¿Qué hacemos aquí?

In this new volume of essays, Marilynne Robinson reflects in exceptional depth on how politics and society today tend to devalue the human. 'It is shocking how helpless the protection of nature, the poor and even the rights of voters has been in recent years. The great machinery of capitalism can destroy them, 'he says in the introduction to the book. Against this influential contemporary trend, which tries to reduce everything to a simplistic cost-benefit analysis, Robinson vindicates nonconformist and combative thinking and the need to give a voice to those who are never taken into account. Criticism with both the right and the left ('We have surrendered thought to ideology. It is not accidental that Marxism and Social Darwinism emerged at the same time, like two narrators of a single story') concludes: 'The willingness to leave us led by ideological thought -that is, a thought that by definition is not one's own, that is blind to experience and the contradictions that arise when broader spheres of knowledge are consulted- supposes a capitulation that no one should ever assume. It is a betrayal of our mighty minds and all the splendid resources our culture has prepared for use. ' Throughout the book, Marilynne Robinson proclaims her faith in humanity and urges her readers to stand up for what makes us human: 'creativity, wisdom, courage, generosity, personal dignity, being profoundly capable of loyalty'.