Enrique Díaz Álvarez: Why We Have Stopped Recognizing the Rot

• Enrique Díaz Álvarez's book, Lo intolerable (The Intolerable), examines the contemporary political and ethical degradation that has normalized cruelty.
• The author argues that society has become anesthetized to atrocities and calls for a reclamation of collective responsibility, solidarity, and empathy as acts of resistance.

The Crisis of Anesthesia

• Society is currently numbed by the constant bombardment of digital images and the neoliberal narrative that promotes individualism over communal ties.
• This adaptation to the "intolerable"—viewing brutal violence alongside trivial social media content—has raised our threshold for tolerating human suffering.
• Feelings of repulsion and shame are not signs of weakness but are necessary reactions to the current climate of political authoritarianism and cruelty.

Recovering Solidarity

• The author critiques the modern left for losing its ability to construct an internationalist narrative built on solidarity, hospitality, and the common good.
• Compassion must evolve beyond ephemeral, superficial sentimentality into concrete action and collective responsibility.
• Citing thinkers like Hannah Arendt and Susan Sontag, the text asserts that we bear responsibility for the actions taken by our governments in our names, such as the treatment of migrants in detention centers.

Strategies for Resistance

• Resistance requires counter-narratives that emphasize interdependence and community ties, which are essential to countering the right-wing mobilization of hatred and nostalgia.
• Collective shame is described as a "cousin" to collective responsibility, leading to tangible actions like neighborhood defense networks for migrants.
• Aesthetic-political practices—such as those by Forensic Architecture—and patient, investigative journalism are vital tools to document truth and honor testimonies against silencing policies.
• Imagination, critical humor, and the refusal to succumb to the solemnity of power are essential tools for maintaining humanity and agency in dark times.