La lucha por la igualdad

Infobae presents the podcast of Ricardo Lorenzetti. Every day we receive information about the impact of artificial intelligence, climatic tragedies, or social and political fights. We live with fear. These phenomena seem isolated, but they are part of an end of the cycle that is before us. I want to invite you to participate in the solution, because it is the dawn of a new era with hope, it is something new that we cannot lose. We must fight for concrete solutions, for the values that make us human, for democracy and the law. We must achieve that leaders stop being participants in selfish fights to be true moral narrators of the nation. We must fight for building a future for our loved ones. Welcome to this space to think together the urgent dilemmas that define our time. In this episode we are going to talk about one of the diagnoses that are discussed among the big global problems, which is the issue of equality. In the 20th century, the struggle for equality was a big issue. It was written in political literature, in sociology, in philosophy, and there were great revolutions focused on equality. The politics revolved around equality. In the 21st century, on the contrary, it seemed that the issue had disappeared. It is as if there is a simulacrum of non-existence. On the contrary, there is a social conduct aimed at imitating those who have the most. It is a social, political, institutional, very important, very relevant change that influences both the government and also influences the personal life of each of us. Let's start by analyzing some of the cases. Perhaps the one that draws the attention and is very commented is South Korea, which is a small island that has advanced capitalism development of high technology, very typical of the 21st century. There we have cell phones, TV, LCD screens, electric, cars, robotics, aerospace technology. All of that is made in South Korea. It is a leader of innovation that is among the first countries in relation to registered patents. Their companies are global brands with penetration in all the world that we know in all countries. Their cultural industry is in expansion and we even see today how young people, teenagers, imitate the cultural conduct and fashion, above all, that Korean girls have and that they expand. This is the face of a capitalism with a very high level of progress. The face of this shows art. The Parasite film, for example, which has been Oscar winner, shows something absolutely different. A family that lives with a very high level of wealth and another family that works for the first who lives in the most extreme poverty in a tragedy, in a murder. The series, the Kalamar game that has had a huge global diffusion, also shows Korean origin, people indebted to the point that they can give their lives in exchange for pay. Pressed by the mafia, this series is tremendous because it shows tremendous moral decisions, people who kill each other to be able to advance in the fight for a different life, to save their lives. That is, it shows the dark side but it is a very dramatic dark side because they are people who do not have a future, who do not have absolutely any social, or political, and they are people who are willing to give their lives. And finally, it ends with the main actor saying, "Let's not forget that we are humans". So it is in the background a great theme that is the absolute lack of the future of a whole generation in a country that has all the possibilities of giving it. It is an extreme inequality that shows Korean art. This should draw our attention because it is happening all over the world. The famous pyramid is being transformed because it is the super rich who are increasingly super rich. For example, huge figures are seen in football negotiations, unreachable, almost unimaginable, or difficult to conceive for anyone. And on the other hand, extreme poverty situations are seen and the middle class falls. It becomes the citizen insecurity because people start to think that it is difficult to stay at this level and little by little they can lose it. They can lose it at any time. So the inequality has grown in the whole world, it is growing, the wealth is concentrated in few hands, but unlike the 20th century, there is no great theme, there is no struggle for equality, there is no revolution as it could have been planned in the 20th century. This is a paradox that is discussed a lot in the world, there is a lot of literature about it and both in politics and in social theories as well as in art. It is a true paradox of the 21st century. The struggle against inequality is something that draws our attention because it does not exist globally. Why is this being considered so? Why has this enormous change been made in the organization of society and in idealism, above all? This is the past of combating imitation. This is the great change from the 20th century to the 21st century. The search for equality has been left aside because it does not fight wealth, it shows it and imitates it. In the cinema, in the series, in the videos, in the networks, it is exposed to how the super rich live, the artists, the sportsmen, the models, those and the influencers. And this information reaches every day, to all the people who have a cell phone and the reactions are not from not wanting to change the world, but rather from inviting them, from wanting to become like them. This is a path of frustrations because it is about the search for what never reaches. Why do we say that it never reaches? Why do we say that it is a path of frustration to want to imitate the super rich? First of all, because there is a speed of change, which we have already referred to, but which makes it impossible to want to have everything that is intended. A person who lived 80 years had an absolutely different childhood than his adult life. He attended the birth of the kitchen, the fridge, the TV, the cars, the planes, the trip to the moon. That is, he changed his entire environment during his life and the struggle to have every one of the things he wanted does not end. During his whole life he had to continue fighting to get something. At the age of 30, he also had a different childhood. There was no internet, no cell phones, no Google, no YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, Wikipedia. That is, the speed of change makes the search for goods, for services, for a quality of life, be an endless search that has no end. There is no place where one reaches and says, "It is already there." It is very different from what happened in the 20th century. That is why we are in a society that lives in a state of anxiety and with a feeling that it is always in a plane of inequality, looking for what it does not have. To that we have to add advertising, because advertising is something decisive, we would say, in these times, because permanently possibilities are offered and these possibilities sometimes lead us to the surplus of advertising. That is, people today live looking, we all look, what social networks offer, on different media, on different pages. And it always tries to offer some possibility that then ends in the surplus of advertising. People today do not realize that everything they spend through social networks with the use of the card or the means of technological payment, and then they become anxious to buy the latest news and end up indebted and therefore controlled. To that we have to add a third factor, because it is the programmed caducity of goods and services. One can save a lot of money and with that buy the last cell phone, but in a short time that cell phone no longer works, because there is another, or because it no longer has the technological capacity to incorporate new programs. The same happens with computers or with fashion. Now the fast fashion, the fashion that changes very acceleratedly. So this programmed caducity, this advertising and this speed of change makes us permanently seeking something that we never achieve. That is why many authors say revolutionary dreams have been replaced by the nightmares that make it unreachable. A very strong phrase, but it clearly shows how we have fallen in a very important social control mode. And that is why this social control makes us have today an anxious generation, an anxious society, because we are permanently seeking, we do not achieve this, and this generates anxiety. And that is why instead of getting angry and facing the change of the social situation, of institutions or the revolution, as it happened in the 20th century, today the tranquilizers in the middle class have been spread. And for those who do not have money, the drugs are more dangerous. This topic concerns the great theorists who currently write in the 21st century, because an anxious generation, an anxious society with tranquilizers or drugs, is an explosive society. There is no organization for all this. It is a very dangerous situation of permanent instability and frustration. And what makes governability difficult? For example, there is a book by Jonathan Hyde called "An anxious generation". Why are social networks causing an epidemic of mental diseases among our young people? A book published in Spain in 2024. In other words, there is a lot of concern, permanent instability and frustration, inequality is almost absent. The stability that existed in goods and services in the 20th century that lasted a long time has been replaced by permanent instability. The confidence in the future that existed in the 20th century that everything was going to allow us a social development and mobility is replaced by distrust. Fear in private life has been installed. The great fear of falling, a disease, a farewell, a separation, an error, can cause a cancellation and a fall out of the system. And there are many people who feel unwell or out of all possibilities of progress. And they lose their job and it is impossible to get another one, or they simply don't get to fulfill their expectations and start frustration. Or they also see that their children will not have the promised future, they will not do the same as their parents, they will do less in their development. That is, the future of children will not be better than that of parents. All this generates great social tensions and enormous difficulties in the government of the 21st century. That is why we need different leaders who try to face this problem because a frustrated society is a society that is not only unstable, not only generates very serious problems both personal and social, but also has no future because there is no innovation, there is no desire, there is simply frustration and nightmare. Today we need leaders who take care of this problem and there are solutions that are being worked on. For example, there are economic proposals in front of the possibility of a massive unemployment. This issue of the massive unemployment that we are going to see more extensively in other episodes is very important because already on the planet there is a growing unemployment problem. For various aspects, transformations in the reduction of public spending, economic transformations, large sectors that existed and were viable 20 or 30 years ago stop doing it and then produce the expulsion of employment. But the great concern is given by artificial intelligence which can generate a very important unemployment. It is said that almost all the relevant jobs of the 20th century can be replaced by the technological ecosystem and we can reach a situation in which there is massive unemployment in society and we are going to have to learn all to live without work with income from other sources. Now, this is a huge political, social challenge and in general governability. It is a challenge that the leaders must face to give it a solution. What are the proposals? Some support that it is necessary to think of a basic income is what Arari or Piketty proposes. A universal basic income all regardless of work. This also has its problems because the basic income without employment also generates social diseases, generates frustrations, generates children who do not have the incentive for effort. This issue is very discussed and also the problem of where it comes from, income, how it is financed. But it is one of the proposals discussed in many countries about the idea of a basic income. There are also proposals based on equal opportunities, not so much on the economic aspect, on the money aspect, but on education. This is a very important issue of the work that Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen did, reformulating the idea of equality. In other words, equality is not just money, the same amount of money for certain people according to their abilities, but the quality of life, the development of personal abilities. In this issue, it is better education that allows social mobility and not only money. Of course, this also implies a huge challenge that is currently taking us forward because it is not the education that is currently being updated in the current world. We need a different education, an education that allows to develop the abilities that will require the new technological ecosystem and a development of the critical spirit. That is, we must reformulate education according to the 21st century and we must design institutions that allow social mobility. Because if there is no social mobility and education, there is no equality. So, the big challenge is to reformulate the institutions for social mobility. Which is something that existed in many countries in the 20th century. It was perhaps my case from a very inferior place on the social scale, thanks to the public university, to the public school, one could develop and get to have a better situation than parents. But this is increasingly difficult. We need to reformulate it. We need to make a great change in education and a great change in the institutions that allow social mobility. This implies working on merit, working on children, working on technology and working on a state policy in educational terms that allows this social mobility. We must react. We need a deep change. A new direction. We are not going to gain anything by hiding the inequality. Because at some point the situation will be explosive. We must necessarily face this problem because the permanent instability generates great social problems. It is very possible that in many countries, in many cities, in many regions, sectors that live isolated some with others and faced each other because they do not have access to the same quality of life and this distrust, this envy, this fight between poor sectors and middle class sectors is very harmful to society and the government does not have means to solve this problem if it is not a deep change in the idea of equality. So, the teaching of this diagnosis and of the solutions is that equality and inequality are still important. It is not possible to hide and create a simulacrum about growing inequality. Poverty increases, inequality increases but it is also necessary to focus on the solutions. Fighting for equality is going to be one of the great issues of this 21st century. Fighting for equality is organizing, it is clear proposals, different proposals, is facing changes in education, is facing changes in institutions to establish a real equality of opportunities which is what our constitution says and the constitution of the majority of countries is to favor merit and not friendship is to open the doors so that everyone can have an opportunity in their lives an opportunity to be better, to progress, to have a family that is totally isolated or displaced. We must change the weights by ideals. To go back to ideals and the ideal of fighting for equality has to be one of the great issues of this 21st century. [BLANK_AUDIO]