22 September 2026
Peppone and Don Camillo
The true communist was the one portrayed in the character of Mayor Peppone in Don Camillo: he still believed in family values and social solidarity, and he would never have thrown a bomb into a crowd. He had a realistic program (perhaps too realistic). He supported one of the two models then competing in the world. With the benefit of hindsight, we know that they lost that peaceful competition (as Khrushchev called it): we can say that they were wrong, but we certainly could not have known it at the time; they acted in good faith.
Then came those who are disdainfully called “radical chic,” who are, that is, far removed from the reality of the world in which they live.