consciousness

Of Carlo Freccero
The left reduced to the sole thought of the elites
THE SELF-CRITICISM OF A CERTAIN LEFT (N.D.R.)
Source: The Manifesto
The left is in crisis today and is wondering how it could speak to the new populisms to lead them back to the tracks of an elitist democracy that resembles an oligarchy more than a democracy in the strict sense.
Vice versa, even when he says he wants to listen to the malaise of which populism is an expression, the left entrenches itself in the clichés of political correctness. While, In my opinion, an objective self-analysis would be enough to understand things from another angle. The question is what the left is today and what the left once was? Because there has been such a radical change? I already know the answer. We were wrong. What if we are wrong now?
In any case, reflect on what the left was at its origins, already contains the answer to the problem of populism today.
Before, right-wing populism didn't exist because many of the instances of today's populism were on the left. And the growth of people's rights was not considered reactionary, but progressive.
The great fracture on the left begins with the so-called third way and the complete surrender of progressives to neoliberalism. Since then we have been immersed in the single thought to the point of having lost the memory of ourselves. Read More

AN OPINION
Of David Nieri
Alfie's death and our conscience
Source: Franco Cardini
In the end he didn't make it, poor Alfie. He passed away on Saturday night 28 April, a few days before his second birthday. Personally, I hoped for it until the end. I hoped the little one would continue to breathe, therefore to live, after the life support “plug” had been pulled a few days earlier. I hoped that at least the European Court would rule in favor of the transfer to "Bambino Gesù", after the Italian government had granted Alfie Italian citizenship to allow him to expatriate. Finally, I hoped for a miracle – we Catholics, you know, we believe - that it would annihilate judges and scientists from across the Channel who intend to rule on "life worth living" by establishing the boundary as a question of right, perhaps even going against the wishes of the parents - for a child under two years old, the only one possible. But in the land of Albion – that of the god of the English in whom you should never believe, and in fact I don't believe it – that's how it works: if there is no agreement between doctors and family, the law provides for the intervention of a judge. In the case in question, the doctors at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool had already declared, last December, that they have exhausted all options available to save the little one, therefore deciding to suspend the artificial ventilation that was keeping him alive. Decision to which obviously Tom and Kate Evans, the two very young parents, they were opposed, indicating among the treatment possibilities also the transfer to the "Bambino Gesù". None of this happened. As in the sad case of Charlie Gard, the end of a child's life has been decreed by law, and repeated appeals - including from the Holy See - to try to save the child were of no avail. Read More