Autoritarismo e costruzione di personalità fasciste nelle forze armate italiane: un’autoetnografia

The present work focuses on the learning of aggression in a “total institution” within the Italian army – namely, an elite corpse of paratroopers called Folgore. The extremely violent training and rituals of this group can be seen as both symbolic and particularly representative of the ideal model pursued within the army, and the armed forces in general. The central hypothesis of the work is that the learning of aggression within the military institution is wanted and controlled, being necessary and functional for the purposes of the military institution itself. Based on an autobiographic ethnography, main rituals and practices in the everyday life of the squad are described and analyzed by making conceptual references to the notions of rites of passage, rites of institution, and the psychological behaviourist learning model. Moreover, the authors argue that Italy is witnessing the transmission of practices and ideologies from the military to the police – thus producing a blend which makes the custom between war and peace ever more blurred.