La sociologia secondo Indro Montanelli

Abstract

The article is an analysis of the writings of Indro Montanelli about sociology. Montanelli, probably the best known Italian journalist of the XXth Century, was, admittedly, an opponent of sociology, which he considered a pseudo-science, able only to repeat self-evident truths in an unnecessarily complicated language. Montanelli’s opposition to sociology is frequently expressed in an ironic form (and Francesco Alberoni is the main target of these ironies), but sometimes it gives rise to more complex and original analysis, as when in some post-war articles, he highlights what, in his opinion, is a link between the spread of polls and the dangers of disguised forms of totalitarianism. At the origin of Montanellian opposition to sociology lies the adherence to a pessimistic view of man and the rejection of what Wrong called the «oversocialized conception of man». From the re-reading of Montanelli’s articles on the subject, however, the appreciation for some classics of sociology such as Weber, Sombart and Pareto emerges. Some of his texts also lead to the hypothesis that his approach to reality tended, in an intuitive way, beyond any disciplinary rigor, towards a different idea of sociology, based on the ability to observe everyday life, and on the interpretation of social reality as a form of theatrical representation.The article therefore intends to capture in Montanelli’s texts on sociology a more nuanced and articulated position than the pure and simple refusal of the discipline. The analysis proposed by the article, illuminating some little-known aspects of one of the most followed opinion-leaders of Italian journalism, provides a significant contribution to understanding the difficult process of institutionalization of sociology in Italy.