Italians believe the coronavirus outbreak shows their superiority

During times of contagion, you begin to understand why fascist salutes were once so popular. The foot-tap is replacing the handshake in parts of China. Here in Italy, which has far more cases of coronavirus than any countries except China, Iran and South Korea, a left-wing government is telling Italians not to shake hands. It reminds me of 1922, when Mussolini came to power after the first world war had killed 20 million and the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 at least as many again. The Duce replaced the handshake with the Roman salute. The handshake, according to fascist ideology, had to go because it was unhygienic and bourgeois. The connection Mussolini made between the power of the hand to infect the human body and the power of the bourgeoisie to infect the body politic is fascinating. The saluto romano distanced his supporters from the fascist class enemy — above all non-productive members of the middle-class whom they regarded as parasites — or viruses, to bring things up to date.