the duty of fear of BarbaraSpinelli, March 16
Cisono such moments in the history of mankind: where it reacts with emozioneoltre with rationality, because the wake-up emotion, makes you stareall'erta. already in Aeschylus, the passion and suffering are sources of learning. Eil case of Japan since Friday, has run added to the tsunami earthquake andnot just swept homes, lives, villages, caused the explosion Diquattro nuclear reactors in Fukushima.
All'orrorespuntato subsoil and the sea is added now a fallout chespinge those who live at power plants to flee or to barricade themselves inside. There sonomomenti when you open a crack in the world, and not just the physical but mental inquello, so that implies the use of many different devices: the rational intelligence, the public debate, but also fear, that passion to serve as too sad a remedy.
Ninth case, when calls for responsibility for the future of the earth, ilfilosofo Hans Jonas speaks of fear heuristic paralizzal'azione or not the fear that is used by dictators, m than trying to understand, to find out (this means heuristic). What is generating curiosity, provides the malecon apprehension, asks questions, encourages thought and how to rectify fattosinora. Jonas evokes even the duty of fear: "Diventanecessario the" snuff "heuristics of fear that did not just discover and represent the new object, but makes it known that it is ethical particolareinteresse" (the principle of accountability, Einaudi '90).
Allaluce the principle responsibility of governments appear completely inane, such as Italian, French - who decry this fear, and in this modonegano the gravity of the situation and the urgency to correct the nuclear plans. Obamae Angela Merkel say much more: "Nonsi can act as if nothing had happened." Not so the energy minister Eric Besson, or the Minister for sviluppoeconomico Paolo Romani. Besson to change anything, not even the Japanese central invecchiatecome: at a press conference on Saturday has avoided the term "disaster", preferring the less alarming "serious incident." The same attitude in Romans, who called the day before yesterday "not to be head in the sand ", without knowing who was speaking. Are not islands: even the rulers Japanese have long minimized, taking perbuone insurance of plant operators (TEPCO, Tokyo Electric PowerCorporation). The same that TEPCO has been investigated several times (especially nel2002-3) for non-compliance with anti-seismic.
Apocalisseè word that spreads like a virus, since the cataclysm. Maapocalisse is something else, it has links with religion: it is a revelation pianodivino, is the alpha omega that joins, the circle opens all'oltrevita chechiudendosi land. Those affected are innocent, but qualchemotivo God wants the earth's history s'esaurisca so, demolishing the liberoarbitrio of each. To this should dispose of this word very rough, which seals his eyes to what is happening here, now, on land, at sea. Eventisimili not the end of the world, although perhaps a prelude to it. are piuttostola end of a world of certainty, of axioms stubbornly cultivated.
InGiappone, mysterious ways, evoke memories fatal, that have recently radiciprofondissime in its culture. The collapse of central nuclearirimanda the trauma of Hiroshima and Nagasaki never faded away, when Washington gave aTokyo this lesson of unprecedented violence. The earth shakes you, in both human lasolitudine turmoil the malignant nature, death nucleareche lies: in the heads Nippon and maybe nightmare disguised but is always there, lurking. They say that the faces staring at us during these hours: stuck, more cheimpassibili. We see the bodies that suddenly froze, comemorissero standing.
Care is hardly true that the Japanese have more calm fears, of our subsidiaries. Illora is not to scream but it's still Munch scream. We know from Bibbiaquanto voiceless can be the lamb, and the cry of Japan is filled diinterrogativi terrified, because the authorities have allowed the central vecchiequarant'anni survive? Why have not provided marepoteva that come from the monster? Why are they so evasive? Why Tokyo, which experienced the misfortune hagia and takes it in as a hassle, has run dellatecnologia trusted, time is running for cover?
Cisono major disasters that have this effect: to disrupt not only the vast castles vitema philosophical theories found safe. Europe conosciutoore similar: it happened in the earthquake of Lisbon, November 1, 1755, and all leteorie will explode. Even that was slit in a world fondatosull'euforia technological optimism, religious or not. The modernitàiniziava, and already stumbled. Twenty-two years earlier, had scrittoun Alexander Pope poem entitled Essay on Man. The applicant was to: "What ever is, is right: all that exists is good. But then you open the crack Lisbon sullaliscia skin of positive thinking. Voltaire, Kleist, Kant escoprono are upset that you can not console himself with Pope and the theodicy of Leibniz.Non is possible to say to themselves, as Pangloss in Voltaire's Candide: Advanced "in the best possible deimondi.
Caddeanche illusion, dear to the churches, on pain of salvation: there is no felixculpa, but an evil that takes you by surprise, unjust. In the presence of disastroo crime are more appropriate the wisdom of Kleist, the search for the origins of earthquakes Kantsulle (Kant is the first to discover the "rage of the sea"), the eyes of Voltaire: "Elements, animals, human, everything is at war. must confess : evil on earth. " Eager to comfort scrisseincongruenze Rousseau, in a letter to Voltaire in 1756: "Nonsempre premature death is a real evil of so many men (...). schiacciatisotto the ruins of Lisbon, many no doubt have avoided misfortune arching, and (. ..) does not mean that only one of those unfortunates who have soffertopiù if, following the natural course of things, he had to wait inlunghe fears the death that took him rather by surprise. " But it also raises questions solol'emozione light: not bad Lisbon was built, with houses alte6-7 plans? It is not the guilty man, more than nature? Candide suffers ilterremoto and concludes: "Bisognacoltivare (better) your garden, then the earth, because it affects humans. Man described by Kant dopoil 1755: "crooked timber", "Nevermore great man."
IlGiappone not behind the European eighteenth-century optimism. After Hiroshimasi is not relieved with a few removals, but with indelible trauma. Cinema eletteratura tell these traumas, and fear not at all calm. On questeramificazioni reversed the pessimism has run the tsunami, and Jonas helps more diVoltaire. The Japanese knew that "ilmale on earth," and that is the fear that chepuò help them uncover who discovers. The same fear cheaffiora for decades, in the form of ghosts, in his film, sualetteratura. These days, watching tv, and it seems to see the city on the unspeakable cataclysm cuis'abbatte told in the film Kairo, Kiyoshi Kurosawa: empty streets and buses, flights to nowhere, and in the sky, distanzaravvicinata, a huge air vulture (in Revelation would cry: "Woe, woe!") that fly to the crash.
RivedereKairo shakes makes him understand the mental Japanese and also ours. Japan hadietro self era has been called lost decade, between 1991 and il2000, has run and then extended in lost decade. Kurosawa's film aquegli years back (2001) and is not horror movies, but - in the shadow of the tsunami-hyper-realistic vision. Kairo circuit means, but is a circle without alpha eomega. Kurosawa is narrated by the phenomenon of whole generations sibarricano at home to become shadows in front of the computer (the statisticheparlano at least a million drop-out). The phenomenon is called Hikikomori: Eun withdrawal, confined in solitude. It comes from insecurities dallacrisi extreme, the future amputee. On the walls of the houses in the film, staglianoinformi coal-black shadows. They shout, "Help me!" When young people in heritage morentilasciano quest'effigie himself.
Ela blackened silhouette of man who appeared next to the scale printed on unmuro Hiroshima in '45. The nightmare is spread in humans, spaventandoloincessantemente. From far away, very far. Just scared combines ilpassato this, and keeps us awake, maybe.