Opinion Sur
The global crisis centered in the affluent countries can become an inflexion point in the trajectory of our Southern Hemisphere countries. Strategic thinking plays a crucial role in the outlining of what is yet to come; it cannot ignore neither the present nor the history that generated it but, at the same time, it must rise above what exists in order to transform and give way to new courses and ways of functioning. The global crisis centered in the affluent countries can become an inflexion point in the trajectory of our Southern Hemisphere countries. The crisis has been the result of a way of functioning and an international architecture that were imposed upon us by those who took over the steering wheel of the global and national economy and projected their influence on the media, education, justice, values.
It seems (false impression) as if our people accept unbridled greed and the consequent pillage as something inevitable to be stoically endured; and it is not. With the revolution in communications and its social consequences there are no damns and much less fences immune to the transformational forces. But, what type of transformation are we aiming at? Which would the new courses be; what other fairer and more sustainable ways of functioning shall we choose?
The expected world will emerge from the confluence of objective circumstances and the vigor and viability of the referential utopias we are capable of conceiving. We have the freedom to choose, although not an absolute one due to limitations that is impossible to ignore. The challenge is to go through a creative path without falling into either fatalisms or voluntarisms.
The evolution of the human race teaches that no element in social reality is immutable (although it may appear so), particularly economic systems. In another article Article [[[Capitalism, eternal system?->http://opinionsur.org.ar/Capitalism-eternal-system?lang=en] Opinión Sur, may 2012]] we point out that Ernesto Sábato used to say in fine irony that ‘eternal systems share one characteristic: they last very little. They all aspire to the Absolute Truth, but the history of philosophy is the history of the Systems, meaning the history of the Systems’ Collapse’.
From the dawn of Opinion Sur we have valued the crucial role played by strategic thinking in the outlining of what is to come. A way of thinking that cannot ignore the present or the history that generated it but that, at the same time, has to rise above what exists in order to transform and give way to new courses and ways of functioning.
The challenges we must face are renewed and transformed with time and the change of circumstances. The fact is social processes permanently open in multiple directions and we must choose, generation after generation, the trajectories we wish to go through. It is a long coming march but one that demands facing decisions every day and at all levels. It is hard to believe we will reach a time where problems, tensions, alternatives, will disappear; where there will be no options to select and we could move forward in automatic pilot. Thus the importance of understanding what is going on, identifying restrictions and possibilities, clarifying what we want and where we would like to go, providing ourselves with effective instruments, designing policies and measures that orient social action and strengthen our determination. It is necessary to deepen our view of the future and, ultimately, to confirm the values that, conscious or unconsciously, come along with us wherever we go.
