A photo from 1941 goes viral on Albanian Facebook. A young couple rests peacefully in the Italian Alps. They smile glamorously, seemingly unaware of the horror that is consuming Europe. The comments are scary: “Fascist!”, “Communist spy!” The philosopher Lea Ypi recognizes her grandparents and discovers something terrible: her grandmother, still alive, can read every viral insult, but not respond: she has no power to tell her own story. The trolls decided who it was. in his book UnworthinessYpi explores the wound of those who are transformed into objects of other people’s narratives, without the authority to intervene in the story of themselves. I wonder if something similar happens to us citizens when those who have to give a name to reality hand over the authority over the truth to those who try to destroy it. Ypi tries to recover that authority: he investigates the archives and reconstructs his grandmother’s life with rigor and attention, seeking the truth when it would be easier to remain silent. Moral authority, after all, comes from holding clear criteria under pressure.
Read on
