PRESS RELEASE (16/01/2017)
Wednesday, Jan. 18, a Loano, will kick off the “Brown Zones - social-nationalisms and the crisis of democracy”, organized by the’A.N.P.I of Loano in collaboration with the Stella del Carmo Association, under the auspices of the Municipality of Loano.
The series of seminars of character historical and political, which will take place at 9 p.m. at Civic Library, will be divided into four meetings-debates with two speakers, professors Luigi Vassallo e John Zanelli, who will introduce the themes of the evenings and moderate the participants' speeches.
“The goal of the initiative," the organizers explain, "is to stimulate the formation of critical consciousness through participatory discussion. The theme of the evenings will be the social-nationalism, that is, that political tendency to associate the exaltation of the nation with the social question. This strategy has historically belonged to Nazi - fascisms and is renewed in the weave of the discourse of today's populisms. An attempt will be made to show that the cyclical reoccurrence of social-nationalism is a symptom of the crisis of democracy, then as now. Through reflection on the past, with a focus on the early decades of the 20th century, an attempt will be made to define a historical-political category for understanding the present. The seminar will address the issues of national identity, democratic participation, war as an instrument of political propaganda, and populism in its various declinations. Numerous and rich will be the starting points from which to build together a path of education and consciousness-raising.‘.
In the first meeting the prof. John Zanelli will introduce the seminar series by defining the category of social-nationalism from its historical origins and its appeal to the identity of people and nation, and Prof. Vassallo will highlight the connection between the rise of social-nationalism and the crisis of participation in democracies then and now.
