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The book 'The Country of Sad Emotions' by Colombian Mauricio García Villegas has just been published in French, by the publishing house Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme. An essay in which he explains the political and social unrest in Colombia based on emotions such as hatred, revenge or resentment. And he does it with the philosophy of the 17th century Dutch thinker of Portuguese Jewish origin, Baruch Spinoza.
Could Colombia have avoided or resolved its conflicts if there had not been so much rancor, hatred, revenge or resentment? A Colombian writer and columnist tries to answer this question through the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza.
“Spinoza has this idea that, in my opinion, is fascinating: that sometimes certain emotions such as hatred, revenge, resentment and envy turn against us and harm us, causing us to end up being victims of those same emotions. And I find that idea illuminating. Of course, he does not explain everything, but he helps us understand many of the things that happen in Latin America,” explains the doctor and professor at the National University of Colombia.
“All countries have sad emotions,” maintains the author, but in “some countries these emotions are exacerbated and end up being predominant,” he adds. This is the case of Colombia. “There are recurring hatreds that pass from generation to generation and that spoil the projects and progress of society.”
Although he recognizes that sad emotions cannot explain everything and do not arise alone. “After independence in the 19th century, the states were incapable of controlling the entire territory, and caudillos emerged, who were landowners and, sometimes, bandits, who took over regions. Some of them became presidents. These leaders sowed panic and fear in many countries, and this inability to rebuild the legitimacy and effectiveness of the political regime that existed during the colony led to civil wars and confrontations. Emotions arise under certain economic, political and social conditions that unleash precisely these emotions,” explains García Villegas.
“The current sorrows are explained by our history”
“There are many things poorly resolved. And I believe that a good part of the current sorrows are explained by our history. It is not the same in all countries, but in many of them what happened was the inability since the 19th century to build effective and legitimate political regimes at the same time,” argues the author, who believes that this is the key to understanding why Very often in Latin American countries we go “from chaos, disorder or civil war to authoritarianism, without exploiting the intermediate point,” he explains.
In his latest book published in Spanish, 'The Old Malaise of the New World' (Editorial Ariel, 2023), García Villegas defends that Latin America is a nation. “The only ones who believe that we are different are Latin Americans who live in Latin America and we see ourselves very different from each other,” he maintains.
“In Colombia, there is a Caribbean country, an Andean country and a country on the plains that we share with Venezuela, but we all consider ourselves Colombians. And something similar can be said about all countries. I believe that rescuing Latin America from the oblivion in which it finds itself today requires many things, but above all it requires Latin American unity. And I believe that we must rescue that idea,” concludes the author.
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