Dato che un politico non crede mai in ciò che dice, resta sorpreso quando...

“Dato che un politico non crede mai in

ciò che dice, resta sorpreso quando gli

altri ci credono”

C. De Gaulle ovvero la parola nella politica

Marta Bonfanti

Liceo Linguistico G. Parini Barzanò

Classe V LM AS: 2007/2008

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Parole in libertà

Indice

• Introduzione………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………p.1
• Inglese: Bobby, a man whispering words in the sound of silence……………………………………………………………………………………………….p.3
• Tedesco: Die Wörter des Diktators: Hitlers tragische Zeitalter, durch seine Wörter gesehen…………………………………………………….p.9
• Storia: Le parole che cambiarono la storia del nostro Paese: il discorso di Mussolini del 3 gennaio 1925 alla Camera ……….. p.13
• Italiano: Veltroni e Berlusconi: due discorsi a confronto…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….p.22
• Arte: Balla: l’originalità futurista nel linguaggio politico………………………………………………………………………………………………….p.40
• Bibliografia e sitologia………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………p.48

Introduzione

Ho deciso di realizzare questa tesina, che verte sull’importanza della parola nella politica e sull’espressione delle idee tramite le arti figurative, partendo da un interesse del tutto personale.

E’ un tema che da molto tempo mi affascina, sebbene io ne sia consapevole da poco. Da sempre mi interesso di politica, ma non mi sono mai chiesta il vero motivo per cui io lo faccia.

Quando sentivo i discorsi alla televisione o li leggevo sui giornali, o ancora assistevo personalmente a vari comizi, ero come affascinata da ciò che i politici dicevano, o meglio, ora l’ho capito, da come lo dicevano.

E’ strano a dirsi, ma veramente mi sono emozionata molte volte ascoltando l’enfasi con cui certe cose venivano dette. Poi logicamente andando avanti con gli anni, fino ad oggi, ho capito che quest’effetto che suscitavano in me non era del tutto casuale, ma voluto.

Loro volevano che io provassi certe emozioni, che io pensassi certe cose, o che io confutassi certe idee.

Non nascondo il fatto di aver pensato in un primo tempo che queste parole venissero direttamente dal loro cuore e che gli oratori stessi si lasciassero letteralmente coinvolgere da sensazioni forti umanamente condivisibili.

Ma non sono rimasta delusa quando ho capito che si trattava del contrario. Ho capito che un politico di qualsiasi schieramento, parlando, si assume delle grandi responsabilità e, allo stesso tempo, acquisisce un grande potere, talvolta propizio a lui e al suo intento, e talvolta anche pericoloso.

E qui sta il punto, se la sua parola lo rende convincente, ed apprezzato, un politico può tutto. Può tutto al punto tale da causare uno sterminio di massa, l’annullamento di una civiltà; può tutto a tal punto da fuorviare milioni di persone, a renderle sue schiave inconsapevoli, vere e proprie macchine da guerra, pronte al sacrificio in nome della pazzia di un folle.

E’ questo che mi ha lasciata sconvolta, ma allo stesso tempo incuriosita e affascinata. Mi sono chiesta: ma anche io ora mi sto lasciando corrompere da qualcuno che solo perché ha bisogno di me in un momento particolare della sua vita cerca di mettermi al centro del suo mondo?

E allora mi dico, se anche così fosse, se costui fosse capace veramente di usare questo suo potere straordinario che ha acquisito su di me per rendermi una persona migliore, per rendere la mia vita come la sua, più serena e utile, allora io chiedo di essere fuorviata!

Ci sono stati uomini malvagi, è vero, è la nostra natura purtroppo, noi siamo capaci anche di questo, ma ci sono stati uomini altrettanto meravigliosi, forti, capaci di dare voce ai dimenticati, agli inascoltati, a parlare per loro, a parlare di loro.

Da qui, si può dire che sia nata la mia ricerca. E’ stato un giorno guardando un film, un film dedicato ad una persona che prima non conoscevo, perché non mio contemporaneo purtroppo: Bob Kennedy.

Furono proprio le sue parole, la dolcezza e la bontà delle sue parole, a coinvolgermi, e da linguista decisi che quella sarebbe stata la mia ricerca.

Mi sono commossa pensando al fatto che questa persona è arrivata al cuore della gente, non dei politici ma degli umili e dei poveri dell’America degli anni sessanta, al punto da essere amato e da essere considerato una guida, tanto che una volta appresa la notizia della sua morte improvvisa ed inspiegabile, una parte di America era smarrita attonita, disperata.

Bobby era tutto e il suo ricordo oggi è ancora vivo dentro ognuno di loro, quarant’anni dopo la tragedia.

Sono partita da qui, da questa mia sconfinata ammirazione verso di lui, una persona dalla quale la politica stessa ha da imparare, da attingere per ridefinire la sua propria essenza, dalla saggezza e dall’umiltà delle sue parole.

Avrei voluto certo essere invasa da cotanto sentimento, ma purtroppo posso solo consolarmi come tanti, potendolo celebrare e stimare.

Ho continuato la mia ricerca analizzando la retorica Hitleriana, vista dagli occhi di un illustre letterato come Thomas Mann, e Mussoliniana, per poi passare alla politica odierna, e infine alla focalizzazione sulla comunicazione figurativa di Balla.

Da tutto questo mio percorso ho concluso che le delusioni che la politica porta ed ha portato sono innumerevoli, ma la voglia di credere è tanta, almeno da parte mia.

Per questo e in virtù dell’indirizzo di studi che ho scelto ho voluto dimostrare che le parole spesso hanno segnato la storia, in modo positivo e in modo negativo, che spesso hanno toccato l’anima di tante persone, come altre volte hanno risvegliato gli istinti più malvagi dell’individuo umano.

Tutto è comunicazione, tutto è parola, e anche se più volte modificata, più volte studiata, con fini e propositi differenti, chi è sensibile, riesce a vedere dietro di essa la persona che la proferisce, gli intenti, gli ideali, la sua anima.

Al giorno d’oggi le parole sono state falsate, svalorizzate, impoverite, ma nonostante ciò nulla vieta di continuare ad apprezzarle, scorgendo forse non più esplicitamente, ma tra le righe il vero intento dell’oratore.

E’ vero forse che un politico non crede mai in ciò che dice, come dice Charles de Gaulle con molta ironia, stupendosi quindi al vedere che qualcun altro poi ci creda.

Ma molto spesso è successo il contrario, c’è chi ci ha creduto e forse dico forse c’è chi ci crede ancora, pertanto non credo sia il caso di precluderci la possibilità di scoprirlo.

Bobby, a man whispering words in the sound of silence

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were and ask why not."

Brief biography

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also called RFK, was one of two younger brothers of US President John F. Kennedy and served as United States Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and a US Senator from New York from 1965 until his assassination in 1968.

He was one of President Kennedy’s most trusted advisors and worked closely with the president during the Cuban Missile Crisis. His contribution to the African-American Civil Rights Movement is sometimes considered his greatest heritage.

After his brother’s assassination in late 1963, Kennedy continued as Attorney General under President Johnson for nine months. He resigned in September 1964 and was elected to the United States Senate from New York that November. He broke with Johnson over the Vietnam War, among other issues.

After Eugene McCarthy nearly upset Johnson in the New Hampshire Primary in early 1968, Kennedy announced his own campaign for president in a battle for control of the Democratic Party.

Kennedy defeated McCarthy in the critical California Primary but was shot moments after claiming victory shortly after midnight, by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, on June 5, 1968, dying June 6.

On June 9, President Johnson declared an official day of national mourning in response to the public grief following Kennedy’s death.

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope...."

This year it’s the 40th anniversary of Bobby’s death, and it doesn’t seem that such a long time has passed.

By thinking of him, of his policy, our mind comes back to that day, the 5th of June 1968, in the Ambassador Hotel in California, where he died, without any reason, becoming a hero.

But it’s not only his death that makes him a hero, it was his words, his way of speaking, that had nothing had nothing to deal with the words commonly used by traditional politics.

He was simply Bobby, not Mr. Kennedy or Mr. President, but just a man talking to simple men, full of hope and good ideas.

He’s been the man of the poorest, the forgotten, he was always there, among thousands of persons, shaking their hands, stretching them his hands.

He has been very engaged with the struggle for civil rights, he pulled down the walls of racism, denouncing the differences between blacks and whites, he was a friend of Martin Luther King.

He was against war, and the Vietnam war, he raised his voice against injustices end teamsters, against violence and cruelty.

But the thing that really strikes a man listening to his speeches is the fact that he doesn’t use the common rhetoric just to convince people to vote him, or simply to approve him, but listening to him we perceive that these words do really come from his heart, and they are so strong, so full of charity, that even nowadays people can be fascinated.

For instance,

“ Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation ... It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Here Bobby actually believes everyone contribute to change the world and makes it.

Of course, only few people will have the greatness to change history, and this is true, but this is not a valuable reason to feel ourselves aimless, we do have something to struggle for, something to believe in.

And Bobby assures us, that every single man is absolutely necessary, indispensable by his acting in changing history.

Because we shape our history, every time we stand up for something, we believe in something fair, something praiseworthy, we give a tiny hope to someone.

That’s why we have to gather our though little drops in the ocean, for the welfare of mankind.

There’s a song, that is also part of the soundtrack of the movie Bobby, dedicated to Bob Kennedy, saying that “the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, and tenement halls, whispered in the sound of silence”, and I think that’s truly what Bobby does, he writes his words on the hearts, on the innermost of ourselves, on the most hidden and sometimes bad place of our mind.

He addresses also to those in despair, saying that oppression doesn’t make revolutions.

The purpose of men is to be revolutionary, and only when hope replaces resignation, you can achieve your goal, and change your life.

"Men without hope, resigned to despair and oppression, do not make revolutions. It is when expectation replaces submission, when despair is touched with the awareness of possibility, that the forces of human desire and the passion for justice are unloosed.".

Political commitment and social justice

After his brother’s election victory in 1960 Bobby became United States Attorney General, and this was the period of greatest power of the office.

He started a real crusade against organized crime and Teamsters and he supported civil rights.

He was to maintain this promise to racial equality even into his own presidential campaign, extending his firm sense of social justice to all areas of national life and into matters of foreign and economic policy.

After the assassination of President Kennedy, he undertook a tour of South Africa in which he defended the cause of the anti-Apartheid movement.

In an interview with Look Magazine he said:

"At the University of Natal in Durban, I was told the church to which most of the white population belongs teaches apartheid as a moral necessity.

A questioner declared that few churches allow black Africans to pray with the white because the Bible says that is the way it should be, because God created Negroes to serve.

'But suppose God is black', I replied.

'What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?'

There was no answer. Only silence."

This is a way he uses to demonstrate that racism is not only a plague of humanity, but it is also a very silly thing, because there’s no reason beyond the fact that people must be divided or classified.

Above all if this is made in the name of religion, in fact he launches a provocation: let’s suppose God is black, because we do not know actually the color of his skin, we would go to Heaven with the guilt of having badly threaten black people, we would look Him in His face, and what will our reaction be?

There are things that can’t be stood anymore, and that’s what Bobby wants to say, there are things common to all human beings, that can’t be separated.

There are values capable of passing over everything, one of them is faith.

His faith his strong, his policy resents a lot of his catholic background, he’s very involved in following Church’s doctrine.

Throughout his life, Bobby made reference to his faith, how it educated every area of his life, and how it gave him the strength to re-enter politics following the assassination of his elder brother.

In March 1968 Bobby declared his candidacy for the presidential elections, realizing that he was really loved and appreciated by a huge quantity of people.

Poor people even kept his picture on the walls, it was a moral duty for him to run for these elections.

He was their hero, their hope, their future, he couldn’t draw back.

Bobby declared his candidacy on March 16, 1968, stating: "I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies.

I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I'm obliged to do all I can."

He stood on a receipt of racial and economic justice, non-aggression in foreign policy, decentralization of power and social improvement.

A crucial element to his campaign was an engagement with the young, whom he identified as being the future of a reinvigorated American society based on partnership and equality.

On April 4, 1968, Bobby learned of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and gave a heartfelt, spontaneous speech in Indianapolis’s inner city, in which he called for a reconciliation between the races.

Riots broke out in 60 cities in the wake of King’s death, but not in Indianapolis, a fact many attribute to the effect of this speech.

Bob Kennedy’s speech on the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Indianapolis, Indiana, April 4, 1968

Ladies and Gentlemen - I’m only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening.

Because… I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings.

He died in the cause of that effort.

In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it’s perhaps well to ask what kind of nation we are and what direction we want to move in.

For those of you who are black - considering the evidence, evidently is that there were white people who were responsible - you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization - black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another.

Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love.