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The Culture of Discarding
One of the great threats of the 21st century

The culture of discarding is a current issue that requires deep human and social reflection. Pope Francis has insisted on monitoring our behavior to avoid this behavior.


Author: María Fernanda Bello | Source: www.somosrc.mx



The Culture of Discarding
One of the great threats of the 21st century

By: María Fernanda Bello | Source: www.somosrc.mx

The culture of discarding is a current issue that requires deep human and social reflection. Pope Francis has insisted on monitoring our behavior to avoid this behavior.

This "anti-thinking" implies deterioration in the valuation of the human being, in which the interest of capital is placed over the dignity of the person. It also refers to a tendency to make the human person, and his service, an object to be discarded.

The culture of discarding is a strong problem that society faces. This situation is the product of neoliberal capitalism, and in it, everything becomes a commodity, including the human person. “Within neoliberalism, all kinds of people are discredited and their dignity is ignored” affirmed the priest Juan Ignacio Ortega Gomez, who was trained in the Theological Institute of Higher Studies.



Nowadays, the effects of this ideology are perceptible throughout the globe. The consequences harm everyone, as individuals, because it "destroys the fundamental values of Western culture and the whole culture in general."

The roots of this behavior emerged at the time of the Industrial Revolution. This event inaugurated the opaqueness of the artisanal industry in Europe and promoted the accumulation of capital, the dispossession of the lands of the peasants and the looting of innumerable richness in Latin America. Although in a more contemporary way, the Scottish economist Adam Smith admitted perceiving the selfishness of the capitalists as the engine of the economy.

The culture of discarding can lead to the adoption of one of the most radical positions of totalitarian regimes: if "you do not serve" for production you are left behind. Examples of the above are people with different abilities, Down syndrome or the elderly who have ceased to be valued by society. In this sense we are like the Spartans of Ancient Greece, who threw children born with some type of disability into the ravine, he recalled.

Also, the culture of discarding means bad news for workers. Before, the poor were spoken of as a force for labor. Now they are not considered for that because there are robotic and many technologies that have taken their place in the industries.

Before, problems such as hunger, unemployment, and those displaced by situations of violence were a primary concern. Now it is becoming habitual and "natural" that large masses of people are simply ignored and dismissed as something that should not be.

In the same way, the human being becomes a commodity through human trafficking, prostitution, slavery in the drug trafficking and forced labor fields; or when they are used to supply the black market of organs.

It is important to opt for different techniques to counteract this anti-thinking and reduce its damage. One should look for an address of our most nationalist country, which follows less the interests of transnational capital. Finally, Catholics should make an effort to defend their faith from practice, giving testimony "with rectitude, respect, and honesty," he concluded.








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