The Debt Narrative and the Credit Crunch of Democracy

Abstract

This paper argues that the “debt narrative,” quite like the Rosetta Stone, is a historical, symbolic, and aesthetic way for us to decipher the interfaces between the three languages of economy, politics, and ethics. Debt narrative is not a simple figure of speech, literature, or thought; it acts, powerfully, in the real world. As in Europe today, the pressure of debts is related to a lack of credit for democracy and the future. Among the many examples of this relationship, the paper highlights Resistance Is Useless (Resistere non serve a niente), a novel by Walter Siti.