Last Thursday, July 28, a community meeting of the Cumbres Sector 5 neighborhood was held, with the mayor of the city of Monterrey, Luis Donaldo Colosio.
It happens that it is also the commune where I live, so I witnessed not only the preparation of the meeting but also the ways in which it was executed.
On November 23, 1983, in the magazine Vuelta, a political essay was published that has traveled through time and still continues to impact the conscience of today’s political protagonists. For a democracy without adjectives, is the title of this short essay by Enrique Krause. An essay that with the passage of time has become the prophetic work of what we are now experiencing.
Says Krause “The transition towards full democracy would begin with scrupulous respect for the vote, but its meaning is broader: the practice of a tolerance closer to the attention of the opinions of others than to repugnance to them; the civilized exercise of criticism in which imagination, foundations and logic displace visceral, dogmatic and self-indulgent reactions; the consideration of variety and plurality as ends in themselves; “
This vision is from 1983. Thirty-nine years later, in 2022, we continue to show disgust for the opinion of others, we continue to react in a visceral, dogmatic and self-indulgent way. But we are learning.
Because of the ways used in these neighborhood elections and the presentation to the mayor, it reminded me of the rigged elections of the black ticket, directed by Víctor López, in the university extensions of the UACH in Ciudad Juárez. A poem of elections, there it was previously defined who was going to support the notions and where the reventadores were going to be located in case, for example, the election of the scrutineers was lost. It was the most rustic exercise of a democracy.
The difference is that in those years we were 20-year-old university students and now we were mature men and women over 40 years old, owners of their houses in a neighborhood that was more or less well located, neighbors by accident of the Valle Verde neighborhood.
So the strongest aspiration of this meeting with Mayor Luis Donaldo Colosio was to obtain the resources and the “blessing” of the authority to close two streets adjoining the “neighboring” neighborhood of Infonavit Valle Verde. The reason, very valid: security.
During the meeting Colosio mentioned, on a couple of occasions, that this was an exercise in participatory democracy, where the decision of the majority would be respected and that to close those streets it is required that “everyone” agrees and here he was referring to the affected. And yes, it seems that the board of directors has already talked with those affected and obtained their consent.
However, it is not possible for everyone to agree, so much so that a subject appeared at the meeting with a sign that said “no to street closures.” But since he is not affected, he took note of his intentions and continued with the meeting.
But why am I telling you this whole story plagued with human flaws, fears and arrogance? I’m telling you this because it faithfully reflects the poverty of the political culture in which we live. We strive to achieve a goal that we judge good for the majority and we faithfully believe that this is all we have to do to justify ourselves, to have the approval of the majority.
Well no. Luis Donaldo says well, we must aspire as a society not only to have the approval of the majority but also to listen to those who disagree and this means creating a space for that to happen.
We show an absence of principles when we believe that, by extinguishing the protest, or avoiding the participation of others, we show political ability. It is not like this. We must respect the beliefs and rights of others. We must listen to those who disagree with us, we must take into account the needs of minorities.
It’s not regarding bringing viewers together, it’s regarding incorporating protagonists.
Even in the exercises of neighborhood democracy, there too we have to respect the ideas of others and we have to accept dissidence, only in this way can our political legacy be enriched.
In politics, not only the content of the message matters, but also the forms. Many times, if not always, the form is the message.
Let’s keep hope. Until next time.
The author is an expert in corporate communication and crisis situations. He has an MBA from ITESM
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Twitter: @Hirampeon
