From the Dpcm to the curfew: until we defeat fear we will not return to “normality” (and freedom)
In February 2020, with a decree law, the Conte 2 government reserved the possibility of using administrative acts of the Prime Minister to limit the contagion from Covid-19 . Parliament (closed at the beginning of the pandemic) was inert in the most difficult moment of our Republic.
Not only neglected and bypassed in health measures which, at least in a liberal democracy, must be decided in respect of the fiduciary relationship between executive and legislative power, but also when it came to limiting fundamental freedoms, the Assembly was constantly bypassed, considered no longer the guardian of popular sovereignty, but a mere bureaucratic and ratification body, guilty of wasting too much time on the government, in the meantime busy fighting the epidemic.
The paradigm was the following: first health (but not that of those who have seen chemotherapy cycles postponed to make room for Covid patients), then everything else, from personal freedoms to the right to work, from economic activities to – which are substance – dictated by our Constitution. Everything has taken a back seat.
As the Dpcm, from administrative acts exceptionally used to regulate matters for which the Constitution provides for an absolute law reserve, have become the norm, so the curfew: from a mere exceptional instrument, to be used only in areas with serious epidemiological situations, it has become the rule, so much so that it was also included among the anti-contagion rules of the white zone (initially, the only color not to provide for this restrictive measure) and confirmed throughout the country until June 1, but with the possibility that it will be renewed by government until July 31st.
How is it possible that Italians are willing to accept further restrictions, even during the summer period? With fear.
The communication of the director Conte & Casalino was destructive – and decisive precisely in spreading and feeding fear in the population.
The daily count of the deaths of the then head of the Civil Protection Borrelli, the press conferences of President Conte, in which new restrictive measures were announced a few hours before they came into force, were among the gimmicks that contributed, thanks to the mainstream media, to overturn the paradigm: if there are more infections it is the fault of undisciplined citizens, never of a state that has been found unprepared in the health response, with delays in calls for intensive care and in the hiring of doctors and nurses; in the reorganization of the school and transport; without a pandemic plan and with a late and chaotic vaccination plan.
And so, in the space of a year, we went from the criminalization of the runner to real attitudes of informers worthy of East Germany.
In these long months of pandemic, we have completely lost the compass of freedom, individual responsibility and the moral independence of the individual.
Let us always remember: the state remains an instrument of the citizens, not the other way around. The rulers are delegated by the people, they are at the service of the community and are invested with the task precisely to remove the obstacles that could affect free initiative.
When the state loses sight of this fundamental task, its usefulness is lost, risking to transform, as Milton Friedman so well said, a temporary state intervention (Dpcm or curfew) into a permanent measure.
Life is also freedom, sociality, work, physical and mental health. In short, it is vital and therefore vulnerable.
This continuous and exasperated search for "zero risk", by means of measures without adequate scientific support, completely cancels the true meaning of "life" ("space between birth and death; the existence of an individual, as a development and as a set of facts and experiences that have characterized it "). Until we overcome fear, our pre-pandemic life – real life – will remain a faint memory.
The post From Dpcm to curfew: until we defeat fear we will not return to "normality" (and freedom) appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/dai-dpcm-al-coprifuoco-finche-non-sconfiggeremo-la-paura-non-torneremo-alla-normalita-e-alla-liberta/ on Fri, 23 Apr 2021 03:51:00 +0000.