Revista Universidad de Antioquia, (Medellín-Colombia) 262 (Oct.-Dec 2000): 105-110.
AUTOR: ENRIQUE YEPES
Nuestro país ha estado fuera de sí durante décadas, en el desbordado asesinato entre sus ciudadanos. Quizás desde la exterioridad crítica con que se construye el sujeto que enuncia el Manual de tolerancia (Medellín: Universidad de Antioquia, 1990) de Héctor Abad Gómez, puedan proponerse actitudes alternativas y vías hope. But before beginning the analysis of text, I start by quoting two passages that help reconstruct in memory the figure of the founder of the National School of Public Health Republic, a unit of the University of Antioquia, which now bears his name. The first is the brief story that appeared in the section "General" of the newspaper El Colombiano, 26 August 1987, accompanied by ads for real estate, how to lose weight and live broadcasting of the soccer cup " Libertadores de America ":
At about half past five pm on Friday, ten hours after he was assassinated the president of the Association of Antioquia, Luis Felipe Velez Herrera, at the same site, were killed by machine-gun shots physicians Héctor Abad Gómez, president of the Committee on Human Rights and Liberal candidate for mayor of Medellin, and Leonardo Betancur Taborda, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine University of Antioquia (11A).
More than a decade after the murders still baffle us, who called angry and supportive crowds to accompany the funeral. But it is also worth noting the value of acquiring vital synthesis of the circumstances of the death of Abad Gómez. Takes place at the headquarters of an association of educators, worthy setting for a man who discussed copiously the meaning and political value of what he called "free education" as an antidote to violence and misery, a man who devoted his last decades to teaching and urging his students with the greeting: "What has been thought you today? " (Handbook 134). In addition, facing death together with another teacher and activist, as a testimony to his willingness to work in teams and collective action.
The second quotation comes from the "Notes to a biography published by his son and writer Héctor Abad Faciolince in the Sunday Magazine of 29 November 1987, the newspaper El Espectador dedicated to the memory of Abad Gómez, adding to the series tributes following his death. Here's the quote:
Although he never had more than sixty-five, when asked about his age, Hector Abad used to reply that I was getting the two hundred years. He explained that he was born in a remote town, Jericho [Antioquia], according to the schedule in 1921, but only in the early nineteenth century as the historical and cultural situation of his people (15).
With the simplicity of this image chronological Abad realizes his participation as Néstor García Canclini called "multitemporal heterogeneity" of Latin America (Hybrid Cultures. Mexico: Grijalbo, 1990: 15). It is this overlapping of economic and cultural models to other regions identified as successive periods in our countries are experienced as simultaneous. For example, horse-drawn carriages which cohere have a cell phone. We have areas where life is more like the European eighteenth century to the twenty-first century Medellin. It is perhaps in this confrontation between conflicting models where one of the sources of violence and repression that hit us itch.
The purpose of this paper is naturally more modest lift from the previous hypothesis. What is proposed here is an outline of how to build what I Throughout the book Manual of tolerance posthumous collection of essays Abad Gómez left among his papers chronologically arranged in a sort of diary, and reiterates the author's obsessions. Rather than defend or discuss its contents, we analyze some of the procedures by which subjectivity is displayed affects the uncertainty, which welcomes and beyond the project of modernity, in the effort to imagine a pluralistic Colombian identity and self standing . It is an ego whose national affiliation, ideological, cultural, symbolic, is constantly displaced. In a self-reflective process that includes the Colombian events from an external criticism, this I question the institution of the great personalities in favor of the short story. Compiled by Abad
Faciolince, the book is organized into forty-nine sections of irregular length, from a paragraph to four or five pages-without other evidence of the Roman numeral that identifies them. The issues are the same that had appeared in his book "A world view" (Bogotá: Third World, 1971): the basis for a sensible living, education, present and future of Latin America, religion, bigotry, new ethical and ideological flexibility. In terms of textual space, to travel the Manual of tolerance has an effect similar to that of the spaces have been called postmodern. Thus Beatriz Sarlo described for example in Argentina, as constructions in which it is hard to miss because they lack a center, "are not made to find a point and, consequently, in their space without hierarchies, it is also difficult to know if one is lost "(Scenes from Postmodern Life. Buenos Aires: Ariel, 1994: 16). As the Tao Te Ching is a book that promotes the wandering, which can be opened at any page and read for a few minutes without having to follow an orderly sequence. Rather than expand on the concepts, offers perspectives and points of departure, relying on mobility and for the suggestion. In this sense, the organization of the book itself conducive to smooth defending its ideological content, "a truth with a small, contemporary practice, which aims to serve this time and in these circumstances to Colombia today, and that aspires to be, no way, no other dogma even other doctrine "(19).
What happens then with the self that sets forth these truths with a small and off-design this text open to casual reading? What about an I who holds the authority of the word to say: "I know I'm not sure? This collection of essays portrays a psychic structure based on one's tolerance limits, which I illustrated diverges from Western which could be characterized as the great conqueror, the paranoid coherence, the rider of power-as shown by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in his Archaeology of Knowledge, sexuality, discipline. It's impressive that I have read some psychoanalytic schools in New introductory lectures on Freud from the famous maximum: "Wo Es war, soll Ich werden," "Where It was, I have Advent" (1932. New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. The Stan-dard Edition. Vol 32. Ed. and Trans. James Strachey. London: Hogarth, 1964, p. 80). This I colonize their own unruly unconscious (the id) and submits it to his conscious control, using the language to ensure transparent communication, the rule of reason. The Self Enlightenment is defined as the center, set your goals, and trace their routes with precision engineering.
The Handbook of tolerance, I speaker is slightly different. This lightness forward a radical break with the imperial Yo. So radical that no response is seen as diametrically opposed to such a person absolutism. Oppose it in an unrestricted would repeat his modus operandi is the production of an opponent that gives consistency to this I dominator has been conceived and idealized in the West, at least during the last hundred years. The subject that emerges from the Manual of tolerance, by contrast, embraces this I, marking its limits within the space between the arms closed. Noting its limits, not only dilutes their dictatorial pretensions, but recognizing its potential as an insert in a more open psychic structure. Disarms its exclusive claims to the humility of his inclusion in a horizon of uncertainty, and a web of diversity. The exercise of this vital subject and discourse coincides with reformulating the sociologist, psychoanalyst and philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis the Freudian maxim referred to above: "Wo ich bin, soll auch is auftauchen," "Where I am, too This is to emerge" (L'Institution Imaginaire of societé. Paris: Seuil, 1975, p. 143). That is, the unconscious precisely because there has been a conscious ego that excludes them. Recognize and grant the right to exist and express themselves as part of who I am, does not belong to me I have but to "the other in me" suggests a different meaning for the practice of autonomy and no empire controlled, but determined in her attitude of listening and negotiation. The addition of the adverb "also" indicates the possibility of simultaneous coexistence between dissimilar structures. It is inclusive and tolerant attitude which conveys the book Abad Gómez in statements like this: "under the circumstances, right, center or left can be right or be wrong "(130). Or when the speaker describes metaphorical richness internal geography," My feelings are like my heart left, my reason and my brain, heart, my hatred and resentment in my small gallbladder , right "(59). The reference to political parties is clear, as embodied in the body as you can imagine a speaker trained in medicine.
But one thing to avoid hasty conclusions. In the above quotation could come to think that we suggest here a subject devoid of convictions. Nothing could be further from an author who gave his life to defend his principles. Nothing could be further also a Voice essay, which states: "If we tolerate everything, we can not be consistent in anything and there was no way to keep a personality or a society without strong convictions about certain things. But one thing is ideological firmness and fanaticism else. Just as Tolerance is one thing and another amorphism ideological disintegrator individuals and societies "(22-23). This accuracy is even more relevant in recent decades, when the rule of the market seduces the so-called generation X "under the guise of globalization to provide uniformity instead of consumption and the perpetuation of economic inequality and minority privileges. The firmness of the more urgent approach in an era that trades in information and bombard the world views through the mass media. In this scenario proposes Abad Gómez the Socratic wisdom of "cone-CERN treat ourselves and others" (76).
What unfolds, therefore, that I deliberately contaminated with the other? First of all, start by establishing alliances, within an area identified group based on dialogue and the concept of power and not on others. The first paragraphs of the Handbook of tolerance define his audience: "Those who will read this and the chapters that follow are likely men and women of good will who want to know the ideas of another human being like them "(15). The allusion to the New Testament, the proverbial Christmas and Peace to men of good will" (Luke 2:14), establishes a complicity with the majority of Christian formation in Colombia.'s strategy becomes more explicit in subsequent pages: "So I can, calmly tell our people that do not need to renounce their traditions and religion with force to claim justice for so long has been denied" (44). The guess here adopting a prophetic pose, which later kept in the style of Martin Luther King's famous speech "I Dream": "I dream of a Medellin with its air and river clean again. I dream of a Colombia in which all children can play, laugh and sing, where all the youth to love. I dream of a Colombia in which all the old can dream "(100). Is the strategy of who takes over the floor to propose a desirable social models, the exercise of politics as a platform to influence the collective imagination and communitarian ideal.
But this prophetic voice, which would traditionally above the masses to guide them here strives to highlight its own limits. It declares, as shown above, at the same level of those to whom it is addressed. Amendment Biblical formula to include men and women, in a contemporary self-conscious gesture language ("men and women of good will"). Insists, from the first paragraph, in the healthy right to dissent: "grant to all those who are in basic disagreement with the ideas I will share the best of intentions" (15). Also emphasizes "the courage to admit you do not know, that certainly is not safe" (102). Do not hesitate to acknowledge their ignorance: "What we should do that once teacher without being wise, is humbly ask forgiveness of our disciples for the wrongs they did" (51). In self-criticism: "My dilettantism will be revealed in this compilation messy and almost chaotic" (134). To confess his shortcomings: "I know very little about the indigenous cultures" (88). And above all, respects diversity and assumes a benevolent collusion with any other human being: "I think we can agree on the following: any person, either way, which consciously or unconsciously are looking for their own happiness "(79). It is, therefore, that I tested a variety of poses and emphasizes its own limits. For this reason, their capacity for autonomous action becomes relative to the time you win potency. Becomes relative, knowing that your identity is a substitute crossing discourses and perspectives. Gains in power, it explores its scope, negotiate alliances, mobilizes resources and renewed in change.
repudiated explicitly named and rationally, the great adversary of this I is fanaticism, which often returns as a ghost to dilute one's consciousness. Linked to murderous violence, the sport as an opiate to numb the aspirations for change, political and religious dogmatism, emotional fanaticism, although he gives the credit of acting with the best intentions (16), is criticized in the name of "progress and [of] a way of being rational people "(86). Perhaps a stronger criticism is that our sense of nationhood associated with fanaticism:
Some organizations, sects, communities, religions, and some political parties and even entire nations are locked in their own "truth" and not support anything that comes from outside. One of these countries is Colombia, one of the communist parties, one of these religions is Catholicism. With small cracks, remove calls to these positions inevitably totalitarian, we are witnessing the struggle of institutions that resist change, which bring the same within the contradictions that make or to amend or perish (17).
Thus, I was stripped of his tone accomplice and placed between parentheses Franciscan humility or Buddhist angrily tear with resistance to change, put your finger where it hurts, and forecast with the fate of the totalitarian powers. If compared to the rule of scientific truth defended the right to dissent and the defense of tradition, against the dogmatic closure emphasizes the modern openness, progress and rationality. The result is the staging of an I phone, malleable, attentive to his "small crack" to dismantle its own absolutism. An ego that makes the contradictions more an opportunity than an obstacle, and is not afraid to reveal their aspirations, understood as a service and insight into the company of other thinking subjects.
And, at the same time, this voice does not miss a chance to avail not only in alliances, but in the adoption of languages \u200b\u200bthat have authority or prestige. The medical symbols, for example, appears to identify the speaker as someone who knows how to use the credit that has clinical discourse in modern life. This prose urges immunization against bigotry (109), and mental health. Also states that "trying to stop violence with violence is like trying to cure a disease with other disease" (68). This metaphoric universe, but increasingly risky at a time with growing anxiety that questions of medical practices, has the advantage of evoking the natural balance and equilibrium between civilized know that today is of interest general health.
also validates the right to speak with many references, from Lao Tzu to Freud, from Aristotle to the President Barco, from Fernando Gonzalez and Rodrigo Arenas Betancur to Walt Whitman, Bertolt Brecht and Youth. These appointments do not display erudition, but finding and opening. It is a form of copyright-lifted without arriving to find simple truths as basic debates and statements about respect, tolerance, the right to life.
Prophet, physician, educator, politician, search, rational, loving, wise, orientalist, traveler, this speaker is identified above all, pride and intriguing, with its mediocrity and even with their mediocrity, "If all we had been taught that we are inevitably the most mediocre, the life of human beings would be more peaceful and happy" (27). And later developed in several pages the need to praise "from ordinary beings" (111), that "there are no great scientists, neither the great artists, and senior politicians, heroes or saints. But what! What are really these that are the golden mediocrity will without their knowing, the great sages, [...] in the "golden mediocritas" that spoke Virgilio "(111-12).
This peculiar praise of mediocrity coexists with admiration for the genius and the desire for change, as well as with the proverbial faith in the perfectibility of human beings and their collective organization. Personal praise the common na avail itself involves enhancing the action of anyone, for action but not carried out major works, although not think big ideas are introduced, they take the floor but there are no big speeches . It means, in the Colombian context, encourage the historical intervention of the majority of good will intimidated by the prominent involvement of the violent and repressive. It is a gesture of admiration for the wisdom in the midst of criminal scandal that requires our attention public. And it is taking over from the mediocrity to go to complain, to search for the missing, to defend the right to live as ordinary person, uncertain, creative advocate for change and permanence. That ordinary person who, after all, exists only in the diversity innumerable calls the urgency of the dialogue.
Handbook tolerance is not a great work of genius. No ideological or a perfect body or a moving poetic force, and coherence irrefutable. In contrast, exercises the power of micro-strategies of these "small cracks inevitably calls to dismantle the totalitarian positions, and stages a subjectivity based on listening and the ability to assign, negotiate, mediate, to deploy a flexible firm. Dislocated subjectivity is difficult to locate, who knows bend and exit gracefully after slip through the cracks of language and common thought of what Julio Cortazar called "the Great Tradition." This subjectivity makes use of modern project of autonomy without getting bogged down in the privileges and exclusions that such a project statues. Their autonomy is a continuous process of search and self-criticism, as Castoriadis posed, aware that social, as a product of the collective imagination, can be modified by the movement of alternative images. It is, in short, a courageous subjectivity, humble and futuristic, which proposes the courage to embrace and transform Colombia in and outside of herself, just as I know is from outside, from inside its otherness. Well over two hundred years has in its background the I as shown, that draws from nineteenth-century tradition, he flirts with the ideal of progress, and welcomes the mediator role implies an age of globalization and yet to build tolerance.
conclude with a passage from the Manual of tolerance not only endorses the I have outlined here, always willing to let it die in the embrace of change, but also neutralizes the tragic power that was believed to exercise with his murder. One of the reasons murder for which so eagerly is because they think that death removes dissension and is the greatest evil that can bring. But the thought of Abad Gómez gained momentum with his murder and the death was not a punishment for him, as evidenced by this quote:
Montaigne said that philosophy was useful because it taught to die. To me, that this birth-death process we call life, I'm closer to the final stage of the first, the subject of death is becoming simpler, more natural and even say that-not as issue but as the reality-more desirable. And not because I'm disappointed about anything or anyone. Perhaps the opposite. Because I think I have lived fully, intensely enough (79).
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