The way out is through dialogue

One of humanity's greatest transformations is owed to Plato, when he demonstrated the power of dialogue. He understood and explained that it's something so basic that allows us to move beyond stagnation and put our thoughts into action. It's called dialectics, the philosophical device that gives motion to history, from Hegel, through Marx, to our days. By refusing to accept the given reality, it allows for its transformation from discourse to actions, when synthesis between opposites is achieved.

Preceding (and opposed to) dialectics is myth. Far from dialogue, it's the expression of divine revelation; it doesn't allow for discussion or difference. Conceptually, it's closest to "take it or leave it" and manifests in present-day politics as populism: synthesis is mandated by divine decree and isn't even the result of meditation, dialogue with oneself. It's not a matter of left or right but of dogma.

Institutions followed the evolution of philosophical thought. Their fundamental basis is dialogue. The separation of powers explains this best: in the case of political powers especially (Executive and Congress), it's an interaction from opposing viewpoints, where the ruling party and the opposition move from the tension of opposites to synthesis. It's true that it doesn't always result in the best technical outcomes, but like it or not, it's the best way to achieve balances that reflect different perspectives and foster healthy societal coexistence.

Argentina has been immersed in a mystical understanding of politics for over twenty years, except for a brief interlude. The reasons for our obsessive decline can be explained economically, but the root cause is different: the predominance of messianic tendencies in discourses that don't admit nuances; that don't recognize the other. This is what has put our institutional ecosystem on an endless decline.

Nobody wants to talk, everything is imposed, whether through the force of automatic majorities or fleeting legitimacies. It doesn't matter, the damage has been done, continues to be the same, and is immense, because the much-mentioned logic of "friend/enemy" (turned into "good people") is not dynamic but paralyzing. It's the opposite of the movement advocated by dialectics: it's a discourse that paradoxically doesn't transform reality but freezes it because it imposes a labyrinth that doesn't allow for the creative tangent of dialogue.

The latest example of this trend has been the "omnibus law," along with a conglomerate DNU of substantial changes and irritating trivialities. The persuasive foundations have ranged from quotes from the Old Testament to the banal justification that there is no other way than blind approval or the end, only to backtrack due to legislative incompetence and then convert one's own mistakes into cunning, as if nothing had happened.

In politics, it's not about winning but about convincing. And as the Sacred Scriptures rightly say, first was the word, to create a reality and not to persist in past mistakes. That's not change.