Clichés, vulgarity and violence

Jorge Semprún tells in Writing or life Upon leaving the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald, he encountered two types of people who didn't want to know about the horror he had experienced: some avoided asking him questions, while others asked superficial things like, "So, it was tough, huh?" This latter type of person demonstrates that clichés and vulgarity are a subtle form of violence. There are people I can't directly accuse of attacking my brain, even though they do. They seem polite, but they seek victims to feed their utter stupidity.

There are a number of cheap speeches about life, the passage of time, and death that are garbage, the equivalent of ultra-processed food for thought. "Listen to your heart" (lest you engage in overly sophisticated reasoning), "fight for your dreams and you'll achieve them," "that's life," "death affects us all equally," "time waits for no one"... And I can't go on because it's even giving me a headache.

Then there are the prefabricated phrases of politicians that all of them, without exception, say as if they were haikus Profound insights that reveal the true meaning of public service, as something beyond simply having the power to do whatever you want. A clarification for politicians, who are far more prosaic than poetic: one haiku It is a short poem of Japanese origin, of three lines and 17 syllables, that expresses an emotion about nature or a specific moment.

"It occupies and worries us," "lessons, not one,"fact kills story"He seems nervous," "to create synergies"... These absurdities are a form of mental violence, not only for the listener, but also for those incapable of crafting a discourse with arguments that go beyond the language of parrots. Deaf and illogical verbiage has taken its place. Instead of listening, many people take the opportunity to think about what their next "gem" will be. It's so exhausting that some people choose silence. If I had met Semprún in Paris in 1945, I would have asked him: "How are you?"