Rome, 20 Sept. (LaPresse) – “It may be that ‘thinking differently’ appears to be an annoying behaviour that must be suppressed, or even eradicated, as it diverges from a supposed ‘common consensus’, as if it were an unacceptable disturbance directed against the prevailing views. Once again, one is reminded of what Alessandro Manzoni wrote in *The Betrothed*: ‘Common sense was there, but it lay hidden for fear of public opinion’. Groupthink is, of course, a tool of oppression, and the dialectic imposed by free voices – including those of dissent – is, in this sense, invaluable.” So said the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the twenty-seventh edition of ‘Pordenonelegge’. “Norberto Bobbio reminded us that the distinction between a democratic state and an authoritarian regime lies in the ‘greater or lesser space accorded to dissent’,” he added. “Unanimity is characteristic of autocracy and dictatorships and is synonymous with stagnation.” “It is the pluralism of opinions that, in democracies, prevents power – including digital power – from becoming entrenched in a truth that it seeks to impose.”
Mattarella: “Groupthink is a tool of oppression; free speech is invaluable”
Rome, 20 Sept. (LaPresse) – “It may be that ‘thinking differently’ appears to be an annoying behaviour that must be suppressed, or even eradicated, as it diverges from a supposed ‘common consensus’, as if it were an unacceptable disturbance directed against the prevailing views. Once again, one is reminded of what Alessandro Manzoni wrote in *The Betrothed*: ‘Common sense was there, but it lay hidden for fear of public opinion’. Groupthink is, of course, a tool of oppression, and the dialectic imposed by free voices – including those of dissent – is, in this sense, invaluable.” So said the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the twenty-seventh edition of ‘Pordenonelegge’. “Norberto Bobbio reminded us that the distinction between a democratic state and an authoritarian regime lies in the ‘greater or lesser space accorded to dissent’,” he added. “Unanimity is characteristic of autocracy and dictatorships and is synonymous with stagnation.” “It is the pluralism of opinions that, in democracies, prevents power – including digital power – from becoming entrenched in a truth that it seeks to impose.”