Quotations

_ – About knowing how to listen and being willing to believe
_ – About democracy as an electoral market
_ – About how much truth a spirit can bear
About knowing how to listen and being willing to believe

We need to practice the difficult skill democracy is based on: that of knowing how to listen to the other and being willing to believe him or her.
Martín Böhmer

About democracy as an electoral market

Contemporary democracy was born under the premises that voters are citizens that need to be persuaded. So, democracy sets up an electoral market where politicians make their offers, which are their proposals, and citizens choose among those proposals. This is democracy’s basic assumption. The latest technological transformations have led electors to be considered consumers and not citizens. The difference lies in the fact that citizens need to be persuaded whereas consumers need to be seduced. In this scenario, politicians’ offers stop being proposals to become advertising mechanisms aimed at seducing the elector. This destroys democracy’s basic assumption.
Rafael Roncagliolo

About how much truth a spirit can bear

How much truth can a spirit bear and how much truth can it confront? To me that has become more and more the true measure of courage.
Friedrich Nietzsche