Between the potential future and the substantial past we live the eternal present of the moment that is our life. But, to be able to act and not just suffer reality, we must learn to understand time. Managing time well is the key to building the future. This is the key to the book ‘The Rhythm of Freedom. The time factor in politics and economics’ by Roberto Menotti and Maurizio Sgroi (Edizioni Rubbettino, pp. 170, 18 euros) which uses the preface by Marta Dassù, editor in chief of Aspenia and was vice-minister of Foreign Affairs in 2011 -2014.
Time, the authors explain, is our traveling companion, in the sense that we must indulge it. By going in time we experience the rhythm of freedom, the only one we should pursue, and we create our future. We don’t need anything else to face the adventure of our life. Every situation can be observed from opposite points of view. In the first part of the text the risks and negative aspects are analyzed, analyzing the trend that the authors identify as ‘religion of regression’.
This is not a prognosis, nor even a destiny. Menotti and Sgroi take some evidence to the extreme by articulating a scenario that proposes an interpretation of our present. In the end they undertake an opposite procedure, outlining another interpretation of our present which implies a different vision of the future. So that it is clear that there is always a choice. The future, to a large extent, is built. We can build it, first of all by rebuilding our relationship over time. This book, the authors insist, wants to remind us of this simple truth.
