On September 8, 2009, at the age of 85, Mike Bongiorno died of myocardial infarction. He was an American-born Italian television host. Everybody loved him. Everybody is going to miss him in Italy. This is the piece of news. Let’s see if we can get some insight about modern Italy from this.
Was Mr. Bongiorno a fearless journalist? The kind of man ready to risk is life in order to unveil the truth? No he was not.
Was He an extraordinary actor or singer capable to touch people’s heart? No he was not.
Was he a good showman able to entertain properly his public even though not excelling in any specific art? No he was not.
So why did Italians love him?
Let’s quote from Wikipedia:
«In 1963 Umberto Eco wrote an essay entitled “Fenomenologia di Mike Bongiorno” in which he used advanced academic theories to shed light on Mike Bongiorno and his way of communicating. Eco held that Mike Bongiorno was so good at portraying himself as no better than average in every respect, that 100% of his audience could feel good about themselves, could feel that they were more sophisticated in some way.»
Is professor Eco 40 years’ old analysis still actual?
Can Mr. Bongiorno’s story tell us anything about Italians?
Is there any relationship with the Italian Smart Brains run abroad to fully express their potential?
What about lack of meritocracy?
Ancient philosophers talked about “Aurea Mediocritas” (golden mean) to express «the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency» (quoted form Wikipedia).
Maybe modern Italy has inherited just mediocritas (meaning mediocrity).
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