Dear Director Feltri,
The trace on respect was the most chosen by the graduates this year. Yet, paradoxically, never as today there is such a lack of respect, especially among the youngest. How do you explain this apparent contradiction?
Nicoletta Rossini
Dear Nicoletta,
It is easily explained. The students, as is known, do not choose the most noble track, but the most comfortable. And between “respect”, “Pasolini” and “perpetual peace” of Kant, you will understand that the choice was easy as a downhill walk. “Respect” is a generic, elastic word, perfect to affect two facades of banality on the cross and getting away with four common places on bullying, the environment, grandparents and teachers. It is not necessary to study or reflect: just write that respect is important. Standing ovation. Too bad, however, that those who have chosen that track often do not even know how to decline it, respect. Not towards the professors, who are insulted; not towards the rules, which are circumvented; not towards the police, who are contested; Not towards parents, who are sometimes stabbed. And we are not talking about respect for oneself. Because those who sell out on Onlyfans or cancel themselves in order to please a digital crowd that loves you for a second and forgets you to the next refresh perhaps should be wondered about the concept of dignity even before respect. But the most worrying knot, Nicoletta, is respect for the thought of others. Today, if you do not repeat the politically correct watchwords in parrot, you are crucified in public. The diversity, so far from heralded, is accepted only if it is that provided for by the manual of the perfect progressive. If you have a different opinion, you will mark you as dangerous, ignorant, Boomer, fascist, or all together. We live an era in which those who preach tolerance show the worst of intolerances: the cultural one. Young people, who should be rebellious, become inquisitors. Heresy is to think with your own head. And when the head is not enough, the blade appears in the pocket. Too many guys go around armed not to defend themselves, but to punish alterity. Respect, by now, does not demand: it is extortion. With force. With the pack. With violence.
And then maybe, between one aggression and another, a nice theme is written about the importance of kindness. Here, dear Nicoletta, the great paradox: preaching well on the desks and scratching badly in reality. But, moreover, those who do not respect themselves can hardly respect others.