What will remain of 2012, in encyclopedias and history books? Looking for a rational clue in the chaotic flow of events, or freezing them in a sort of 'still image', is already difficult, if not impossible, in times of ordinary administration. Imagine in a year like the one we're leaving behind. A muddled, indecipherable year. A year of transition, the direction of which, however, is not clear. The world seems to have broken down, stranded in the worst crisis since the war. With the largest democracy paralyzed by a long and incandescent electoral campaign, which then resulted in the reappointment of Barack Obama. The second economic power on the planet, China, which is losing momentum. And Europe gasps under the yoke of German hegemony, in the dilemma between disintegration and full political integration. An international community powerless in the face of the Syrian slaughterhouse. And Italy on the brink of default temporarily secured by Mario Monti and a team of excellent technicians, but without popular investiture and too exposed to cross vetoes by the parties.
Many of the trends that we identified in the 2011 Year Book have reversed or undergone unexpected accelerations. The 'Arab spring' risks ending up frozen by fundamentalism. The Catholic Church which occupied the squares and the media in 2011 with the beatification of Wojtyla is now making headlines above all for the internal struggles and scandals of Vatileaks. And on the ruins of Berlusconi's system of power, what we have called here the 'sack of party politics' extends to other political forces, even the most unexpected ones, overwhelming local administrations and national leaders.
It was certainly a very creative year on a linguistic level, culminating in that Frankenstorm, the monster hurricane that will leave a lasting mark on the memory of Americans before it is in the dictionary. To stay in our house, the daily lexicon has been enriched by a flood of new items. The rescue Italy of the technogovernment was not enough to resolve the issue of exodus workers, and the rigors of the spending review forced many Italians to take a non-holiday. The political debate is dominated by Grillese. The formatters would gladly send home the regional councilor who was bluffing, but they have to deal with the barmen. While bookworms and mommy-porns go crazy in the bookstore, in the stadium people get excited about Pirlo's scavetto. Scientists discover God particles and intelligent molds. And Mario Draghi tries to avert Greexit with the antispread shield.
But in addition to the neologisms, it is the numbers and often alarming statistics that invade public discourse, monopolizing the pages of the newspapers and the headlines of the news. This too is an effect of the cultural hegemony of the technicians.
To bring order to the nebula of concepts, figures and words that have bewildered us for twelve months, and push our gaze beyond the contingent, we have called together about seventy experts, from academia, journalism and the literary world (one third are women). With their help, in these pages, we try to shed light on the eurozone crisis, on anti-politics and party financing, on the conflict between generations in the labor market and on the prospects of Egypt and Asia, but let's go deeper also the controversies related to the earthquake in Emilia and the possibility of predicting and preventing it, the disaster of the Costa Concordia, the discovery of the Higgs boson, the problems of contemporary art museums and the budget of the London Olympics. Among the many characters in the limelight in 2012 we have chosen ten unconventional but somehow emblematic figures, such as the Algerian writer Boualem Sansal boycotted by Islamic fundamentalists or Julia Bluhm, the fourteen-year-old American in revolt against the dictatorship of Photoshop. And we have further enriched the section of international data and comparisons, to better defend ourselves from fake or artfully inflated statistics.
We leave 2012 with few regrets, even fewer expectations and a lot of uncertainty. Should we believe Monti who sees a light at the end of the tunnel, Obama according to whom "the best is yet to come", or Mrs. Merkel who promises us another five years of suffering? The only sensible answer, perhaps, is that of the seller of Leopardi's almanacs: "'Don't you like him that the new year was like someone from these last years?' 'Mr no, I wouldn't like it'».
Attachments: The Book of the Year 2012
