Paradoxes of modernity in Latin America

Abstract

The world crisis of capital has intensified the debate over contem? porary society and culture. It is not only the economy that has been called into question; indeed, the entire framework of knowledge, the presuppositions of rationality in the relationships between peoples themselves and with the world around them, the projects of histori? cal meaning, the balance of fundamental human experiences, such as capitalism and socialism as it actually exists?all perspectives and all alternatives are open to critical appraisal once more. The position and significance of Latin America in this debate are fundamental. This is the case not only because Latin America has been a victim of the most perverse effects of the crisis, but, more significantly, because of the weight of its historical presence in the construction of the culture of our time?because of the fecundity it possesses for the reconstitution of that culture. This surely explains the intensification of the Latin American debate itself, although this may be denied by certain groups in certain places whose exclusive concern is that of access to one or another rungs of presently established power. Behind this facade, nevertheless, genuine and critical questions are being posed whose intellectual or pragmatic exploration surely will affect not only Latin America. One of these questions?in one sense the most decisive and central one?is the relationship between the private and the public, because within this relationship virtually every area of contemporary social existence is implicated. Beyond the circum? stantial disputes on the Peruvian scene, the debate in question does in fact encompass all the meaning and all the legitimacy of the principal historical projects now available.