FLet’s start this game. Take a year of your life, any one. In the economy of this time that seems infinite – with hundreds of hours of work spent with colleagues, days spent with family, time spent at the supermarket, in traffic, on holiday, among stable loved ones and unknown people – there must have been thirty secondscompared to the thirty-one million-odd seconds that there are in an entire year, of which ex post were you ashamed of what you said or did?
Here, those thirty seconds that until a few years ago would be remained buried under the carpet of your shame and forgotten forever, now, with the technological revolution, they can become the notary stamp at the bottom of your sentence to any punishment, from the lightest to the heaviest. For those thirty seconds you could be fired, kicked out of the house, isolated from friends, insulted by strangers.
And this is because a message becomes a screenshot (i.e. a photo of the screen on which it appears is taken, so it can be sent to anyone), a sentence is captured by a recording made with a cell phone and forwarded via WhatsApp, not to mention the videos in which they can film you without your knowledge; and therefore it is possible, yes, that those thirty seconds (five would be enough) end up prevailing over the other thirty-one million that make up a year. I’m not saying this is wrong regardless, on the contrary. Very often an “outlander” opens our eyes to who we have in front of us, shows us the dark side of the moon. But are we really sure that the dictatorship of the poster, that of the screenshot or the voice message that goes viral makes the world a better, healthier, cleaner place?
The truth is that patience, time and even the desire to evaluate people have been lost through their daily, annual, ten-year actions; and the taste for digital stoning of others has grown, also through the development of technologies that make it possible, which often has serious consequences. You forget how we are that only those who don’t even have those thirty seconds of sin are free to throw the first stone. Otherwise that stone, sooner or later, will come back to you. And it hurts.
Paolo Conti and Tommaso Labate
Each of us has memories linked to our grandparents. I had a very close bond with my maternal grandmother Agnese. Strong character and, as befits grandmothers, wise. She had a recurring phrase, a comment that she often used when at home, during the summer holidays when we all got together, what happens at all family gatherings happened: an unpleasant extemporaneous comment, an outburst of nerves. Maybe followed by the usual phrase: “I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean it.” At that point she smiled, she played down but she always said: «Voice from the sen escaped then calling back is not worth it».
When I reached high school I discovered the origin of the quote by asking my literature teacher. Obviously it’s Metastasio as many of you readers certainly know («Voice from the heart has fled / Then calling back is not worth it; The arrow was not held back / when it came out of the bow»).
And Metastasio in turn, the professor explained to me, was indebted to Orazio: «Nescit vox missa reverti», that is, the spoken word cannot go back. Grandma Agnese understood, absolved but in the end recalled a harsh reality: what you said, you said. There’s no point in sitting there fantasizing about the possibility of taking the sentence back. It is clear (but perhaps he didn’t add this out of kindness) that it was your authentic and spontaneous thought. We live in a civilization now based on voice messages, on the speed of a WhatsApp.
Speed itself very often puts our instantaneous thought in a position to materialize in a text and reach an interlocutor. And, as happened in those remote summers, perhaps no longer recognizing oneself shortly afterwards in a sentence, in a judgement, in a dispute. But it is better, at that point, to take responsibility for that fragment of our life, take stock and perhaps open a path for a fundamental clarification.. We are us even in those pieces in which we don’t recognize ourselves or even know each other well (Sigmund, hit up if you follow us).
There’s no point in justifying yourself, sweetening the bitterness. Much better to look yourself (and others) in the eye. And honestly face reality. Indeed, the truth.
Paolo Conti
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