Country Philosopher

Country Philosopher has been mentioned once or twice in our blog so it is now time to introduce him to our readers. He’s a recent surprising discovery and I will first reveal his name: Dario Bernazza. What amazed me the day I read one of his books is the fact that he makes use of reason in the way the Ancients did, as if later thought almost didn’t exist. Free from doubt, he has total faith in the absolute power of rationality and his philosophical manner is entirely natural and naïve. He applies his ancient-like rational method to both big issues - like the existence of God or how we can reach happiness - (see Vivere alla massima espressione) - and to everyday problems, in an effort to provide answers to our contemporary void by making use of techniques similar to those applied by Epicurean or Stoic thinkers 2000 years ago (see his image below, the best I could find so far).

Therefore, with all due respect to professional philosophers like Fernando Savater (who will probably be invited to our symposium), Bernazza will be present also though with a certain caution, since he has a few annoying imperfections in our view, last but not least the tendency to morally subjugate the reader.

Millennia in the Jungle

Bizarre example of philosophical genuineness and cultural isolation as well (which kind of preserved him) Country Philosopher is the Japanese soldier who keeps on fighting in the jungle since thousands of years, with no other weapon than his argumentation and being almost unaware that the world of Socrates, Plato or Zeno of Citium is no more to be found. He is a survivor. He is a survivor of our classic world.
That all this could happen is both romantic and tragic, although incredibly precious. And perhaps in no other places than here, in the countryside around Rome, (Priverno, Latina) or generally in the central and southern areas of this country, a person like that could be nurtured.

Living Fossils of Antiquity

How many are Italian country intellectuals? Sparse over the territory they publish their works with their own money using small local publishing houses and having a small entourage of devoted readers (now there’s the Web, but it didn’t exist at the time of our CP).

This phenomenon is not exclusively Italian, of course, even though in our country 1) historical layers are extremely rich and 2) an important part of the classic world originated here thus allowing us to legitimately speak of cultural living fossils of the classic civilization. In some way, especially in the central and in Mezzogiorno (Southern) regions of our country (although not exclusively), many of us are more or less cultural living fossils, with all the inadequacies towards modernity all this can involve (corrupt patronage systems, amoral familism, clientelism etc.). We retain peculiar and fascinating qualities as well, which are not yet dried up, we do believe. From all this positive heritage the world could hopefully receive some enrichment, who knows, if we could only make our … peculiarities of any profit to others.

The better part of our tradition must then be revalued. In the present crisis of the West, due to this great uncertainty regarding our fundamental values, cultural elements of the classical world - such as philosophy replacing religion to provide full meanings in our life etc. - must be re-examined and updated. We need to achieve - at an educated higher level - what has already been done with folklore and folklore music (for example of Latium and of Campania, whose ancient folk dances and tunes, recently rediscovered and re-performed, reveal fascinating residues of the rites of Bacchus, among the rest. See this Tammurriata dance from South of Italy, of Greek and Dionysian descent).

This higher-level type of discoveries is actually on the way. Among various initiatives, the Festival of philosophy in Modena (see picture below) has for example been a great success, with 120 thousand presences in only 3 days last year and a seventh successful 3-days edition which ended this last 16th September 2007. This formula, thanks to contributions of the European Community, has been exported, it seems, to both France and the Czech Republic.

As a conclusion, the great (dead) philosophers and writers of our classical time and all times can certainly guide us towards a more meaningful life, we don’t have many doubts about it. Nonetheless, these (living) fossils survived in forgotten niches of our forgotten sea, these philosophical incrustations - certainly of lesser value and possibly deteriorated (like prehistoric sequences of DNA which ice has given us back) - are somewhat living witnesses of a past that keeps on talking to us. They preserve the odour of knotty olive wood, of myrtle and of our ginestra. Their ancient lesson - not at the level of their great models - is none the less teaching us something which, in spite of all, we are certainly proud of.

Note. More on CP in Ethical Confusion & Ancient Teachings, Assets and Liabilities in Life, Living to Our Fullest Potential and Health and Serenity of Soul.

Italian version of this post