The modern world is surrounded by a fence of indifference, one that is widening and extending the boundaries of disinterest, detachment and non-commitment. Within indifference lurk distraction and insensitivity. Indifference is at work in the running of day-to-day life, dwelling in cities and the countryside at a time that is increasingly defined by cold cynicism. It is the domain of an exile from the world and its events; an exile from neighbours, nature and culture. It is an absenteeism from history. Homo inclusus has given his verdict. By isolating himself, he begins to play out scripted relationships based on the reproduction of mechanical actions void of any (genuine) shared emotions. He alienates himself, cuts himself off from all but one perspective: his own. He nurtures the tempered existence of a spectator, a distracted passer-by, an emotional deserter, a fugitive, a narcissist and a nihilist. As he feeds this desert, he relinquishes all interpersonal bonds: “The cult of self teaches that we should think only of ourselves. The ‘cold’ behaviour this breeds is manifested through a calculated impediment; it suppresses any somatic uprisings, a typical sign of human emotion” (A. Zamperini, "L’indifferenza", Einaudi, Torino, 2007, p. 40). Indifference does not only appear alongside non-commitment, “but also in our inability to stray from rigid scripts that are passed off for duty everywhere” (A. Zamperini, "L’indifferenza", Einaudi, Torino, 2007, pp. 40-41). It is the tyranny of convention that leads the protagonist of Camus’ novel, "L'Étranger", to feel estranged from himself and from the world and to accept his imprisonment and punishment with complete indifference. (giovanni pelloso)

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