Download file 56 KB Texto completo en español More of: Carlos Franz

In this essay, Carlos Franz focuses on the pessimism that predominates at the turn of century in Chile. He argues that the present national dilemma —a special case of a very Latin American phenomenon— involves two extremes of spirit: foundational utopianism and vehement fatalism. These two categories help explain a constant that runs through our history, namely the succession of foundational enthusiasms that quickly get abandoned at the hands of indignant disappointment. Utopians display an exaggerated faith in sudden and total solutions for all our ills, which is peculiar to the enthusiasm of beginnings. This is dangerous because its price, when utopia is slow to arrive, is a swing to vehement fatalism that wants to condemn us to a chronic state of backwardness. In the end, as an antidote to these utopian or fatalistic extremes, the author proposes a "new social tone", an attitude of "ironic moderation".