I have a dilemma between my fighting spirit and my tiredness of political news. On the one hand, I am convinced that we must respond to any speech that goes against essential values ??and rights. To verbal violence, demagogy, lies and manipulations. The slogan “no aggression without response (dialectic)”, in these times, makes perfect sense.
We see how the extreme right advances on different continents. How populism and the promotion of hatred mark electoral agendas and results. How a climate is created that is most similar to that of the disasters in Europe just a century ago. And all, with new forms of social communication that fuel the animosity. The tendency to reaffirm our own opinions and revile the contrary ones. Given this panorama, silence is leaving space free for this trend to advance.
At the same time, engaging in combat is mentally exhausting. How to do it without falling into tension and simplification of arguments? How can you not get carried away by the outbursts and the temptation to construct phrases that are even more categorical than your opponent, more aggressive, facile and high-sounding?
Mental acuity, a sense of humor, irony, and imagination when presenting arguments are advisable techniques. The difficult thing is to have enough to face so much bombardment. Preserving the tone, the mood, putting the opponent in the mirror for the mere contrast of attitudes is another path. But very soft in the face of so much violence. Yesterday, on the bus, two ladies were talking about it. “Politicians no longer interest me,” one of them said. Everything is so far from common sense, that I have decided not to listen to them.” The other responded: “The only thing that interests me is that the hospitals can care for us, my grandchildren are educated well, the price of food goes down and we don’t have water and electricity problems.”
Arguments, sense of humor, imagination, disposition, talking about things to eat. It’s not easy to find the recipe. Get the ingredients and balance right to deal with so much restlessness.
