Yesterday, I took part in an online meeting of “Elders for Peace,” a group of scholars, activists, and advocates who reunite to organize actions promoting peace. We listened to two direct testimonies about the genocide of Palestinians. They were touching and meaningful, leaving all the participants speechless; for some long minutes, no one dared to comment, not even to raise a question. Later, one of the attendees quoted, “When words fail, silence speaks.”
After I disconnected from the Zoom conference, I couldn’t shake the gloomy thoughts. An overwhelming sense of powerlessness took over my mind and soul. Then I reacted because we don’t have the right to despair. The problem is how to act… so at once I became miserable again: the answer to “What Is to Be Done?” is not easy today. It’s never been, by the way.
A friend, an old professor of mine who was also a member of the Italian Parliament for the Communist Party, came in to help unintentionally. He keeps complaining on social media about how bad and biased the media are and how Western powers control them. So-what—what’s new? I say. We all know that the mainstream media heavily manipulates most people. Most people, but not “all of the people all of the time.”
I’m confident, and we all should be; positive thinking is a moral duty and a responsibility we cannot avoid.
We are no longer alone: there are plenty of non-mainstream media and social networks that broadcast different information. They create another culture as untamable as the truth itself. We can help by joining the free information and surfing the net on the new wave, bringing our experience and scholarship. Likewise, we must refrain from self-congratulating and preaching to the choir. We must be humble and courageous enough to argue with the heathens, those who still worship the mainstream media and belittle our commitment.
Subverting the Western political and military order isn’t easy, but restoring freedom, justice, and brotherhood is necessary. Though it won’t happen overnight, the tide is rising and is unstoppable. The BRICS+ are challenging the West’s economic hegemony, with consequences for global geopolitics. The world is changing faster than it has in the past 50 years.
In the West, those now over 70 (or so) have personally witnessed how change occurs. We experienced one of the fastest and most radical physical and social revolutions in human history. Between 1950 and 1970, both the environment and our beliefs and behaviors changed dramatically. We can do it again, or at least attend to and support the ongoing transformation. Indeed, we must believe that a new revolution is possible and embrace it.
“Lust for change” was my mentor’s motto, a very human attitude, indeed. Therefore, give us a fight to fight, and fight we shall.
