El Gran Apagón

For the same reason that the 18th century deserved to be called the Age of Enlightenment, the 21st seems to be earning the title of The Great Blackout. If what was characteristic of the former was his determined determination to examine the totality of reality in the light of reason, it could be affirmed that what is most characteristic of the time in which we are living is, precisely, the dimming of said light, the sustained stubbornness with which it seems to be renouncing the use of it as a tool to clarify the most diverse areas, both personal and collective, of our lives. This essay deals with the complex and necessary task of analyzing the democratic quality in which we live, trying to establish how we have reached the current situation of extreme polarization, in which the exchange of reasoned opinions has lost space and coverage compared to a society of the spectacle where the noisy confrontation of irreconcilable points of view prevails. To do this, the philosopher and politician Manuel Cruz establishes the causes of this rationality deficit, reflects on its effects and reconstructs the debate of ideas, because regenerating dialogue and critical controversy is an essential first step to make the public sphere habitable. , the area in which opinions and wills are formed. In this regard, the proposal of the text could not be more clear and resounding: in the face of the eclipse of reason that we are witnessing, immersed as we are in a drift of global uncertainty, it becomes necessary to find instruments of thought that are useful to us to form a critical and nuanced opinion that allows us to make the decisions with which, together, we build the shared space.