Tutto il Mondo e' un Paese

 The title of this article, in English means, 'The Whole World is a Country'. This was something my nonno, Italian grandfather, used to say and I was reminded recently by my father. I would like to ask my nonno what he thought this saying meant; that opportunity sadly passed a number of years ago. My nonno had lived a long life and it is my understanding that man's first powered flight occurred after his birth, and man landed on the moon quite some time before his death; he also survived both World Wars. My father  recently brought this saying to my attention. 

Some times interpreting a simple statement can be quite challenging when a homogeneous understanding is the goal. Perhaps in this case there is no right response and the understanding is to be left to each individual. This paper seeks to explore different interpretations of the saying to understand better what my nonno had in his mind. 

I) The Globalist View:

a) Politically 

Most countries exist in a hierarchical framework. Working from the bottom up, the lowest tier is the household. Then comes the local level such as education, some roads, and snow clearing. The state / provincial level sits on top of many local governments, much like the many households located in the local regions. Then there is the top tier or the federal level which works with the states / provinces and protects the boarders. So what does this have to do with the globe?

The United Nations (UN) has asserted itself as a global federal government and each country is a representative state / province. The UN was started in July of 1945, my father would have been three at that time and my nonno would have been around thirty-five or forty. I doubt this was my nonno's intent when he would say this saying as the political globalist view had not really come to realization or even to the level it has risen after his death. 

b) Socially

I'm doubtful that a global social perspective was front of mind for my nonno as during his life there was not the goal of global unification between cultures; the talking-point 'diversity is our strength' was not a thing back then and I still don't think it is, and have always been hesitant to think that it is. 

In history, cultures were defined by borders, and as both travel and communications improved, some borders softened as the ever larger borders hardened until principalities turned into kingdoms, viva la Savoy, and those kingdoms turned into representative democratic countries. 

These are quite modern perspectives of a world my nonno had not even seen at the current scale. 

II) The Nationalist View:

Benito Mussolini once said something to the effect of ; 'everything in the state, nothing outside the state and nothing against the state.' With that in mind, one could consider that a person's perception is such that from their perspective their own country is the only thing they have to worry about and as such that is their whole world. 

This line of thinking is in my opinion a lot more plausible, over the globalist view, as this was the times that my nonno grew up in. While this is the perspective of a world my nonno grew up in, I don't feel it was where his heart was when he spoke. Limited choices only allows for limited responses by most; though this too doesn't sound like the nonno I remember. 

III) A Pause:

So now there are some obvious possible positions in this discorse; there is the globalist view, the nationalist view and the view I have missed out entirely. The next step for me is to ask my father what he thinks the saying says as he is much more familiar with the sentiment behind the utterance. I feel that there may be some sarcasm involved. 

... One day later...

IV) The Continuation:

I talked to my father and got a bit clarity. 'Town', is another translation for the Italian word 'paese'. Many will know this word as the root for the term 'paesano'. In the conversation with my father we explored the word and the concept behind it. Within Italy back in the days when my nonno lived there, a man from Veneto or Emilia-Romania would never call a man from Abruzzo 'paesano', meanwhile in Canada this sort of interaction has become common place where any Italian is 'of the same place of origin' as another Italian. I guess the further one is from home, through both time and space, one relaxes the geographic specificity and the criteria.  

I have for the last 15 years plus lived in downtown Toronto Ontario, Canada. I don't have a lot of friends, though I do have a quite the basket full of acquaintances. Most of these acquaintances are the people who work in the shops and restaurants around my home. Some of my neighbours are also in the acquaintance basket as the good and services vendors around me. The main anchor point for my village inside a city is St Lawrence Market. 

Upon hearing my fathers explanation of the Italian saying reminded me of Clemente, another Italian man I knew for he was my barbiere; that would be barber for you eaters of cake. Clemente also had a good Italian saying: 'Un amico a tuo lato vale più di mille lire'  or a friend at your side is worth more than 1,000 lire. For those who think this is an old saying because Italy has not the lire since the dawn of the EU, please slow down for the 1970s 1,000 lire was worth about 1 dollar Canadian. 

V) What did I Learn:

The days of Italo, that would be my nonno, and Clemente are drifting further towards the back pages of the history books. These two men had a view of a world that is in no way similar to the one I see, with one exception and that is the basic personalities of people.

There is a tribal nature to mankind and what has been the most significant shift is the size of the tribe coupled with the density of the tribe within a given geographic area. Ease of  travel has impacted the tribal density, all the while the public Internet has expanded the tribal size. This calculus leaves me little to no doubt, is the driving force behind many current social tensions. 

I now take my nonno's saying as words of wisdom, for the people will be lost if we entirely give up on the idea of being part of a town. Clemente, also gave me wisdom, for a man without actual friends is considered to be truly poor. Also, Facebook friends don't count if you have never shared a handshake or a hug.