by FRANCESCO MATTIOLI-
VITERBO – What is happening to this city? I don’t want to imitate Cicero by calling into question tempora and mores: moreover, it is not even the right attitude of the sociologist who, far from emitting useless complaints, analyzes the facts and tries to identify the causes, if anything suggesting remedies in the light of knowledge scientific.
In any case, in Viterbo within a few weeks three men were found dead in their home without anyone realizing it; two of them, moreover, after a long time, so much so that the atrocious suspicion arises that they were discovered not because anyone missed them, but only because they made themselves “heard”… That all this happened in the historic centre, that is, in those places where, until a few decades ago, life took place in an almost communal way, so much so that everyone knew and shared almost everything with their neighbors, says a lot about the state of social degradation of the city’s historic districts. It says a lot about the frenzy of life today, which allows us to look around us only through the keyhole of social media, which commits us to the project of “realizing ourselves” without knowing what is meant by self-realization and makes us exchange the incommunicability to respect privacy. But then again, if you die alone in the historic centre, who will notice you? The neighbors have moved into more comfortable homes in the new residential neighborhoods, the shops near their home that could count you as a customer have closed, the social policies of the Municipality and the attention of the Parish no longer succeed in distinguishing you as a person, perhaps they are waiting for you, but they certainly aren’t looking for you.
But it’s not just this. Viterbo has a Bronx, but coincidentally while the bronxes are generally found in the more marginal suburbs, this one is right in the middle of the city, between S. Faustino and the Sacrario, that is, in a place that is supposedly frequented daily by passers-by, visitors, tourists. Some wonder what happened to the neighborhood watch, which also reawakened the sheriff spirit of some city-dwelling citizens, but in fact they are unable to grasp in advance certain recurring signs of what is about to happen in the most conflict-ridden areas of the city. This “social inattention” is paradoxically linked to what we were talking about previously, regarding those who die alone. Some people ask for more prevention, but there is no need to inconvenience who knows what kind of educational and moral suasion campaign, perhaps a very modest daily presence of the police would be enough.
And what about the politics of rags? That government and opposition forces are at each other’s throats on a daily basis, each pretending to be able to give life and moral lessons? But is it really possible to believe that those who are in opposition today and were in government yesterday are capable of doing better? With which business card? But do those who govern really think they can revolutionize the city, without suffering the limitations imposed by a formalist and tardigrade bureaucracy such as ours? Not to mention those rags that fly within coalitions, when the personalism of some and the disappointments of others are transformed into demands and blackmail…
Thus Viterbo politics ends up flying so low that it cannot even overcome the hills that appear on the horizon.
A few days ago a citizen now exhausted commented: “Even football, that sport that every town and city still manages to express in some way, has disappeared from Viterbo”.
Already…
But what is happening to this city?
