MHF | Why don’t we talk about Peace?
Macerata Humanities Festival | 15-18 ottobre 2024
Articolo su La Repubblica per Macerata Humanities Festival | 15-18 ottobre 2024
Di seguito l'introduzione e l'articolo scritto dal nostro Magnifico Rettore Prof. John McCourt insieme alla direttrice del Festival Prof.ssa Fabiola Falappa sul tema di questa II Edizione.
"Il tema del Macerata Humanities Festival (15-18 ottobre) è #pace e #giustizia
Ne parliamo sulle pagine della la Repubblica in un articolo che ho scritto con la direttrice del Festival @Fabiola Falappa.Per avere più informazione sul Festival: https://humanitiesfestival.my.canva.site/
For more information about the Festival, you can visit the official website or social media pages of the Macerata Humanities Festival.https://humanitiesfestival.my.canva.site/
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Here is a rough translation of our original article
Why Don't We Talk About Peace?
By John McCourt and Fabiola Falappa
Why Don’t We Talk About Peace?
We wake up each day to devastating news of new bombings, new deaths and injuries, and new destruction. We have become almost numb, and we only intermittently register the human suffering behind the news. The arms industry has never been healthier. The market value of the leading military equipment producers has skyrocketed in the last two and a half years, following the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, among others. The language of competition, domination, victory, and power seems to have extinguished the light once carried by words related to peace and justice. Overwhelmed by cynicism and resignation, we’ve stopped using these terms and, in some cases, even desiring to hear them.
Too often, the concepts of peace and justice are rejected, ignored, and ridiculed—considered utopian or unattainable, inconvenient for some, and impractical for the majority. Yet, we must talk about peace and justice so as to preserve a hope that is necessary for future generations. The theme of the 2024 Macerata Humanities Festival (organized by the University of Macerata from October 15 to 18) seeks to offer a space for reflection, listening, and dialogue on these topics. The goal is to trace the critical stages of a path—arduous and slippery as it may be—that can uncover the face of peace, intrinsically linked to that of justice, from interpersonal to intersubjective, and even global and worldwide dimensions. It starts, if you will, with the individual seeking peace with themselves, with their community, and then with different realities and worlds beyond their own.
It’s important to remember that peace is not an armed truce, whether physical or psychological. It is not simply the absence of war or the interval between wars; it is a way of life based on understanding and mutual tolerance. Living in peace with oneself, living civilly within one’s community and the world, is both a goal and a responsibility for all of us, something we must strive toward. The greatest enemy of peace is fear of the other, fear of difference. As John Hume, the Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner, reminded us:
"All conflict is about difference, whether the difference is race, religion or nationality. The European visionaries decided that difference is not a threat, difference is natural. Difference is of the essence of humanity. Difference is an accident of birth and it should therefore never be the source of hatred or conflict. The answer to difference is to respect it. Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace – respect for diversity."
Within Europe, we live in peace, but war is just around the corner. We also struggle to accept and respect difference. The words of Primo Levi come to mind, as he described the dark years of 20th-century Europe, particularly the dominant views that were held in Nazi Germany, tragically discovering that, despite different historical contexts, may still resonate today: "I remember very well that time and atmosphere, and I believe I can judge the Germans of that time without prejudice and without anger. Almost all, but not all, were deaf, blind, and mute: a mass of 'invalids' surrounding a core of ferocious people."
And it is for the "not all," for those who choose not to resign themselves to a state of permanent war (there are currently over 50 active conflicts worldwide), and who continue to listen to humanity’s desire for justice, that we will attempt to open pathways capable of renewing and nurturing the desire for the common good, for a shared life, rooted not in competition but in an outlook of understanding and cooperation. It is not insignificant that the principles of justice and peace can only truly be applied if society develops as a genuine system of cooperation, within a framework of shared responsibility for humanity’s fate and the common good.
All this may seem generally utopian, but to see it in this way is merely a symptom of the despair in which we are immersed. Instead, we must seek to regain the clarity of ethical reason, and this will only be possible if we choose to pause, reflect, and then act and get personally involved. The MHF 2024 does not aim to design the ideal model of a future society or a pacified history, but it seeks to offer some useful insights based on the relationships we live in daily, methodologically thinking of a regulative ideal, a horizon that compels us to improve ourselves and the forms of coexistence.
For this reason, educational and cultural work is urgent if we are to begin to address and resolve the many psychosocial factors that prevent us from truly believing in what seems sensible to the eyes of reason: in a clear analysis, we would agree that no great historical change can arise without small daily change. We must start small but think big.
So, we will explore the inner and communal paths that people can and must take to sincerely and hopefully engage in the work of building a peaceful and just society. Let us therefore return to the humanities and literature, which will be at the center of the discussions, strengthened by Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney’s belief that "the aim of art is peace" and by Vaclav Havel’s vision of a just peace: "a peace founded not on a violation of humanity, but on respect for human rights and freedoms."
John McCourt is the Rector of the University of Macerata. Fabiola Falappa is the director of the Macerata Humanities Festival.