Lectio Magistralis: “Sulle difficoltà e sul bisogno del dialogo” = Lectio Magistralis: About the difficulties and the need for dialogue

Abstract

About the difficulties and the need for dialogue. The Conferment ceremony of honorary degree to Zygmunt Bauman in “Modern Languages, Literatures and Literary Translation”, was held at the University of Salento (Lecce, Italy), on April 17th, 2015. In his Lectio Magistralis Bauman addresses many problematic aspects of contemporary society. For the sociologist, there are several reasons why we live in a state of confusion, in the “dark ages”, in which the ability to look beyond and understanding has been lost. Bauman identifies one of these reasons in the paradoxical situation involving new media: despite the massive amounts of information available, we are seeing a decrease in the ability to understand such information. Another reason relates to the period of change that university is going through; because of this process, knowledge is no longer a public good, but becomes an object of trade. Bauman discusses the problems about inequality and exclusion, migration - which lead to the need and the difficulty of dialogue - and interdependence of humanity. According to the sociologist, these problems can be addressed only if solidarity is put at the heart of the issues. The most worrying problem concerns the question of power and the limit of the word. About this issue the sociologist is very pessimistic: not only nowadays the true writer hoped by Elias Canetti doesn’t exist, but even if there was, we cannot be certain that these writers would be able to predict and prevent the arrival of a war or a catastrophe