well, i have to admit it... my blog is kind of stalled... i try to keep it going on, but it's pretty evident it's just a series of pro forma attempts... don't know, too much stuff going on in my mind, too many variables and - weird enough - i'm so confused i don't even feel like writing about it. well, whatever...
at least i thought i could write an update about one of the good old topics of this blog, the AHa, ie. the Altes Hallenbad here in heidelberg, this inner pool from the 20's that was about to be turned first into a cultural centre and then into a bloody shopping mall. i don't have information for sure, but it looks like it's becoming none of them. apparently, they're using one of the rooms, the female bath, as a club (already saw a few posters advertising parties) and the male one, which is larger, for concerts, debates and all this kind of stuff. well i don't know whether it's just a temporary solution, and what's eventually going to come out of that place. have to admit i would have liked more the theatre-dance whatever solution, but still, this is the very less of two evils. and the idea that the nasty construction tycoon who's currently turning the city upside down, the idea that at least once he got to lost, well it's simply great. especially in the one place i really cared about.
more info at: www.alteshallenbad.de
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
old and new fascisms
"There is no doubt (it is evident from the results) that the television is more authoritarian and repressive than any other means of communication in the world. In this respect, the fascist newspaper and the fascist slogans written on the walls of farms make us laugh as does the plough (sadly) when compared to the tractor. Fascism, I want to state it again, has not been actually able to even scratch the soul of the Italian folks: the new fascism, through the new means of communication and information (in particular, television), has not only scratched it, but it has ripped it apart, it has violated it and contaminated it for ever..."
1973
"I believe, I do believe, that the real fascism is the one sociologists have too cheerfully named "consumer society". A definition which appears harmless, purely representative. And yet it is not. If one takes a careful look at reality, and is especially good at reading around things, the landscape, urbanities and, above all, human beings, it is possible to see that the results of this perky consumer society are the results of a dictatorship, of a real and actual fascism.
(...)
Fascism had actually turned them into clowns, slaves, it may even have convinced them, but it didn't really touch them deep in their souls, in their own way of being. This new fascism, this consumer society, instead, has deeply transformed young people, touching them intimately, providing them with different feelings, life styles, ideas, cultural models. (...) It all means, in the end, that this "consumer society" is a dictatorial one. If the word fascism stands for the arrogance of power, then the "consumer society" has well accomplished fascism.
(...)
In my opinion, the issue is very complicated but also extremely clear: the true fascism, I've said it and I repeat it, is the one of the consumer society (...)
In my opinion, Italy these days is witnessing analogous processes to those happening in Germany at the dawn of nazism. Also in Italy nowadays one observes those phenomena of homologation and abandonment of the old rural, traditional values, typical of each particular region; such phenomena were the humus onto which the nazi Germany grew. (...) And Italy is exposed to this exact same danger."
1974
translated form P.P. Pasolini, Scritti corsari
(gosh, I've wanted to post these thoughts for almost a year now. sadly enough, they never get old - they actually get more and more true by the day)
1973
"I believe, I do believe, that the real fascism is the one sociologists have too cheerfully named "consumer society". A definition which appears harmless, purely representative. And yet it is not. If one takes a careful look at reality, and is especially good at reading around things, the landscape, urbanities and, above all, human beings, it is possible to see that the results of this perky consumer society are the results of a dictatorship, of a real and actual fascism.
(...)
Fascism had actually turned them into clowns, slaves, it may even have convinced them, but it didn't really touch them deep in their souls, in their own way of being. This new fascism, this consumer society, instead, has deeply transformed young people, touching them intimately, providing them with different feelings, life styles, ideas, cultural models. (...) It all means, in the end, that this "consumer society" is a dictatorial one. If the word fascism stands for the arrogance of power, then the "consumer society" has well accomplished fascism.
(...)
In my opinion, the issue is very complicated but also extremely clear: the true fascism, I've said it and I repeat it, is the one of the consumer society (...)
In my opinion, Italy these days is witnessing analogous processes to those happening in Germany at the dawn of nazism. Also in Italy nowadays one observes those phenomena of homologation and abandonment of the old rural, traditional values, typical of each particular region; such phenomena were the humus onto which the nazi Germany grew. (...) And Italy is exposed to this exact same danger."
1974
translated form P.P. Pasolini, Scritti corsari
(gosh, I've wanted to post these thoughts for almost a year now. sadly enough, they never get old - they actually get more and more true by the day)
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
unmoved
being outside of italy, it's hard to realise things only by reading the news online. especially when the only voices who are moved by several things happening these days, endangering more than usual our republic, are those of a few friends of mine, and of foreign press. right. last time i felt like that was this summer, when i found the most interesting comment about the ridiculous ending of the genoa 2001 trials on the guardian. this time it's not even the guardian, it's just bbc news. and what they write it's just so true. i just had a similar discussion with german friends yesterday and could not provide any answer to explain how we do things back there... and this feeling of shame and impotence gets stronger...
"Imagine the same in other countries, where the leader of the government was implicated in a massive bribery scam. You wouldn't be able to move outside the court for microphones and camera lenses.
But not in Italy.
Here, there is a quiet resignation among ordinary Italians that sailing close to the legal wind has become a trademark of their leader and the odd squall just shows he's human. It adds to his flamboyant appeal.
It seems that as long as he doesn't steer the great ship Italy towards the rocks, then Italians are prepared to forgive Mr Berlusconi."
the full article can be found here:
Italy unmoved by Berlusconi bribe case
the last comment makes me think... i used to believe that when things go really bad, and for a long while, then usually people start using their brains and stop accepting crap. but maybe it's the age, i don't know... just i think i'm not that optimistic anymore. not even if the great ship italy, or the remains of it, crashes towards the rocks...
"Imagine the same in other countries, where the leader of the government was implicated in a massive bribery scam. You wouldn't be able to move outside the court for microphones and camera lenses.
But not in Italy.
Here, there is a quiet resignation among ordinary Italians that sailing close to the legal wind has become a trademark of their leader and the odd squall just shows he's human. It adds to his flamboyant appeal.
It seems that as long as he doesn't steer the great ship Italy towards the rocks, then Italians are prepared to forgive Mr Berlusconi."
the full article can be found here:
Italy unmoved by Berlusconi bribe case
the last comment makes me think... i used to believe that when things go really bad, and for a long while, then usually people start using their brains and stop accepting crap. but maybe it's the age, i don't know... just i think i'm not that optimistic anymore. not even if the great ship italy, or the remains of it, crashes towards the rocks...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Darwin Day: happy birthday Evolution!
"I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars."
today, 200 years ago, Darwin was born, and 50 years later he wrote The origin of species and evolution was born. celebrate evolution against the scary threats of anti-science, creationism and whatever else, which are spreading by the day!
for more info www.darwinday.org
Charles Darwin, Letter to Asa Gray, 1860
today, 200 years ago, Darwin was born, and 50 years later he wrote The origin of species and evolution was born. celebrate evolution against the scary threats of anti-science, creationism and whatever else, which are spreading by the day!
for more info www.darwinday.org
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