Faster and faster: the car races, adrenaline kicks in, the landscape constantly changes. As for the direction, that is a matter for later: now there is no time. It is an exhilarating and frightening feeling: will we lose control? As in a video game, speed increases yet again… but this is definitely not a video game. In a society that emphasizes the present and features continuous acceleration, is the past now doomed to a fate of collective suppression? Can there still be any point in discussing what is called “tradition”? The past may no longer speak a familiar language, but it poses a problem that affects everyone. This book touches on a selection of pressing issues underpinning current cultural debates – from cancel culture to the crisis of authority – in an attempt to show that the past exists only within an ongoing negotiation with the present. The past is a dynamic process, not an immutable entity, a challenge we cannot avoid addressing. If we do not know where we come from, we will not understand where we are going, let alone who we are, individually and collectively.

Mauro Bonazzi teaches History of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Milan.

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