Dr. José Ingenieros (1877 – 1925)
Low-grade legislation: a classic explanation
by Miguel Antonio Bernal
The deputies have shown us their inexcusable ignorance of legislative matters. In the same way, they have shown us their null knowledge in constitutional matters.
The president, meanwhile, has bet that media interventions of a totalitarian, autocratic and threatening nature will lead the population to change their way of thinking in the face of the attempt to impose a package of reforms that changes nothing of much importance.
We witness an accelerated institutional decomposition that’s greater than we previously thought. The mediocrity of those who govern us now yields its space to an even lower level.
What do we call it? “Bajocridad?” Seeing the free fall of our so-called “political class,” I allow myself to return to some thoughts of Don José Ingenieros’s work on the human condition.
Given the number of stutterers that have taken over the political, social and economic scenes of our country, and who intend to gag dignity, the Italian-Argentine physician and philosopher Ingenieros’s wise analyses become relevant today. He noted:
* Every now and then social equilibrium breaks in favor of mediocrity.
* Those who rule don’t create this state of affairs. They represent it.
* The mediocre do not dare to confront those who think differently. They are fundamentally insecure and seek excuses that always rely on the disqualification of the other.
* They lack the courage to express or debate in public their ideas, aims and projects. They communicate by way of monologue and applause.
* Those with this attitude hold within themselves the conviction that they possess the truth and the light, and their adversaries the error and the darkness.
* They do note abide forms. They confuses them with formalities, so they do not know courtesy, which is a form of respect for others.
* They feel free of guilt and serene in their consciences if legal decisions free them from penalties for the crimes they commit.
* Impunity tranquilizes them. There are always mediocre people – they are perennial. What varies is their prestige and influence.
* When they replace the qualitative with the convenient, the rebel is the same as the lackey because values adjust to the circumstances.
* They have more personal presence than projects.
* The decline of “education” and its confusion with “teaching” allows a society without ideals and without culture, which facilitates the existence of ignorant and rapacious politicians.
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