Breathe
By Areli Paz
Stridency: excess that alters all our senses
Discussion: Uncomfortable conversations that must have a winner or winner
Conversation: awkward exchange of ideas, no one knows best, no one is right, it's just each person's perception of the world.
Polarization: a game we all play, and in which we will all lose in the end.
Today everything is noise.
Cut your breath a little and look at the people next to you. Close your eyes and notice how alone we are. There are so many of us and we don't listen to each other, we don't see each other, we don't feel each other, we go stridently through life wanting to impose our will, tastes and opinions.
Visual noise with images of a reel, which in 5 seconds should capture our attention. Shootings, murders, decapitations, chases, extreme exercise routines, diets, unattainable beauty, images that saturate every cell of our eyes.
Audible noise, the one who shouts louder will be heard more. "Lord I'm bad" or "Lady you bring them", insults, disqualification and everything that tries to impose itself as a unique idea. Voices without sense or directed to join in groups as if we were sects.
Olfactory noise, we all smell of everything, but in the meantime, few of us can recognize and differentiate ourselves. Something becomes fashionable and the scent is common, basic and no longer exclusive.
Noise in the memory of our flavors, now everything we put in our mouths is susceptible to be criticized, because of its cost, its consistency, its origin, its novelty or because screwing the one next to us has also become a common and sometimes extreme sport.
Beyond politics, soccer or religion, today everything confronts us.
Trump's win proved that the voices of the extreme, misogynistic and discriminatory echo.
The triumphs of Trump and Sheinbaum have parallels, populist, polarizing speeches, recognition only to their like-minded, tsunami of votes and pottage of absolute power.
But it is not the only thing that confronts us, we all play on the line of stridency, some more, some less, but all falling at the slightest provocation.
I made a questionnaire for my journalist friends, actors, actresses, lawyers, housewives and scientists.
Our professions and opinions tend to be crazy, extreme, passionate and in many occasions, telling us the truth is a game that with age we have assumed, but we don't like it.
Why do we want to be right all the time?
"Because we are never taught that being wrong is okay and part of the journey. They don't teach us to become familiar with the shame of being wrong," says the most creative.
"Because science backs me up," says the biomedical doctor.
"Because I explain it from the law," says the lawyer.
"Because I said so," of course she's the mom friend.
"Because I have it," says the most arrogant one.
How do we stop polarization?
"Stopping listening to those who are not right," says one, "polarization never ends, it is part of us and we like it, we enjoy it, otherwise what will we fight about?"
"Talking, building, trying to listen more, ignoring the fools, ignoring the "pendejas", stopping insulting each other, not talking about certain topics".
The most brilliant answer came from an actor, the one who represents many lives in his own life, "Because polarization is very similar to power, it is a universal law that has two poles and both exist at the same time".
Right there we stand in power, in commanding, in wanting to impose, in validating our truth, in believing that uncomfortable conversations are personal, in not listening to those next to us, the stridency is not isolating us from what is important, what is useful and what transcends.
Being strident is not wrong, you just have to know what for.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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