The controversial Green Pass is also coming to Italy, amidst protests in the streets, social divisions and a pandemic that does not intend to 'end'. And in the middle between the two positions of vaccinated and non-vaccinated, Privacy and freedom also loom large. How to get out, then?
From next 6 August, Italy will also implement the special passport, called Green Pass, with access to indoor places (restaurants, gyms and swimming pools, cinemas and theatre, stadiums and concerts, events and conventions) only for those who:
are vaccinated
are cured of Covid;
are also vaccinated with different vaccines;
those who decide to use the tampon (which is subject to a charge).
At the moment, it is even being discussed whether to introduce the restriction to certain transport, such as trains, ships and planes. But the moment is very delicate, as this certificate is developing a growing contempt between the two main factions of: vaccinated and non-vaccinated, leading to a dangerous point of return.
And as institutions try to secure the entire country between mass vaccination and the incoming green pass, we wonder if people's fundamental rights and freedoms will once again take a back seat because of the exceptional status of Sars Cov2? And if collective security takes the place of individual freedom, is it possible to find a balance of communication between the two in the new decree?
In the meantime, what has been happening in the various squares in Italy over the last few days and in other countries (see the many protests in France, which have not been well received by the French Prime Minister Macron), are a clear sign of a powerful cry of popular dissent against the danger of a fragmentation of individual rights and freedoms and the risk of discrimination, set out in the:
REGULATION (EU) 2021/953 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT (at point 36).
There are therefore many thorny issues raised in the above-mentioned phase, now marked towards a new ineluctable normality, which has also been incessantly repeated by public opinion in recent months.
But who is really free with the green pass?
"Paradoxically, the non-registered citizen will be freer than the one who has a membership card, and it should be the very mass of members who protest and rebel, who from now on will be counted, monitored and controlled to an extent unprecedented even in the most totalitarian regimes."
- Giorgio Agamben - Fhilosopher
The individual rights and freedoms that were constitutionally guaranteed up to now appear to have been suspended since the Covid emergency took over. In fact, the continuous Lockdowns with restrictions of varying degrees have drastically limited the lives of all people, so much so that there has been talk for some time of the New Normal as the new model for present and probably future life. After the masks and social distances (which remain, however) it will soon be the turn of the much-discussed Green Pass decree, which will reward only those who vaccinate themselves to receive concessions or fragments of freedom in their favourite places of interest, culture and leisure.
But if the common good and collective security seem at the moment to undermine the freedoms and personal rights won in recent history with blood and protest struggles, (which had the ultimate aim of ensuring greater equity for the poorer classes) what seems clear today, is that with the current emergency, countless questions arise from which it is legitimate and proper to open a critical debate, rational and genuine.
The central themes for discussion at this moment are:
Will the freedoms suspended at the end of the emergency ever be restored or not?
Will the unvaccinated become socially excluded?
Will the vaccinated be controlled more than the unvaccinated?
How will the vaccine-exempt be treated by the Green Pass?
The perennial strategy of Divide et Impera
"Let us not quench our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of hatred and resentment. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We shall not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. We must continually rise to the majestic heights of those who respond to physical force with the force of the soul."
- Martin Luther King - From the famous 'I have a dream' speech
If it is true that history is capable of repeating the script with facts that retrace the same dynamics albeit with accents likely new, but unequivocally confused and sometimes destructive, it happens that in 2021, we live a real case of the growing clash between two categories of people globally visible and that is: the vaccinated and not vaccinated people. It should be noted that in this critical debate on the issue of the vaccine, we do not want to indicate the category of No-Vax, precisely in reason of those who decide not to vaccinate, which is not necessarily appealed to the reductive label of the only denialist or conspirator, as the media frequently love to generalize, but more generally of those who:
have legitimate doubts about vaccines and their side effects;
relate their own medical records of possible pathologies to a 'serum' that has not yet passed all the stages of the long, complex and standardized vaccine pathway;
highlight any risks related to privacy and the protection of personal data made available with the above-mentioned green pass through the use of the mobile device;
follow a critical and rational reasoning, putting in the foreground the role of the citizen in the position of choice, in respect and compliance with the Italian Constitution, which calls for the duties and especially the rights of the human being.
In addition, there is a rather interesting fact to be specified and to be taken into due consideration, since:
among those who are participating in these days to the protests No Green Pass in many Italian squares, there are also many vaccinated, who do not accept any of the restrictive measures dictated by the Government and coming next August 6 throughout the country.
The hatred and contempt generalized towards those who decide not to vaccinate, which is perceived as an enemy of society, a terrorist, or a murderer of humanity, seems to be the only possible image in the eyes of those who have chosen to vaccinate, for fear of losing their jobs or for the hope of returning to good old-fashioned normality, does not conceive of different choices and equally questionable and reasoned. And it should be noted, once again, that the two fronts apparently so far apart, are nothing more than the tarnished and perennial reflection of a strategy, called Divide et Impera, which is an expression dear to ancient Rome but also to the British colonial empire, in which the manifestation of control originated from the authority served mainly to:
Confuse the population from the main and burning issues;
Bring factions of the people into direct confrontation to fuel social and other divisions and differences;
Maintain control over the territory and the people.
Today, like yesterday, historical memory unfortunately does not teach us much. And this drift, wisely highlighted by Antonio Gramsci with his well-known phrase: "Illusion is the most tenacious weed of the collective conscience: history teaches, but has no schoolchildren", is nothing more than a remark on the insolence of those who ignore the atrocities and errors of the past, without at the same time understanding the complexity and the cognitive basis of the facts that occurred, in order instead to acquire a degree of awareness concerning the inhabited context and our own identity, both individual and collective.
An example that is always worth highlighting concerns the barbarities of the holocaust, in which, to tell the truth, many see the sprouts of that same contempt that was towards the Jews and which returns towards the modern Non Vaccinated and No Green Pass, which makes us completely cringe.
It goes without saying that no comparison with the atrocious history of the Second World War is intended to foster further separation between the Vaccinated and the Non-Vaccinated and between the Yes and No Green Passes, but it is now clear that certain dynamics seem to have already been set in motion, given the current complex global picture of the pandemic and the contagious Delta variant, and the coincidental increase in the social distress of millions of people around the world who have already lost everything and have nothing left to lose. If anything, on the horizon for them there is only the miserable prospect of an uncertain future.
Being master of your own body
“The womb is mine and I run it!”
- Feminist slogan of the 70s -
To avoid dramatically dividing the world in two, the reasons of those who decide not to vaccinate should first of all be deeply understood and not judged or despised, as is happening instead. Therefore, all the information about the anti-Covid serum, which the pharmaceutical companies themselves have indicated as being on an experimental basis, should be taken into account and with moral responsibility:
It is a new technology, mRNA-based;
It has not passed all the stages of the vaccination process to be considered mandatory.
One fact that should not be underestimated is the number of doses that are administered to people once the vaccination phase has begun, namely: never in the history of vaccines have we found ourselves doing so many booster shots in a few months, as in this specific case.
These are all evaluations that must be made in the field before taking the decision to vaccinate. But at the same time, we should not forget those who have been vaccinated, and who should also be understood:
His choice reflects his moral duty, which puts him in a direct and indirect relationship with his community;
Health is seen as a precious asset to be preserved at all costs, and where important choices about the global emergency are never easy to make, but must be made nonetheless.
The other elements that make the 'many' wait are also:
The hammering media impact to the invitation to vaccinate;
The fear of vaccine side effects;
The freedom threatened by government restrictions.
The thousands of people protesting in the various Italian squares use the slogan 'I am the master of my body' and this aspect is not entirely new compared to the past if you like. If we think back to the law on abortion in the 1970s, the use and abuse of this term shook the consciences of women and men around the world to the core, spreading a single voice against the backdrop of: "The womb is mine and I decide".
Following this slogan, it is obvious that remaining the master of one's own body is the greatest obstacle to those who use mass vaccination disclosure, on the one hand, and an inviolable freedom to those who hold firm to their position on such a delicate issue.
If this is life, what life is worth without individual freedom?
“In history and in life, one sometimes seems to discern a fierce law, which sounds like "from the haves, it will be given; from the have-nots, it will be taken away". In the Lager, where man is alone and the struggle for life is reduced to its primordial mechanism, the iniquitous law is openly in force, it is recognized by all.
- Primo Levi -
In the countless current Green Pass and vaccine diatribes, it is of course Science that has been the absolute protagonist since the beginning of the pandemic and has emerged as the superior creed and central dogma over religion and politics, capable of shifting all global economic, political and social decisions towards an unequivocal principle, which concerns the physical salvation of the body through the use of A mRNA vaccines against the notorious SARS-CoV-2.
As a result, the body-soul dichotomy comes to life, resulting in the worst of battles and one that no one would ever have wanted to imagine, namely between physical salvation but with the near certainty of the imprisonment of the human being and the freedoms and individual rights that had been won and are now suspended due to the exceptional nature of the situation. The central element of the Pandemic's seasonal trend means that the suspension of fundamental freedoms poses new long-term prospects, in which the clue question to be asked today is then perhaps the following:
Is it more important to survive (healthy?) regulated by measures and restrictions on individual rights and freedoms or to try to live free until the last day, possibly choosing other possible paths? And if anything, which paths are available to take?
This question, which touches on the philosophical and spiritual sphere and which goes into the dichotomy of freedom and conscious subjection, as well as simple everyday living, raises three further questions on the subject, which we leave to our OUTSIDERS to ponder namely:
What is the true meaning of life if not to live it almost freely?
Does a healthy body work better if the mind operates free from particular social constraints and discriminations operating in everyday life?
What is the meaning of choice when that option is lost due to emergency?
In thinking critically about the facts that concern us and the questions that everyone is asking, the massive intervention in the use of the vaccine and the last bastion of the Green Pass (which will be active from next August 6) is just one more step towards the strong hardening of the most disadvantaged classes and all those who still have legitimate doubts about the current vaccination.
But if compulsory vaccination were introduced, the scenario would be very different, since:
Even people who have not yet been vaccinated would perhaps feel better protected, given the assumption of responsibility by pharmaceutical companies and the government itself, in a decision of the vital importance that it is;
The innumerable controversies surrounding the ongoing testing of vaccines would be calmed by a concrete act of formality and real transparency towards all;
The restrictions put in place by the special certificates would be lifted to allow people to move freely everywhere, without having to be monitored for every possible eventuality;
Finally, a balance would be established between collective security and individual freedom, balancing the moral duty of the individual and the good of the community. Returning to being free to travel, move and see people without the invisible barriers of distance and masks should be the one and only great goal to be achieved, with a vaccination requirement that guarantees, protects and respects everyone.
Never stop looking for new ways (sometimes literally building)
Together with the possible introduction of the Vaccination Obligation, which, as we have seen above, opens up new and possible courageous paths, there are certainly others that can be researched, constructed and re-constructed in the current situation and in the coming months.
In this regard, there is a work of the University of Turin, excellently presented recently by Associate Professor of Institutions of Public Law Cristina Bertolino and whose title already explanatory of "Green Certificate Covid-19, Between Freedom and Equality", recalls precisely the discussion of the Green Pass in progress, (and we recommend its reading) offering precisely an optional overview of structural vision over the long term to the non-resolving measures of mass vaccination and Green Pass, such as:
In concluding this in-depth look at the Green Pass and its many ongoing diatribes, it is worth pausing for a moment to consider the recent strong words used by philosopher Massimo Cacciari in an article written jointly with another well-known philosopher and fellow thinker Giorgio Agamben, in which he points out that: "The need to discriminate is as old as society, and was certainly already present in ours, but making it law today is something that the democratic conscience cannot accept and against which it must immediately react."
In stating this, the two thinkers aptly take the discussion of the Green pass to further levels of debate. A text has just come out, "Where do we stand?" also by Giorgio Agamben, which contains some of his interesting reflections on the great transformation underway for Western Democracies, which we highly recommend reading.
And in this regard, finally, we humbly wish to point out that:
"To be free is always the greatest goal. We need to reread history and enter into the dramatic stories of those who have fought and sacrificed their lives for the values of freedom and fundamental rights, in order to recover at least the essence of those words and to rediscover the profound value that free life can offer, as the most precious gift freely available to all. Vaccinated and not."
OutsiderPOST recommends:
"Where do we stand?", (only in Italian Edition) by Giorgio Agamben, July 2021.