Democracy: Consensus or conflict?

Democracy implies necessarily conflict. The Colombian conflict is a case of a differend, [différend] a dispute, a conflict between positions in which any consensus betrays the original claims of, at least, one of the parties. The inequality and distortion that the rebellion exposes cannot be resolved by an agreement between the opposed parties. A secularized version of the sacrament of “forgiveness and reconciliation” is now presented as a political virtue. However, the projection of the differend in consensus and reconciliation will always be deceptive and deceitful. The political space of democracy must resist a narrative of reconciliation. The text discusses, in the contemporary Colombian context, the concepts of “ a “democracy”, reconciliation” and differend, criticizes the unity of notions such as “people” and “nation, and problematizes the supposed dichotomy between “war” and “peace”.