Precariousness of the Human Condition in the Contextof Violence in Colombia: Letting the Youth Die

Abstract

Objective: To deduce and critically examine the moral framework that enables the justification and exercise of violence in Colombia, following the hermeneutic analysis of the network of notions that sustain it: the logic of means and ends, the emphasis on individualism, biopower, state racism, recognition, and disdain. Two questions are addressed: the one posed in the epigraph and its formulation within the Colombian context. Methodology: The study employed the epistemological approaches and methodological resources of Ricoeur’s hermeneutic phenomenology and Honneth’s critical hermeneutic analysis, which are complementary and mutually supportive. Results: The answers unfold the idea proposed in the title: the climate of violence experienced by Colombian society —one in which broad sectors of youth participate— creates precarious conditions for the conduct of life, as it intensifies relations of contempt experienced as moral offense. Conclusions: Ricoeur’s hermeneutics and critical theory constitute appropriate mechanisms for revising the anthropological conception and the ethics of violence that underlie the theoretical frameworks allowing its justification, frameworks that have led a portion of the impoverished youth population into exclusion and into the disdain of society and of themselves. Furthermore, these theories offer guidelines for the transformation of thought and action.