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| GUADARRAMA EN MARCHA Asociación cultural |
European Youth and Democratic Values, por Patricia Trevisi Lannoó (Abridged)
I. Presentation
I.1 Two worlds
We are
being influenced by a series of changes that disturb our growth. Unlike years
ago, however, nowadays in Europe we have at our disposal the necessary tools to
cope with them.
We have proceeded from a world with defined roles where there was
no need to discuss good and evil; a monological world where these were clearly
differentiated. A calm, quiet, moral world.
All of a sudden, a
new world opens up before our eyes showing us a vast network of relationships
and we gain awareness of our right to participate and interact with reality; a
world that has lost sight of the difference between good and evil, a dialogical
world. A restless world
where we have to be reflexive, where investigation is a must; where data are not
just to be committed to memory but to be worked out and handled. A world where
we must be able to see their “whys” and “what fors” before we store them in
our memory.
This new world that compels us to be conscious of our rights and
to find solutions is expecting an answer from its youth: common action.
I.2 What is culture?
Culture is
everything man makes. We are cultured only if we make. Thus, man
IS
his acts.
Culture, to be trascendent, demands creative, harmonic people;
people who are concious of the fact that they are unique. We are cultured when
we are constantly willing to come together with others, in search of others.
Thus, in the field of culture, we are not to judge levels of knowledge but
wisdom in life. And you acquire wisdom in life when you have been capable of
harmonizing your will-power, your affection, your intelligence and your sense of
freedom.
I.3 To be or not to be
The importance of
education
A visit to a
senior school in the UK showed me that a different world is possible, that
there is something else beyond our Spanish boundaries. It set me thinking about
what Europe and its youth expect from each other.
Human beings, like
animals, are born one in the species but identical to the rest. Our capacity
to think, love, be free and use our will-power makes us the only living
creature capable of consciously assuming our lives: we not only live, we also
know we are going to die.
This consciousness
of death
makes us vulnerable and, thus, look for security.
Our weakness,
though, is not fatal. Human beings are the only living creatures capable of
changing their own circumstances. Cows, die cows. Man is born an individual,
but has got the possibility of dying a person. And he reaches that status when,
in dialogue with others, assumes his own creation.
Educating, is
thus, to meet the need for plenitude of the potencies that characterize us as
human beings; when these potencies turn into attitudes, we can assume we are
persons we shall be able to see the world and ourselves in it, inserted
according to our own capacities.
True education is
reflection and action of man upon the world in order to change it; to be
educated is to have developed attitudes, to be able to denude our knowledge and
values and to share results.
Education is authentically humanistic if it helps man´s
integration into reality, if it favours a process of search and fosters
independence and solidarity; if man can assume his fear of freedom, that it is
one of his most precious gifts, that it is not negotiable, that it is fragile
and can be preserved only by permanent exercise of independence; if he can get
to understand that solidarity is more than giving: it is giving oneself.
Life is change. To deny change is to live in the past; it is to
refuse to see reality; it is to become a prisoner of solitude and to breed
selfishness. We grow only under the effects of change and uncertainty; there´s
no guarantee.
We should thank Europe for granting us this opportunity, for
showing us the way to come into act.
II. Analysis
European youth and
the loss of ideology
If by ideology we understand the whole of the fundamental ideas
that characterize the thoughts of a person, it is wrong to say there is a loss
of ideology in European youth. What has happened instead is that we –our elders
included- have lost control of reality and we do not know how to approach it.
If, instead, by ideology we mean the whole of the ideas that
characterize the manner of thinking of a historical period, it looks as if those
who wield power and commit atrocious crimes –no matter the side they are on- do
know what it is all about: they are the makers of that reality we do not know
how to cope with. It is our duty to denounce this and answer its call.
These facts demand that we should come into action aware of the
fact that it is not we who choose what happens but rather that facts themselves
beat us in our faces.
Their overwhelming presence compels us to change them. The way
to understand this world –and better it- is to learn about the facts, answer
their call, get involved, change them and make it public so that everybody gains
awareness of what is really happening.
Immigration, unemployment, drugs, alcohol, racism, terrorism,
war... are menacing us and little do we know about what can be done to
counteract their devasting effects.
My proposal has man as its starting point and goal; to help him
become aware of his capacity to think for himself; to encourage him in life; to
display all his creativity, his dialogical nature; to arouse his feeling of
solidarity; his passion, his reflection.
We have to develop a favourable attitude towards changes,
generate them and build up a society that commits itself in defence of its own
values.
The European society as a whole will have to decide on their
future. It concerns society to choose its own values, set its goals and
determine the procedures to achieve these. When societies plunge into
selfishness they cease their progress because they transfer their
responsibilities to politicians in return for security.
III. Proposals
How to reinforce
democratic values and increase the legitimacy of European institutions.
III.1 Background
If
anyone community should remain exempt from the injustice of a capitalistic
system that has forgotten that it is merely a means rather than an end in
itself, that is the European Community. It is
worthwhile asking oneself about these arbitrary practices.
“El País” , June
20th., 2002. “The moral disease of
capitalism”, an article on the recent American crash: ”Millions of people are
losing their money or have gone bankrupt. Will banks follow?”. “Bush´s
government is full of businessmen who have become politicians. The president
himself, as well as vice president Cheney, are under suspicion.”
In “The
future is not what it used to be”, a conversation between Felipe González and
Juan Luis Cebrián, the former states that it is obvious that the U.S.A. has the
upper hand in the globalized world but wonders who actually rules that
country.
III.2 Conclusion
If economic power
and its derivations gain control over politics we may conclude that democracy
will be reduced to mere formality. Its institutions will summon us to vote but
will hinder us from choosing our own values, setting our goals and establishing
the necessary procedures. Such democracy would lessen our capacity to think
for ourselves, disturb human relationships and submit us to the rule of money.
We, young Europeans, believe
little in our institutions and consequently do not feel involved enough to
participate. We are keener on conflicts than on institutions themselves.
Instead, in order to reinforce democratic values, we should project them from
each of the member countries to the European Community, which will safeguard
them and implement them. The incorporation into the Community of such countries
as the Czech Republic or Slovenia, or Turkey, so different to West European
nations, will demand a greater effort on both sides to achieve integration.
These differences must be evened up democratically in the field of politics.
This means a challenge to us, European youngsters, who must become competent
and qualified enough to participate actively in intermediate institutions such
as youth councils and students´centres. Thus, we must also impel and make known
the activities carried out by the youngsters of the different member countries,
come into contact with organizations that foster integration and implement
student exchange programmes; learn modern languages in order to be able to
communicate with youngsters from other countries, find out the benefits offered
to us by such programmes Socrates, Erasmus, Leonardo Da Vinci and the like.
It is the teacher´s responsibility
to arouse our interest in the European Community; to stimulate our
participation in debates, forums, conferences; to promote students´ exchange
programmes; to show us the roads that lead to our political representatives; to
become acquainted with information technology; to teach at different
educational centres to have an insight into other communities; to learn foreign
languages; to be able to learn about other educational systems; to foster
parents´participation in school life.
It is the politicians duty
to listen to us, to visit our schools and talk with us, to give an answer to our
needs and demands.
Our
elders –both teachers and parents- must make room for our imagination and work
shoulder to shoulder at school.
It will
not be easy to legitimize our institutions unless we all participate actively
in the process . It is our concern, the younger generation´s, to work out
shortly, solutions to the problems democracy is faced with: the pace of change,
the world´s urgent demands; the conditions imposed by both financial and
mediatic powers; civic passivity and reluctance and, consequently, its
vulnerability, which may give way to demagogy; in short, “the silent destruction
of society” (Yves Michaud)
Bibliography
“La revolución de la persona”, José Isaacson, Marymar, 1980. Argentina .
“La escasez, causal de disolución social”, (Carlos Trevisi, Biblos, 1990) en
PROPUESTAS PARA UNA ANTROPOLOGIA ARGENTINA, Carlos Berbeglia,
coordinador.
“Obra abierta”, Umberto Eco, Planeta-Agostini, 1992, Barcelona.
“EL FUTURO NO ES LO QUE ERA”. Una conversación. (Felipe González, Juan Luis Cebrián. Santillana Ediciones Generales, 2002)
“PREEMINENCIA DEL EDUCANDO” en “¿Educar o educarse?”, Carlos Trevisi, coordinador. (Carlos A.
Trevisi, Rodolfo Araujo y Patricia Lannoó, Ediciones Misión Futuro, España. 2000)
Enciclopedia Espasa, 1995
Diccionario de la Lengua Española, Real Academia Española, 21ª Ed. Madrid. 1992
NEWSPAPERS: “El País” (España), “Clarín” and “La Nación”, Argentina
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