What remains of the Century in our time

Abstract

The following text is an attempt to examine the process by which we accessed our present, starting with the attempt to escape from what the last century represents, which was the executor of futures somewhat more auspicious than those we can envision today. The mechanics of the text should exhibit a dynamic analysis of the subject's position vis-à-vis with the real, ranging from Badiou's characterization of the 20th century to this premature and provisional one of our own time.

Every era defends itself against the real. The 20th century did so through its exposure to disaster, that is, through the choice to reveal reality through its violent and destructive installation. It was its original way of hiding it. However, it is true that it sought it as perhaps never before. We conjecture that, if the Century's essence was this vocation for the real, its frantic search for paths exposed to risk and destruction, our time is the result of a denial of the real, located between its mere negation and the desire for its outright suppression. We retain the passion of the Century, only now transformed into an intense desire to ignore.