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I know. If there’s a subject that’s misleading, dull and “self-important”
so to speak, it is information on information. Yet, it is increasingly
important to reflect on what information has become, on its most profound
contradictions and its rotting soul. Starting, perhaps, with that essential
prerequisite which, if present, creates the conditions for the informer
and informed to be on the same ground, namely trust: the hard core of
communication. If I don’t trust you or what you say or write, we’ve
already gone some way towards undermining the whole exercise, don’t
you think? Well, I’d rather steer clear of this point. The two most
widely proclaimed virtues at the start of the third millennium (and
at the beginning of every year) were trust and hope. Now, despite the
fact or precisely because the two virtues are so closely linked, I will
set hope aside and focus on trust. I believe this word is more important
in Italy today (and on the planet as a whole, albeit in different degrees,
so let’s concentrate on us for a moment) than the three words that made
the history of mankind, namely amusement, bread and gallows. Why? Because
without trust, life is not worth living. And in Italy, trust has been
destroyed. Tell me in which place, situation or social class, trust
in the present or future has survived. At best, trust still survives
in the form of trust in the past, but how long for? Trust also survives
in certain families, in certain Italian provinces, amongst certain categories
of poor people where solidarity comes in the guise of trust. Yet today,
the Italian denominator is mistrust, rather than trust. There isn’t
a single area in life that is not dominated by mistrust. Everyone thinks,
more or less rightly so, that everyone else is out to get them. From
North to South, South to North, from one political party to the other,
but even within the same party, on the workplace, etc. I won’t waste
many words on connecting what I have just said and what I am about to
say with the precarious state of information: if no one really believes
what they are reading, thinking or seeing, providing information is
an impossible uphill struggle. Never in history has it been so obvious
that we all feel more or less cheated, sceptical and suspicious of the
information we are fobbed off with. These days, although apparently
overwhelmed with information, if we stop to think for a moment, nearly
everyone, nearly always come to the conclusion that we actually know...
next to nothing. Let’s take an extreme example and look at the most
important aspect: sentiments? No, numbers. In today’s society, numbers
and quantities play an increasingly important role. Proof is found every
day in the mass media (a numerical term in itself) and even the numbers
reading this article count for more than the identity of the individual
reader. Then there are management consultants, auditors, companies that
verify company accounts etc. Let’s choose a famous one at random, say,
Arthur Andersen, because I rather like the fairy-tale ring to the name.
It is Arthur Andersen’s job to check the figures declared by a company
and make us trust them. It follows, therefore, that even if we don’t
trust Messrs. X or Y we should trust the auditors. Right. If I don’t
trust Arthur Andersen, the whole system collapses because we would need
another Arthur Andersen to audit Arthur Andersen, and so on and so on
.... Who can tell me where and who trust starts from, who I can reasonably
trust? I believe this new millennium starts at the height of mistrust
because we have squandered the capital of trust we built up over the
centuries: we spent it and pulverised it in the 20th century. And now
the next question is: where do we start rebuilding the foundations of
trust from in our common home, before mistrust, after having annihilated
trust, wipes out the entire planet? And to stay on home ground, is this
not the most important issue, an issue that far surpasses employment,
housing, traffic and health, etc. because it embraces them all?
(traduzione
Interpres sas-Giussano)
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