through europe

Geeks are a nice species of creature. Cutely dressed, delicate, fragile, softly spoken to the point of mutism. Yet, they have managed to colonize the collective imagination of an entire generation. This generation. But who are the geeks? And how could this species of shy elves take over the innermost sanctums of the western cultural environment?

El 18 de marzo de este año se dio a conocer una sentencia del Tribunal de Derechos Humanos a favor de los símbolos religiosos en la escuela italiana. Lo primero que llama la atención es que siendo un tribunal que debería proteger el ejercicio de los derechos individuales, no hace ni una sola referencia a la protección de estos derechos. Aún peor, considera que los padres son propietarios de sus hijos y tienen derecho a imponerles sus opiniones. En cuyo caso habría que admitir que se les impone por voluntad paterna una conciencia que aún los menores de edad deben ir elaborando entre todas las opciones que se presentan.

Last year’s student protests saw a new generation take to the streets. Much was made of the vandalism and disruption that occurred, with some arguing it eclipsed the protests’ intentions—but were the students’ demands ever clearly articulated? Did the protestors know what they were struggling for? From pamphlets and theses to journals and zines—the relationship between protest and print goes back a long way and has helped galvanise and articulate dissent, but do radical publishers and radical thinkers still matter today and how do they relate to contemporary protest?

I would like to talk about something that everybody knows, but that, so it seems, no one has the boldness to say. That is, that the time for indignation is over. Those who get indignant are already starting to bore us. Increasingly, they seem to us like the last guardians of a rotten system, a system without dignity, sustainability or credibility. We don't have to get indignant anymore, we have to revolt.

Vorrei parlare di una cosa che tutti sappiamo ma che nessuno sembra avere la spudoratezza di dire: e cioè che il tempo dell'indignazione è passato e chi si indigna già comincia ad annoiarci, comincia a parerci ogni giorno di più l’ultimo difensore di un sistema marcio, di un sistema privo di dignità, privo di sostenibilità, privo di credibilità. Noi non ci dobbiamo più indignare, noi dobbiamo insorgere.