Are we living in the West in a dehumanized World?
We need to understand our role and how to use the means at our disposal.
In previous articles, I have referred to experiences I’ve had in LATAM, the US, France, and Spain, in addition to numerous visits, for family reasons, to the United Kingdom and Poland. It all started in the first half of the 70s when I traveled to the US to complete my university studies. It went on in 2003 when my professional experience in Venezuela ended, and I started mentoring young digital entrepreneurs in Venezuela, Peru, and Chile.
My continuous visits to the US during the first 30 years and then to Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Poland, and Chile (the latter in the last decade) have left me with many doubts. However, the impression I am left at the end is that we in the Western world are moving towards a less humane society.
Reading historical, philosophical, and sociological essays has helped me better guide the search for possible causes that explain this phenomenon. However, the trend has accelerated since the beginning of the 21st century, especially in the political sphere in Western Europe, the USA, and LATAM. The rules of the democratic game and respect for institutions do not seem to guide the behavior of the majority of leaders in the West, and this represents an even greater risk of breaking our traditions on social, economic, and cultural issues.
My interpretation of these changes is that we have confused roles or created poor expectations in:
- The role of science beyond means to achieve improvements in our quality of life, which require criteria and regulation for their use.
- The benefits of a free market policy, whose promoter, Adam Smith, a moralist, correctly predicted that competition would benefit the consumer assuming transparent and honest behavior from market participants and regulators.
- Our concept of citizenship: of free and enterprising individuals in a society that promotes equality and liberty guided by a spirit of brotherhood reflected in the Christian tradition of the West.
Instead, we are increasingly subject to a policy and practices whose interests we are unaware of. Our lack of interest in delving deeper into our reality makes it increasingly difficult to understand.
The solution to reverse this trend is within our reach: resume our role and principles of humanity in harmony with nature, appreciate art as an alternative means of interpreting reality, and search our inner self for adequate solutions to reverse the dehumanization trend in our societies.
