Bestemmiare, piagnucolare o agire? Crisi e responsabilità oggi e nel pensiero di Antonio Gramsci

In the contemporary debate, no topic is more prominent than that of responsibility. If only because global changes, technological development, wars, pandemics or ecological catastrophe show us the consequences of humanity acting irresponsibly. Indeed, it is the same limitless power that humanity has evoked that drives it to raise questions about that power. Responsibility relates to humanity’s ability to respond to its actions. But to whom, to what, does one respond? Contemporary politics does not seem to be able to offer a convincing vision: on the one hand we are witnessing an individualization of responsibility, a blaming of the individual, citizen or political actor. On the other hand, there is a growing irresponsibility resulting from a freedom that wants to be ever more absolute. Is it possible, then, to imagine a responsibility focused on the collective, that maintains a relationship with history, that shifts the attention from the individual to rulers and organizational processes? Antonio Gramsci, in an era in many ways similar to ours, seems to have been able to conceive of a concept of responsibility that proves itself very relevant to our current condition. In this essay I read Gramsci’s reflections from the novel perspective of responsibility and bring his conclusions up to date.