Buy Barilla Pasta
September 26, 2013
Guido, Luca and Paolo Barilla
DON VINCENZO writes:
To lighten the apparent stress on you and your readers created by the Pope’s recent interview, may I offer a bit of welcome relief in the form of a recent declaration by the CEO of the Italian pasta maker, Barilla, with the eponymous name of Guido Barilla?
Recently, the CEO of Barilla Pasta, the Emilia-Romagna (Central Italy) company that is the largest pasta producing company in the world, with manufacturing outlets in, amongst other countries, the U.S., declared on a radio program that his company would not use homosexual families or couples in their ads. That announcement, which sent the European homosexual lobby in paroxysms of rage, was: “I would never do an advert with a homosexual family…if the gays don’t like it they can go an eat another brand.”
But what sent the lobby over the top was his conclusion: “For us the concept of the sacred family (emphasis mine) remains one of the fundamental values of the company.”
That declaration by Barilla sent out the homosexual lobby’s long knives in Europe, because for all their supposedly pacific approach to problem-solving, Hell hath no greater fury than the homosexual lobby’s power in attempting to punish, especially by financial means, those who question their concept of morality, and their ability to use unlimited resources (except in Russia) against anyone who publicly announces that homosexual “marriage” is a contradiction in terms. Barilla said more in one radio program about the Judeo-Christian concept of marriage than the entire French Church hierarchy during the mass demonstrations against the legitimizing of homosexual marriage in France.
But Barilla is also a company dependent on the good will of its clients, and the sale of its products, and, unfortunately, Barilla had to backtrack a bit. Guido Barilla announced: “I’m sorry if my comments on La Zanzara (the radio program) have created misunderstanding or polemic, or if I’ve offended anyone. In the interview I only wanted to underline the central role of the woman in the family,” he said. But that was not enough to assuage the homosexual lobby’s and its supporters – especially fringe groups and the other parties of the Left. No surprise here.
It would be tempting to believe that Vatican officials will rally around Signor Barilla’s reaffirmation of the sacred and vital role of the traditional family, but given the recent statements by the Pontiff, I won’t hold my breath, and, I suspect neither will Signor Barilla.
— Comments —-
Buck writes:
I will buy Barilla Pasta. However…
Don Vincenzo is being very generous in his characterization that “Barilla had to backtrack a bit.” Barilla completely caved. He spoke an ungoverned truth and modern liberalism is smacking him down. This is how it works; from the full power of the state, the corporate dollar, down to the ostracizing in a social setting or simply across the picket fence. Modern liberalism’s power and authority are omnipresent as a secular god.
Barilla started out by addressing a challenge to him by a female in parliament, who thinks that women are being stereotyped in Barilla ads and that they wouldn’t be tolerated “in other countries.” Barilla should have stood his ground, but he, like most who have a financial interest in this modern world, caved immediately. The world is ruled by Lawrence Auster’s “unprincipled exceptions.” Signor Barilla appears to have no convictions. He’s a corporate man.
The gay lobby will try to successfully boycott the Barilla Group, which is privately held, into submission, and unless there is a miraculous and sudden back-lash of support and defiance by whatever remnant of traditionalist conservative consumer that remains thinly scattered around the West, they may succeed to hurt the group’s bottom line. Money talks in our modern world, not principle. The other board members will see value deleting and unless they care more about principle and decide to take a public stand on principle, their going to suffer losses. Either way – they stand up or they lay down – Guido Barilla is certainly sorry that he spoke the truth. What kind of world is it when someone has to grovel after uttering a fundamental truth?
In a short time, it is likely that the story will fade and some form of currency (financial and/or political) will be transferred from Barilla into the sphere of the gay/feminist lobby, which will continue to grow in power.
At the last Don Vincenzo writes: “It would be tempting to believe that Vatican officials will rally around Signor Barilla’s reaffirmation of the sacred and vital role of the traditional family, but given the recent statements by the Pontiff, I won’t hold my breath, and, I suspect neither will Signor Barilla.”
Barilla reaffirmed nothing of the sort. He reaffirmed the power that modern liberalism wields over all of us. Unless and until he and the Barilla Group stands up and fires back with all that is in them, he and they are simply reaffirming their Dhimmi status and financial interests. So far, I can find no signs of Barilla will stand up to anyone or for any principle but submissive corporate tolerance.
Don Vincenzo writes:
I am impressed, seriously, with Buck’s thoughtful contribution, but I ask that he allow me to rebut some, but definitely not all, of his incisive commentary.
Don Vincenzo is being very generous in his characterization that “Barilla had to backtrack a bit.” Barilla completely caved.
Here we would disagree, although I will also admit that my daughter, who lives in Ireland, is of similar mind with Buck. I have no doubt that Barilla, a privately owned company, could easily have done what most U.S. and other European CEO’s do, using discretion as the wiser part of valor as their guide and claiming that he misspoke or was rash (insensitive?) to homosexuals. I don’t think Guido – what an appropriate name – did that at all. He said that he had no intent of hurting people’s feelings, but that can be applied to those who support, or criticize, the homosexual agenda.
As to Larry (he was a good friend) Auster’s theory of “unprincipled exceptions,” Barilla’s CEO never retracted his comment, and, as I pointed out, if he had, the last part about the importance of the woman in the family would have assuaged the anger of the member of the Camara (Legislative body) because it also reinforced the notion of the woman’s centrality to traditional family life.
It is Buck’s contention that corporate interest overruled the more suitable path of forceful resisting of the homosexual onslaught in Italy, and that the appropriate response would have been to repeat that the homosexuals “eat someone else’s pasta,” which Signor Barilla did say at the outset. But what we will not agree on is that the world in which Barilla – both in the U.S. and Europe – operates is essentially a Leviathan state, and Barilla sought not to challenge that behemoth directly, in the U.S. or Italy. Anyone who believes that such an effort should be undertaken knows that he will lose, big time. That is not offered as an excuse, but a realistic condition under which major businesses operate today in the West.
“The moving finger having writ, moves on, and neither all your piety nor all your wit can call it back to cancel half a line…”
Barilla has made its priorities known, and they will, I suspect, keep it the largest pasta manufacturer in the world.
Buck writes:
Don Vincenzo has a disarming manner, which is greatly appreciated. He surely has one delightful daughter. That may be part of it. I’m three quarts Irish, and tend to see the pint as half empty.
Modern liberals are spontaneous and aggressive, and they’re unconstrained. We are not. We measure and hedge and, as Don Vencenzo says, we backtrack a bit, rather than to push back and challenge.
Don Vencenzo writes: ” But what we will not agree on is that the world in which Barilla – both in the U.S. and Europe – operates is essentially a Leviathan state, and Barilla sought not to challenge that behemoth directly, in the U.S. or Italy.”
But we do agree. That is my point. Modern liberalism is Hobbes’ absolute sovereign. Barilla will not challenge the behemoth, which is the modern liberal state, nor will they even simply fight back. No one seems willing to. They may not ad with homosexuals, as they so far have refused to do, and that is resistance. But, that one company is being so singled out as a resister. as if in Vichy France, in a world full of sympathizers and cowards, makes Barilla’s slip of the tongue – and make no mistake, that was a slip that they regret – because though they were known to exist, but they had not declared the offending sentiments publicly. They are now fully exposed and in the cross hairs of the authoritarian regime. I don’t now expect to see an “armed” resistance from Barilla. They will not take an anti-homosexualization fight to the streets. They’re already schizophrenic with their preposterous approval of gay “marriage” juxtaposed against their ads. They’ll apologize and shut up, hoping that they’ll be left alone. They’ll watch their tongues from now on.
The state of nature is being defied and denied, and few if any prominent and public men appear willing to sacrifice their own insular well-being to stop it.
“Anyone who believes that such an effort should be undertaken knows that he will lose, big time. That is not offered as an excuse, but a realistic condition under which major businesses operate today in the West. “
