Citizens or consumers? Republic of free people or bazaar of objects and propaganda? Civil society or masses with appetites? Sovereign people or spectators? Participatory democracy or mass spectacle? Public opinion or online gossip?

I wonder and, despite the habit we get of looking at extraordinary things, I am still amazed at the problems arising from the situation. And I’m worried because the answers don’t satisfy suspicions, nor meet expectations, nor suggest a horizon of reasonable possibilities for getting out of the quagmire. I wonder if, despite everything, we still persist in the illusions nurtured by the democratic theory. I wonder why the rule of law was unfortunately absent and said goodbye without drama and in silence, and why a Constitutional State was born in its place, in which, paradoxically, the validity of individual rights became so uncertain; why every day other theories undo the innumerable illusions which nourished the idea of ​​infinite progress and built up the confused enthusiasm and the great error of believing that the destiny of the world is directed towards the fullness of political happiness.

Citizens or consumers?, I ask myself and notice the distance between these two ways of existence, because economic growth, the significant rise of the middle class and the enormous IT capacity did not allow for the parallel development of political institutions or common sense. And the “new society” continues to be subject to the canons of old addictions and old fears. To this were now added new and mass fears, marked indifference and astonishing blindness.

Citizens, neighbors or opponents, I wonder when I see the city collapsed with traffic and overwhelmed by the behavior of the new rich and the old poor, conceited and sufficient; when I see the deterioration of the landscape, the impoverishment of culture and the “prosperity” of the stickiness that conquers us; when I see the annulment of simplicity and the loss of connection with the roots; when I see that advertising has replaced reflection, and propaganda has replaced thought.

Citizens or consumers?, because I see a growing deterioration of the sense of neighborhood, “quemeimportismo” with common goods and selfishness that characterizes the behavior of quite a few individuals.

In the midst of the election campaign, I confirm my disappointment with democracy, which is less and less representative, with institutions that are masquerades, with leadership that does not exist, with propaganda that suppresses any ability to think.

Despite the supremacy of the consumer over the citizen, despite the proscription of criticism and the growing empire of adaptation, despite everything, I encourage the hope that society will someday move smoothly towards true citizenship, towards the revaluation of the old and permanent concept of the Republic, understood not as a state that intervenes, but as a space in which everyone, every majority and every minority, takes the place that their dignity allows them. (OR)

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