From Hell

Roberto Saviano*… or so.

If hell exists, it will be populated by people who, capable of being good in life, chose corruption and dishonesty. These beings are the true demons. And they live among us.

I feel scared about those people who have everything and trample over others in search of a satisfaction that never ends. People born with comforts, with excellent schools, luxuries, exclusive clothes, cars, knowledge, power, and an endless array of material possessions that place them in a privileged position within this eternal third world. People who could be willing to do good, to share with generosity what they have, to bring light. But no. They are bad. Very bad. And evil arises in them more as soon as they glimpse a dishonest opportunity that they enjoy without remorse and that they carry out without hesitation, causing harm to others who are not actually as privileged as they are. I am nobody to judge them, but those kinds of people, the bad ones, what is their soul made of? Lucifer from hell will welcome them with open arms, if hell exists.

I try to clumsily paraphrase the writer Roberto Saviano, author of the controversial story of “Gomorrah.” Surely, I don't do it with his lucidity, but I try.

A very different thing happens with people who have nothing or who are born without opportunities. A person who sees the light in a miserable neighborhood, who from a young age witnesses how his stepfather beats his mother, who has to witness how other children go to school because neither he nor his siblings can afford to waste time in a classroom; who, from a young age, hits the streets to hustle; whose only opportunities to succeed are to pull a trigger and kill, as his neighborhood is full of gangs that constantly do it and know no different culture... what can we say there? Is that person bad? If these people survive by killing others, will they meet Beelzebub amidst their embers and sparks when they die? Probably not. I would say, like Saviano, that such a person had no choice but to be good and that therefore, a just God will forgive them.

I know that, like Saviano, I delve into quite debatable and complex topics. But if I played at being God and found him in the trial of his life, I would look at him and I would be depressed to see how a human being ended up being the product of a society without paths, without possibilities for growth. But I repeat: I wouldn't be able to condemn him.

If, as God, I condemned him to eternal pain, would I feel just with myself? Could I with my conscience from now on? What would you do?

With the bad ones, everything is easier because evil is pure: these days, a bad person, for example, claimed to want to get out of jail and in an overly histrionic act, asked to be executed so that his "martyrdom" would end, the martyrdom of being in a jail with all possible comforts; a jail better than any commune. Also, another of these bad ones, said he was going to seek protection from the Human Rights Commission because he was a victim of someone much worse who wanted to kill him.

As I said: it is much easier to condemn bad people because you know they are bathed in cynicism, shamelessness, a malice that they have already committed and need to continue carrying out. Evil has no remorse, as I said. Evil is hidden, is aware, knows what it does. If we played to be Lucifer, on the other hand, I wouldn't wait to take them to hell and make sausages with their consciences.

May Saviano and you forgive so much foolishness on my part.

.....

* Roberto Saviano, born on September 22, 1979, is an Italian journalist and author. Widely known for his groundbreaking work "Gomorrah," he exposed the operations of the Camorra, a powerful criminal syndicate. Due to his courageous revelations, Saviano has lived under police protection since 2006, facing constant threats. Despite the challenges, he continues to be a prominent voice against organized crime, corruption, and the socio-economic issues plaguing Italy.