Mario Vargas Llosain his essay The civilization of the showhighlights a topic that has been, in a certain way, previously studied by other authors, call it culture of entertainment, fun, alienation, among other denominations.
What for some represents a crisis of culture, for others its democratization. Social phenomenon that is enhanced by information technology, especially by the Internet and social networks. From whatever perspective or name you prefer to call it, the truth is that all darts point to a shot card present today; banality of culture, the superficiality of life, empty speech and thought.
Vargas Llosa criticizes the course that societies have taken with respect to culture, stating that the changes are manifested in all the aspects that make it up, education, politics, communication, among others. Verifying this discourse in Dominican society is precisely the purpose of this article.
It is enough to take a walk through the cyber Dominican Republic to realize the trivialization of thought. A network of opinion-makers, who, although it is true, exercise their right to free expression, it is also true that they show a discourse without any basis of support, fallacious arguments, the result of the repetition of opinions that are spreading like balls of smoke , for example, to comment on any news or article without having read it.
As in other countries, the same phenomenon manifests itself in politics, popular artists have replaced intellectuals in public and legislative positions. This may be, as the author states, because on occasions the latter have served totalitarian regimes and have acted with their backs on the welfare of the community or because in the present the image exceeds reality. The media have a preponderant role in political campaigns, the manipulation of the image plays to sell the candidates, just as economic resources bid without limits and without shame, astronomical sums are spent that are unbecoming of a poor country, money affects more than the proposals. There have been and there are officials and legislators as a result of emotion, the manipulation of values and the image that, although their election and their right are not bad, with some exceptions, they have not done a commendable job from their positions or seats, the majority it has followed and been crushed by traditional practices.
Music strips sexuality of sensitivity and eroticism. Its explicit content trivializes, trivializes the act. Along with the release of taboos and prejudice has come very crude and even crude explicit content. This fact, together with the conditions of overcrowding resulting from poverty, exacerbates sexualization in childhood, takes away the innocence, fantasy and imagination typical of its stage, factors that should be stimulated by children’s and youth literature.
Regarding reading, not even Vargas Llosa’s opinion that at this time the literature that is consumed is Light can be applied in the Dominican Republic, because all the studies indicate that it is not read. In the first years of schooling, children cannot understand a simple text, students finish high school without having read a complete book, when reading they cannot account for what they have read. Many of the public figures admired by children and young people cannot express a coherent sentence, as a result of their lack of reading. The entities responsible for promoting and motivating it have abandoned it, there are no state policies for these purposes, the bookstores have disappeared, there are very few left with unaffordable prices for the majority, they are reserved for an elite. Once a year, on the occasion of the book fair, a campaign is published motivating reading, otherwise the government, families and schools abandon it.
Regarding education, the previous paragraph gives an idea of how things are going. All the measurements leave the Dominican Republic in a bad position, last places in reading, writing and mathematics. The figure of the teacher devalued, absent humanistic training, apparently culture is not needed to be successful, a good human being or citizen. The arts are not part of the comprehensive education of students. Educational institutions that were benchmarks of quality and number one in humanistic education have lost much of their prestige and essence. There is no doubt that Dominican education has lost its way in its task of forming upright citizens.
In short, according to Vargas Llosa’s speech, the Dominican Republic is no different from other countries, the State has abandoned culture despite having a ministry that supposedly watches over it. Education has not improved, although more resources have been allocated for the purposes. The journalistic exercise has mistaken its course, as well as the appreciation and valuation of the arts. All this has resulted in the trivialization of culture, the overvaluation of image and appearance over being, superficiality and immediacy over critical thinking and entertainment over fun.
Andrea Teanni Cuesta Ramón at Acento.com.do
We would love to thank the writer of this write-up for this remarkable web content
‘The civilization of the spectacle’, by Mario Vargas Llosa refers to a phenomenon from which Dominican society does not escape