A chance for civilization
19
Apr
At the height of almost 102 years (he will complete it in July) in an interview
given to Cesare Martinetti in the newspaper La Stampa, Edgar Morin talks about his new book Di Guerra in Guerra (From war to war, editor Rafaello Cortina, 2023) where he reflects on an endless 20th century that lives as a witness, for him there are still things to be digested:
“I wanted to remember not only the terrible physical evils, but also the intellectual evils caused by wars, that is, lies, one-sided views, Manichaeism, hatred for all enemy people, for their culture, their language, their literary and artistic works, and I wanted to help myself and readers to develop this awareness, in the face of a war that risks taking us to the worst, through the process of escalation and radicalization.
His synthesis of this war is that it is militarily localized, but globally globalized, but he has hope that we can escape it.
Remember that in the first years after the fall of the wall, Putin himself came to Germany and made a very pro-European speech, but NATO advances on Russia’s borders irritated him and already in 2015, when there was an agreement on Crimea, the Donbass region broke out in hostilities.
On the other hand, he emphasizes “the wars of reconquest led by Russia in Chechnya and Georgia led the United States, moreover at the request of countries close to Russia, to extend NATO to a siege that the leaders perceived as a threat”.
A shared Donbass suggests the centenary thinker, he knows that his position seems more utopian than realistic, but he thinks that this is the role of thinkers: to mix utopia and realism, after all it is necessary to awaken hope and serenity.
