Improve ourselves

Giuseppe Mazzini is one of the most important protagonists of the Risorgimento. He is a controversial figure: an important political thinker but also a proponent of an action strategy that has caused the death of many patriots. His political influence, however, is undoubted in the drafting of our Republican Constitution and beyond. W. T. Wilson, David Lloyd George, Gandhi, Golda Meir, Nehru and Sun Yat-sen have appreciated Mazzinian thought and, in particular, the work The duties of man. Courageous book of 1860 with which Mazzini wishes to convince the workers of the groundlessness of the materialistic proposal of Marxism. In it, Mazzini reflects on the progressive affirmation of individual rights of freedom that was taking place in the Western societies of those decades. While sharing this line of development, his gaze sees elements of profound contradiction that in the long run would have led to dire consequences. In particular, Mazzini notes that freedom remains on paper for the poorer classes because it is reserved only for the richer ones. Furthermore, individual freedom is often confused with well-being understood as the possession of material goods. The interest of every man for freedom is therefore reduced to the selfish conquest of these goods, neglecting the needs of others.
“Each man took care of his rights and the improvement of his condition, without trying to provide for others; and when one's rights clashed with those of others, it was war: a war not of blood, but of gold and snares: a war less virile than the other, but equally ruinous: bitter war, in which the strong by means they relentlessly crush the weak or the inexperienced. […] This is what we are today, thanks to the theory of rights ».

The search for rights alone exacerbates selfishness, selfishness generates ever more serious conflicts. How to get out? Mazzini recognizes the value of material satisfaction, but considers it as a means and not as an end of social progress. He dreams of a society in which citizens know how to link duties to rights. For him, duty is the awareness that our life is not just an individual fact, it is not living for oneself but for others, becoming better through education. Better education that produces moral growth than material well-being; better to be morally better than materially satisfied. Education in duty is therefore the suitable antidote to social disintegration due to infinite selfish impulses.
“Good men make bad organizations good, evil make good sad. It is a question of making the classes which today, voluntarily or involuntarily, oppress you better and more convinced of their duties; nor can you succeed unless you begin to improve yourself as much as possible ".


Renato Bonomo
NP October 2021