WORLD SOCIAL SUMMIT 2008
'WSS: De Rita, hope beyond fear'

Giuseppe De Rita, President of Fondazione Censis and sociologist, held a speech on the last day of the World Social Summit organized by Fondazione Roma in the Capital city. "We understood that these days" says the sociologist "we must overcome the idea of multiple fears. Otherwise, there is the risk that everything becomes fear and we will not be able to react. The harmful milk for children, the bag-snatching of gipsies, the great American crisis. The danger is an addition greater than the same fear".

De Rita says that a deep rupture occurred in Italy: "Before safety was linked to the regulation of labour. There is a link between social safety and labour. But now that employment is at risk, the assurance of safety is lacking". According to the leader writer of Corriere della Sera, we tend to "look for assurances having no meaning, as the army inside cities". General, multiple assurances".

In order not to lose hope, he adds "this must be pushed away from fear. The hope-fear binomial relieves from responsibilities, modifying the psychological aspect of society. If we do not give up resignation, if there is no trust, communication, courage, freedom, a system cannot free itself from fear. "In addition"concludes the professor "we must not rely on individual solutions, that bind us to the present. If the prospective is of short-term, we will never be able to face unexpected facts. To avoid this, we need to hope in a positive utopia, imagination, able to transform emotion into feeling".