Democracy & Political Participation

The sociologist Rafael Diaz Salazar offers to us in "Towards Post-capitalism" an essay that attempts to shed light fin order to orient us as we transition into post-capitalism. He does it by suggesting a dialogue between cultures of faith and justice that are nourished by different sources but who desire to learn from one another. The booklet covers the dialogue among Christians, Marxists and eco-socialists and, as the author himself explains, it is inserted into the proposal of Pope Francis concerning the culture of the encounter between persons of good will who have as their common goal the emancipation of the impoverished and of ecology.
 

At the end of each year, at Cristianisme i Justicia we try to reflect on the present moment with the goal of pointing out some possible lines of thought that can act as suggestions for the construction of a new future. Along these lines, we propose today this exercise in sociopolitical imagination arises from the will to recover and rescue some words from being held hostage and from the twisted appropriation that is given to them by post-Fascism. Facing this affront, our little dictionary tries to drag into the light the feelings forgotten by those of us who serve everyone in our shared journey toward global justice.

The title of this Booklet joins two words, democracy and culture, that mutually support each other like exhausted travelers in the middle of their journey. The tiredness of the word democracy is due to the fact that it designates a tarnished reality, eroded at its foundations by economic globalization, the power of the great industries, techno-politics and populism. The word culture has arrived at the same state because it has lost critical and Utopian stamina in going from being a noble ideal and an antidote against power to being a vassal. In spite of that, the author defends the fact that beauty and art cannot be measured by their utility or their lack thereof and that there is an emotional movement when dealing with beauty that can be lived as the herald of a better world.

In this Notebook the Author gathers together the response generated by COVID-19 among the political and economic classes and the consequences that are the prelude to future crises. Because once we are on the other side of the pandemic it is necessary to take on urgently the social and economic aspects of our system that should be questioned in order to foresee and avoid the recurrence in the near future of episodes like the one which we are now living.

The current neoliberal model of globalisation, far from slowing down the effects of environmental damages and guaranteeing basic rights, has instead brought about the commercialisation of the water market, and turned it into a new business opportunity increasing the vulnerability of the weakest sectors of society. We need to promote a “New Water Culture” which restores, within the framework of modernity, the old wisdom of our ancestor’s cultures that was based on an attitude of care and respect for Nature.

More than half a century after its birth and despite its undoubted success, the European project appears to have run aground. The particular interests of the various countries once again are taking priority over the general interests of the community, and many citizens are showing themselves indifferent, if not hostile, to the European project. The collapse began earlier on, but it culminated with the extreme economic crisis we are now suffering. Is this the end of the road? Is it worth the trouble to continue in this Union, given the way they’ve left it?