Entre el Mundo y el Desierto: Una lectura arendtiana de las redes sociales

Abstract

In recent years, the radicalization of «hate speech» in countries across the globe has been accompanied by its increasing partisan competitiveness within demo-cratic systems. Drawing on Arendt’s interest in thinking about «what we are doing» (2009, p. 18), this article theoretically reconstructs the significance of the notion of the Common World in her work, understood as a space built upon a shared concern for the world. As a human artifact, it is not the mere sum of individual interests; rather, «these interests constitute, in the most literal significance of the word, something which ‘inter-est’, which lies between people and therefore can relate and bind them ogether» (Arendt, 2009, p. 206). In our contemporary democracies, this bond that weaves human relations is materialized in institutions, rights, and laws that allow us to live politically alongside others (equal yet distinct). In this sense, we argue that Arendt’s concern regarding the inter-est—concerning the common and the bonds between men—is central to her understanding of politics. Simultaneously, it offers a prism through which to interrogate the core elements of our time and the consequent challenges facing our democracies.