What is the role of intellectuals today on the art scene, cultural, social, polititca Italian? Who are the intellectuals today? And before that: there are, shall we? We return to discuss a complex issue and obviously vital. After the book of Luke pamphlet Mastrantonio, Intellectuals of the pipe (Marsilio) discussed on these pages in a lively repartee between Cesare Cavalieri and comes out at the same Mastrantonio Giuliano Ladolfi Publisher essay of a young Italianist, Gianpaolo Furgiuele, eloquently titled Intellectuals: a debacle class. In fact, the argument is less peremptory than the assumption of the title would leave thinking. The author raises several issues, analyzing the different positions and, in a sort of appendix to the essay itself, called in comparison to the opinions of some writers, journalists, sociologists of culture such as Alberto Abruzzese, Erri De Luca, Franco Ferrarotti and Mirella Serri.
In the thirties of the last century, Antonio Gramsci lamented the absence, on the Italian scene , of ' "organic intellectual" , organic, ie , socially and politically in a proletariat which was responsible for conducting the class struggle. For the Marxist critic Italian intellectuals had always been a sort of caste in its own right , sick , even when they had the best of intentions , of an unconscious paternalism . After World War II it was the turn of the various intellectuals " engaged " by Pasolini Fortini , from Moravia to Calvino.E today? In the postmodern night in which all cows are black , you get the impression that the scene is pretty bleak. If before you could sometimes scold figures such as those we have mentioned excessive for ideological positions , now seem to be missing their positions , ideas and values that is accurate, maybe questionable and debatable , but still recognizable. The intellectual has been replaced by the performer, the protagonist of the television or the various cultural festivals , the maître à penser Sunday evening in the living room television Fabio Fazio . They are people who, instead of causing an uncomfortable thought ( such propositosi to think again , to give just one name , a Pasolini) , which tend to flatten out at the more peaceful "politically correct" , so make sure you tear the applause .
These intellectuals are the Ligurian comforting , whose only function seems often to reiterate what is already known , what is commonly accepted ideas like the maggioranza.Ma intellectuals so really need ? Even so, if it is not the function of its intellectual stimulus , the public ends to adapt more and more to the ideas, values, aesthetic already given , that is increasingly driven cultural approval . An example is the literary prizes , so intertwined today (much more than in the past ) the interests of the publishing industry . In this way the media event replaces the value judgment. Cultural production
supports (and it is supported suavolta ) a communication blank , indifferent and undifferentiated , television , computer , advertising , based on recycling , on repetition , on moving to consolidated elements .
A separate merit the presence (or absence alas ) , the Italian cultural scene in recent decades, the intellettualicattolici , which is always èparlato last Thursday on these pages. Sure, some of the figures there are , thankfully , but too often their voices appear isolated and sporadic . In the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium Francis Pope calls for a comparison and an openness to the world without fear and prejudice . It is a discourse that has to do with different aspects , but certainly with the cultural dimension : the Pope speaks of " cultural challenges " of " thought ," and " education ." It would be nice that even in the intellectual Christian identity could become "leaven" and "salt" . The quality of " pasta " that would not gain from it.
Roberto Carnero
L'Avvenire