The human face of hypocrisy

Last week an unexpected event shocked everybody, regardless of one´s political preferences. A former president died last Wednesday and, on top of everything, that meant that the actual president´s husband died. Before plunging into a reflection towards this topic, I´d like to say that I don´t adhere neither to any political party nor to the former or actual presidents´ ideas, beliefs or tendencies. I´m just a citizen who has been bombarded for a whole week with details about the death of a person and with comments about the future of politics in our country.

The first thing I´d like to say is that I´ve found many comments which I´ve heard on the grapevine and which I´ve listened to on the radio and on T.V. very offensive and disrespectful. Being content with someone else´s death is one of the worst sins we could commit and I´m not saying this from a religious point of view, but just from a humane perspective.

In most cases, comments have been either offensive or too flattering about the dead and his family. Even the opposition parties, whose representatives usually criticized the previous and the actual governments, have said things like the best leader in Argentinian history has died, or that a great man died, while they opposed him fiercely in speeches and in interviews they gave to different radio and T.V. programmes. Lots of people have also expressed their opinions about the death, about details of, for instance, what the wife was doing at the moment the man died or details about which car took them to hospital; things that shouldn´t interest anyone.

As regards the media, they have made a business out of the funeral. There hasn´t been anything more important than the president´s face during her public speeches or during the funeral. They have also talked a lot about the son´s and daughter´s expressions and lots of journalists and commentators have been wondering about their future. Some T.V. programmes have even invited doctors specialized in heart attacks so that they could explain why they happen and how to prevent them.

Political parties (even the one that the former president represented) are worried about next year´s election –although they may say they are not- and they are discussing and rethinking tactics to attack each other as soon as the deep feeling grief is overcome. Those people closest to the former president were present during the funeral and have accompanied the widow at all times, but all the same it is said that there are political interests behind their presence.

The question which I think we should all ask ourselves at this point is: the images that have been shown, the comments that have been heard, the feelings that have been felt since the moment the news spread, aren´t they a clear proof of the society we are? It has always been claimed that we are the society we deserve, and I believe there is no discussion around this.