The lefts, respect and politics
A society is ordered when it is governed according to a common concept of justice that is shared and respected. This must begin with self-respect, which is the primary principle. That is what John Rawls thought. Spinoza, in a similar vein, proposed that without self-respect and self-appreciation, happiness is impossible: a person will not be able to respect others if they do not respect themselves. This entails believing in one's own project but also having enough strength to carry it out. This second element is as important as the first. In Spain, we often forget this, both historically and in current practice.
Perhaps due to a lack of self-respect, the social conflicts we suffer from stem from a lack of respect for the counterpart and an accumulation of forces that is too weak. This leads to not fulfilling commitments made and one's word, to lying for reasons of self-interest or lack of care in what is said and done, and to not listening to the reasons presented to us if they contradict one's own position. Today, society has values linked to performance and personal success, not to mutual respect, the contrast of ideas, and principles. This has to do with the balance between what matters to oneself and what matters to others. If self-interest is prioritized, the result will always be worse for the other, but also for oneself. The political and social boomerang is always stronger and faster than the one who throws it thinks. And if, in addition, there is no clear purpose or objective, it is even worse. The consequence is the same, but the effect that was pursued is diluted by the lack of direction.
Byung-Chul Han, a Korean philosopher currently in vogue in Germany, says that “the need for status can only be satisfied if civil rights are equal for everyone”. Everyone must be able to enjoy a certain status and a certain respect. It is an obvious point, but also an essential condition that must be remembered, because the personal ego is its direct enemy.
They use the concept of “molecular civil war” to describe a society, ours, that functions based on an endogenous reason and without fronts, where personal frustration goes against everything and everyone. Hatred, including self-hatred, permeates people's lives and doubly frustrates them, because it makes them incapable of forming a solidary front to fight and strive for what they want and do not achieve. Marxism, in its initial intuition, was the opposite expression ("Proletarians of all countries, unite!"), because it justified and used frontism to fight. But that exhortation has been left behind, far in the past, and now the present situation is worse, because the company of others and the shared will to fight have disappeared, and everything has been confined to the personal sphere, to the solitude wanted or suffered as a consequence of what one does or has done for oneself.
MP Gabriel Rufián has wanted to unite the left beyond the PSOE to make it more effective and more useful in the general elections of November 29th. Critics have accused him of wanting and practicing a prominence that he does not yet have but to which he aspires. His way of doing so has led him to demonstrate with facts that in reality he is the opposite of what he says and practices. The proof is the current political situation to the left of the PSOE, where there is disintegration and dispersion rather than convergence and coincidence.
The question, however, is quite simple, now that we know that Podemos and ERC will go together on their own: what do these two parties hope to achieve –apart from leaving the left-wing front hanging– if they practice digression and autism, which is the opposite policy of what they preach, coincidence and collaboration? How many deputies does ERC hope to obtain in Catalonia? The same ones they already have? And, in Spain, Podemos? What would be the reason for it not to be so? Ideological proximity, coincidence of objectives? Will the fact that Podemos does not run in Catalonia make a difference? It is difficult, there is a risk that part of Podemos' voters will go to abstention in Catalonia and that the same will happen to Esquerra with all those who claim the independence of Catalonia as their first priority. For ERC, in the legislature that is now ending, the new regional financing law was the priority, and now a party that opposed it, Podemos, is their electoral partner. The lack of coherence will have an electoral cost, even if one wants to hide it. Voters have memory; little, but they have it.
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, is conductinga European tour with this orchestra and the Orfeó Català: Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Hamburg and Berlin. I was lucky enough, in Paris, to be able to speak with him. I asked him why he was touring Europe with an American orchestra. In his own words, the reason is to bring the USA and Europe closer together. When people collaborate and work together, approaches are produced that are useful, because everyone does it from their own place and with their own ideology, but sharing common goals. There is no denial of what is one's own, but there is a rapprochement that allows for dialogue based on respect.
“Musicians merge into a sonic community thanks to mutual and unconditional respect. Only in this way can there be harmony among them. No one fights for respect. No one feels offended or humiliated by a lack of respect. Musicians do not act against each other, but rather everyone plays, with one another, to make music. They are united by a sense of community,” says Byung-Chul Han. For this to work, a formality is needed that generates a distance in which not everything can happen, and in which not respecting this principle implies an objective and visible loss of value. Music is a good vehicle. Without musicians, there is no music. That is why this policy makes sense.
A similar project was invented and practiced years ago by maestro Daniel Barenboim with the Jewish and Palestinian communities. It worked as long as he led it. Dudamel must be asked not to let it go, because it is a solid asset that will have positive effects if it is maintained... and we all need it.
