Rhetorics of cruelty. Myths of and reasons for social inequality ; Retóricas de la crueldad. Mitos y razones de la desigualdad social

Abstract

How do subjects act in the presence of discourses that interpret the structure and causes of the crisis that the pandemic exposes? In this paper we are devoted to the analysis of some oral narratives extracted from a qualitative study of argentinean society in which subjects thread hypotheses of interpretation about issues of not only public significance but also related to intimacy, thus expressing an affectively overdetermined verbality, in which emotions and sensitivities act as vehicles of positions contrary to the principles of freedom and equality for all. The hypothesis we develop here argues that, in the face of the global crisis of capitalism, unleashed first by the financial collapse of 2008 and then exacerbated by the Covid-19 catastrophe, individuals do not cease in their quest to construct a sense of the facts as they occur. And for this purpose they use different rhetorical strategies that denote forms of attachment; which, many times, obstruct the critical view and the possibility of transforming the conditions that produce their suffering. In these operations of the use of words, ways of justifying privileges, exclusions and social oppressions are expressed, and in doing so they jeopardize the fundamental conditions of democratic life. ; ¿Cómo actúan los sujetos ante los discursos que interpretan la estructura y las causas de la crisis que la pandemia expone? En este escrito nos dedicamos al análisis de algunas narraciones orales extraídas de un estudio cualitativo de la sociedad argentina en las que los sujetos enhebran hipótesis de interpretación acerca de temas de significación no sólo pública sino también relativos a la intimidad, expresando así una verbalidad sobredeterminada afectivamente, en la que las emociones y las sensibilidades actúan como vehículos de posiciones contrarias a los principios de la libertad y la igualdad de todos. La hipótesis que desarrollamos aquí sostiene que, ante la crisis mundial del capitalismo, desatada primero por el colapso financiero de 2008 y agudizada luego ...