The Man Who Plays Alone [antikvár]

Introduction III' The politicians who compromise with the mafia in Sicily (and there are not a few of them) can be divided into four categories: First, that of the unprincipled politicians who, particularly at election time, have rapid encounters and meetings at which they are not too careful about how they pick up votes and who they have dealings with: 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours'. Second, that of the politicians who cold-bloodedly and systematically exploit the closed mafia group, opportunists who will resort to every possible kind of double dealing to suit the time and place: themselves systematically exploited in turn by the mafia. Third, that of the actual mafiosi who manage to get themselves elected, sometimes even to positions of high responsibility: fortunately this is not the most numerous category. Fourth, that of the young men who, though they may have opposed the system to begin with, have come to accept it and adapt themselves to it in order to get ahead. What are the local conditions that for more than twenty years have permitted this exploitation of the mafia (and for a certain time even of the bandits) for electoral purposes ? Since the last war, the mafia has managed to have a hand in the government of Italy at every level, from the local Council to the Provincial administration, the Regional Government, and right up to the very highest levels. How has all this been possible, as far as this area of Western Sicily is concerned ? A person looking at Palermo and the surrounding province will not need to be very observant to notice that the great majority of the population is discontented, often gravely discontented, bitter, in mourning. 'But why'—the observer may well wonder—'why can't this majority of discontented people become a majority that will press for change, stimulate progress: why can't they be a new political majority ?' Is this situation really as irrational and absurd as it often seems XI