It was better when it was better
(… a few days ago, looking out from the edge of the blue toilet, I saw someone, I can't tell you whether the publicist Cadonetti, the jurist Maltagliati, or the economist Mascone, affirm that a compression of the freedom of expression of thought was emerging linked to the management of the pandemic. I laughed a bit. The floundering of so many epigones has something comical, in fact. Now, however, I would like to do a serious reflection with you …)
The presupposition of a series of attacks on our freedom of expression, exemplified by the work of the Love Commission on which we have extensively disseminated here , is the idea affirmed in an apodictic way that compared to a few decades ago today we live in a more violent but (or rather: also because) freer than that of the years of lead, where there would have been less violence and less freedom.
From this diagnosis follows naturater a therapy, the one delivered, with winged and allusive words, also to the final report of the aforementioned esteemed parliamentary body: reduce freedom today, to reduce violence today.
Instead, it seems to me that in the 1970s there was undoubtedly more violence ( an ex multis example that struck me, which struck us all), but also much more freedom, if only because we were free from those platforms that were sold as a tool for the expression and dissemination of thought, but every day they also qualify as tools for the control and repression of dissent.
Perhaps it could be useful to give these impressions of mine, and perhaps yours too, some objectivity. Maybe mine is simply nostalgia for a time when I was thinner, had more hair, and didn't understand shit , as the old men of the Dopolavoro Ferroviario affectionately pointed out to me. Or, who knows, some measurable element exists, and maybe someone has taken care of it: not just the court of woke miracles that paraded in the Senate in the last legislature.
But it is ridiculous to have illusions, it is not up to our reflections: history is written by the winners, therefore, rather than committing ourselves to studying, and accumulating evidence that information operators would cover with a leaden pall of indifference or dismiss with a contemptuous smile , it will be better to strive to win. Not that the two are mutually exclusive: but the former is not a sufficient condition for the latter. Could still be a theme for #goofy12 …
(… it would be enough to listen to the unworthy hoopla that the opposition is making on the COVID Commission of Inquiry to have an example of what I mean …)
This is a machine translation of a post (in Italian) written by Alberto Bagnai and published on Goofynomics at the URL https://goofynomics.blogspot.com/2023/07/si-stava-meglio-quando-si-stava-meglio.html on Thu, 06 Jul 2023 08:24:00 +0000. Some rights reserved under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license.