INDIFFERENT
RiccardoCatte
19/02/2022 SATURDAY, N.5
“I hate the indifferent. I believe that living means taking sides. Those who really live cannot help being a citizen and a partisan. Indifference and apathy are parasitism, perversion, not life. That is why I hate the indifferent.
The indifference is the deadweight of history. The indifference operates with great power on history. The indifference operates passively, but it operates. It is fate, that which cannot be counted on. It twists programs and ruins the best-conceived plans. It is the raw material that ruins intelligence. That what happens, the evil that weighs upon all, happens because the human mass abdicates to their will; allows laws to be promulgated that only the revolt could nullify, and leaves men that only a mutiny will be able to overthrow to achieve the power. The mass ignores because it is careless and then it seems like it is the product of fate that runs over everything and everyone: the one who consents as well as the one who dissents; the one who knew as well as the one who didn’t know; the active as well as the indifferent. Some whimper piously, others curse obscenely, but nobody, or very few ask themselves: If I had tried to impose my will, would this have happened?
I also hate the indifferent because of that: because their whimpering of eternally innocent ones annoys me. I make each one liable: how they have tackled with the task that life has given and gives them every day, what have they done, and especially, what they have not done. And I feel I have the right to be inexorable and not squander my compassion, of not sharing my tears with them.
I am a partisan, I am alive, I feel the pulse of the activity of the future city that those on my side are building is alive in their conscience. And in it, the social chain does not rest on a few; nothing of what happens in it is a matter of luck, nor the product of fate, but the intelligent work of the citizens. Nobody in it is looking from the window of the sacrifice and the drain of a few. Alive, I am a partisan. That is why I hate the ones that don’t take sides, I hate the indifferent.”
― Antonio Gramsci*
Here Italian Partisans freedom song (BELLA CIAO)
I'm going to publish for every number of the newspaper a different version
*WIKIPEDIA
Comments
I am ambivalent myself.
True, but probably you choose yourself and/or for yourself
o7
Non sapevo che anche "Mandi Ciao" avesse fatto la sua versione.
Ne conosco a migliaia!!! Enjoy 😉 !
Me encanta Manu Chao.
Bongo Bong
https://youtu.be/u-Zu0yXBIp0
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You are obviously better read in philosophy than I am, in spite of efforts by PQ and others to educate all of us, and efforts by a couple of eRep players who have become RL friends, one a political science/philosophy major, the other less educated but a deep thinker, either to educate me or to at least present a different point of view. I think, from my understanding of this quotation, plus a (very) little quick research, I am mostly in accord with Gramsci's thinking, but would argue for a bit more empathy with the "indifferent". My RL brother pointed out to me 20 years ago that the system is specifically designed to keep most of us so preoccupied with day to day concerns that we don't have time or energy to notice what those in power are doing to hold onto power. If and when we do notice, we feel powerless to change things. Things do not seem to be improving in that respect. Add to this the cultural norms that many accept, so that change seems not only impossible, but also wrong, it is little wonder that people feel helpless and hopeless. This is true in RL, where people appeal to a "common sense" that is not shared by everyone and often makes little sense to me, but it is also true in game, and may ultimately be what kills the game. I have been on both sides of this in game, having been in the military and/or political power structure of more than one country, and in groups that wanted to shift the paradigm and share the power. It is not an easy balance, and the design of the game does not make it any easier. Thanks for giving me something more interesting to think about than Olympic skiing. 🙂
Incidentally, I think this is my favorite of the versions of Bella Ciao that you have shared.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Obviously Gramsci wrote this in another context, he was in a fascist prison, but the basic idea was that only with the participation of the proletariat in the political life of the country and therefore with mass literacy could the oppressive regime be overwhelmed. .
History teaches us that it was American and British weapons and money (Marshall Plan) that destroyed the dictatorship (the same ones that financed fascism in the 1920s because otherwise Italy would have become a communist / socialist country), creating however the current financial regime. Mass literacy has served no purpose other than to create a lot of functional illiterates. I'm said to see.
I am sad to see that even in a simple game like this and with these dynamics people do not take sides and do not vote.
I'm sorry for my sucking English 🙂
Your English is much better than my abilities in any other language, including French and Spanish, both of which I studied in the past, and the several others I have a bit through music and eRepublik friends.