Vita Tua Vita Mea
The New Paradigm of 21 Minuti
Abstract
From the emotion of the long-awaited return of 21 Minuti to an in-person format arises an invitation to reconsider who we are and how we live. Paoletti proposes a new paradigm founded on interdependence, gratitude and a spherical vision of existence and of the economy. Prefiguring the future, orienting one’s inner world and recognising the value of the other become the three axes on which to build a new civilisation: your life, my life.
Introduction
In the hall of the Acquario Romano, after six years, 21 Minuti returned in person, and for me it was a profound joy.
In this event, over the years, we have shared visions, questions and intuitions.
Of course, during this period I felt the closeness of thousands of people from all over the world who joined the online editions. But the gaze, the breath, the living presence of a full room: this is irreplaceable.
Covid slowed all of us down. It slowed everyday life, projects, meetings, and it also slowed 21 Minuti.
It reminded us, sometimes harshly, of a truth we often forget: the events of life are unpredictable.
And this is precisely where I want to begin: not only from unpredictability, but from what we can cultivate to navigate it. Resilience: the ability to stand, to rise again, to transform what happens.
Why prefigure a future?
When I speak about prefiguring the future, many people ask me:
“But will what I imagine really happen?”
The answer is simple: no, it will not happen exactly as you imagine it.
So why devote ourselves to prefiguration?
Because the art of prefiguration makes us resilient.
When I mentally anticipate the future, when I see myself capable of facing challenges, when I prepare myself inwardly for what I do not yet know, I am building a new inner configuration.
I am not seeking control over events, but educating myself not to be overwhelmed by them.
To prefigure means to train the mind and the heart to say: “Whatever happens, I can find a way to learn, to contribute”.
This is why curiosity is one of the fundamental qualities to cultivate from childhood.
If we maintain in our lives the curious gaze of children, if we remain in empathy with life, with others and with ourselves, we become more capable of embracing challenges and transforming them into opportunities.
The old paradigms: when the other is an adversary
For a long time, our history has been guided by a fundamental idea: “mors tua, vita mea” – if you lose, I win.
We imagined that my advantage depended on my ability to put you in check, to surpass you, at times to eliminate you.
This approach has permeated culture, the economy, politics, even language. We have created social and economic models based on competition as the only possible engine.
Then we moved to another paradigm, even worse: “mors mea, mors tua” – if you attack me, I attack you. If you strike me, I strike back blow for blow.
It is the logic of automatic reaction, of preventive war, of continuous defence.
And yet, if we look around us with sincerity, we see that none of these paradigms has produced a happy, peaceful society.
We do not truly feel safe, neither as individuals nor as a species.
The new paradigm: Your life, My life
This is why, with 21 Minuti, we propose a different approach: “Vita tua, Vita mea”.
It means imagining that my commitment, my work, my responsibility are not oriented only towards my personal success, but towards building a world in which you are as important to me as I am to myself.
It is a radical shift:
• from the idea of profit as the only objective, to the idea of shared prosperity
• from concentrated wealth to a fairer balance of wealth itself.
“Vita tua, vita mia” is not a gentle slogan: it is a concrete hypothesis of civilisation.
Either we learn to see ourselves as interdependent, or we will continue to produce models of development that generate imbalance, conflict and exclusion.
From a linear economy to a spherical economy
For centuries we have lived within a linear economy, in which profit has been the only god.
In recent years we have begun speaking of a circular economy, more attentive to the planet, to reuse, to sustainability.
It is an important step forward, but it is still not enough: the planet cannot yet “take a breath”.
I believe that the time has come to rethink the economy in a spherical way.
The sphere, to which I am particularly attached, lives by a simple and extraordinary law: it is a collection of points all equidistant from the centre.
In this model we find three key ideas that we need as human beings: detachment, distance, determination.
• Detachment: the ability not to totally identify with what happens.
• Distance: the possibility of seeing events from a broader perspective.
• Determination: the strength to continue in the direction we understand to be right.
The sphere is resilient: it withstands pressure because it distributes force across the whole.
The sphere is sensitive: it moves even when the plane is tilted ever so slightly.
Leonardo, speaking of water as “infinite microspheres”, reminds us that water naturally seeks and finds the shortest path to the valley. It is the same logic: a system that adapts, that senses, that seeks the best course.
Here it is: a spherical economy is a sensitive economy.
It takes into account all the points of the sphere, not just a few. It does not sacrifice the whole for the advantage of a few.
We are not masters of the planet: gratitude
For a long time we told ourselves that we were the masters of the world. That we could manage the planet according to our desires, our calculations, our interests.
Today, perhaps, a small doubt has entered our minds: what if this planet were not our property at all?
And what if it were, instead, a living being that hosts us, kindly keeping us alive?
From this awareness a simple and powerful feeling should arise: gratitude.
This breath – I say it sincerely – for a long time I did not understand it: it is free.
Every moment is given to me, and I cannot buy even one. I do not know how long this gift will last.
This is why it is right that I live fully.
That each of us try to live fully, giving the best of ourselves to life as an answer to the gift it offers us.
Role, responsibility, priorities, alliances
To make the new paradigm concrete, we need to redefine our role, our responsibility, our priorities.
To be responsible simply means this: to give an answer to the questions that life places before us every day.
It means asking ourselves:
• What is my role today?
• What are the true priorities, not the apparent ones?
• With whom must I ally myself to be truly effective in the world?
For years I have worked also with companies, managers, entrepreneurs. Many of them started from one idea: “We need more control.” Control as the starting point of every process.
I have always proposed a different perspective: control is not the starting point, it is the consequence of a well-constructed process.
First comes:
1. Clarity about the role.
2. Understanding of responsibility.
3. Definition of priorities.
4. The choice of who does what, because no one can do everything alone.
When this is clear, control is no longer an obsession: it is a natural effect of a well-oriented system.
Do not control the process: control your inner world
I would like to end with an idea that I consider fundamental:
we must not control the process; we must learn to control our inner world.
Because that is where the process is born.
As Daniel Goleman reminds us when speaking of emotional intelligence, we need to:
• be more aware of ourselves
• learn to master our impulses better
• give a name to our inner drives
• cultivate the ability to motivate ourselves every day
• develop empathy towards others.
I often say a sentence that was a real epiphany for me: “You are my expanded neural tissue”.
What does it mean?
It means that the answers I was looking for, in moments of my life when I was in a deep “minus”, were given to me by you: the people I met, listened to, interviewed.
By entering into empathy with you, I discovered that each of you held a piece of the secret I was searching for.
This is why today I simply want to say: thank you for being here.
The new paradigm will not be born from a single individual, but from a network of consciences that choose every day to prefigure, to be responsible, to form alliances, to remember that: your life, my life.
Patrizio Paoletti
