The Best Way Forward? A Tale of Two Speeches

Italy and the Italians have long had a well-deserved reputation for crafting goods of superior quality, from clothing and food to cultural artifacts such as painting and sculpture. The United States has never attained a similar status, instead being known for technological and mass-market innovations. In short, Italy leads in quality and the U.S. in quantity. That characterization was affirmed in two recent speeches on the world stage. 

The first, delivered by Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on September 23, 2024, to centrist global think tank the Atlantic Council, was short but powerful, and it was full of ringing affirmations of the virtues of Western Civilization. The second, delivered on September 24, 2024, as a farewell address by President Joe Biden to the United Nations General Assembly, was loaded with a list of personal achievements inserted into a vague context of fighting against bad stuff in the interests of global peace or something like that.

The contrasts are striking. Meloni, relatively young (47), multilingual (Italian, Spanish, French, English), is relatively new to politics. Biden, old (81), monolingual (though he may possibly know some Latin from church and law school), has been in politics for over half a century. Both are ostensibly Catholic, but only Meloni articulated an approach to international politics in accord with Catholic principles. 

The Italian leader, speaking in accented but mostly idiomatic English, was accepting one of the Atlantic Council’s Global Citizen Awards. The award “is the premier forum for world leaders, diplomats, the C-Suite, and the philanthropic, social, and entertainment communities to celebrate the highest expression of global citizenship.” Such rhetoric could lead one to think any recipients would be committed globalists, but Meloni’s speech went in a different direction. 

After mentioning various approaches to her speech she considered but discarded, she launched into a theme explained with gusto: nationalism and the correct understanding of the often-maligned term. She declared:

I know that we should not be ashamed to use and defend words and concepts like Nation and Patriotism, because they mean more than a physical place; they mean a state of mind to which one belongs in sharing culture, traditions, and values. 

She went on: 

By the word West we do not simply define countries by specific geographical location, but as a civilization built over the centuries with the genius and sacrifices of many. The West is a system of values in which the person is central, men and women are equal and free, and therefore the systems are democratic, life is sacred, the state is secular, and based on the rule of law.

I will leave it to political philosophers to argue over how much Meloni’s vision is beholden to liberalism; on their face these words seem to stand athwart globalist agendas.

Meloni continued by quoting Roger Scruton on the western postmodern phenomenon of “oikophobia” (fear of home). She succinctly characterized the concept as “a mounting contempt, which leads us to want to violently erase the symbols of our civilisation, in the U.S. as in Europe.” On the other hand, she criticized the West for paradoxically sometimes asserting a superiority to less-developed parts of the world, so that “we risk looking more and more like a closed and self-referential fortress.” 

Toward the close of her remarks, she diagnosed the problem before mentioning specific trends and problems to be addressed. 

We need to recover awareness of who we are. As Western peoples, we have a duty to keep this promise and seek the answer to the problems of the future by having faith in our values: a synthesis born out of the meeting of Greek philosophy, Roman law and Christian humanism.

Throughout her remarks, she referred to history, tradition, and memory not for the sake of nostalgia or romanticism but in order to fight necessary battles. For instance: 

We fight human traffickers because we remember that, centuries ago, we fought to abolish slavery. We defend nature and humankind, because we know that without the responsible work of humans it is not possible to build a more sustainable future. 

The last question she answered was why: “[To] govern what happens around us, [and] to leave our children a better world.”

Those stirring and clear-sighted words find little parallel in President Biden’s tedious address within the gray confines of the United Nations building. “I’ve made the preservation of democracy the central cause of my presidency,” he said. But the American president failed to lay out any answers as to why. Nor did he even try to define what he means by democracy. He recounted numerous transactions, as well as bureaucratic and legislative actions and diplomatic efforts: aid sent to Africa and Ukraine, money spent on programs, laws against violence, and international cooperation. But that is a checklist; it is not a manifesto for why we do what we do. 

Elsewhere, Biden mentioned several times about “principles,” but he never really elaborated on them. He spoke of “the principles of partnership that we came here each year to uphold.” He also wondered, “Will we stand behind the principles that unite us? We stand firm against aggression.” 

He followed that up: “Each of us in this body has made a commitment to the principles of the U.N. Charter, to stand up against aggression.” He asserted that “we also need to uphold our principles as we seek to responsibly manage the competition with China so it does not veer into conflict.” Again, there is no adequate explanation of what the president means by “principles.” 

Notably, Biden’s one quote from another leader (there was also one from a well-known line of “The Second Coming” by Yeats) was from Nelson Mandela, while it was the Italian Meloni who made use of one of the greatest American communicators—Ronald Reagan—to hit home about the power of freedom.

Biden: “Nelson Mandela taught us, and I quote, ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done.’” 

Meloni: 

President Reagan once said, “Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenal of the world, is so formidable as the will and the moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.”

Are Meloni’s pleas too little and too late for a civilization in decline? Is Biden conveying the realities of how the world works? Perhaps the real question is what is the goal? And, what is the best way to get there? 

It’s as if Meloni’s speech described a long voyage with a goal in mind but also shared useful travel information from earlier parts of the journey. Biden, on the other hand, has fixated on filling in potholes on one stretch of the highway. As much as one may dislike potholes, are they the feature most remembered after a successful, enlightening, and adventurous trip?

[Photo Credit: AFP via Getty Images]