With her irony, actress Teresa Mannino gave a 12-minute speech in which, between witty jokes and deeper moments, she created a reflection on our society and humanity.
Are we in 2024? But let's think like 2500 years ago. I'll tell you what my personal theory is. In the 5th century BC, the Greek philosopher Protagoras – remember?!...
Thus begins the monologue, disguised as a comic sketch, by Teresa Mannino in Sanremo 2024, who wanted to talk about man, first by comparing him to plants and animals, so similar to us, except for the ability to speak:
We have 60% of our genetic heritage equal to bananas, that's why they say "mi sono sbucciata le ginocchia".
We have 98% in common with monkeys. Except that this information isn't very widespread, because chimpanzees tend not to let us know. We feel superior because we talk, but animals and plants communicate in a different way.
When a Sicilian goes to Milan and tries to talk to a Milanese, he tells him a sentence in the Sicilian dialect, he doesn't understand. But we keep repeating it to him in the hope that he will understand. We humans have the same presumption towards other living beings. Plants communicate through microparticles and electrical impulses, animals communicate with the body: baboons greet each other by shaking their genitals and receive a lot of information.
Teresa Mannino's monologue at Sanremo 2024 goes on to talk about the leafcutter ant and how, ultimately, we too can learn something from this particular species:
In the Old Testament, Job says "ask the beast and it will explain to you". I asked the leafcutter ants, who farm like us. They have been farming for 50 million years and have not destroyed anything. We've only been farming for 10,000 years and we've exhausted the planet.
They have lived on our planet for 150 million years, we have lived only 2 million. They were here when there were dinosaurs: when the meteor arrived, the dinosaurs disappeared, and they didn't. Let's understand how it works and copy them.
Leafcutter ant society works like this. There is a queen mother and her daughters, the males are only a small minority. Does the Queen Mother choose the sex of her unborn children and what sex does she choose? Females. She chooses males once a year for the continuation of the species. And what is their role? Their only job is to supply sperm.
Human animals prefer power: over other men, over women, over children, over nature. I like power too, but "power for" is another thing entirely. The power to be happy, to make people laugh, to dance in the street. It is very different from the power to destroy.
