Blog de Francesco Zaratti

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Aging involves the gradual and irreversible loss of certain physical abilities, starting with hearing. Without being a disease, the process of progressive deafness is particularly annoying because of its effects on social relationships, much more so than other faculties that degrade with age. Not to mention when deafness manifests itself at an early age or when good hearing is part of the work tools, as in the case of musicians.

In fact, deafness, even at incipient levels, implies not only an increase in isolation due to the difficulty of following a conversation, but also a verbal detachment. Sometimes the effort to hide this disability leads to embarrassing situations, such as when you intervene in a conversation at the wrong time or when you do it having understood the “quid pro quo”. For this reason, many prefer to remain silent and isolated. Other annoying consequences of hearing loss are the increase in the volume of audio devices and one’s own voice, as if others suffered from the same disability.

In addition, the noise pollution suffered in modern cities contributes to diminishing, from an early age, the sensitivity and efficiency of that wonder of nature that is the human ear.

Medicine and technology offer solutions that are neither simple nor definitive. Hearing aids help, but they do not replace the full range of functions of the human ear. They present the problem of recharging or replacing batteries and require periodic maintenance, not to mention that they do not stop the natural deterioration of that organ. Alternatively, fixed implant surgery has come a long way, and despite the delicacy of these operations, it provides more structural solutions.

This is with regard to physiological deafness, because there is also a psychological auditory capacity (which increases in mothers for children and decreases in children for mothers) and a metaphorical one. The psychological one can give rise to comical situations, like the one in which I acted when my first son spent the night crying and keeping his mother awake, while I slept peacefully, lulled by that background noise. Until one night, my wife, while preparing a bottle to silence the baby’s crying, poured hot water on her hand and let out a cry of pain that woke me up, and then scolded her: “Stop screaming, wake up the baby!” My joke served to make laughter replace pain.

Metaphorically, the title of this article was part of the prophets of Israel’s rebuke to the kings and people for betraying the covenant with Yahweh, but it can be applied to all governments, especially those that claim to rule by “listening to the people.” In this case, analysts act as prophets in a dialogue of the deaf, because the more you screw into power, the deafer the power become, although usually without losing its word.

In fact, when they are told, “Energy subsidies are not sustainable,” they often respond, “We will import more crude oil.” If they are asked, “Replace fossil fuels,” they say, “We will increase the supply of biofuels.” If they are asked: “In view of the end of the gas cycle, it is urgent to draw up an Energy Transition Plan”, their answer is: “It was in previous governments that YPFB lost its bearings”, as if it had ever had one. To the question: “Publish how many gas reserves we have left”, they reply: “People don’t understand anything about reserves”. In short, like earthenware idols, they have ears, but they do not hear; they have solutions at hand, but prefer expensive and unsustainable patches; they know the truth, but they prefer the lie.

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