<< It seems impossible to openly avoid shared grief at a time of such an emergency. “[…] Anyone who doesn't feel this dramatic event as such is outside of democracy.” Demonstrating this solidarity, even demonstrating this emotional participation, becomes, in this context, a civic duty. Indifference is suspect. Emotion should not be viewed as a “natural” or instinctive manifestation, but as a collective construction.>> (B. Riccardo, MC Giovanni, M. Michele, P. Guido, T. Ermanno 2021, 238)
These are the words used to describe Italian society at one of its most critical moments, the assassination of Aldo Moro on May 9, 1978. These words describe an event far away in time and a situation profoundly different from the flood in Emilia-Romagna. Despite the temporal distance and the different socioeconomic contexts characterizing these two events, the above description is useful for better understanding the profound impact the flood in Emilia-Romagna had on the social dynamics of our community.
Notes for a Sociology of Floods in Emilia-Romagna
How is it possible that two such different tragedies trigger similar behaviors and feelings? How can we explain the simultaneous presence of thousands of volunteers of all ages within hours of the disaster? To explain, we must first identify a common thread: fear. Indeed, Pierre Mannoni (French philosopher and psychologist) speaks of an "associative function of fear" (P. Mannoni 1982, 114) that sparks a collective demand for the reconstruction of unity. Thus, participation and solidarity are understood as means to avert the risk of community destruction.
This effect is all the stronger the more targeted the event, that is, the more obvious the meaning assigned. In other words, the more explicit an event is, the more immediate and far-reaching the response will be. This meaning assignment was facilitated by the media themselves ; in 78, radio and television announced the kidnapping almost live, along with newspaper reports and people's very routines, which were severely disrupted, conveyed the exceptional nature of the event.
Enhanced communication dynamics for the floods in Emilia-Romagna
These same dynamics are observed today, if anything, strengthened and amplified by new means of communication. Citizens no longer need traditional intermediaries to know what's happening. They simply log on to Instagram to view the stories of their friends or acquaintances, which, in effect, become an unfiltered, spontaneous, and reliable source of information. This allows anyone to monitor the evolving situation almost constantly. The ordinary citizen becomes a reporter, filming what's happening around them.
A potentially dangerous situation, given that many people are deliberately traveling to the most affected areas to film the situation or simply out of curiosity. This dynamic, for example, has led the municipality of Cesena to repeatedly communicate not to visit the most critical areas and to avoid travel unless absolutely necessary. Thanks to the ease of sharing information, even those without social media accounts can receive videos or messages from their friends. Willingly or not, the majority of the population was informed about what was happening . This widespread, pervasive knowledge has enabled a collective construction of a sense of solidarity, participation, and fear, which is evident in the very behavior of individual citizens.
The civic duty of volunteers
In recent weeks, most volunteers, as well as the municipality's social media pages and beyond, have helped convey that sense of drama, solidarity, and importance, even through simple Instagram stories or posts on their own social media profiles. Transforming the act of helping into a true civic duty. Thousands of ordinary people immortalizing themselves covered in mud up to their hair , creating equally public content accessible to everyone, have helped generate enormous social pressure on those who hadn't taken to the streets to shovel or provide any kind of assistance.
Probably someone who, for whatever reason, didn't help felt guilty or excluded. Many others, however, were convinced to contribute precisely thanks to this collective construction. In other words, collective construction refers to the often criticized phenomenon called conformism or social learning, which, in this case, on a pragmatic level, had the merit of encouraging more people to help.
Flooding in Emilia-Romagna: Between Morality and Pragmatism
One issue I'd like to address here is ethical and moral. Showing your help publicly, through social media, is often criticized. Some argue that publicizing your actions is less pure and moral, as they see it as a way to brag, to show off that you're doing good and, consequently, to feel morally superior. Still others argue that helping is a personal, private act that finds no value in being publicly visible.
You do it because it benefits you, as well as, obviously, those you help. Kant himself argues that for the will to be morally good, it must correspond to pure respect for duty , not its respect for something else, such as the hope of a reward or the fear of punishment. In other words, if I tie the action, or inaction, to rewards or sanctions, the action, or inaction, cannot be defined as moral.
Personal reflections
Personally, I agree with this view, and also with the fact that making one's actions public can expose oneself to that kind of criticism, but I can't help but see the social or political value of showing that one is helping. Indeed, by exposing oneself, one contributes to creating that network of conformism which, on a pragmatic level, undoubtedly has a positive effect, especially in situations of total emergency like the one we experienced.
Morality abdicates in the face of the impact your action has on society . Whether you do it for publicity, bragging rights, or any other reason, your action will have positive effects because you're actually cooperating and, at the same time, convincing others to lend a hand. I'm not saying everyone who posts does it to brag, nor the opposite. Surely some people helped because they didn't want to feel left out, not because they wanted to, but, in the end, that's their problem. Their motivation can't harm us. The important thing was being there, clearing homes from the mud, where even just one more person made a difference.
Giulio Tonti
Bibliography
- Archives of the Presidency, Quirinale, documentation notebooks, ns,13, Rome.
- B. Riccardo, MC Giovanni, M. Michele, P. Guido, T. Ermanno (edited by) 2021, Italy of terrorism: parties, institutions and society, Carrocci publisher, Rome.
- P. Mannoni 1982, Fear, Presses universitaires de France, Paris.
