With this article, I want to speak out, or rather, shout out and give voice to all those people living in extreme hardship and poverty , often invisible to society. This desperation sometimes leads to extreme acts like the one that occurred two days ago in Giussano, in the province of Monza and Brianza.
He hangs himself to avoid being evicted
It all happened around 9:15 a.m. when the bailiff, the lawyer, and the locksmith showed up at the elderly man's door to execute the eviction. It wasn't the first time: the operation had reportedly been postponed twice before. The elderly man had left the apartment, saying he was going to move his car, but had used those few moments to try to end it all by hanging himself. He was found moments later and rescued by the locksmith. He was subsequently transported with critical condition to the Niguarda Hospital emergency room, where he died shortly thereafter.
Invisible
Stories like this no longer make the news or arouse interest. Almost no one, newspapers or television news, wanted to report this tragedy, and the few who did limited themselves to describing the episode in a few lines. The neighbors, dismayed by the news, were unaware of the financial difficulties the elderly man was experiencing. Unfortunately, we live in a self-centered society where what matters is how much you own, not who you are as a person, and we often notice others when it's too late, only when faced with extreme gestures.
Liquid society
When Zygmunt Bauman developed the concept of " liquid modernity ," perhaps not even he expected the expression to become almost universally used. But what exactly did the Polish sociologist mean by a liquid society? " With the crisis of the concept of community, an unbridled individualism emerges, where no one is a companion on the journey but rather an antagonist to everyone, to be wary of. Legal certainty is lost, and the only solutions for the individual without reference points are, on the one hand, appearance at all costs, appearance as a value, and consumerism. However, this is a consumerism that does not aim at the possession of objects of desire to satisfy one's desires, but rather quickly renders them obsolete, and the individual goes from one consumption to another in a sort of aimless bulimia ."
Dignity
The term dignity refers to the intrinsic value of human existence that every human being, as a person, is aware of embodying in their moral principles, in the need to freely uphold them for themselves and others, and to protect them against those who do not respect them. The indifference of those who refuse to see, or pretend not to see, the person in their need or necessity is the instrument that obliterates acceptance and solidarity . Those who are victims of indifference suffer doubly: to an objectively inhumane condition is added the burden of rejection. When confronted with indifference, it is like hitting a brick wall: one feels betrayed, deeply offended, especially if it is expressed by those from whom one expects a helping hand.
Gianni Broggi
