without disdain for individuals of such origin. I tire of the obsession so many have with trying to characterize Italians as anything but Italian and this relates back to my debate on the Picenes. Here you have a totally Italic tribe descended from exclusively Italic material cultures which genetically reflects itself identically to northern Italians today and yet some are still intent on trying to claim them as Illyrians based off bronze age migratory speculations and cross adriatic trade contacts. It's simply so absurd at this point that it feels childish.
The Italians are an incredibly accomplished people on a technological and scientific level who continuously produced a culture powerful enough to dominate most of Europe between direct Roman occupation and later Catholic theological influence. Even divided, the Italian city states have typically remained at the cutting edge of innovation and forward thinking throughout the renaissance. Were it not for the Italian led Renaissance we would not have the scientific Revolution. Were it not for the scientific revolution we would not have the industrial revolution. For one to imagine that Italy isn't "high enough" on some imaginary modern european pecking order list, be it economically or intellectually, is asinine and a problem that can only be conjured by the most historically illiterate of individuals.
If given the oppurtunity I would not change my ethnic group for the world. I am proud to come from such an accomplished people and it's my hope that my own accomplishments throughout my own life can live up to the reputations of the great men which the Italian nation has produced in both times of ancient past and present.