Quedaron en mi memoria las celebres palabras de pertenecer a una elite con poder, dinero y educación. Para mi alivio compruebo que no pertenezco a esa elite, la realidad diaria me demuestra que no tengo ni dinero ni el poder de sacarlo de la cuenta de mis padres sin su consentimiento. Ironías aparte, me pregunto cual es el papel de nuestra generación, de estos “young leaders” que tuvimos el privilegio acceder a la universidad, de viajar, conocer diferentes realidades, vivir en países democráticos, de opinar libremente… ¿Cómo utilizamos este beneficio?
Mientras terminaba mi carrera y planeaba viajar por Europa un 57.5 % de los argentinos eran pobres y un 45% indigente… ante esta realidad la idea de pertenecer a una minoría ya no me parece tan irreal.
Sin embargo, seguía dando vueltas en mi cabeza la idea de que el conocimiento o la búsqueda del mismo no nos hace miembros de una especial elite sino que aumenta nuestra responsabilidad de generar cambios, entonces nuevamente Hobsbawm pudo explicar mis ideas mejor que yo y en ingles!!! (cumpliendo los requisitos de la iniciativa blog)… ahí va:
“You, as students of the university, are privileged people. The odds are that, as alumni of a distinguished and prestigious institute you will, if you choose, have a good status in society, have better careers and earn more than other people… I was told when I began to teach in a university “the people for whom you are there are not the brilliant students like yourself. They are the average students with boring minds who get uninteresting degrees in the lower range of the second class… the first-class people will look after themselves… the others are the ones who need you.
Government, the economy, schools, everything in society is not for the benefit of the privileged minorities. We can look after ourselves. It is for the benefit of the ordinary run of people who are not particularly clever or interesting (unless, of course, we fall in love with one of them), not highly educated, not successful or destined for success; in fact, are nothing very special. It is for the people who, throughout history have entered history outside their neighbourhood as individuals only in the records of their births, marriages and deaths. Any society worth living in is one designed for them, not for the rich, the clever, the exceptional, although any society worth living in must provide room and scope for such minorities. But the world is not made for our personal benefit, nor are we in the world for our personal benefit. A world that claims that this is its purpose is not a good, and ought not to be a lasting, world”. (Hobsbawm Eric “On history” Ed. Butler and Tanner Ltd. Pág 9.)
Mientras terminaba mi carrera y planeaba viajar por Europa un 57.5 % de los argentinos eran pobres y un 45% indigente… ante esta realidad la idea de pertenecer a una minoría ya no me parece tan irreal.
Sin embargo, seguía dando vueltas en mi cabeza la idea de que el conocimiento o la búsqueda del mismo no nos hace miembros de una especial elite sino que aumenta nuestra responsabilidad de generar cambios, entonces nuevamente Hobsbawm pudo explicar mis ideas mejor que yo y en ingles!!! (cumpliendo los requisitos de la iniciativa blog)… ahí va:
“You, as students of the university, are privileged people. The odds are that, as alumni of a distinguished and prestigious institute you will, if you choose, have a good status in society, have better careers and earn more than other people… I was told when I began to teach in a university “the people for whom you are there are not the brilliant students like yourself. They are the average students with boring minds who get uninteresting degrees in the lower range of the second class… the first-class people will look after themselves… the others are the ones who need you.
Government, the economy, schools, everything in society is not for the benefit of the privileged minorities. We can look after ourselves. It is for the benefit of the ordinary run of people who are not particularly clever or interesting (unless, of course, we fall in love with one of them), not highly educated, not successful or destined for success; in fact, are nothing very special. It is for the people who, throughout history have entered history outside their neighbourhood as individuals only in the records of their births, marriages and deaths. Any society worth living in is one designed for them, not for the rich, the clever, the exceptional, although any society worth living in must provide room and scope for such minorities. But the world is not made for our personal benefit, nor are we in the world for our personal benefit. A world that claims that this is its purpose is not a good, and ought not to be a lasting, world”. (Hobsbawm Eric “On history” Ed. Butler and Tanner Ltd. Pág 9.)
¿No te parece que estar cerca de las diferencias genera más conciencia del privilegio? Es decir, nuestro amigo polaco se rió de nosotros porque su contacto con otras realidades es más limitado en virtud de su realidad y su contexto. Yo sí creo que el conocimiento aumenta la responsabilidad.
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