A question from the history

Rimini, Wednesday August 22nd – A lot of people attended a meeting in the Intesa San Paolo Auditorium, attending Francesco Magni, research fellow at the University of Bergamo and editorial coordinator of the magazine Nuova Secondaria, He asked Professor Maria Bocci, ordinary professor of Contemporary History at the Catholic University of Milan: «Why are we having an exhibition and a conference about the ’68 today in the Meeting?». The professor said that today young people think the ’68 is a myth, they don’t know about it because they have not lived it. She expressed her wonder about why this moment in history is so brilliant and the reason can be found in the fact that the young people who associated with it, did it with the everlasting demands of “Change and authenticity”. If we ask today’s youngsters about 68 it will give them the urge to ask questions about change, what is change and who is capable of making changes? These are questions that mark “troubled times”. Maria Bocci notes that 68’ is the first historical moment in which «young people emerged as a separate category at all levels, like adults, international and protagonists of history». The uprising of ’68 against the main strongholds of the traditional culture has created the “frightening emptiness’’ of today. This is because the new cornerstones of ’68 (Marxism, Frankfurt School, Third Worldism) no longer exist today. Nevertheless, today’s young people are not familiar with those factors in 68 and with the same desire for change and authenticity and this is the reason for the fascination and stimulus that this historical period has for the young of today.

Magni asks Mario Calabresi, director of the Republic about today’s authenticity and change. The di-rector starts asking the question by Mr. Marchionne’s impression from the meeting “I saw young people with an energy in their eyes that I did not think was possible”. He then mentions his Aunt who participated in the first occupation of Milan’s government in 67. Considering the after math of those events, his aunt who graduated from med school decided to find a hospital in Uganda. She registered with the gifts that she thought that hospital needed and then got married and left to Uganda with her husband.

Calabrese goes back after 45 years to see what that registered wedding list have achieved and he found a hospital (among other things) that helps 10 thousand people a year: «This means going to their homes, it’s not wrong, it’s just needs to be done».

On authenticity Calabresi advises young people to know the value of the world, to know the effects of choosing the right word to more moderate.

He talks to the Calabrian youngsters, he says that in the 60s consumerism ( already fought ) was not life today , to buy a washing machine (symbol object) needed fifty installments of mortgage, today you can see and buy. «This all and immediately causes loss of authenticity and taste to obtain. Young people must accept sacrifice, they do not have avoid exhaustion, exhaustion is the best thing that can happen. Because the harder the work is to achieve the goal, the greater will be the satisfaction in achieving it. And therefore rather than a subsidy to live for, young people must be assured tools to make a living».

Magni sums up the things that have been said to better understand the Pope Fancis’s message: “Do not give up dream of changing the world”.