Former president of Argentina Cristina Kirchner and former president of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva smile during a meeting at Casa Rosada on September 10, 2015 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo by Gabriel Rossi/LatinContent/Getty Images)
We should always read the present - and think of the future - on the pillars of history. The period 2000-2015 should thus be seen in the perspective of the recent past - of the questions that have been answered and those we have left unanswered.
At the time of the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, we experienced a shudder which had to do with the idea of the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. It was a funeral without honours and a baptism with much fanfare. The word revolution was hovering again over our heads - a powerful and strong word, because whoever embodies it carries change, ultimate change, and is in possession of a revealed truth. Whoever expresses it cannot admit that this absolute truth be questioned, and - even less so -, that it could eventually be replaced by another truth. The holders of that truth were backed by the popular vote, which gave them legitimacy, but they assumed that this vote was to repeat itself endlessly and that they had come here to stay.
