An Advocacy for the World Parliament

Armando Torno
Journalist

Mario Capanna
Il Risveglio del Mondo. Testimonianze sul Parlamento Mondiale
Mimesis, Milano, 2022

When Thomas More's book entitled Utopia appeared in 1596 in Louvain, a dispute arose among the humanists. Some argued that the initial "u" was the contraction of "ou" and, since "topos" in Greek means place, the word would have indicated a "place that does not exist".

Others disagreed. They noted that in the language of the great ancient philosophers the negative forms are given by prepending "ou" to verbal forms and "a" (the well-known alpha privative) in the case of a noun. So? In deference to More, who was cultured, ironic as well as illustrious, someone suggested that it was not an error but a gimmick: the "u" could be understood as a contraction of "eu" ("good" in Greek) and the word would have thus described a "happy place".

The debate of that early sixteenth century between various grammarians and scholars always comes to mind especially when Mario Capanna enters the field with his latest war horse: a World Parliament that can represent all the peoples of our planet. The idea, useless to deny it, is not easy to realize and even now it is placed among the ideas belonging to a utopia. But this is precisely the desire of Capanna, who considers that happy place that does not exist as a laboratory of ideas and projects for  the humanity of the future.

On the other hand, as the leader of the 1968 student-uprisings likes to say, communism appeared in Plato's Republic and it took over two millennia to see its first application. The Greek thinker proposed the abolition of private property in the upper classes and the introduction of the communion of goods; so that everyone shared their possessions in the interest of the community. To return to More's Utopia, let's not forget that the working day was 6 hours and the rest of the time had to be devoted to studies. And in Campanella’s The City of the Sun, everyone was required to work no more than 4 hours a day. These are still utopian times for current rhythms, although not unattainable.

Now Capanna has collected a series of testimonies on the World Parliament, interviewing just under forty personalities ranging from the Nobel Prize winner Giorgio Parisi to a combative priest like Don Antonio Mazzi, from the film director (Academy Award winner) Gabriele Salvatores to the singer-songwriter Roberto Vecchioni, from the philosopher Giacomo Marramao to the historian Franco Cardini. There is no lack of criticism in the testimonies collected. For example, Luciano Canfora, a magnificent connoisseur of the Greek-Latin world, in the letter he addressed to Capanna, after recalling that he "always had respect for utopian proposals because they almost always contain elements that bear fruit in the future", is not in agreement with the project. He sees the World Parliament as "an old, powerless and discredited instrument". The editor adds a footnote, however from the debate emerges the ineffectiveness of the UN in the face of current conflicts, and the uselessness that the League of Nations (founded in 1920) demonstrated in preventing the Second World War.

Of course, the World Parliament is also something else and would have problems that are not easy to deal with in the future, now that the Earth has 8 billion inhabitants and it will only take a few years to reach 10. Looking for a solution to giving a voice to everyone through the World Parliament is judged by Marcello Veneziani – thus the title of his contribution – “an agreeable and coherent utopian idea”, while the monk and anthropologist Guidalberto Bormolini would even like “a cosmic meeting” which does not represent "only humans, who definitely caused plenty of trouble”.

It is not possible to report all the opinions expressing some criticism and many encouragements, we will only say that the idea of such a parliament has passed its first test and is beginning to be shared beyond trends and opinions by illustrious international figures present in the book, such as Gustavo Zagrebelsky or Carlo Rovelli, the Afghan Malalai Joya or Nadia Urbinati. Among the texts there is also a poem by Roberto Piumini, a Civil Song written specifically for the collection, and a contribution by the photojournalist Uliano Lucas.

In the introduction, after recognizing the utopian nature of the World Parliament, Capanna recalls that it may have the imperfections typical of human constructions, but it should not be thought of with the “current obsolete categories”. In short, it is necessary to try. New urgencies are coming. This is not the time to give up.