The night before discussing with Lia a meeting on Burma, proposed by a group of my friends politically engaged.
What if I looked in total nonsense. A meeting on Burma is like a meeting on Darfur: you get depressed you know that there is a place where things go badly, and on which you can not do anything. Or worse, you have the feeling that we did something because we've done a conference.
When I say "you can not do anything" I mean exactly this: that none of the actions that an ordinary person can have a significant impact on current events in Burma (or Darfur, or Mongolia, or any other places unfortunate that fill our planet).
I proposed to deal with something far more prosaic. In particular the collection of waste. That is to say, rubbish.
rubbish? Rubbish. Rubbish. That cosa che tutti produciamo, chiudiamo in un sacchetto e “in qualche modo” sparisce da “qualche parte”. Dove ovviamente il trucco è capire il modo e la parte.
L'obiezione che Lia mi rivolgeva era, giustamente, che la spazzatura non è argomento affascinante. Non esalta gli spiriti. Non è una cosa su cui un paese dotato di una coscienza civile può mobilitarsi. Non ci trascini dietro orde di giovani a combattere.
Il problema è che io sono convinto che noi non siamo un paese dotato di una vera coscienza civile. ossia della consapevolezza, da parte dei cittadini, che essi sono il cane da guardia della democrazia.
Non la magistratura, la polizia o i giornali. No. Sono i cittadini, in their entirety, can guarantee the quality of democracy they have. The judiciary, police, and even the press can help play a vital role in many aspects.
But in the absence of a precise awareness of the role of citizens in the democratic system, there is no democracy can function.
In Italy the problem is exactly that: there is no clear understanding of this role.
This awareness is difficult. The world we live in is complicated, both for real reasons (there are many things to do) for reasons of artificially created (if it is difficult to understand, is easier to make things unfair without anyone noticing). In a complicated world It's easy to start chasing ghosts and things that are normal to be shocked, and perhaps unaware of the real misconduct that are made under his nose.
The thing we must realize, when you train your social conscience, is that it is a battle against others who are not their own prejudices. Personal experience, face a real argument a minimum close to you you will discover hundreds of strange things, and above all will fill you with surprise to no end. Above all, it will overturn many preconceived ideas about many things. Some classic is that all politicians steal, all state employees are drifters, and so on and so on. Addressing
a specific argument as the garbage can to raise awareness of their own and civilian politicians. We learn to judge the merits and not on membership partititca. Do you follow an idea or a leader "pre-judge the person and his ability to accomplish something.
But you grow political class, that gets used to having to be prepared and have to give account for their actions. The streets are dirty because we have chosen the wrong company. The waste tax increases because we have not been able to manage the collection. And so on.
If we were a normal country, it would be absurd to speak of social conscience from the trash. But who said that we are a country normale?
