Guido Piovene

“Our country is inferior to none in the number of minds and in the quality of intelligence at the source. But that intelligence can hardly take on a political value and a political prestige, and seldom emits voices that carry with it a universal interest. In no other country like us does the whole field seem to be occupied by activists of all kinds; Nowhere else, almost by tacit agreement of businessmen and sociologists, is the conviction that only money and food problems matter. (p. 863)”