While Elon Musk writes on “X” that “civil war is inevitable”, Keir Starmer’s government is trying to calm the riots that have affected many English cities, leading to the arrest of almost 400 people and the call for Parliament to reconvene to address the most serious internal security crisis in recent years. Actions born after the stabbings in Southport, committed by a 17-year-old of Rwandan origins and born in the United Kingdom who in a tam-tam started by far-right groups had been described as an Islamic fundamentalist who arrived on a boat and was already under the attention of the police. Dozens of people (and businesses) have been targeted throughout the country simply because they are of foreign origin.
Adnkronos asked Mario Caligiuri, professor of Communication Pedagogy at the University of Calabria and president of the Italian Intelligence Society, for a comment. Caligiuri published “Maleducati. Education, disinformation and democracy” (Luiss press) and “Like fish in water. Immersed in disinformation” (Rubbettino).
“The cities under fire in Great Britain unfortunately dramatically summarize trends that have been present for some time,” explains Caligiuri. “First of all, social unrest, the result of the increasingly acute inequalities of globalization. Given that in Her Majesty’s empire it assumes significant relevance due to Brexit and Covid-19 in the immediate and the slow colonial decline and multiculturalism in the long term”.
The new Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised to keep the courts open 24 hours a day and to bring down the “full force of the law” on the violent. For Caligiuri, “the easiest response is always repression, not prevention. This time too, it will achieve the goal of normalization, but without affecting the underlying mechanisms and inequalities at all. I believe that social unrest could soon represent a serious risk to the stability of institutions in Western societies, when it exceeds the levels of simple public order. It is no coincidence that we read that in these hours the intelligence has been appropriately mobilized. I remember what Giulio Azzolini wrote a few years ago, concluding his book ‘After the ruling classes’: ‘In the long run, the problem will not be to establish who or how, from time to time, should command, but to ask whether, and if so why, someone will still be willing to obey’.
How did these violent and xenophobic reactions spread so quickly? “They are grafted onto a social unease that has countless causes,” continues the professor, “and that manifests itself above all as a consequence of the inadequacy of public choices to reduce inequalities and address the needs of ordinary citizens. And they are fueled by disinformation, enhanced by artificial intelligence. On the one hand, media manipulation makes us all live “like fish in water” that is, unconsciously immersed in disinformation; on the other, the digital world fueled by artificial intelligence makes instinctive aspects prevail at a cerebral level and not rational ones. What I have been describing for years as the “disinformation society” manifests itself in a very precise way: with the immensity of information on one hand and the low substantial level of education on the other. This combination creates a cognitive short circuit that irreversibly distances us from the always difficult understanding of reality. And the disinformation that produces the greatest effects is not produced by conspiracy theories and fake news, but is that which unfortunately often comes from governments, which, in order to achieve short-term objectives, crumble citizens’ trust in institutions”, concludes Caligiuri.
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