Edoardo Nesi - Everything Is Broken Up and Dances: The Crushing of the Middle Class

ALSO BY EDOARDO NESI

Story of My People

Infinite Summer

Copyright 2017 La nave di Teseo, Milano

Originally published in Italian as Tutto in frantumi e danza in 2017 by La nave di Teseo, Milan.

English translation copyright 2017 Antony Shugaar

Epigraph republished with permission of Henry Holt & Company from

The Apocalypse of Our Time by Vasily Rozanov, 1977; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

Production editor:Yvonne E. Crdenas

Text designer: Julie Fry

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Other Press LLC, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast. For information write to Other Press LLC, 267 Fifth Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Or visit our Web site:

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Names: Brera, Guido Maria, author. | Nesi, Edoardo, 1964 author. | Shugaar, Antony, translator.

Title: Everything is broken up and dances : the crushing of the middle class / Guido Maria Brera and Edoardo Nesi; translated by Antony Shugaar.

Other titles: Tutto in frantumi e danza. English

Description: New York : Other Press, 2018.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017056723 (print) | LCCN 2017042772 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781590519318 (hardback) | ISBN 9781590519325 ()

Subjects: LCSH: Economic developmentItalyHistory20th century. | LiberalismItalyHistory20th century. | ItalyEconomic conditions8/20th century. | ItalyEconomic conditions21st century. | GlobalizationEconomic aspectsItaly. | Political cultureItaly. | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / Economic Development. | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Cultural Heritage. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / International / General.

Classification: LCC HC305.B83413 2018 (ebook) | LCC HC305 (print) |

DDC 330.9/051dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017056723

Ebook ISBN9781590519325

v5.2

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To those who still believe, and those who wish to stay

The show is over.

The audience get up to leave their seats.

Time to collect their coats and go home.

They turn round.

No more coats and no more home.

Vasily Rozanov

AMERICAS MILLENNIUM GALA

ON DECEMBER 31, 1999, Bill and Hillary Clinton held a series of public and private events in Washington under the general heading of Americas Millennium: A Celebration for the Nation, which included, in particular, the presentation of a time capsule, a gala reception at the White House, and a concert at the Lincoln Memorial followed by a fireworks show that Will Smith, emcee for the evening, described in the following words: A fireworks display like weve never seenlike, ever in history!

The time capsule contained objects and documents that, for whatever reason, were considered especially well suited to speak for the present and the past of the United States of America: Ray Charless sunglasses, the Hawaiian state flag, photos of Earth from outer space, a computer chip, a cell phone, Corningware, the Bill of Rights, a helmet from World War II, a video of the moon landing, The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, letters from students, a model of the DNA double helix, the eighty-five-letter Cherokee alphabet, a recording of the sound of Louis Armstrongs trumpet, various books by Faulkner, a photograph of Rosa Parks, a model of the Liberty Bell, childrens art, broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera, a section of transoceanic cable, an origami eagle, a piece of the Berlin Wall, and a CD-ROM of the Human Genome Project.

Five hundred people attended the reception at the White House more guests than had ever attended a White House event, according to newspaper accounts of the time and packed the rooms and gardens of the presidential residence. Among the guests were Sophia Loren, Jack Nicholson, Muhammad Ali, Slash, Bono, the astronaut John Glenn, Carl Lewis, John McCain, Diane Keaton, Jesse Jackson, Mary Tyler Moore, Robert De Niro, Robert Rauschenberg, Martin Scorsese, Dave Brubeck, Liz Taylor, and many others. The guests were served an array of foods that included Beluga caviar, lobsters, oysters, truffle-marinated rack of lamb, and a chocolate and champagne mousse, all washed down with American wines.

After dinner, the guests at the reception were whisked to the Lincoln Memorial, for the millennium concert probably the only concert in history where the singers performed in formal attire, because they came directly from the White House. It was a cavalcade of aging superstars clearly the Clintons favorites and a few young superstars singing in the style of the older superstars. Tom Jones performed Its Not Unusual, Kenny Rogers did The Gambler, two members of Foreigner sang I Wanna Know What Love Is, Don McLean sang American Pie, Celine Dion belted out My Heart Will Go On, the love theme from Titanic, in a live, worldwide broadcast, and so on.

Between the various performances, there were speeches.

Standing behind a lectern, Hillary made a brief and chilly reference to the American Dream, quoting both Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy Jr., while John McCain spoke of the contribution to the nation made by the American military, quoting Ronald Reagan.

A celebratory film was shown that had been shot for the occasion by Steven Spielberg, summarizing the saga of American and world cinema. It takes a special effort to forgive the shovelsful of rhetoric beneath which the director buried the magnificent story of a century thats impossible to summarize.

At last came Bill Clintons moment, following an introduction by Will Smith in a broad-brimmed black hat; Smith couldnt resist the solemnity of the occasion, respectfully emphasizing every syllable of his Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.

He spoke, the President of the United States did, and he seemed strangely unwise as he brought to an end the American century for that matter, Clinton has never seemed wise but he certainly did seem sanguine, strong, confident, authoritative, and proud. Satisfied. A perfect portrait of the America of that time. The America that was living through the last few years of the longest period of peace and prosperity in its history. His America.

He said: We Americans must not fear change. Instead, let us welcome it, embrace it, and create it.

He said that his countrymen would need to learn to share with our fellow Americans and, increasingly, with our fellow citizens of the world the economic benefits of globalization, the political benefits of democracy and human rights, the educational and health benefits of all things modern, from the Internet to the genetic encyclopedia to the mysteries beyond our solar system. He said: We may not be able to eliminate all the harsh consequences of globalization, but we can communicate more and travel more and trade more, in a way that lifts the lives of ordinary working families everywhere and the quality of our global environment.