The ʽvirtuistʼ society. Pareto and the myth of immoral representations

The paper aims at actualizing the metaphor of the ʽvertuistʾ society drawn by Vilfredo Pareto in his famous essay The Vertuist Myth and Immoral Literature (1914), in reference to the allegedly ʽimmoralʾ representations in literature, by highlighting the hypocrisies and moralism peculiar of the conservative thought. In particular, the paper takes one’s cue from the strong criticism provoked by the decision of the Italian Government to cover up some of the statues exposed in the Capitoline Museums, during the official visit of the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on January 25th 2016. According to government officials, the statues have been covered with the purpose to ʽshow respect to Iranian culture and sensitivityʾ. The case of the covered statues allows us to reflect on the myth of the ʽvertuistʾ myth pointed out by Vilfredo Pareto in his essay, aimed at dissociating himself from the attempts to censor or stigmatize the ʽimmoralʾ representations proposed by the classical, modern and contemporary literature. Pareto can still provide the sociological tools to interpret the appearance of the new ʽvertuistʾ society, generated not only by the advance of integralism, but also by the decay of cultural identity, bolstered by the globalized interactions.