Honestly, when Gonzalo introduced this lecture as one of
citizenship and politics, I was definitely not the most enthusiastic person in
the room. However, I was willing to open myself up to a topic I’m not usually
interested about, but one I know it’s essential in life. He started by saying
that politics is everywhere and that it is a way of knowing, an aspect I had
never considered before but that didn’t completely agree, little did I know
that I was about to hear something that was going to change my mind. “My
world”, meaning everything that surrounds me, living or not, are my own
representations of what I see, additionally, “my world” has to coexist with other’s
own worlds, and here is where politics are created. Hence politics are made,
when I’m presenting my world to others or when I’m getting to know other’s
world, mainly when any decision is made so indeed politics are everywhere.
Furthermore,
the complex idea of citizenship was discussed. This quote by the movie “Hugo”
is an explanation of what we discussed: “Everything
has a purpose, clocks tell you the time, trains take you to places. I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. Machines never have
any extra parts, they have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I
figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason.” This idea of how all of us
are part of a social machinery was presented to us. And Hugo is certainly
right, the world has something premeditated for us. Society has already invested
on us, this is due to the fact that we are in a school, we are educated, we
have a certain social status that were gained because society allowed our
parents to provide that to us. Hence society collects what was previously given
to us, and this is what separates a “good” man from a “bad” man in society, the
extent on which we do what society expects for us to do.
Yet does this idea of “good” for society, has to be our same
idea of “good”? Society tells us that happiness comes from our productivity, from
our skills, so if I’m not productive, I can not be happy? Yes, citizenship
represents not only my world but other’s world, however this does not mean that
I have to give up with my own idea of good, but that all of us have to make our
own idea of good prevail over other’s. This way politics are ourselves, we
become the protagonist of our own novel, and as a consequence, politics or the
decisions we make become a way of knowing.
