Throughout the concept of “democracy” ‘s slow progress through human societies, it is clear that only rarely do societies grasp its true nature. And yet, the real advances humanity has made in understanding this concept are due to isolated individuals later classified as “geniuses,” even though throughout their lives, nothing suggested they were gifted with special intelligence.

However, it often happens that these types of “geniuses” do not reveal their “secret,” simply due to the intolerance of societies that, when resistant to anything that differs from the “norm” (that is, from the thinking of the majority), become blind and cruel to those who stray from it. Take the case of Galileo Galilei, who lived from 1564 to 1642 (curiously, after the “discovery of the Azores”) and who, at the height of the disputes he promoted to prove that it is the Earth that revolves around the Sun, and not the other way around, as was thought—something inconceivable at the time!—was almost killed.

But because it is often these minority voices that reveal the true essence of things, rather than the crowd that pressures for adherence to the convictions of the powerful, supposedly more “gifted”—it is these voices that proceed on the path of discovery of a core aspect of authentic reality.

Isolated voices, resulting from an intimate thought that we can define as “enlightenment,” are those that, by mere difference, whether due to a particular and individual construction of memories, or for any other reason or ability—are the ones that should be highlighted and heard, when endowed with some possibility of a more correct approximation to “reality.”

It is in their defense that societies should fight, even if “blindly,” because through them, something may arise out of nothing, or as a result of a small difference in the perception of reality—although they do not guarantee that they are the bearers of the right path—they will be the facilitators of the next quantitative and qualitative leap in access to a new “Truth.”

That is why the more we agree to subject these isolated voices to totalitarian power, the further away the chances of progress in societies become, as there will be no possibility of debate and revision of error (as happened with Galileo).

Although crude, this metaphor helps us understand how necessary the struggle for democracy is, now that traditionally democratic countries are imposing radical changes on this value, such as the United States of America.

Considering that human societies have undergone identifiable progress throughout history by paying greater attention to the “common man” and his proposals for change (enshrined in democratic societies), it is with dismay that we see setbacks—such as the one mentioned above—and especially the agreement that, to a greater or lesser extent, is being obtained from those who until recently adhered to democracy. “Shocking” is the word!

But even more shocking is when we realize that next door, at the coffee table, the conversation takes this direction almost spontaneously… or with the mere ‘excuse’ that “these are new times!”… to which we must get used to…

But every “new era” (like the current one) that always tries to impose itself in times of upheaval is also a new, essential, and necessary opportunity, because it may hold the “vital secret”—and while, on the one hand, the latest must replace the old, there must always be a common thread connecting the two. That thread will always be the value of

Antonieta Costa, PhD. 

No Diário Insular – Terceira Island, Azores.