The Friends of Aspen gathered for the first time since 2007 at the Teatro Studio Expo, as guests of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano (aka the Teatro d’Europa), for the fourteenth spring meeting of the group. After the group’s latest members were introduced and a brief rundown was given of the group’s activities, members were asked to suggest topics to be addressed at the next annual conference in November. In opening the proceedings, it was reiterated by the group’s president that the aim of the Italian Friends of Aspen is to provide an opportunity for an ever wider range of individuals and decision makers involved in a variety of business, organizational and institutional activities to be part of the Aspen experience, with a view to expanding the breadth of topics for debate. In order to reinvigorate this mission, towards the close of the meeting the president – now in her third year of office – announced a proposal for two new initiatives to increase the opportunities for exchange between members of the group and to foster their personal and business development, thereby also furthering the betterment of the group community itself.
To this end, it is envisaged that there will be several informal and organized meetings, forming part of a personal development initiative, consisting of Breakfast Talks, early morning sessions the first part of which will be devoted to the sharing and recounting of experiences by the guest who has taken part in the Aspen Institute meeting and who has convened the event, and a second part involving debate and discussion among those present. The second initiative proposed comprises Half Day Workshops aimed at providing further opportunities for debate and discussion on more specific topics, perhaps producing material that could be circulated among the Institute’s wider membership. These initiatives are designed to serve as new mechanisms by which to expand the Friends of Aspen community and its activities.
The main body of the Spring meeting was kicked off by an address from guest-speaker Piero Ostellino, former editor of the Corriere della Sera and now one of its leading columnists, as well as being an eminent liberal thinker and writer. Following this speech, a lively debate ensued as to whether it is still possible to do business in Italy, to which question those in attendance responded, on balance, in the affirmative, whilst pointing to the usual unresolved issues of the size of Italian firms, generational turnover, and the need for legal certainty and justice. The discussants urged against constant recourse to the state, calling instead for entrepreneurs to take the initiative and together create a sufficient critical mass to change the status quo. In his concluding remarks, the speaker called on government to take decisive steps towards radical legislative and administrative simplification, observing that only in this way can the country’s fortunes be turned around and its vices transformed into virtues, provided that the necessary conditions for this to occur are put in place. Indeed, it was observed that the very ability to speak openly of these vices and hidden truths could perhaps transform them into virtues.
Discussion then turned to the impossibility of Italians continuing to live in a state of perpetual emergency which sees their civil liberties being curtailed. The participants noted that the extent to which measures taken to combat tax evasion are gradually eating away at individual freedoms has yet not been fully appreciated. The sending of bank statements to the Italian tax authorities, for instance, was viewed as a way of enabling officials to stand in judgment of people’s lifestyles. This, it was felt, can only lead to a police state with new opportunities for corruption. It was suggested that those who govern should instead be sent a clear message that Italians no longer wish to live in a constant state of crisis, but in a normal country, where it is not permissible to erode personal freedoms under any circumstances.
Some participants pointed to the need for a shared vision and undertaking, yet it was suggested that only by engaging with different truths and knowledge can a common good be instinctively built. Essentially, the idea is that it is not the government’s prerogative to know what is best for every individual and to forge a common endeavor inclusive of everyone. Rather, the state’s role should merely be to make life as easy as possible for its citizens.
The upshot of this discussion was thus that Italians should see themselves as citizens and stand up for their freedoms, rejecting any attempt at reducing them to subjects.
After breakfast, during a quick guided tour led by the Secretary of the School of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, the participants made a backstage visit of the Teatro Strehler, taking in an exhibition of historical costumes and props housed within the School’s library.