When a newspaper organizes a debate on moral philosophy, such as the Dialogues held by the ARA in Pedralbes, there is a sharp contrast in speed. The newspaper moves quickly, while the dialogue takes time. Current events take us from here to there, while the debate dwells deeply on an idea. Readers arrive with information and leave having transformed it into knowledge.
It happened again on Tuesday, in the Dialogue with Dr. Remedios Zafra, about whether a good life is possible in precarious conditions. The negative answer may seem obvious, but the interesting thing is the journey to the conclusion (available on YouTube). Any aspiration for a good personal life must take into account the living conditions of the vast majority, because otherwise our happiness is meaningless.
The EU has leaked the idea of kit survival and military training for civilians in Europe, a continent that spent the 20th century counting millions of dead and is now preparing to rearm. The indecent chats from Trump's Pentagon, which sees politics as blackmail, place us between Russia, which threatens the East, and the United States, which threatens Denmark, an EU member. Not far away, the Israeli government, led by alleged war criminal Netanyahu, is talking about a mass deportation of Palestinians, after having perpetrated the massive massacre in Gaza. This is where we are.
Preparations for war, even in their initial stages, take a toll on our confidence and the future prospects of young people, and turn the aspiration for a good life into a fantasy for better times that are not currently on the horizon.
