Ideas are not stones

In the society of spectacle, hypnotized by forms, we use empty concepts that distance us from reality to attack. As a friend said, the name has become a qualifying adjective, a cudgel with which to attack those who think differently.

Excessive messages that have no relation to reality are spread everywhere. We read that so-and-so destroyed Mangano forever, and that the world was paralyzed by an archaeological find, and none of this is true. Not a single person was destroyed, and not even a million of the world’s population knows about this discovery.

Silly stories disrupt the conversation. Of the billions of organisms that have ever existed on Earth, only a few were anthropomorphic. The probability of them appearing like alien humans from distant stars is zero. It is absurd to believe that beings from advanced civilizations traveled thousands of years to transport some stones in the Neolithic era and then left. But TV and networks talk about little men with big eyes piloting flying saucers and ancient aliens and other nonsense.

Some political leaders make startling statements, without analyzing whether they can be put into practice, but they don’t care, they attract attention, exchange insults, and few of them discuss ideas.

When they call the new mayor of New York a communist, they do not do so because they find him advocating the dictatorship of the proletariat. Nor will they be able to explain why a majority of New Yorkers support a political trend that has been outdated in the last century.

Without discussing whether their proposals are good or bad, let us see what is communist in them. A four-year rent freeze is something that has been done, with poor results, in many of our countries. It may finance free transportation and child care, but it does not entail the nationalization of the means of production.

The tax he proposes on the wealthy is not new. According to one specialist, “In Germany, the richest fifth pays a 7% tax to finance social and infrastructure programs for the poorest fifth, such as free education at all levels, and a comprehensive health system that also protects two million Syrian immigrants who arrived during the Merkel government.” This is more radical than Mamdani suggests, but Angela Merkel has never been accused of being a communist.

They accuse Mamdani of being a Muslim because he embraces this religion, which nearly a million New Yorkers believe in. Their position on the State of Israel is the same as that of the United Nations, European countries, and many Jews who defend the right to exist two states, one Jewish and the other Palestinian. While music is banned in many Muslim countries, Mamdani belonged to a hip-hop group and released a single titled “Nani” under the alias “Mr. Cardamom” for sale in 2019. There are Islamic terrorists and persecutors of other religions, but not all of them are like that.

Donald Trump maintains a volatile relationship with Saudi Arabia, despite the fact that the country has crucified several accused converts to Christianity. He announced that he would annex Greenland and Canada to the union, and that he would build a resort in Gaza, but he forgot about it. The excessive tariffs imposed on China have also disappeared. We have recently seen the presidents of two of the largest capitalist countries in the world, China and the United States, hugging each other and discussing the rules for regulating their competition. Although he is not a communist either, it is logical to accuse the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party of being a communist and not Mamdani.

The same thing happens with Javier Miley: those who hate him call him a fascist and a lunatic, without analyzing what he communicates, and without understanding why the majority of Argentines supported him in the last elections, when he did things that were criticized by official politicians and journalists, who also criticized the election campaigns of Zelensky, Pedro Castillo, Trump and others.

The majority do not study what their proposals say, they support or attack them simply because they come from Miley. It would be well, if the reforms he proposes were not approved or rejected merely because they have votes for it in Congress, that their content be discussed, with the welfare of the people in mind.

We hope that contemporary thinkers will be called upon to express their views on the legal framework that can help Argentina develop a technological society. It’s not a science fiction theme, it’s among us, it lives in the cell phone we carry in our pockets.

Some left-wing hardliners became conservatives. They want to preserve the past and prevent fundamental changes to face a different world. We must prepare to live in a fluid society where most of today’s professions will disappear within ten years, jobs will become ephemeral, and where the average life expectancy of children entering school today is two hundred years.

*Professor at GWU. Member of the Argentine Political Club.