Politics & Power Quote by Salvatore Quasimodo

Quasimodo writes like someone who has watched “neutrality” used as a costume. The line pivots on a sly accusation: religious power doesn’t merely ally with political power when it’s convenient; it “frequently identifies itself” with it, blurring the boundary until the two become indistinguishable in practice. That verb choice matters. Identification is not cooperation. It’s self-recognition in the mirror of the state.

The punch lands in the second clause: “even when it seemingly was neutral.” Quasimodo is allergic to the myth of the innocent institution. Neutrality becomes a rhetorical alibi, a way for an authority to preserve legitimacy while quietly shaping outcomes. The subtext is that in periods of “bitter struggle” (Quasimodo’s Italy knew fascism, war, resistance, and the postwar fight over national identity), the most powerful players rarely sit out. They reposition. They bless one side’s language, police the moral vocabulary, and frame conflict as order versus chaos.

As a Hermetic poet turned public moral witness after World War II, Quasimodo is also speaking to a broader European pattern: churches and religious hierarchies claiming transcendence while bargaining with regimes, from monarchies to dictatorships to modern parties. The sentence’s calm, almost bureaucratic cadence is part of its bite. He’s not ranting; he’s filing a charge: when religion and politics share power, “neutral” often means strategic silence, and strategic silence is already participation.