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The journalist Paolo Rumiz was a guest this morning of the University of Sannio in the Conference Room of the Palace Saint Dominic for a dialogue with students on the theme “Europe, the betrayal of the myth”. Rumiz returned to Benevento as a guest of the University of Sannio. And he returns as a “repentant northerner”, as he said of him The print of Turin. Friend of the southerners and of the concept of Mediterranean Europe as the fulcrum of Western civilization from Greece to Magnagrecia, the empire of Rome which saw Benevento as its navel, trait d’union between West and East. A Europe seen from the south, its Christian roots that were capable of evangelizing the barbarian horde that destroyed Roman Europe to build another but recalling Latinity. In short, Rumiz, the great traveller, questions himself and us about the furor of the old continent in an era of major transformations that has been going on for thirty years and which he himself defines as whirlwind, difficult to analyze because it is constantly evolving. “If we forget that Europa is a kidnapped female who comes from the East, we forget our origins and without a strong myth no community will survive.” The writer and journalist, who was accompanied in his reflection by the Rector Gerardo Camphor and by the teacher Aglaia McClintock, has completed his ideal quadrilogy on Europe: the author wanted to rewrite the epic of our continent, our cradle, in a feminine way, mixing myth, travel, history and mystery with the tragedies of current events. Europe, barbaric and soulless, has forgotten its origins: this is the accusation of the journalist and intellectual, who is largely responsible for the rediscovery of another myth, the Via Appia, which he traveled on foot as the pilgrims many centuries ago. Rector Canfora underlined: “Rumiz talks about some ghosts that agitate the European scenario such as populism and the closure to diversity. A very interesting volume.”
The teacher McClintock spoke of Rumiz’s latest work as a “hard” book and commented on it with these words: “It speaks of European fragmentation, of the violence of fear. It is a political book that addresses different facets. But he wants to bring proactiveness.” Rumiz said: “This Europe cannot be born from a monetary and economic image, it is more easily achieved through mythology. Europe is a kidnapped woman who comes from the East. We must not forget this otherwise we delay the myth. Europe risks dissolving.” Then he added: “We must not reduce Europe to a geopolitical reality. It’s very dangerous. We cannot construct a negative identity. You need a strong identity. We are a people of migrants, if we do not understand all this we are heading towards dissolutionAnd”.
