If what distinguishes being is the act, and what characterizes the act is the choice, it is necessary to repeat a thousand times that the individual always becomes the choices he makes, and that wisdom comes down to knowing how to choose. The problem is that choice, as a unifying element, is less a decision than a perennial practice, so that without this continuity, it would fall apart and even become null and void. Choosing, therefore, involves deciding and sticking to the decision.
Category: Notes
The Experience of the Wars of the Last Century…
The experience of the wars of the last century has left such a mark on literature that it sometimes bores us to see it recounted again, since we are so far removed from it and it has long since been assimilated. The truth is, however, that it has not been assimilated at all, or at least the generations living today are not drawing on its lessons. It was to be hoped that, with so many accounts, so many examples of intellectuals thrown into prison and who took this circumstance as fuel for their own vocation, something would change in the human understanding of existence, and that at the very least a generation would emerge vaccinated against the mistakes of the recent past. But no, no… it is a myth that one generation starts from the point reached by the previous one. Today, we have to read and reread past stories as experiences that will probably return.
Some Biographies Generate…
Some biographies generate in us moderns an effect similar to the one we experience when, after getting bored with some trifle or complaining about life, we meet a homeless person. Because, in fact, some of the most famous names in universal literature have been beggars themselves—famous, by the way, not because of their material condition, but because of the greatness of their works. And then we discover how incapable we have become of enduring misery, since little things bother us a lot, and a fraction of the adversity endured by so many of our ancestors would be enough to wipe us out. At least the embarrassing is useful.
Despite the Great Risk of Degeneration…
Despite the great risk of degeneration inherent in human relationships, it must be a great satisfaction to take part in an environment of cultural exchange, such as those that have taken place and those that exist in different countries, where a small group of intellectuals with a genuine common interest talk, teach, learn, help each other and develop. What seems most beneficial, and it does not always happen, is contact between different generations, which enables the personal transmission of a legacy, which should be equally satisfying for those who pass it on and those who receive it. In fact, this is what universities could do if they did not get involved in so many formalities. The value of physical presence—absent in books—cannot be underestimated, and so culture owes a lot to these small informal associations.