Reflections

Regarding our own common core

European university must give in the American university. America’s history, from the Incas until now, must be taught like the back of our hand, even if that of Greek arcontes’ is not. Our Greece is preferable than the Greece that is not ours. It is more necessary to us. National politicians must replace those exotic politicians. The world should be grafted into our Republics; but the core should be our Republics.

José Martí

 

Regarding the so-called British composure

History time and again shows that there are no invariable national traits and that as economic, social, or religious conditions change, so will do habits, modalities, tastes, humor. It seems like a venture heading for failure when one tries to find a common denominator between impudence and hot-temper violence form Elizabethan era and the composure that they pretend to pass as a distinctive trait of Brit race; that sense can only be explained when a good empire has been rounded up.

Ernesto Sábato

 

Regarding the democracies managed by non-democratic powers

The democratic world is ruled by non-democratic organisms: the International Monetary Fund is non-democratic, the World Trade Organization is non-democratic, and the World Bank is non-democratic. We do not vote for anyone to be appointed to these institutions, thus, democracies are managed by non-democratic powers.

José Saramago