Crispation has colonised public debate and it is urgent to reverse this drift. Improving the quality of our social conversation is a task that cannot be postponed.
In 2006, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck directed The Lives of Others, a film set in the German Democratic Republic in 1984, which shows how a Stasi agent transforms his view of the world by spying on a couple of artists. The story serves as a mirror today: our public conversation has become an exercise in surveillance, judgement and suspicion. Would our private chats withstand the scrutiny of others? Probably not.
Mistrust of the political class and general disenchantment have deteriorated the social climate, in a context of geopolitical uncertainty and pressure for Europe to gain strategic autonomy. But this is no time for resignation: the worse the outlook, the more opportunities there are to improve it. As Europe must come to terms with its maturity, so must civil society.
Raising the level of debate involves sharpening listening and reflecting before responding. It requires organisation and individual commitment: from writing a book to using social media with civic sense. We cannot delegate everything to the state or to politicians; we all have the capacity to influence our environment. Recovering a constructive and friendly tone is key to rebuilding harmony and escaping from the impoverishing single way of thinking.
This fracture is not new. José Ortega y Gasset had already warned in España invertebrada (1922) of a society enclosed in watertight compartments and of politicians given over to frivolity and verbal violence. Against this, he argued that politics should be an exciting project for a common future, capable of inspiring all citizens, especially young people.
Ortega called for a "poetic, philosophical, cordial and joyful politics". And Henckel von Donnersmarck reminded us that, even after having gone astray, human beings can do the right thing. Our public conversation has taken a wrong turn, but there is still hope. It is time to correct it and move towards a more serene, creative and constructive dialogue.