About the Green Pass decree in Italy: Massimo Cacciari and Giorgio Agamben (english translation)

About the green pass decree

Discrimination against a category of people, who automatically become second-class citizens, is in itself a very serious matter, the consequences of which can be dramatic for democratic life. It is being dealt with, with the so-called green pass, with unconscious levity. Every despotic regime has always operated through practices of discrimination, which may have been moderate at first but then became widespread. It is no coincidence that in China they say they want to continue with tracking and monitoring even after the pandemic is over. And it is worth remembering the 'internal passport' that citizens of the Soviet Union had to show to the authorities for every trip. When a politician goes so far as to address those who do not vaccinate using a fascist jargon as "we will purge them with the green pass" is really to be feared to be already beyond any constitutional guarantee.

Woe if the vaccine turns into a kind of religious-political symbol. This would not only represent an intolerable anti-democratic drift, but would also run counter to scientific evidence itself. Nobody is inviting people not to vaccinate! It is one thing to argue that the vaccine is useful, but it is quite another to ignore the fact that we are still in a phase of 'mass experimentation' and that the scientific debate on many fundamental aspects of the problem is completely open. The Official Journal of the European Parliament of 15 June clearly states that 'direct or indirect discrimination against people who are not vaccinated, including those who have chosen not to be vaccinated, must be avoided'. And how could it be otherwise? The vaccinated can not only infect, but can still get sick: in England, out of 117 new deaths, 50 had received the double dose. In Israel, it is estimated that the vaccine covers 64% of those who have received it. The pharmaceutical companies themselves have officially stated that it is not possible to predict the long-term damage of the vaccine, as they have not had time to carry out all the genotoxicity and carcinogenicity tests. "Nature" has calculated that it will still be physiological that 15% of the population will not take the vaccine. So how long are we going to have to stick with the pass?

Everyone is threatened by discriminatory practices. Paradoxically, those 'enabled' by the green pass are more so than the non-vaccinated (whom regime propaganda would like to pass off as 'enemies of science' and perhaps proponents of magical practices), since all their movements would be controlled and it would never be possible to find out how and by whom. The need to discriminate is as old as society, and was certainly already present in ours, but to make it law today is something that the democratic conscience cannot accept and against which it must immediately react.

Translated from https://www.iisf.it/index.php/progetti/diario-della-crisi/massimo-cacciari-giorgio-agamben-a-proposito-del-decreto-sul-green-pass.html