At the time of writing, Iran has attacked Israel with drones and missiles; most of them could be intercepted. The war is hinting, but it has not yet begun. We are waiting for it. The media announce it; it’s all predictions and a certain desire that the predictions don’t come true. The war is news, but it is expected. The headlines are ready. The unhealthy interest of waiting is the prelude to a drama. Bottom line: we’re looking forward to the drama!
Meanwhile, also when these lines are written, our streets, our towns and cities, museums and sports fields, terraces and public spaces, are full of people who want to live, see, know, discover, enjoy and share. We are waiting for the war, forgetting what it represents. It is far; it is a topic of conversation, a statistic about the number of dead and displaced. But the suffering is not transferred; it stays there, far away. They announce to us that war is coming, but our reality rejects it. This is just a headline; it doesn’t happen from here.
We live immersed in this contradiction. We don’t want to transcend the media headlines. And we stay in the semantic refuge of clichés. We want peace! Enough war! But we call it where there is no war. In Ukraine, our kind words and pretended solidarity are not enough for them. Putin passes our peace; it is enough to inspire fear. Totalitarian egos feed on the fear they transfer to others. They are not afraid of war; they look for it and provoke it in order to legitimize themselves. They do not contemplate peace unless it is the result of their victory.
And in the Middle East fundamentalism, not only religious, fuels hatred, justifies war. Iran’s religious leader talks about “killing the devil”. The difference is not acceptable; it is, in any case, the expression of evil. The one and the other do not accept each other; you have to destroy yourself. And, meanwhile, we await the war as announced news. And, naively, we believe that our fundamentalisms are something else; that radicalization has no cost; that intransigence and intolerance are the necessary expression of our own, exclusive and exclusive moral conviction. The announced war is far away; its causes are closer.
It will be necessary to preserve more actively, more committedly, the value of peace. This is not a criticism of the European decision to give more resources to its defense. The blackmailing of fear that some practice must be compensated for by one’s own security. But it is not enough. It will be necessary to denounce and reject approaches that seek to divide our society through confrontation.
Respected difference is the basis of freedom. It will be necessary to learn to live together in this diverse and heterogeneous society, respecting it and making it possible. Peace must be worked for, because all wars come from afar. Today, they announce it, but it has been seen coming for a long time, a long time; the causes have been there for a long time.
Fundamentalisms, totalitarian egos, the ambition to interpret the voice of the people, replacing it, inventing it, always end badly. And, in this case, always is always. War is the consequence. Therefore, we must understand that this desire to live, see, know, discover, enjoy and share that is palpable in our society, must be defended. Only tolerance, the respectful assessment of difference, will bring us closer to a society that, from freedom, can generate stability and progress. In other words, to open the doors of peace.
Waiting for war is the early announcement of what would be a great failure.
