Ithaca
When you will travel to Ithaca
you have to wish the road is long
fertile in adventures and experiences (...)
You must always have Ithaca in mind
to reach it is constant thought.
(Costantinos Kavafis)
(by Santa Fizzarotti Selvaggi) In the word "humanity" lies the history of man, his nature and the interpretative and symbolic keys of the world. And if biology is "a destiny", the "symbolic experience of humanity" allows us to access the territories of imagination and creativity, of "bringing to existing" parts of us (see DW Winnicott).
In truth there is within each of us the difficulty in recognizing the Diversity and reciprocal Otherness: the Association Crocerossine d'Italia - Onlus, in the light of humanitarian values, which are inscribed beyond axioms, can not to propose itself as a model of identification for the construction of a society founded on the value of spontaneous and profound solidarity. It is the solidarity act that defines our identity as human beings. In any case it is a project for humanity and its infinite representations. Indeed we are faced with an epochal change and on the other hand, as Ernesto Balducci reminds us, we are now faced with the Planetary Man because "we inhabit the city Earth": in front of this reality the only possibility we have is "to have faith in humanity "and not only" in humanity as it is, but in humanity as it can be ". Today with new technologies, just as when "man discovered the use of fire, we are faced with a choice: to destroy or build". It is always the human being the measure of all things within many situations and events.
From our experience we can state that there can not be any discrepancy between theory and praxis, between speech and actions.
Human history, as we know, is steeped in violence and today more than ever requires witnesses. Hammurabi instituted the code of laws precisely to defend the weaker against the strongest.
We are, however, at the threshold of great changes, perhaps of mutations, as we use to say in genetics, perhaps we are inside the mutation. But just when one is aware of being in front of new scenarios of history one needs to create new models and a new culture so as not to be or feel inadequate. Indispensable is the dialogue between cultures and the various identities and subjects of history.
Immanuel Kant, as asserted by many scholars, has stated that the basic ethical norm for man is that for which he treats his own humanity and the humanity of others "as an end and never simply as a means".
This principle despite the various historical "transgressions has always been reaffirmed" ... But to be able to accept change, better the transformation of society, one must first be ready for individual change, which means being ready to build, respecting one's own and of others, a mutable and dynamic integrated identity.
On the other hand, it is known that identity is still a process and that resisting change determines the end of any society and institution.
As mentioned above, the sense of Humanity, in the course of history, has been the most affirmed and contemporary the most disregarded and betrayed for very complex and profound reasons: the power over the Other, in fact, reassures, determines a sense of omnipotence, as a counter-phobic measure against death. The power over the Other feeds on Thanatos, so that violence, of whatever nature and in any case manifests itself, ends up generating violence. Instead, this is about "changing" optics. History has generated divisions, great and acute conflict for which memory is necessary. Only with a remembrance, in fact, it is possible to reflect on the meaning of man in today's history.
This means changing the perspective that implies awareness of one's limit, as well as recognizing within us "defensive" organizations.
In the eyes of the West, the light of "reciprocity" often does not come on, that is to say, respect for Alterity. The peoples who have been "objects of history" now stand as "subjects of history": and this we must recognize in the interest of feeling like bearers and witnesses of Humanity, disturbs us deeply (see E. Balducci).
If there is no transformation and a metamorphosis within us we will never fully understand "the lands of humanitarian values" that are not based on force, but on integration and respect for differences and identities.
Self-reflection and the analysis of reality are fundamental for understanding the symbolic cultural world of each human being.