Hypocrisy: The Plague Of Social Relations

In recent months, Italy has been engaged (sometimes quite violently) in the fate of the most famous and highly-paid influencer around: Chiara Ferragni. With 29 million followers and a turnover that is probably around 30 million Euro a year (although the sums, real or declared, are not exactly clear), Ferragni has tripped up over a far from edifying case of declared charity that failed to materialize. A “pandoro-gate” (the case concerns the profits from the sales a typical Italian sponge cake, called pandoro, that she advertised) that was also really badly handled in terms of communication: the apology video, showing the influencer in an unusually reserved mood when she should really have been apologizing, backfired on her. Revealing, what is more, what seems to be an intrinsic weakness in her small media empire: the lack of trusty advisors, both at legal and communication levels. There is no doubt that the businesswoman-influencer has made mistakes, and serious ones at that. Her posts concerning pandoro encouraged many buyers by suggesting that increased purchases would lead to increased donations towards research into two kinds of tumor at Turin’s Santa Margherita Hospital. A false conviction because the company that manufactures the cake had already donated a fixed sum to the hospital. And the apology video, with the promise to pay one million euros out of her own pocket, failed to patch up the mess.

All true, all deplorable, but all derived from the very mechanism that has made Ferragni what she is today: those 29 million followers who, a short while ago , never failed to click a like on any post of hers, who commented their adoration, in real time, for her blonde-haired children, immortalized and shown off to the public in all kinds of situations; followers who probably would have liked to possess the designer clothes, the huge walk-in wardrobe full of shoes and the new house, shown off in every detail. Only then to decide that all of this is inopportune, scandalous, offensive for those who cannot afford it and, consequently, to be transformed into intransigent accusers, moralists using unrepeatable epithets, scourgers of customs effectively on permanent duty. There is nothing better to feed the media assault which we so enjoy, because it tickles our lowest instincts, it allows us to direct our envies and frustrations towards a common target, at the same time letting us feel part of a group, and, because of this, possessors of absolute truth.

Of course, we all know that these are mechanisms typical of the social network, that whatever takes you to the top ranks of appreciation can, just as quickly, determine your fall. But what particularly strikes me is the enormous hypocrisy in which we live every day. I mean: Ferragni is Ferragni because yesterday she did the very things that we are scandalized by today. Her small empire comes from the fact that companies paid her to advertise their products, certain that 29 million people were going to see the ads. They have all profited by her notoriety, including big brands like Tod’s, who saw their stocks soar as soon as they announced her presence on their board. All of the leading media at the time received the news most enthusiastically, but only now write that Ferragni rarely turned up to board meetings. Now some of the brands to which she was tied have turned their backs on her, part of her followers abandoned her (actually, a relatively small number, maybe because their previous worshipping voyeurism has been turned into morbid curiosity into seeing the fall of an idol), and many criticize her for doing what she has always done: smiling and showing off.

It seems never to occur to us, however, to admit that we created Ferragni. We who bought pandoro not because charity was promised, but because it made us feel cool. It is the hypocrisy that gets me, one of the great plagues of social relations, so rooted in our western culture that it seems irreversible. And yet, an affordable, though precious, antidote does exist: a little human self-dignity, such that, when we take our last breath, we may be proud of our frankness, rather than the banalities spoken to cover up our poor show of appearances. You need great self-respect in order to accept living, not just surviving, and this implies a concept of dignity that is rarely exercised today. For this very reason, the social media are often an infernal mechanism: they make us all the same, leading us towards an unquestioning and responsive mass flow. Dignity is also a fact of self-awareness that takes time. Let us be fully aware of this.