Civil war tells a future story civil war which tears the USA apart, the second in history. When Trump’s supporters did not accept electoral defeat, the assault on Capitol Hill lasted a long time and, witnessing it on TV, I was disconcerted by the slow reaction of the police forces. Were they disorganized or were they waiting to see how it would turn out?
In Civil War part of the army rebels against the president, elected for the third time. It is not clear who is right or wrong: the war photographer, as a veteran, explains to the neophyte that it is not up to the photographer to decide. Whoever sees his photos will decide. And the same goes for the film: reason and rights are not valid if you are faced with an armed person, determined to kill. In American films justice and reason always triumph, but if you see a fight already started you don’t understand who is right; we sympathize with those who suffer the oppression of the strongest, but this could be a reaction to those who wanted to impose an injustice by force, paying the consequences, even with their lives. As happened to Mussolini and Hitler. Unlike what happened to Allende. Saddam Hussein was hanged but had no weapons of mass destruction.
Knowing the whole story we could decide where right and wrong are; often, however, history is made by the winners, although not always: the Italian fascists carried out massacres in the former Yugoslavia and the reaction was equally monstrous: the foibe. And now we only remember the foibe, without anyone saying: but what did we do before? October 7th comes to mind and Gaza. Or the massacres in the Donbass and those in the rest of Ukraine. Each monstrosity justifies others, all of which should not be forgotten, even if we love to paint ourselves as “good people”, forgetting our wrongdoings and, if someone reminds us of them, we justify them with the wrongdoings of others.
The rules of the theater say that if there is a rifle hanging on the wall on the stage, that rifle will sooner or later fire. It is not uncommon, in certain US states, to see a pickup with a Winchester hanging from the rear window. Whoever follows that pick-up knows that that rifle could be used and if the driver does something strange they are careful not to complain, unless they have another Winchester in the cab. In a video about weapons a girl talks about her family exterminated at the restaurant: a man enters and starts shooting, killing several people before targeting his table. She saves herself by throwing herself to the ground. You hear the story and become convinced that she is one folly allow everyone to obtain weapons. But the girl continues: I go to the range and I’m good at shooting; if I had had my 44 with me I could have shot down that murderer before the extermination of my family. The video is from the Rifle Association and the message is: Let’s arm ourselves and be ready to fire. To defend ourselves, of course.
Criminals do not ask permission to arm themselves, they would arm themselves even if it were forbidden, but they would think twice about using them if they knew that others were also armed. It comes to mind deterrence, invoked to guarantee peace. Those who have weapons sooner or later use them.
The issue of the environment mirrors that of weapons. A scientific magazine commissioned me to write an article on the sustainable management of the marine environment. I started writing it by stating that Europe has decided unilaterally to sustainably manage its territory with the Green Deal and with a series of Directives that are very sensitive to the state of biodiversity and ecosystems, recently included in Article 9 of our Constitution. If everyone waited for others to start caring about the environment, Nobody would begin: as there is the arms race, so there is the pollution race, but both peace and sustainability are considered obstacles to economic growth.
For the environment, Europe has decided not to adopt these suicidal logic, but I will have to rewrite the article: Ursula Von der Leyen, mother of the Green Deal, puts it aside and intends to arm Europe. If at European elections those who praise armaments will win, using the logic of the gunfighter girl who left the Colt at home, the spiral will continue. In Civil War we can’t understand who is wrong and who is right. The civil war does not stop until one side wins and the other loses, without prisoners. Can it be done differently?
We did it. April 25th celebrates Resistence, a civil war. Civilians and soldiers armed themselves and fought against those in power (the fascists), partially redeeming the shame of fascism. The fascists, however, were amnestied by a communist (Togliatti) and they were not all put to the wall, as they did with the partisans. Mussolini was hung at a petrol station where the fascists shot fifteen partisans. Barbarism calls barbarism. But you have to stop, make peace, if you want a happy ending. We did it after the Liberation, but today peace is considered one defeatas in Civil War.
Happy April 25th, long live anti-fascist Italy and long live the communist Togliatti who, with the amnesty, interrupted the spiral of violence. Long live Pertini who, in Genoa, triggered the reaction to the fascist restoration of the Tambroni government. Forgive yes, forget no.
