updates-inside-out

[updates-inside-out]

Something bothers me

After publishing the Poetics, I needed to establish what the privileged, first world problems that affect me exactly are, and I took the time to do it properly. It was not easy, mostly because almost everything bothers me – spleen. I am not a pretentious witch (or maybe I am), but it is true that it has always been hard for me to accept things like fascism, patriarchy, violence, bullying, ignorance or shallowness… I get furious when I speak with people whose reasoning is based on a priori, on principles that have not been questioned. I cannot stand reading stupid newspaper’s articles in which the writing lacks quality standards. Actually, I may be a pretentious witch after all, because I rarely dissimulate it when I am annoyed in these situations (sorry).

I am well aware of my flaws and shortcomings; however, I do not see why anyone should tolerate the infamous social trend in which quality is not valuable anymore. When the former Italian Minister of Interior Matteo Salvini publicly asked for full powers (yes, he really did) while sunbathing and drinking a mojito on the beach, the Italian press took him seriously and it caused the dissolution of the chambers – and it is all a sad true story. I really do not understand… Even though I do not live in Italy anymore, I continue to follow the political/social/cultural debates. Yet, I still have not heard any insightful reflexion coming from influential personalities or, worse, I could read some authoritative papers but they did not irradiate the debate on a large scale.

What bothers me, meaning what I actually fear, is that the loss of articulate thinking intellectuals complained about when the social networks began to boom actually turned into a fathomless form of functional illiteracy combined with the levelling-off of different critical and analytical skills, i.e. the understanding of complex issues, the awareness of wider contexts, the appreciation of nuances, and so on. Because of this general depletion, events like the one involving the former Italian Minister of Interior do not seem so scandalous anymore. In this regard, the depreciation of quality in its abstract sense becomes – from my point of view – an “infamous social trend”.

Of course, I am simplifying and generalizing, I know. These considerations are not comprehensive, but they are a starting point for more stories to come.

[updates-inside-out]

Poetics

I have decided to create a blog for so many reasons, but I still have not chosen which direction I want to take. For instance, all I know is that - like many other people - I am struggling. Maybe I do not want to acknowledge my part of responsibility in the struggle, mostly because I am afraid of the wicked feeling of guilt that goes with it. Maybe I do not want to feel alone in this situation. Maybe it is a way to apply some sort of rational patterns to the world. Maybe it is just the way it is, but I've been thinking a lot about the things that affect me the most and - spoiler - it is a nice assortment of privileged and first world problems.

Although I really dislike the expression because it makes me feel guilty (a Jaspers kind of guilt) and because I am definitely not one of the wealthy girls Gwen Stefani sings about or a wealthy girl at all, I've been feeling that ascribing some of my pain to the characteristics of the actual historic times has some benefits. It normalises the struggle, it makes it possible to share with people, it gives a sense of belonging and one could also suggest that it takes part in the creation of a community of feeling.

On the other hand, the awareness of problems and problematics of the so-called first world highlights, emphasizes and reasserts once again how the political, economic and - consequentially - ideological system I live in isn't actually based on the pursuit of happiness : health is crushed by wealth. The positive effects of attributing feelings to the spirit of times require nuances and result in a two-edged coping mechanism. In theory, the abstraction of one's problems helps rationalising but, in practice (at least in my case), it raises some controversial and painful philosophical/social/ethical issues one may not really want to deal with.

Nonetheless, I have always enjoyed a theoretical chat about how the world goes. And, as for now, I feel I have to say some things out loud – partly because I'm often not sure what I precisely think about things, and writing them down is a way to clarify some points, partly because I want to expose my thoughts to people I don't know that potentially will share their different point of view. Therefore, I think I will use this blog as a shared way to elaborate some of these abstract issues I'm confronted to.

I won't introduce myself in detail nor I will be writing about the situations I'm going through in my personal life and yet I will refer to it when giving the context of my thoughts. In fact, my aim is not to focus on abstract philosophical general matters exclusively, but to include them in a general reflexion proceeding from my everyday life, current events and latest news. I still have not decided whether I will continue writing in English or change language depending on the subject, its context and the language of my stream of consciousness. And I also do not know at what pace I will be writing.

It is an overall creating chaos to which I do not want to impose any preconceived structure or limit in order to fully explore the potential of the process and of its tools… It will be my own Zibaldone di pensieri.