(by Santa Fizzarotti Selvaggi) To better recognize the roots of our identity and that of the Other it is necessary to reconsider the meaning of the culture of the West and its gaze. First of all we must remember that culture always comes from a plurality of peoples, and in our case emerged from the contamination of many forms, of many languages and of many different experiences since the first Sumerian inscriptions.
Benedict XVI invited us to reflect that "Europe is not a continent that can only be defined in geographical terms, but is instead a cultural and historical concept".
In the Mediterranean there has been created that particular condition that has determined the birth of the "logos" of the West which, although generated by the whole of the Hellenistic, Hebrew-Christian traditions, has often considered to be the only way to see the world beyond that to have an absolute interpretative look at reality. But what is the Mediterranean? A set of scenarios and ancient civilizations that have given life to our civilization, to our models of thought, as many authors write. Sea of identity paths willing to go further, towards the unknown, to the elsewhere. In this sense, the Mediterranean, despite being a limited geographical space, allows us multiple reflections. In fact, the Mediterranean is a thought capable of changing optics and allowing itself to be crossed by transformations (see F. Pinto Minerva).
In the Mediterranean, civilizations build the mosaic of origins, cultures, religions, traditions, languages: but it is fundamental to understand that when pieces of this mosaic are lost, pieces of their own history are lost. Let us not forget that the unknown comes from the sea, evocation of the repressed that lives in us before which we rediscover our fragility. It is enough to look at a geographical map to realize that the Mediterranean has "the shape of a womb" and is "a succession of liquid plains" (cf. Braudel).
A group of seas: twenty-five are counted. A sea that generates therefore another sea (see F. Maisetti) on which different peoples and different identities seek a Mother-Earth that welcomes and nourishes them.
The discourse is profound, but in any case the lands of universal humanitarian values, which by their very nature belong to everyone, facilitate the possibility of creating interconnections, transitional areas in which the awareness that in reality we are all parents, children can be developed. and brother to each other, beyond the bonds of blood. Indeed, the most authentic solidarity is recognized precisely when it transcends all constraints and gives itself to strangeness.
Our own personal identity resembles a mosaic that every time refers to a continually changing set of visions of the world.
Visions of other peoples and civilizations that come to us through the voices of those who land on the shores of the West: sounds and words that communicate identities and differences.
Very difficult and complex is indeed the path towards the formation of that universal consciousness which, beyond any economic and political question, means that the lands can no longer be closed entities but open places to the Other, to the Stranger, who according to ancient Greece it was considered a sacred guest. The Greeks themselves, for example, called barbarians those who did not know how to speak their language (Barbaro = the one who stutters). It is no coincidence that language is an extraordinary instrument of integration, also because words contain emotions and feelings, as well as models of thought that through correct communication and listening can be shared. For the Judeo-Christian tradition, as many scholars note, the Stranger was often sent by God.
Naturally, within the human being there are ambivalences and natural defense mechanisms, so that towards the Stranger emerge atavistic prejudices to the point of considering him Enemy. One obviously refers to an idea of Enemy, of a Phantom Enemy who becomes a manipulative instrument for matters of a different nature and who have nothing to do with welcoming, while evading the key concept that human rights are not negotiable. And so it is that in the minds of many, absolutely anesthetized by subliminal and media messages, the idea of the Other raises the imagination that questions our Identity ... Hence the need to become as much as possible aware of Self and of one's own history so that the meeting with the Other is a chance to know each other, to recognize each other, and not the fear of getting lost.
The omnipresent nature of labyrinthine mirrors (projective identification) facilitates the dissociation from those internal (unconscious) problematic aspects to every human being with whom we actually maintain ties. The violence with which messages related to various behaviors are transmitted increasingly threatens the sense of individual identity and social stability.
But it is in the capacity to host the Other first of all within us and to build intertwining that we can be effective in building integrated identities. Creative thinking, for example, which can be developed within the "third lands", ie within mutual knowledge and shared paths without any prejudice, represents the possibility of profoundly transforming the world while at the same time changing ourselves. In the absence of this capacity the terror that appropriates human destiny emerges. That terror from the ancient roots that inevitably puts us in touch with our darkest parts. Identity different from ours must be recognized. But this can happen on the condition that one is aware of one's identity, beyond rigid identity boundaries and / or renunciations. On the other hand, all the "Declarations of Human Rights", as noted by various experts, underline the equality of the fundamental rights of the human person. It is marvelous that from a "single human nature" different cultures have been generated that evidently reflect the face of humanity.
Chomsky, as some authors note, in his "syntax theory" reminds us that there is a "generative grammar" that allows children to learn different languages and pass from one to another. The most recent scientific discoveries tell us that the mitochondrial Eve has existed that has transmitted its genome in the female line to the human progeny. A single mother therefore for which there are no races but only the human race. It would also be appropriate to review what is written in the Constitution: do not forget that words invent the world, can facilitate the union between the peoples in a speech of true pacification, as they can lead to disintegration.
It is in fact the value of the Person as such. In this sense we mean the right to equality between men and to equality in diversity: a principle that should increasingly characterize today's society and on which it is fundamental to reflect.
Indeed, for example, we are aware that multiculturalism has sometimes led to the emergence of new ghettizations and localisms. One can not even think of the model of inclusive assimilation, as it is perhaps improperly said, in which the Other still experiences a condition of marginality and subalternity towards the host culture. This is the case in which we can witness a totally and defensively passive attitude towards those who host, or "an absolute claim of their cultural and ethnic identity" with the consequent easy radicalization of feelings and hostility. The reciprocity between the parties and the respect of all identities is necessary.
How to do then? Perhaps learning to decentralize us, and therefore cross other territories: but to realize this crossing without painful burglaries we must learn to look within ourselves. It is this ability that allows us to welcome the Other that is addressed to us.
The cultural de-conditioning is none other than the acquisition of awareness that we often use the so-called culture as a defense, sometimes excessive, of our less-available internal parts. In this way the cultural and human monologue can be transformed into an intercultural and inter-human dialogue, we would say transcultural, full of affections and emotions, whose management is not easy but that would safeguard the dignity. The domination of man over Man, in fact, manifests itself with that particular attitude that violates human dignity by manifesting itself even if, unknowingly, with attitudes of goodness.
It is actually about building a culture of transition, of permanent reflection on our own mutation. Building creative places of sharing is necessary. A sharing that takes into account the memory that must not undergo solutions of continuity, so that the loss is not irrecoverable and that the laceration of the loss itself is somehow to be remedied. We are our memory: it is the Memory that in some way dominates all human beings.
As we can see, the so-called civilization on which we base our relationships easily implodes: from the human reappears the "pre-human", as some scholars say, the archaic face of our being on earth.
The psychic trauma, it is still remembered, represents a wound to the mind: something external invades it and violates its borders, often causing a state of despair. Let us not forget that it is' the trauma, as a rupture of everyday experience and memory, that represents the drama of refugees and immigrants.
This is a wound that reopens other wounds, sometimes invisible scars that start to bleed at the first breath of wind and therefore suddenly leave the uncanny, the unrepresentable removed from our mind that instead needs to control events and events inside of the human symbolic universe. The emotions defensively freeze and this condition over time can cause severe suffering. There are also unsolvable traumas!
Does it seem to us to be effective only if we can find accommodation, or accommodation for those who ask for help, asylum, reception? It is not enough, because no place is like home, even the last of the huts in the world.
Refugees and refugees often become people "in perpetual mourning" (Volkan, 2001): "they are not able to give up hope of return or realize that those close to them are really dead and that the prospects of the future have really changed". However, the magic thought remains to find everything that has been. In this way, often one is not able to elaborate mourning, nor experiences connected with trauma and loss. It creates a condition of "suspended animation" waiting for one day or the other to return as it had been.
Through the tools of creativity we can facilitate the elaboration of losses and traumas.
In the global village we see the zeroing of creativity, which is instead an extraordinary instrument of integration and transformation. Too often today, as already mentioned above, we absorb media messages that also accustom us to female violence: women who in some countries fight and kill. Not only an object of violence, but also a subject of violence.
There are no more words able to construct discourse and thought. Here, it is believed that one of the objectives of the Association of Italian Crocerossine-Onlus is to try to change the perspective with which perhaps defensively you look at the world, to look beyond the horizon of their certainties to facilitate that dimension in where everyone can feel at home with a reflection on the true meaning of dialogue. On the other hand, the horror to which we often witness is not 'the result of the tragedy of a world without a word, unable to communicate with itself and with the Other? Of a world that sometimes deludes itself to dialogue within a virtual system, which in some cases becomes almost a communicative prosthesis. But a New Man can be born from the wounds of the soul. In reality, it is the art of healing, which should belong to everyone. A conscious and loving caring for the society in which the Crocerossine d'Italia-Onlus Association strongly believes in a transformational event that generates a New Man. An era of advent.