there comes a time when we must discard the illusions of youth

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This morning a fellow Italian, actually a Cosentino, posted the above image and the following text:

Dovremmo profondamente rivedere un’idea dell’America che ci eravamo costruito ingenuamente in anni in cui era facile innamorarsi.
We should profoundly revise an idea of ​​America that we had naively constructed in years when it was easy to fall in love.

I replied with the following:

During the years we were growing up, a love of all things American was necessary. That love, that attraction was extremely important in a post WWII era. That love, that attraction brought millions of Italian immigrants to North America, to Canada, the substitute America.

But that era is gone, and America is no longer the beacon calling to us, guiding us through the darkness. In 2025, America is Rome before its demise. America is rich, America is fat, America is lazy and the modern-day Visigoths – the American tech oligarchs – have begun the sacking.

But hope lies in the fact that America is 50 small counties in a confederation and that the extreme of some is not the path for all. The hope is that the American federal government, with its current administration, is not able to force 50 sovereign states into a Nazi ‘goose step’.

Note:
– the featured image is of Joseph-Noël Sylvestre the Sack of Rome
– the image above is from John Ford’s 1962 film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance