Guest Column
Word Choice Vital in Political Debate
- Word Choice Vital in Political Debate
- By Dan Lund
- The Herald Mexico/El Universal
May 2, 2007
The words we use when we disagree shape our disputes.
In the recent legislative debate over the redefinition of abortion in Mexico City, the words poured out tinged with emotion.
Sometimes they clarified the argument, sometimes they obscured it. Many of the words were loaded with categorical imperatives, and some were heavy with threat, and even menace.
It was a remarkable debate, and it was extremely illuminating.
One of the darker legacies of the heritage of authority in Mexico is a persistent awkwardness in dispute and disagreement, whether coming from the secular tradition of the PRI-State hegemony or the sacred tradition as embodied in the practices of the Catholic Church.
In the course of the public abortion debate, a Vatican spokesman was cited in the local media as having written that abortion and euthanasia are forms of terrorism, and should be dealt with accordingly.
The spokesman for the Mexico City Archdiocese, Hugo Valdemar, complained that the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) had "converted him into the first political persecution of the Marcelo Ebrard administration."
He also asserted that "Catholics know this and will not vote for them," referring to the PRD.
The bitterness of some clerics with regard to the PRD in this instance is conditioned by decades of a long-running battle over relatively successful PRI-State sponsored family planning assistance programs.
This is in the context of relatively modest public exchanges, certainly much less biting than in many societies where debate and disagreement are a comfortable and respected part of the culture.
The arguments using categorical imperatives - abortion is sin; the culture of life as crystallized in the human rights of the unborn - were presented as absolutes with the invocation of excommunication for legislators who did not heed the call of authority.
So why didn´t such threats work?
BALANCING VALUES
The polls and related qualitative studies show a population that to a large extent understands the considerations of human rights as a balancing of values in a social context.
Mexicans in their family-planning decisions have been developing an independence from church-imposed social doctrine for several decades.
Thus, the recent debate did not hinge on new information or media advertising by the forces in contention.
There was and is a big majority in favor of the specific legalization of "interruption" in the first trimester of pregnancy, but not in favor of some abstract and categorical "abortion."
This opinion has been forged as a part of family values among nominal and faithful Catholics, as well as others in Mexico City.
The most revealing public opinion moment during this debate was evident in several polls - more than half the people in Mexico City had seen both an anti-legalization television spot featuring the aging comic Chesperito.
In the commercial, he argued that his mother had long ago resisted advice and pressure to abort him, and another pro-legalization spot featuring Paulina, a young woman arguing that she would have liked to have been offered a choice (she became pregnant after a rape and was denied a lawful abortion by a state authorities).
When asked directly who was more credible, people in Mexico City consistently responded that Paulina was, by margins of 3 to 1.
This is a clear example of how an iconic figure in one area can rarely be converted into an authority in another.
Chesperito may be beloved, but for many he is seen as no more an authority on family issues than a beloved, but out of touch, priest.
This is similar to a point made by Juan Ramón de la Fuente, the dean of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
He said "a democracy that is not secular is not a democracy."
CULTURAL CHANGES
Democratic cultures are rarely well served by sacred authority, in any part of the world. Mexico City is still a place where a visiting pope can be given a royal welcome. But, it is at core a secular city that happens to be filled with Catholics, evangelicals, traditional protestants and many others of religious or secular values.
Instead, this move away from some traditional values has taken place person by person, family by family. Gradually over time, society has come to terms with the values, opinions and ideas that make the most sense.
This should not be seen as a loss of values. Rather it is an evolution that is as inevitable in a democracy as are disputes and disagreements.
- Dan Lund is the director of MUND Américas, a market and public policy research center in Mexico City.
- Article at: http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/24465.html
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