Roberto Saviano (2018) The Piranhas: The Boy Bosses of Naples.

‘The word paranaza comes from the sea’.

Learning the trade. In Neapolitan dialect, paranza originally refers to a small fishing boat. Very young boys as crew, who go out at night with bright lamps to lure fish to the surface and catch them quickly. The small stuff in the bottom of the nets is thrown together and cooked in a local much- loved and cheap dish.

Little fisherman become big fisherman by staying close to the shore. They are both hunters and prey. Sent out before they are ready because they are cheap and expendable. The bait and the baited. No boy believes he will die. The sea knows better. Little fish make big fish.

The paranza is the world but it also contains the instability of the world. One wrong move and the boat capsize. One mistake and the boat capsize. One insult and you’re in cold water.  

‘The Beshitting’ is all about face. Without face a man is nothing. Boys become men through acts of violence.

‘Are you looking at me?’

The fifteen-year-old boys surrounding Renatino mimic the words of Robert De Niro. They are steeped in Camorra and Neapolitan values of the street, but the violence is also stylised for the Instagram and TikTok generation. Nicolas Fiorillo (Maraja) shitting in Renatino’s mouth is sending out a message.

The Piranhas internalise what it is to be a man. Masculinity is to do what you want. That way lies money and power.

Maraja’s gang aren’t waiting for permission or orders from some connected family who no longer know how to grab what they want because they’re holed up in their big houses and scared to come out.

The Piranhas are on the streets every day, grafting. They can make money dealing drugs, more than their mum and dads make in a month on a single day. But it’s never enough.

Maraja has a Machiavellian vision to become Prince among men. Violence is a tool. Fear is a crown they can wear. Better to be feared than loved. In acting impulsively they prove themselves to be men with their own brand of loyalty. A clan apart.

Power is performative, but in Machiavellian politics it also has a goal, a larger vision. Boys with guns can learn to shoot straight but they can’t see straight.

Paranaza comes from the sea and goes to the sea. Read on.

Notes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpd5j4lnnq0o

Teachers’ Unions warn of ‘masculinity crisis brewing’ in schools.  

In Angels with Dirty Faces

The priest (Pat O’Brien) begs Rocky (Jimmy Cagney) to “die a coward” so the boys will stop idolising him. Rocky squeals and sacrifices his image to save them.

What Maraja takes from Machiavelli

                It is better to be feared than loved

                Power must be seized, not inherited

                A leader must act decisively, even ruthlessly

                Appearances matter as much as actions

                Mercy is a luxury for the strong, not the weak

But  Nicolas misreads Machiavelli like the moron’s moron Trump listens to the music of Bruce Springstein.

He extracts only the parts that validate his adolescence, hungry for cash that brings status and his notion of honour.

His obsession with ‘saving face’ is something been fed to him in his crib.  His belief that violence is a legitimate tool, the only too worth using.

He ignores Machiavelli’s emphasis on stability and having a long-term strategy. City states such as Napoli and Vienna made allies before they made enemies.

Even the Mongol Empires after murder, rape and pillage, collected taxes and enforced common laws including the right to worship whatever god you liked.

Maraja uses Machiavelli the way teenage boys often use Nietzsche downloaded from TikTok

as a permission slip for hurting somebody else and justifying it to themselves?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CVBVVGD6