Essayists From Italy

"In order to reject subjugation to male power, we must first recognise it as a form of subjugation. [...] Although no human being can be treated as a slave without suffering, it often happens that we voluntarily submit to a form of slavery when we have not had the opportunity to know anything else. Habit makes us accept the unacceptable."

"The problem of insults, so-called “hate speech”, is complex. The phenomenon has been analysed by some American feminists who, by deconstructing the mechanisms of male domination, have pointed the finger at the vicious circle of “hate speech” that assigns women a well-defined role from which they can no longer escape. All those who dare to loudly claim equal civil rights are not taken seriously: their claims are immediately discredited and, instead of arguments, the insidious weapon of insults is used against them to silence them. [...] When you shout at a woman that she is a “slut”, at a homosexual that he is a “faggot” or at a black person that he is a “dirty nigger”, you do so because the other person cannot respond. What matters is not the argument you use. There is no argument, no idea, no rationality in the insult. The aim is always the same: to hurt the other person so that they remain silent."

"For centuries, rationality has been valued as a distinctive characteristic of human beings. For centuries, it has been argued that women's argumentative abilities are inferior to those of men. For centuries, it has been claimed that, unlike men, who are naturally capable of contributing to the development of public life and the organisation of society, women should be content with the role of wife and mother, to be the obedient and submissive angel of the hearth. It is no coincidence that the main objective of feminism and many intellectuals today is still to deconstruct these stereotypical images of femininity and masculinity, to allow women to finally have access not only to formal equality, but also and above all to substantive equality: men and women must enjoy the same rights; although they are different, men and women have the same value and the same dignity."

"Without prior recognition of the other, motherhood does not exist. Procreation is a relational act, a long and complex process that involves the existence of a dialogue, albeit silent, between the future child and the mother within the maternal body. If recognition does not take place, this silent dialogue does not begin, and it is difficult to imagine that a dialogue that never began could be established later. What is certain, however, is that a woman cannot be forced to continue with a pregnancy on the grounds that “she should have thought about it before”."

"Many of us complain about our men, without realising that very often we are the ones who infantilise them, reproaching them for not growing up, for not being up to the task, for not being able to manage everyday life. (chap. 32)"

"Being on the side of women does not mean dreaming of a world in which the power relations can finally be reversed so that men suffer what women have suffered for centuries. Being on the side of women means fighting to build an egalitarian society in which being a man or a woman is “irrelevant”, has no significance. Not because being a man or a woman is the same thing, but because both men and women are human beings who share the best and worst of the human condition. The goal of women is not to dominate men, after having been dominated for centuries, but to fight to gradually move away from this logic of domination, without forgetting that, despite everything, human beings are (and will always remain) deeply ambivalent."

"How can you share your daily life with another person if you don't give them the chance to do things their own way, or even to take responsibility for not doing them? How can you live with another person if you don't accept their otherness? After all, even in love, it is always a question of otherness. He is not like us. He is not us. He is simply “other”. (chap. 32)"

"Within a few days, I had the feeling that the progressive reduction of women to body-images was accompanied by an even more serious regression, by a heavy counterattack against the equality and freedom for which women had fought so hard in the 1960s and 1970s. It is as if the only alternative to the male-dominated model of women as objects of desire were that defended by a certain reactionary ideology."

"With time, we learn: the beginning of joy is right there, when we accept that the past never passes and we begin to live with disorder, after giving up on immutability and permanence. (chap. 31)"

"In love, we always clash. And we start over every day. Even when we don't feel like it. Especially when we no longer feel like it. (chap. 19)"

"Everyone has their own internal music that prevents them from listening to what others say. We only ever hear what we already know. We only ever listen to what we ourselves think. (chap. 22)"

"Too often, philosophers hide behind incomprehensible, technical language. For some of them, it is a way of remaining entrenched in an ivory tower without having to confront life, people's aspirations and frustrations, everyday life, or their own physical existence. [...] When, in the name of scientific rigour, we lose touch with reality, then knowledge becomes sterile. It is no longer useful. Except to take comfort in the idea that “others” cannot understand and... too bad for them!"

"Who knows if we really make choices in life. Who knows if the freedom we talk so much about today really exists. Or perhaps there is such a thing as destiny. A plan in which everything has already been predicted. And so you don't choose anything, you don't decide anything, you just follow the path that has already been laid out for you. And then you spend your life asking yourself “why?”. And the “whys” always remain unanswered. (chap. 25)"

"After all, “'nibbàna”' is not a concept: this is why attempts to illustrate it through language and logic lend themselves to various misunderstandings. Some Buddhists understand it literally: as a state of “extinction”, comparable to the extinguishing of a flame. Yet the Buddha often criticised proponents of the nihilistic interpretation: “nibbàna” should not be conceived as pure nothingness. [...] It does not designate the abyss of a void, nor a worldly dimension comparable to those that exist: it can simply be said that pain is definitively eliminated there. (pp. 72-73)"

"And it is precisely when you are no longer afraid of losing your loved one that love dies. (interlude I)"

"Feelings need privacy. Because when you reveal too much, you empty yourself. And then there is nothing left for yourself. Nothing to hold on to when evening falls and you need to rediscover that hard core that makes you unique, that reassures you. Love for life. Love for ourselves. Love for others. (chap. 12)"

"Sometimes we love the possibility that the other person seems to offer us to be “other” than the roles we play: their gestures suggest a way out of the suffocating “must be” that has allowed us to grow and move forward, but which after so many years of routine ends up being too restrictive, like an old suit that no longer fits. (interlude III)"

"Love cannot be earned. Otherwise, it would not be love. It would just be a form of barter: I give you what you ask for and you give me what I ask for. (chap. 4)"

"Although the spirit of the 1960s and 1970s, with its culture of equality and rights, is still with us, the view that many Italian men have of women, and which many young women end up internalising, does not correspond at all to the hopes of those years. It is women's achievements themselves that seem to be called into question. Not only because of the commodification of women's bodies, which is staged in advertising images or in contemporary pornography, or because of other degrading representations of the female condition, conveyed by television and in particular by entertainment programmes. But also because of a retrograde ideology that would like to turn back the clock."

"In love, as in life, you should never have too high expectations. Perhaps you shouldn't expect anything at all, since the most beautiful things always happen unexpectedly. (chap. 4)"

"Only when we listen to the noise within ourselves can we be ready to welcome the words of others. (interlude III)"

"Art in the broad sense is representation, that is, it repeats or imitates something that already exists or presents a quality of experience that does not yet exist but can be brought into being. Art as creation is never a repetition of something that already exists, but is the recomposition of something that does not exist."

"Unlike girls, who quickly find themselves confronted with a particular aspect of their femininity when they start menstruating, boys find it more difficult to understand what it means to become men. The construction of “masculinity” depends greatly on the cultural and social environment to which young people belong. In some environments, for example, boys learn that to become men, they must display arrogance, violence and contempt for women. Masculinity then becomes a precious commodity that must be protected against all attacks that may come from the weak, from “sissies” and from homosexuals. Masculinity, a distinctive sign of manhood only when it demonstrates the inferiority of women, drives these young men in disarray to lash out against all those who “waste” it. It is no coincidence that the most violent attacks against homosexuals come precisely from those who despise women and consider them inferior to men."

"I have no victories in Parliament. I have pushed things forward as far as I could. For example, I was the rapporteur for the law on double surnames, which then stalled in the Senate. I got it voted on in the Chamber of Deputies despite hostility and objections that I didn't think would come from the left. A macho, paternalistic, archaic attitude."

"When you are a simple member of Parliament, there is always a group leader, a deputy group leader, a chamber secretary, who block you with their authority. And you can't go any further."

"It used to be easier to be a know-it-all, but now the world is so complex that anyone who claims to be a know-it-all is a poor soul."

"If a party is unable to uphold a basic principle such as equality between children, regardless of their parents' sexual orientation, then it is no longer a party with which one can identify."

"(About the surrogacy) [...] when we are faced with a pregnancy that is altruistic, when we have clarified the difference between the principle of the non-commercialisation of the human body and its intangibility, we must also recognise, at this point, the principle of female autonomy. When a woman decides clearly, autonomously and altruistically to help a couple become parents, having already been a mother herself, having already carried a pregnancy to term, having no particular financial needs, in the name of what should we victimise her and consider that she is incapable of freely expressing her consent?"

"Unfortunately, this law is already outdated. It is a law that would have been excellent twenty years ago. It is a law reminiscent of the PACS in France, voted on in 1999. It is a law from which we should have expected more."

"The French anthropologist Claude Lévy-Strauss, in his book “'The Look from Afar”', devoted memorable pages to the theme of racism, explaining the fundamental difference between xenophobia and the legitimate need for anyone to protect themselves. It is one thing to want to protect one's loved ones, one's habits, one's beliefs and, why not, one's job."

"[...] I will obviously vote yes to this law because it is a necessary step forward, it is needed. Now those who dare to even imagine that being homosexual means not only being different, but also being inferior to others, will be even more ashamed. [...] I ask for no triumphalism [...] because what I would like to ask on my own behalf of all homosexual people, alas, my gay brothers and lesbian sisters, is to apologise for not having been sufficiently capable of protecting and defending their equal dignity and their complete, equal and full equality."

"The more women try to assert themselves as equal to men in dignity, value and rights, the more men react violently. The fear of losing even a few crumbs of power makes them vulgar, aggressive and violent. [...] These are men who do not accept female autonomy and who, often out of weakness, want to control women and subjugate them to their will. Sometimes they are insecure and have little self-confidence, but instead of trying to understand what exactly is wrong in their lives, they blame women and hold them responsible for their failures. Gradually, they turn women's lives into a nightmare. And when women try to rebuild their lives with someone else, they seek them out, threaten them, beat them, and sometimes kill them. Paradoxically, many of these crimes of passion are nothing more than a symptom of the “decline of the patriarchal empire”. As if violence were the only way to avert the threat of loss. To continue to maintain control over the woman. To reduce her to a mere object of possession. But when the person you love is nothing more than an object, not only does the relational world become hell, but love also dissolves and disappears."

"As those who identify moral dilemmas and try to resolve them by advancing moral principles, values and norms know well, every dilemma, by definition, is dramatic, desperate and hopeless. When faced with a moral dilemma, one always makes the wrong choice; whatever decision one makes, one always ends up regretting what one has said or done. :*From a speech to the Chamber of Deputies, 9 July 2013, quoted in Chamber of Deputies – XVII Legislature – Stenographic Report of the Assembly – Session No. 49 of Tuesday, 9 July 2013 – Continuation of the discussion of the bill: Conversion into law of Decree-Law No. 61 of 4 June 2013, containing new urgent provisions for the protection of the environment, health and labour in the operation of businesses of national strategic interest (A.C. 1139-A)“”."

"It is not work, however, that kills and destroys; what kills and destroys is the exploitation of labour, the exploitation of poverty, the exploitation of despair, that is, everything that happens when the only thing that matters is the maximisation of economic profit, that absolute selfishness that no longer has anything to do with the well-understood interest that Adam Smith already spoke to us about and that leads to the maximisation of the common good."

"The “forever” of love is like the “forever” of the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland: it lasts a second. (chap. 1)"

"There are moments of profound misunderstanding that happen just like that, from one moment to the next, sometimes suddenly. Whether it is due to accumulated fatigue, a momentary lapse of attention, or simply because life is often very complicated. But ultimately, the exact reasons for this misunderstanding matter little. Let's just say it happens."

"Barbie was our icon. Her success depended on her perfect body, regardless of her profession or age. Barbie was always impeccable and sublime. Barbie was always heterosexual and married. Barbie was always happy and successful. The life represented in the world of Barbie was, therefore, mythical and unattainable. The girls of my generation grew up believing that anything was possible and that “wanting” was enough to “be able”. Barbie succeeded; why shouldn't we succeed too? After all, we just had to learn to “control” ourselves: control our bodies, control our emotions, control our needs."

"The “right person” is not the one who will be able to calm our anxieties and fulfil our expectations, but the one who will learn to accept us as we are, with our flaws and contradictions. Even when we ourselves find it hard to bear. (chap. 3)"

"I agree with the crisis in justice. Ninety percent of our work is useless because we have Byzantine procedures for prosecuting mountains of crimes. We are grinding water and this is frustrating."

"Legitimate choices are not necessarily appropriate ones. A magistrate must not only be impartial, but must also appear to be impartial."

"The mindset of a magistrate is not that of a public administrator. [...] The idea that politics is unable to come up with a name from within its own ranks and must resort to a magistrate is a sign of a deep crisis."

"(About wiretaps) Their dissemination, sometimes selective and perhaps manipulated, is a deadly tool for personal and often political delegitimization. These are substantial, almost blasphemous violations of Article 15 of the Constitution, which establishes the secrecy of communications as an interface of freedom."

"Wiretapping is absolutely essential in the fight against the mafia and terrorism; it is fundamental to understanding the movements of people suspected of serious crimes. Wiretapping mafia members helps us understand who they talk to and how they move. :*Paola Di Caro, Sì alle intercettazioni, non agli abusi, Corriere della Sera, January 18, 2023."

"Aiding and abetting does not exist as a crime; it is a creation of jurisprudence. That is, the Supreme Court, the judges, invented this rather evanescent formula, which, strictly speaking, I would call “Popperian,” is an oxymoron. Because the concept of external complicity is contradictory, hence the oxymoron, because if you are a competitor, you are not external, and if you are external, you are not a competitor. Of course, when you discuss all these things from a technical point of view, you find ideological and emotional answers. We do not want to eliminate it; we know very well that you can be a mafioso within the organization and you can be an accomplice outside the organization, but then the crime needs to be completely redefined, which at the moment does not exist either as a specific or a specific offense because it is not in the code. (July 11, 2023)"

"(Regarding the separation of careers between penal prosecutors and judges and its relatiosnhip with the "Plan for Democratic Rebirth) I am not familiar with the P2 plan. I can say that if Mr. Licio Gelli's interpretation, or rather opinion, was a correct opinion, there is no reason why it should not be followed just because he said so. Truths do not depend on who proclaims them, but on the objectivity they represent."

"This book should be studied at the High School of the Judiciary (referring to the book entitled ‘'Il mostro’' by Matteo Renzi)."

"I believe that no magistrate should ever run for election, and even more so, a public prosecutor who has become famous for political investigations should not do so."

"A long tradition, dating back to the ancient Greeks, links art to action in various ways. In Homeric epos, the exploits of heroes constitute the content of the poems; in tragedy, the action takes place in the presence of the audience: both the former and the latter have an effect on the audience. Finally, poetic, artistic, and literary activity itself has often been thought of as a form of action, a particular type of action that is sometimes more effective than military, political, or economic action. In modern thought, it was Hegel who thought most deeply about the connection between art and action. (p. 121)"

"The sentiment of the twentieth century, on the other hand, moved in a direction opposite to aesthetic reconciliation, toward the experience of a conflict greater than dialectical contradiction, toward the exploration of the opposition between terms that are not symmetrically polar to each other. This whole great philosophical story, which I do not hesitate to consider the most original and important of the twentieth century, lies beneath the notion of ‘difference’, understood as non-identity, as a dissimilarity greater than the logical concept of diversity and the dialectical concept of distinction. (p. 158)"

"In cognitive aesthetics, philosophy does not make the effort to understand what is other than itself, but seeks and finds itself. Self-reference, self-referentiality, and circularity seem to constitute their surreptitious presupposition: when speaking of other things, they are actually speaking of themselves, because ultimately they believe that true knowledge is self-awareness. It follows that the truth of the arts does not lie in themselves, but in the philosophy that interprets them or, better still, that philosophical thought is the bearer of a truth that art could not reach on its own, or at least of which it cannot be fully aware without the help of philosophy. (p. 85)"