Alessandro Barbero on the beatings in Pisa: “Even in democracies, we want to silence those who protest too much” – Video

Not only in totalitarian regimes, but also in democracies, it can happen that we want to “silence a little too much those who protest”, says the historian Alessandro Barbero during a lesson to self-managed students at the Alfieri high school in Turin. . The historian inevitably commented on the events in Pisa and Florence, after the controversy over the clashes between the police and students demonstrating for Palestine. Speaking about authoritarian regimes, Barbero gave a general overview, from the police beatings in Pisa to the arrest of Julian Assange: “They are struggling to silence those who protest. We would then naturally have to open the whole page on how even Western democracies find from time to time someone who protests a little too much and want to keep those who protest a little too quiet, whether it involves beating up children during a procession or put Assange in prison. »

Barbero then added that protests can sometimes be more justified and sometimes less so, but “in a complex society like ours, it would be sad the day when students no longer protest what is decided above them.” According to the historian, “it is a constant of our time that there exists in schools what is called the student movement, with which perhaps some agree and others not, who perceive with annoyance the institutions that govern us. To those who then asked Barbero the fateful question of whether history is truly a teacher of life, he replied that “a society that does not know history would continue anyway, but without a great tool to understand the world “.

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