Kylie Jenner is a 25-year-old model and entrepreneur who is very famous in the United States. In mid-July she took a 17-minute journey aboard her own private plane and, writes the Guardian, she was swamped by “a flood of criticism.”
His flight produced a ton of carbon dioxide emissions, which “in itself is not that much, but a quarter of an average person’s annual carbon footprint.” In various countries there is a mobilization against private jets.
It is a mostly symbolic battle, because these flights are responsible for only 4% of the emissions produced by the aviation sector (even if it is still a volume higher than the emissions of a country like Denmark).
Abolishing private jets would not solve the climate emergency, but their use is a perfect example of easily avoidable behavior (in Jenner’s case, taking a car, or using scheduled flights, which pollute proportionately less). In France it is the transport minister himself who is about to present a regulatory proposal.
Only in Italy have the criticisms and ironic jokes targeted those who propose to abolish private planes, and not – as happens in the rest of the world – the entrepreneurs and famous people who use them.
A paradox that can be explained by the concept of cultural hegemony, summarized some time ago by the historian Alessandro Barbero on TV: “Today there is a social group – big finance, big entrepreneurs – that is in power, but not because it puts tanks in the streets: a social group is strong and commands when it makes others think like it too. And today we all think that the entrepreneur is the most admired figure and that profit is fundamental. Dominating means having strength, says Gramsci. Directing is something more: it means that other social groups agree that that group is in charge, or they don’t even pose the problem. And they see the world as the members of the ruling class see it ”. ◆