Aldo Masullo

"Giordano Bruno represented a break between the pre-modern and modern eras with his thinking. The pre-modern era involved the idea that there is an order in society as in everything else and that this order is vertical: from top to bottom; something, therefore, that clearly takes the form of a hierarchy. What Bruno brings to philosophy is the infinity of the universe. In an infinite universe, there are no absolute centers: every point is relatively a center, with respect to all the others. With Bruno, there is therefore a transition from a hierarchical vision to one that I would not hesitate to define as anarchic!"

"Naples is the city of longevity, it is always the ‘new city’, reborn ‘new’ in the 5th century BC, Greek in blood and spirit, but hybridized by countless cultures, offended by long oppression and never surrendered. Every time 'capta cepit". Its genius is not only concentrated in its extraordinary philosophers, from Bruno of Nola and therefore a fellow countryman to the great Vico, but also in the fabric of popular culture. The Neapolitan has no irony, but sharp wit: thus he defends himself not from life, like the ironic, but in life."

"Naples, in my dream, even if hopping and mocking like Pulcinella, will manage to build self-respect. [...] I have often reproached Naples for its shortcomings, for this bourgeoisie that I have deplored for its lack of unity. In Naples, there are many good bourgeois, but not a class that knows how to elevate the collective life of all through the effort of common dialogue, of a project. :*Quoted in ‘’The dream of Masullo, honorary citizen: ‘I would like Naples to build respect for itself’'‘, ilmattino.it, June 8, 2018."

"This is a theme that we have been pursuing for millennia, asking ourselves what is specific to Naples, if there is anything specific to Naples. From an approximate, empirical point of view, Naples certainly has the singularity of a character among its inhabitants that is very open to relationships with others. This has its historical origins. Those who live in the Basso, a few steps away from each other, are inevitably accustomed to a common custom, and it is this common custom that helps them in times of danger or difficulty. This is the first aspect. And it is on this fundamental, basic aspect that a whole culture develops. Neapolitan culture is a culture of community, of being together, as one might say. It is then a question of analyzing whether this being together is only a superficial attempt to remedy what we lack, that is, something deeper than our living, or whether this being together is itself the profound living that we seek. It is all to be decided, and we have not yet decided it in millennia."

"Among the characters frequently encountered in the great theater of Pulcinella that is Naples, there is not only the “guappo.” There is also the “soul of Purgatory.” On the walls at street corners in authentically working-class Neapolitan neighborhoods, one often finds votive shrines with Madonnas and saints, as well as “souls of Purgatory.” Their artistic value is nil, but their anthropological and cultural significance is very interesting. [...] It is not the devils of Hell or the angels of Heaven that inhabit Naples, but the souls of Purgatory. They are an intermediate population, whose only destiny is to try to save themselves from the worst depths and rise towards a definitive salvation from which they remain fatally distant. And the common people pray for the souls in Purgatory; they have a prominent place in their devotion. [...] The soul in Purgatory represents those who are not completely lost, who have not fallen into Hell, who have not disappeared, swallowed up in the bottomless cavities of the ground in Naples. In one way or another, Neapolitans nestle in these cavities and do not get lost: rather, like the soul in Purgatory, they remain suspended, halfway between high and low, between Paradise and Hell. Vertically, they move without changing place, without ever moving, just as horizontally a cyclist does, who, skillfully exercising their strength on the pedals, neither advances nor retreats: standing still on two wheels, they remain in balance or, as they say, ‘surplace’. [...] In the same way, the Neapolitan, without ever taking a step forward or backward, maintains his balance in his immobility."

"Leopardi argued that modern man no longer feels passion and emotion, that he spends his life in boredom. This state of mind, this fundamental insensitivity to difference, is accentuated today by the wealth of resources at our disposal, which multiply technical possibilities by pursuing quantity for its own sake."

"The inability to perceive differences afflicts all generations today, but it is particularly insidious for young people who have grown up under the banner of “nothing is impossible”: I can go to America in a few hours, dance all night, fill my eyes with hundreds of images in a few minutes, I can, I can, I can... a bulimia of quantity in which quality, that is, meaning, dissolves. In terms of time, speed is dominant."

"The driving force must come from those who can do more, i.e., from politics and institutions. Those who govern society at any level must show what it means to be human. Because example is the only thing that matters, the example set by those at the top makes collective effort possible. Only through example can rulers obtain consent to sacrifices."

"The essence of education is to promote the experience of difference and the exercise of enjoying what is not trivial, thus forming strong personalities."