Interesting Conversation w/an Italian.

The other week I met this one (older) (Italian) former grad student for a beer:

1) Growing up in Albania (!), he remembers getting Italian news - and some of the first broadcasts that he remembers were the ones about the Pope getting poisoned (=rumors about the death of John Paul I).

2) In his section of Romance languages, it's now not uncommon for people to struggle for 4 years after graduation, then luck into a sweet tenure track job at an R1, something that he says is due to there being so few positions, like 1 a year (=the future of the rest of the Humanities?).

3) He thinks that the left now has no more "project" that serves as a counterweight to deregulation and capital, and that environmentalism is the most prevalent alternative but isn't enough of a vision for people to rally around.