Why am I going to buy a newspaper, or pay monthly fees to see and hear someone's opinions on TV, or on the radio when I already know what is going to be said before I start listening to seeing or reading? Why should I pay for all this?
But I cannot continue without leaving here my declaration of interest!!! As a reader, listener and citizen, naturally, I am closer to some currents of political thought than to others. But I fully share the way many citizens see these issues: “In addition to the news, I like and want to read opinions from the most different quarters. The further away from my way of thinking, the better, as they lead me to reflection and evolution.”
We have never lived in a society as informed as we are today. We have never had so many literate people, with higher education, with access to more or less reliable sources of information. We have never had so many tools that allow us to reinforce our knowledge ‒ or recognize our lack of it ‒ in any of the areas we are interested in or are curious about. We have never fought so much against inequalities, racism, xenophobia, discrimination. And yet we are becoming profoundly intolerant and dramatically overbearing when it comes to knowledge. “You cannot convince a fly to become a bee. Flies walk on shit, bees walk on flowers. It is impossible to convince them.” (Leonardo Schwebel, Mexican journalist)
More and more, we see that “discourses” are extreme, the ability to listen to the other disappears. These times of the so-called pandemic, which should have taught us a lesson in humility, because it showed us that we can control little of a world where we represent almost nothing, has exacerbated the attempt to look smarter, smarter, safer, wiser than than everyone else – forgetting that as Confucius said “Humility is the only solid foundation of all virtues. Not correcting our faults is the same as making new mistakes.”
The reality is that the younger generations, important activists of worthy causes, begin to have intolerant (and worrying) speeches against those who do not applaud them, forgetting that society is made up of people and contexts, and not just concepts. immutable. And then they do precisely the opposite of what they preach. The difficulty of remaining silent, of assuming ignorance, of not having an opinion about something, of reflecting before giving an opinion seems to be even more present. Which seems to me a good occasion to recall an important quote by Oscar Wilde, which has become one of my favorite responses in recent years, because it is not only a reminder but also a fact that must be assumed: “I am not young enough to know everything!” (I am not young enough to know everything!) or as Socrates (the philosopher) said: “Most likely none of us knows anything; but some think they know, while I am aware that I know nothing (…) yet I know more than those who think they know something"
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