Perché io non ho capito bene qual era il motivo della protesta. Io, quando saltavo le lezioni, lo facevo per sfidare i miei amici a GP2, mentre per strada andava in scena l'ennesima session del roleplay più vecchio del mondo. Rossi contro neri, studenti contro istituzioni, figli di genitori contro genitori di figli. E attorno il traffico, i curiosi e i giapponesi che scattano foto, come se fosse la festa di San Firmino.
Di anno in anno i giornali si indignano, le associazioni si indignano, i blogger si indignano, gli indignados urlano: "PRIMI!" e dopo qualche giorno di proteste, puff, riecco tornare il silenzio. Agli studenti balenano in mente problemi più concreti: ancora un brutto voto in biologia e quest'anno niente motorino, niente PlayStation, niente gita ad Amsterdam. Noialtri ci ricorderemo di loro soltanto ai prossimi esami di maturità: al classico, greco. Tucidide. Discorso di Pericle agli ateniesi. E fatene tesoro.
Qui, in Italia, noi facciamo così.
Gaspare Bitetto | @waxen
School Metal Jacket
Autumn is here. You can see it from highschool students that go into heat after the first weeks of forced cohabiting in class.
So the first occupations start, the automanagement, the long fights in the family because "I'm going to stay sleep at school tonight", the first loves, the morning baton strikes from the police and the premature conversion to sadomasochism. It happens every year, just as for salmons that swim up the steram and end up numbed by a stick before they get the chance to reproduce. It's a passage rite, tribal as need, and in TV they send the news in HD to show the glistening of blood.
So now, my dear student, you have become an adult. You've discovered that in any moment you can be stripped of your civil rights and no App for your iPhone 5 can prevent that from happening. Steve Jobs hasn't changed your world, he changed his, and even though the Ministery has gifted each of your teachers with an iPad, in the administration there will still be a lack of cartridge ink for photocopies, the projector will keep not functioning and in the bathroom there will still be no trace of toilet paper. That's why you were protesting, right?
Because I didn't fully understand what the motive of the protest actually was. When I skipped classes, I did it to challenge my friends at GP2, while on the streets another session of the world's oldest roleplay went on stage. Red against black, students against institutions, children of parents against parents of children. And around the traffic, the curious and the Japanese that take pictures, as if it were San Firmino.
Year after year the newspapers get angry, the associations get angry, bloggers get angry, the indignados shout "DIBS" and after a few days of protests, puff, there goes the silence again. Te students start thinking about more concrete problems: another bad mark in biology and this year no scooter, no PlayStation, no trip to Amsterdam. We will remember them only at the next maturity exams: at the Classical Highschool, Greek. Tucidide. Pericle's speech to Athens. And treasure it.
We in Italy, we do it like this.
Gaspare Bitetto | @waxen