Opinion Sur
Fundamentalisms believe they hold eternal truths. Decisions emerge from that belief causing singular situations to be faced with the same policies, even though situations are always different due to their nature and context; an absurdity of extremely costly and tragic consequences. Those who control economic and political power in Europe and other countries face the crisis with a fundamentalism that, in essence, seeks to preserve disproportionate privileges subordinating general wellbeing and environmental responsibility to them. They charge against an unbridled fiscal deficit and an enormous private and sovereign over indebtedness without acknowledging their responsibility in generating them.
They are driven by greed but not stupid: they know they cannot openly defend profiting at the expense of great majorities because their victims would end up displacing them. Therefore they mask their privileges, building mechanisms they try to consecrate as if they were revealed truths and eternal systems. They do not support a market where millions of voices and interests find ways to coordinate and complement each other for everyone’s sake; instead they impose the euphemism of ‘the markets’ as organizers of our way of functioning and living, concealing they are the ones that from those platforms make the main economic decisions.
Privilege never intends to commit suicide, at least not consciously, but to accomplish ways of assuring its privileges are preserved; it disguises objectives and resists transformations that threaten to abolish them. It is therefore absolutely critical to raise our understanding and the ability to build an economic system lead by those who stand for society as a whole. Fundamentalisms that conceal the interests of unbridled privilege need to be banished and in such a way as to avoid other fundamentalisms from replacing those that today subjugate us. Our north is full democracy, a democracy without disguises, without obstacles, privileges and manipulations; democracies that will need to be transformed along with the circumstances and as we as individuals and societies are able to attain better levels of understanding, generosity and organization. A permanent effort, open to ever changing challenges, that is really worth undertaking.
We trust this month’s articles will contribute in that direction.
Cordial Greetings.
The Editors
