Theologian Frei Betto Warns in Cuba About Dangers for Young People

Theologian Frei Betto Warns in Cuba About Dangers for Young People
Fecha de publicación: 
1 February 2019
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The well-known Brazilian theologian and writer Frei Betto warned in Havana on Thursday about the alignment danger faced by young people in the present world due to capitalist formulas aimed at breaking the revolutionary potential of new generations.

During an speech at the Youth Forum about Jose Marti 'The idea of good', included in the program of the 4th International Conference for the World Balance, Betto commented that those who lead the threads of the capitalist system have created a lot of mechanisms to prevent the transformation of young people into revolutionaries, because they are aware of their capacity.

According to the theologian, the most powerful means for this purpose is to try, through the media, to enthrone the culture of entertainment in the minds and hearts of people from childhood to solidify individualism, to the detriment of solidarity.

According to the member of the Jose Marti Project of International Solidarity World Council, through codes present in the stories told in cartoons, television and cinema, the youngest children abandon their own world of dreams and transfer it to those created by companies such as Disney and other similar ones.

They are not interested in children living their fantasies, but that they grow up with the idea of being consumerists; to this they add a strong commercial advertising campaign in the same animated ones to turn them into consumers, he added.

In Betto's words, this is the kind of young people and people in general desired by the capitalist system: people able of changing their image, their style or their belongings based on consumption patterns, but unable to create and change together the structures that control it.

Besides,' he added, 'they insist on eliminating political education in schools, instead, everything in teaching ' turns around how to become rich.

In this way, they prevent young people from becoming aware of and understanding the concept of time as a historical process, he explained.

According to Betto, the idea that one can change his life, but not choose another way, another social system or prioritize collective life over individualism, is thus engraved.

Due to the capitalist system, millions of people in the world have no future, either because of poverty - which has naturalized it - or because of environmental problems. 'What is the way out? Then start sharing the goods of the planet,' he said.

The fourth edition of the International Conference for World Balance, organized by the Jose Marti Project for International Solidarity, began on 28th and will culminate on Thursday at the Havana Convention Center.

More than 650 delegates from 65 countries attended the event's debates, in addition to an important Cuban delegation.

During the event, topics such as the importance of intercultural dialogue, the arts, diversity, the role and challenges of social movements, solidarity as a basis for coexistence and the protection of the environment were discussed.

The delegates also discussed problems such as drinking water shortage and the rural areas depopulation , as well as the need to confront terrorism and discrimination in all its manifestations, guarantee education and health as inalienable human rights, and redouble efforts to achieve peace.

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