A Civil War of Long Duration.
Political Violence in a Country with «Advanced Capitalism»
This essay deals with the link between political violence and the fear
of the Perfect Totalitarianism during the 60’s and the 70’s in Italy. The
fundamental issue during that historical period was the obsession of the
new generation to give back centrality to the human being. In fact, the
transformation of Capitalism, during the 50’s, into the so called Neocapitalism,
seemed characterised not only by the growth of the production
of goods, but also by the capacity to absorb every form of antagonism
through the mythology of well-being, the expansion of consumption and
the increase of salaries. Capitalism had at its disposal much more powerful
weapons than in the past, because it was able to conquer the minds of
people, to model them according to their needs, to build a tailor made
man. The essay seeks to answer the following questions: why a large part
of the young generation had a completely negative judgement about their
present time and why they wanted to change the world? Why Politics
seemed to them the right tool to free themselves and the others, so as to
gain back the inner harmony that had been destroyed by the contemporary
society? And, lastly, why political violence appeared to them a necessary
instrument to accede to the authentic life?