Evicted From Eternity_ The Restructuring of Modern Rome - Michael Herzfeld [132]
He also presumably realized that the older faction's strongest suit was their conviction that, as the merchant put it, there had been no legal consequences of the failure to convene meetings, and that there had been no serious problems in the building-so what was all the fuss about? As the merchant subsequently reconstructed the previous exchange between the other older man and the leader of the younger faction, ornamenting his account with some editorial emphases of his own: "'Tell me what happened.' 'No! You didn't come [to meetings] for four years!' 'But what the hell's that got to do with you? But what's changed? Nothing's changed! There's been no, there's been no work [done on the building], nothing!"' It was precisely this kind of precise accounting, ironically, that the accountability-minded younger leader feared; clear evidence that in fact nothing consequential had changed might well have persuaded any waverers to forget about the administrator's derelictions-to let it go, in the familiar Roman way.
So at this point the young faction leader produced what can only be described as a passionately reasoned speech, oscillating adroitly between cordial civility and procedural punctilio. The emphatic repetitions perhaps appealed to emotion rather than reason, but the argument was an attempt to represent his own position as entirely a question of reason, and reason alone; it was also a strategic move, in that he understood that the administrator, given the chance to detour away from the most obvious complaint, could easily explain away some of his supposed derelictions and even turn the tables on his interlocutors-it was not as though they had always followed procedure either.
First, with a smiling expression of embarrassed sympathy on his face and after a jocular exchange with one of the others about my filming, the young man glanced down at the ally who had protested the administrator's lack of responsiveness and who was seated right in front of him; with a gentle hand resting briefly on this man's collar, he then turned back to the table where the embattled administrator sat with an increasingly defensive posture, and launched into his new peroration, emphasizing his points in a vibrant but controlled declamatory style, with downward, emphatic gestures of the hand that held his papers:
The problem is that for year after year the administrator never convened a regular meeting. This is the fundamental problem. Because then all the others are marginal matters and to discuss them seems to me to be a waste of time because it then leads to quarreling and answers about all sorts of things. [At this point one of the older men began to protest again, but the speaker's voice rose just enough to prevail.] Excuse me! No! Look, you did ask me what the problem was. The problem is fundamental. Always this matter, without which we wouldn't be here to discuss it, and it's this, that is: our administrator from 119911 to today has, actually for four consecutive years, not called an ordinary meeting [of the condominium]. The estimates for three consecutive years were not presented [to us]. So for years and years the estimates and builders' accounts were not presented. This is the problem! This alone! We all know it! That is, those who are in agreement [do], because there are some who are less aware of a problem [they regard as being] less disturbing; and there are those who instead would like to discuss the rules every year, to discuss the accounts every year, and nominate the administrator every year, that is, to follow the procedures laid out in the code. That's what we're talking about, not other, marginal questions that were presented a moment ago. That's what we're talking about! This problem has been presented several times to the administrator, and the administrator has never carried out his duty to convene a regular