Lajme flash
Intellectuals have had their vocal cords cut!
2026-08-19 10:10:30 / IDE
By Ardi Stefa
Yesterday, Afrim Krasniqi had a very interesting, but also very worrying reaction regarding the lack of reaction of the "Albanian intellectual elites", academic, university and public, referring to V-Dem data for Albania, which show a noticeable decline in recent years in the critical public role of academics and the university world towards government policies.
Afrim rightly raises the concern about the lack of "cultivation of critical thinking, argument and respect for the opinion of the Other", emphasizing that "within it there is a serious problem with civic formation, its political culture and of course with the quality of democracy", which "is not measured only by the right to speak, but also by the courage and ability to think differently and the weight/attention that society gives to this opinion."
The status made me think and reminded me of a statement made years ago by Italian Nobel laureate Dario Fo, who emphasized/accused that intellectuals have had their vocal cords cut.
Not with a knife, of course. It would be very obvious. They cut them off with a much more sophisticated mechanism: with fear, dependence, compromise, lack of revolt, privileges and purchased silence.
Dario Fo said that “power is afraid of those who laugh.” Herein lies the problem of intellectuals, who no longer dare to laugh, ridicule and criticize power, and dare not even oppose it.
Once upon a time, intellectuals were the concern of power. Today, in many cases, they are its shield and justification.
We see it in television studios, at conferences, at universities, in cultural institutions, at tables where there is much talk about democracy and very little is said about what is really happening. Many of those who should have been the voice of society have become echoes of power.
The consequences of submissive, conformist, and opportunistic thinking are terrible: it destroys antibodies.
The government doesn't always need to imprison you. It's enough to give you a chair.
There's no need to censor you. It's enough to offer you a privilege.
There's no need to threaten you. It's enough to make you realize what you could lose if you speak up.
And thus silence is born. Not the silence imposed by force, but the one that man imposes on himself, because he has learned to weigh words with interest.
An intellectual who doesn't bother anyone isn't necessarily an intellectual. He could just be an educated person.
The task of the intellectual is not to be liked. It is to be needed. And, to be needed means to say what others dare not say.
Dario Fo said that "Power always seeks to silence dissenting voices, but in a healthy system, power is limited by those who oppose it."
"Intellectuals used to shape public opinion. But today, who dares to rebel?"
When corruption becomes normal, the intellectual must call it corruption. When injustice is clothed in law, he must call it injustice. When the government behaves as the owner of the state, he must remind them that the state is not private property.
And when society is silent, it should be him who speaks.
A society without free intellectuals is a society without alarm.
And when the alarm doesn't go off, thieves have nothing to fear.
Maybe that's why they cut their vocal cords.
Because the government is afraid not of the intellectual who speaks beautifully, but of the one who speaks the truth.
Po ndodh...
The power of vanity! The protest broke the "magic" of Rama and Berisha
Nga Indrit Gjyzeli
ide
Albania does not need religious states
Nga Sokol Neçaj
Intellectuals have had their vocal cords cut!
Nga Ardi Stefa
top
TRENDING 
shërbime
- POLICIA129
- POLICIA RRUGORE126
- URGJENCA112
- ZJARRFIKESJA128