Italian
Our Constitution differs from almost all others from the very first line: “Italy is a democratic Republic, founded on labor.” It is an original statement, but above all, it is loaded with profound value. In that sentence, labor is not understood merely as an economic tool for sustenance, a means to earn or survive. Labor is the very substance of human action: we work to continue working. Only in this way do we give continuity and meaning to existence. And on labor lies the foundation of being a group. Working means working together.
This principle overturns the perspective and strongly empowers the State and businesses. Their primary task becomes to ensure that work exists, and that it is available for everyone. Because only the continuity of work allows for future planning, freeing the individual from the unpredictability of fate. We are Homo Faber even before Habilis or Sapiens. Human beings are structured to operate together. Work and social group are archetypes from which we cannot escape.
In nature, isolation is a sentence. The pack cooperates to procure food and shelter, protecting the individual. Birds are able to undertake exhausting migrations only because they fly in flocks, harnessing the strength of the group. From microorganisms to the most complex social structures, collective organization makes each individual more efficient.
In past centuries, the village and the farmhouse formed the backbone of a society capable of coping with still rudimentary technologies. Archaeological excavations clearly show us how small the homes of the past were: cramped, essential spaces used only for sleeping and protecting oneself from the elements. Real life took place outside, in the fields, working as a team to speed up the harvest and optimize energy.
The concepts of cooperation and community are deep archetypes that continue to resist within us despite the contemporary push towards individualism and solitude. In the farmhouses of the nineteenth century, everything was transparent and interconnected. Security stemmed from mutual knowledge: the group safeguarded the individual. Today, however, we ignore who lives on the other side of the landing. And when the news overwhelms us with a tragedy, we find ourselves taken aback: “They seemed like a normal person, a family like many others.”
Isolation has caused us to lose “common sense,” understood in its noblest meaning: the common feeling. This deficiency now appears dramatic, almost inevitable. Yet common sense does not arise in solitude, nor is it found in the shouting squares of protests that repeat antagonistic slogans. True common sense is born in the group that collaborates for a constructive purpose: the protection and development of each person.
It is the community that senses the dangers, finds solutions, and guides choices towards the good of all. The dimension of the “masseria,” with living and working together, sharing spaces and times, where everyone is part of the whole and is welcomed as an equal who can access common spaces because they feel they belong, represents the foundation of common sense that today is increasingly lost and relative. Common sense arises from shared feelings, the only form of knowledge and understanding that allows us to live in peace and security.
