The good understanding
19 de febrero de 2019

Perhaps the most worrisome thing about the process against the Catalan independence leaders is that they are not being trialed for the right reasons. When contempt for others becomes a common attitude, a rancid discord arises in individuals that should not be unearthed. When the self is placed as superior, rejection is born, ignorance is displayed shamelessly, and selfishness spreads its roots as brambles do.

The debasement of politics and its performance, more mercantilist than helpful, has sold the individual a series of personalized products that have taken a toll on their reasoning skills. Orwell showed in 1984 how the soul was corrupted, withered, at the service of the party. Goldstein embodies the bait to catch those who have not been poisoned —Goldstein is the enemy of the party and, therefore, hope for the friend. This has been the rule for quite some time by left and right-wing parties, by both pro-independence and constitutionalists, and yet they will believe they are different… Unfortunately, those who hate each other should have no place in the political system.

It is not by chance that the —political— mentidero par excellence receives that name, so close to the term mentider —liar— in Catalan; nor is it that, in order to make their business profitable, politicians use every advertising technique aimed at obtaining votes. Recall that advertising is not more than a sale method that offers users what they do not want, using seduction, with which they enchant and hypnotise the consumer and endorse the product they have put through. In this case, the political power adopts its most commercial aspect, by selling to the individual an adulterated conception of what, by nature, it would not reject: dialogue.

All dialogue requires good understanding. Aristotle refers to the latter in his Nicomachean Ethics, in the following terms: “One speaks of men endowed with good intelligence, of the understanding that is exercised when learning; because when we learn we call it many understanding ”. If there is no understanding or learning in what constitutes the most basic of human relationships —dialogue— we can affirm that there are no men endowed with good intelligence. And what was supposed to be a virtuous space, a lush forest where the truth can be sought, it ends up becoming a weed of falsehoods, signs and derisions, despite the fact that the strength of the offense demonstrates the weakness of the argument.


If there is no understanding or learning in the dialogue, then men are not endowed with good intelligence


In his conferences, Víctor Küppers usually remembers an example that he mentions every year to his students at the School of Communication. He arrives to class with a plant and warns that it is forbidden to touch and water it. Students immediately notice that the vegetable has its days counted. And Küppers then takes the opportunity to introduce an analogy: “The same goes for people. If you don’t water them, if you don’t take care of the relationship, they end up rotten”.

It is still curious that those who once casted their votes in favour of removing President Rajoy have allowed the next Executive to be elected even weaker than the former. These and other attitudes favour radicalism and hinder problem solving capacities. One said that «we own the decisions we make, but it is a mirage to believe that we own the consequences of them». This second lesson is very difficult to assume, and the usual reaction of the coward, of the poor in spirit, is to be irresponsible to it. But Ortega y Gasset recalls that «every reality that is ignored prepares its revenge». Is it not true that «the fish dies by its mouth»? Therefore, words must be taken care of, as much as ideas must be respected, and none of them should prevail as dogma, above people, without a very deep rooting of knowledge and, therefore, of good understanding. If it has been shown that speaking kindly to plants makes them grow larger and healthier. Imagine what can happen if we treat any human being with consideration.

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