How to understand the Italian
expression “ la macchina del fango” ( the mud slinging machine) as a cultural factor
The idea of this
article start from the article of Umberto Eco about the mediatic
expression “ mud slinging machine” as an article by Umberto Eco
that appeared in the Espresso magazine in October 2015. This article
by Umberto Eco will be used as a corpus to use the tools of analysis from linguistic politeness, pragmatics and cultural dimension.
This article of Umberto Eco mentions the fact that his article was born after the visit of a group of Spanish journalists, which can be understood as a way to give a positive face to one's person in terms of the search for recognition. In the same way, a positive face is given to the magazine who receives his article by creating a right of association between the Spanish interview and the one with the Expresso. The subtitle of the article said; "why Italians are masters in the art of slander insinuation". This subtitle represents, at first, a way to confer a positive face to a collective identity or public face of a nation in order to have a easy way to mitigate the very high costs of being masters, therefore with a strong avoidance of uncertainty as a cultural dimension, in the performance of a certain activity defined as "art" understood as a competence in the "slander insinuation", which could fall within the cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" by those who perform this linguistic act since the insinuation has no elements of test and is made possible by a widespread adhesion to a cultural dimension made of social distance in which legitimizing one's purposes is perceived as irrelevant.
This article of Umberto Eco mentions the fact that his article was born after the visit of a group of Spanish journalists, which can be understood as a way to give a positive face to one's person in terms of the search for recognition. In the same way, a positive face is given to the magazine who receives his article by creating a right of association between the Spanish interview and the one with the Expresso. The subtitle of the article said; "why Italians are masters in the art of slander insinuation". This subtitle represents, at first, a way to confer a positive face to a collective identity or public face of a nation in order to have a easy way to mitigate the very high costs of being masters, therefore with a strong avoidance of uncertainty as a cultural dimension, in the performance of a certain activity defined as "art" understood as a competence in the "slander insinuation", which could fall within the cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" by those who perform this linguistic act since the insinuation has no elements of test and is made possible by a widespread adhesion to a cultural dimension made of social distance in which legitimizing one's purposes is perceived as irrelevant.
Furthermore, in this
kind of linguistic behaviour we do not respond to the maxim of
quality create by Paul Grice because “ we affirm what we cannot
prove” by making allusions by accepting to live in harmony with a
cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty"
because I accept with little stress to cause important damage to a
another person by paying very high costs in terms of defence of my
negative face. This social distance mentioned above allows the
absence of identification with the victim of these slanders. In
practice, the author of the slander is comfortable with ambiguity.
This practice of slander insinuation is often used in the media to
defend one's own "in-group" threatened by the declarations
offered by the person subjected at that time to slander.
This behaviour is possible because society has opinions based on its own memberships which feel that threats from other groups perceived as "out-groups" are unacceptable. The person in harmony with this model can be defined as belonging to a "satisfied" cultural dimension because he gets positive emotions by hitting another person by demolishing with this slander the need to preserve his own negative face as a person. In essence, the slanderer practices a sadistic act as if to say "I hit you and hope one day unconsciously that someone hits me". Umberto Eco, in this article, highlights how Spanish journalists had too large a view of this concept of the "mud slinging machine" where it would have been better for him to use the word "malice" or "wickedness" when, for example, Varoufakis is photographed with his wife in a luxury apartment. For Eco this photograph is badness because it serves to put in a bad light by paying costs to Varoufakis' need for a positive face by reducing his chance of obtaining "solidarity and a spirit of association" from those who support the political world of the left. The "mud slinging machine" affects the right to protect a person's negative face, that is, the defence of their private or intimate life by making public allusions about how to live their private life by making you pay enormous costs in the light of your person as "human or non-human, normal or bizarre, healthy or crazy". Ultimately the foundations of your private identity are hit to destroy your influence in the social space. With such linguistic behaviour, the maxim of quality is lost by saying "what cannot be tried", and things are said that are not pertinent \ relevant to a person's professional life. The same maxim of manner is turned upside down because one maintains the darkness and ambiguity of one's intentions when practising this "art" of slander insinuation. These hateful linguistic acts are possible because there is a great deal of social distance in Italian public life in terms of socio-economic differences and as belonging to different "in-groups". In these situations, the social hierarchy means existential inequalities since it is irrelevant to justify one's claims with facts. People with more power can accept to adhere to a "dimension of weak avoidance of uncertainty" when they do these acts because everything is experienced with little anxiety. Furthermore, the "satisfied" dimension is found with the possibility of experiencing positive emotions with the realization of such behaviours.
Umberto Eco, in the first example with Varoufakis, dismantles photography, once again giving appreciation for his positive face to the former economy minister of Greece, stating that we do not find any element of luxury either in the home or in the dishes in the photograph. Umberto Eco mentions that Varoufakis was a professor in America and therefore could not be a "poor man" and therefore gives a positive face by offering recognition to the professional skills of the Greek minister. For Umberto Eco, the Italian case highlights a “mud slinging machine” in which we want to allude, make negative hypotheses, create concrete damages for private conduct all to be verified or ascertained as if they concerned public opinion, in terms of cost reduction for the loss of their positive collective face. In this way, suspicion arises as a true mud machine technique, especially towards the unsuspected, so as to place everyone on the same boat in Italy, that is, the honest and dishonest, correct or corrupt. This is the central operation of the last twenty years in Italy in order to abort any possibility of "cultural renaissance" in the country, always threatening the negative collective face of the many Italians in terms of very high costs because they don't want to be "associated" with these behaviours. The culture of suspicion is possible where it is not important to legitimize what is asserted, where a weak avoidance of uncertainty prevails for the "in-groups" in power living at ease in ambiguity as a privileged terrain for those who feel threatened by other small "in-groups", who must be crushed before they can affect the country's media scene. They adhere to the cultural dimension of being "satisfied" by getting positive emotions by hurting others.
Basically, the technique is to make a person appear in a bad light when it is not doing nothing wrong but at the same time may seem someone who adheres to a minority lifestyle inside the moralistic or prudery Italian population. Basically we must report a true element but on the same time we need to underline something negative so that the one who wants to understand can understand the operation.
Let's take the example of the photograph of the magistrate sitting in the park with turquoise socks and dressed in a slightly coloured way. This photo allows to allude to a belonging to a culture of the hippies by the magistrate for example, and in this period of economic crisis and cultural restoration is perceived by many Italians as a threat to their negative face, which means to their difficulties to get to the end of the month. This mechanism can be translated by saying that everything apparently "deviant" is perceived as a threat to those who can never "deviate" into anything in their daily life. For those who adhere permanently to the cultural dimension of "strong avoidance of uncertainty" as the only way of understanding life, the adhesion of other Italians to the cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" is perceived as an unbearable threat for their need for a positive face, that is, the absence of recognition for their perpetual sacrifices. This absence of recognition for the positive face of the many people in difficulty is the disease that led to the culture of suspicion and resentment in Italy. The same mud slinging machine hit the top of the Vatican when was mentioned a fake news about the presence of a brain tumour of Pope Francis. This completely unfounded news had the aim of significantly reducing the weight of the Pope's words and therefore making him pay significant costs for his need for a positive face, that is, for the recognition of his role as "guide" of the Catholic world. For many groups within the Catholic world, the charismatic strength of Pope Francis is such that some internal groups feel the urge to push in any way in order to gain a reduction or destruction of his oratory power because they need to reduce the costs of losing negative face incurred by other Catholic groups present within the Roman church. The purpose, in this case of the mud slinging machine, is to make unacceptable to pay costs in order to reduce all the protagonists of the social or cultural scene as members of the same "in-group". This operation allows to transform and make the whole social body, in the eyes of many Italian citizens, like all equal in terms of defects. In this way, the groups in power manage to reduce the costs in terms of loss of positive face imposed by other groups, which instead suffer very high costs in terms of loss of positive face within the absence of recognition by the public opinion for their work. At the same time, their negative face is affected because they cannot preserve their right of "non-association" with this type of media operation.
This behaviour is possible because society has opinions based on its own memberships which feel that threats from other groups perceived as "out-groups" are unacceptable. The person in harmony with this model can be defined as belonging to a "satisfied" cultural dimension because he gets positive emotions by hitting another person by demolishing with this slander the need to preserve his own negative face as a person. In essence, the slanderer practices a sadistic act as if to say "I hit you and hope one day unconsciously that someone hits me". Umberto Eco, in this article, highlights how Spanish journalists had too large a view of this concept of the "mud slinging machine" where it would have been better for him to use the word "malice" or "wickedness" when, for example, Varoufakis is photographed with his wife in a luxury apartment. For Eco this photograph is badness because it serves to put in a bad light by paying costs to Varoufakis' need for a positive face by reducing his chance of obtaining "solidarity and a spirit of association" from those who support the political world of the left. The "mud slinging machine" affects the right to protect a person's negative face, that is, the defence of their private or intimate life by making public allusions about how to live their private life by making you pay enormous costs in the light of your person as "human or non-human, normal or bizarre, healthy or crazy". Ultimately the foundations of your private identity are hit to destroy your influence in the social space. With such linguistic behaviour, the maxim of quality is lost by saying "what cannot be tried", and things are said that are not pertinent \ relevant to a person's professional life. The same maxim of manner is turned upside down because one maintains the darkness and ambiguity of one's intentions when practising this "art" of slander insinuation. These hateful linguistic acts are possible because there is a great deal of social distance in Italian public life in terms of socio-economic differences and as belonging to different "in-groups". In these situations, the social hierarchy means existential inequalities since it is irrelevant to justify one's claims with facts. People with more power can accept to adhere to a "dimension of weak avoidance of uncertainty" when they do these acts because everything is experienced with little anxiety. Furthermore, the "satisfied" dimension is found with the possibility of experiencing positive emotions with the realization of such behaviours.
Umberto Eco, in the first example with Varoufakis, dismantles photography, once again giving appreciation for his positive face to the former economy minister of Greece, stating that we do not find any element of luxury either in the home or in the dishes in the photograph. Umberto Eco mentions that Varoufakis was a professor in America and therefore could not be a "poor man" and therefore gives a positive face by offering recognition to the professional skills of the Greek minister. For Umberto Eco, the Italian case highlights a “mud slinging machine” in which we want to allude, make negative hypotheses, create concrete damages for private conduct all to be verified or ascertained as if they concerned public opinion, in terms of cost reduction for the loss of their positive collective face. In this way, suspicion arises as a true mud machine technique, especially towards the unsuspected, so as to place everyone on the same boat in Italy, that is, the honest and dishonest, correct or corrupt. This is the central operation of the last twenty years in Italy in order to abort any possibility of "cultural renaissance" in the country, always threatening the negative collective face of the many Italians in terms of very high costs because they don't want to be "associated" with these behaviours. The culture of suspicion is possible where it is not important to legitimize what is asserted, where a weak avoidance of uncertainty prevails for the "in-groups" in power living at ease in ambiguity as a privileged terrain for those who feel threatened by other small "in-groups", who must be crushed before they can affect the country's media scene. They adhere to the cultural dimension of being "satisfied" by getting positive emotions by hurting others.
Basically, the technique is to make a person appear in a bad light when it is not doing nothing wrong but at the same time may seem someone who adheres to a minority lifestyle inside the moralistic or prudery Italian population. Basically we must report a true element but on the same time we need to underline something negative so that the one who wants to understand can understand the operation.
Let's take the example of the photograph of the magistrate sitting in the park with turquoise socks and dressed in a slightly coloured way. This photo allows to allude to a belonging to a culture of the hippies by the magistrate for example, and in this period of economic crisis and cultural restoration is perceived by many Italians as a threat to their negative face, which means to their difficulties to get to the end of the month. This mechanism can be translated by saying that everything apparently "deviant" is perceived as a threat to those who can never "deviate" into anything in their daily life. For those who adhere permanently to the cultural dimension of "strong avoidance of uncertainty" as the only way of understanding life, the adhesion of other Italians to the cultural dimension of "weak avoidance of uncertainty" is perceived as an unbearable threat for their need for a positive face, that is, the absence of recognition for their perpetual sacrifices. This absence of recognition for the positive face of the many people in difficulty is the disease that led to the culture of suspicion and resentment in Italy. The same mud slinging machine hit the top of the Vatican when was mentioned a fake news about the presence of a brain tumour of Pope Francis. This completely unfounded news had the aim of significantly reducing the weight of the Pope's words and therefore making him pay significant costs for his need for a positive face, that is, for the recognition of his role as "guide" of the Catholic world. For many groups within the Catholic world, the charismatic strength of Pope Francis is such that some internal groups feel the urge to push in any way in order to gain a reduction or destruction of his oratory power because they need to reduce the costs of losing negative face incurred by other Catholic groups present within the Roman church. The purpose, in this case of the mud slinging machine, is to make unacceptable to pay costs in order to reduce all the protagonists of the social or cultural scene as members of the same "in-group". This operation allows to transform and make the whole social body, in the eyes of many Italian citizens, like all equal in terms of defects. In this way, the groups in power manage to reduce the costs in terms of loss of positive face imposed by other groups, which instead suffer very high costs in terms of loss of positive face within the absence of recognition by the public opinion for their work. At the same time, their negative face is affected because they cannot preserve their right of "non-association" with this type of media operation.
From here, in many
honest but always uncertain citizens about the validity and strength
of their beliefs, a culture of preventive indulgence was born as
common sense wants that everyone in the place of the "powerful"
would have acted in the same way. This is the strongest result
obtained by the mud slinging machine and which has pushed those who
did not adhere to this social design to the margins, to the
disengagement or to the expatriation abroad.
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