Published originally in Spanish. Máriam G. Bascuñán. El País.
Democracy does not champion one single truth, but the possibility that many different viewpoints coexist.
Nowadays it is infrequent, except for priests, to find people that believe to be in possession of the Truth. This is the case of Mr. Junqueras, who in a tweet thanking Mr. Assange his support for the independentist cause said: “Thank you Julian for shedding light on the truth on these decisive days”. Maybe, as the Bible says, everyone who belongs to the Truth listens to its voice. Although when extrapolated to the political domain, the whole concept is questionable since, if there is a single truth, ¿does it mean that there is one single answer for political issues?
As Arendt said while stating that the Truth precludes debate: any political act in defense of a creed believed to be incontrovertible prevents pluralism. For this reason “shedding light on truth” is not more democratic than having liberty to interpret the world in an alternative way. Democracy does not champion one single truth, but the possibility that many different viewpoints coexist. And a president such as Rajoy, turned into priest of the law, can end up internalizing as a mere strict adherence to rules.
No matter how hard they both try, the access to the political sphere that is guaranteed by the law takes place through conversation, where there is room even for enlightened voices that, like Mr. Assange’s, rise from the ordeal of exile. We already know that they can as soon erase the shame from the world by supporting Trump or Le Pen, as adopting this clerical tone to honor a truth and a justice that seemingly they know with certainty and that they will make triumph at all costs. The funny thing is that Mr. Assange confined himself in the Embassy of Ecuador evading another more objective truth: the judicial truth of the Swedish state. This is really an incontrovertible fact, rather than an opinion. For this reason it draws attention that somebody could give credit to someone who by his own attitudes has discredited himself.
It is terrible that instead of the truth of facts, the acquiescence of those who share “our reasons” is being pursued. And thus it is irrelevant that the Spanish state is compared with the Chinese dictatorship responsible of the Tiananmen massacre. As long as he gets on board of the cause, everything else doesn’t matter much. There is, no doubt, a sector of the left that should reflect seriously on this.
