From Turin to Lampedusa an (unsentimental) journey through Italy, out of clichés and false optimism. A journey by stages of the mind and heart in the Italy of the economic boom, of dreams and decadence.
Ten years of contributions as a columnist for the newspaper "la Repubblica": as an historian, but also as a critical witness of many, too many, difficult moments for the public ethics of Italy, for the secularity of our state, for the civic values on which our coexistence should be based. Pages from a civil diary, in which historical expertise provides the material for argument, the rigor of method tempers the heat of indignation, and the measured pace of the scholar enhances the ethical quality of the intellectual's denunciation.
Everyone knows what stupidity is and can instinctively spot a stupid person. And yet when you try to define its essence, the problems begin. You get tangled up in complex questions which go to the heart of reason and human culture. Though discussed by many philosophers and psychologists, anthropologists and neurologists, writers and artists of various kinds, stupidity remains a mystery and at the same time a powerful spur to intellectual thought and cultural criticism. Thus stupidity is a mirror turned towards those who believe, or even openly say, that they are intelligent.
Gastromania – the mania for gastronomy – now pervades the most intimate areas of our life. In some ways it is a fashion, and, like all fashions, is destined to perish. In other ways it is a wide-ranging, complex social phenomenon on which we must stop to reflect.
Say goodbye to nature is the best way to save it. Running counter to the prevalent idea of nature in contemporary culture means adopting a relaxed attitude towards the ecological policies and philosophies that should underlie them. This is essential for critical reflection on the contemporary world, which finds it increasingly difficult to find adequate spaces for inquiry, and even a raison d’être for itself.