Classified "A" by ANVUR in the fields 11/D1, 11/D2 Scientific in the field 14.
Abstract
In a time like the present, once again marked by widespread recourse to war, by genocides, by the killing of tens of thousands of civilians – most of whom are children –, a time characterized by the undermining of international law and the re-armament race, in which discourses on peace and for peace seem to be overwhelmed by the logic of oppression, by the “law of the strongest”, the testimonies of people like Juliano Mer Khamis and Vittorio Arrigoni reveal themselves to us as “beacons of hope” for a humanity that refuses to yield to dehumanizing tendencies, to a fate of inexorable self-destruction. In such a scenario, altruism – that act of giving oneself for a cause that transcends mere personal interest – goes beyond the spiritual realm to become, in its embodiment within the tragic events that torment the world, a powerful political act, a stance of extraordinary symbolic value, with which we are called to confront ourselves. “Altruism or Barbarism” is, therefore, a dilemma that challenges us and from which we cannot escape, lest we become accomplices –through carelessness or, worse, through apathy – of those who are dragging humanity toward the abyss.
