The renowned Colombian scientist, writer and former rector of the National University of Colombia, Moisés Wasserman Lerner, was the protagonist in the second day of the Valledupar Book Fair, for his deep knowledge of science and education in the national territory.
His intervention began with a particular affirmation: “The academy does serve”, a message that he directly sent to the vast audience of students, politicians and professors who accompanied him in the auditorium of the city’s House of Culture.
“The normal thing now is to speak ill of the school and say that it is useless, that it is horrible and a waste of time, but it is not true. Of course, there are quality problems of all kinds, and the most serious would be about access, but it is educational, ”he said.
Wasserman Lerner also spoke about what his time at the academy meant and the writing of his columns for the national media El Tiempo, which he compiled in his most recent book called ‘Reflections in a capsule’.
His copy, published by the Intermedio publishing house, takes a tour of the reflective and academic approaches made by Moisés Wasserman in his columns published between the years 2017 – 2022 in the national newspaper El Tiempo.
In addition, it consists of five chapters distributed in different essential aspects in the life of man: the first is called ‘People, their virtues and their problems’, the second ‘Science, knowledge and good ideas’, the third ‘Education, training and dreams ‘, the fourth ‘Politics, groups and ethnic groups’, and the last ‘Doubts, sophistry and errors’.
And the public was able to hear part of these approaches from the author’s own mouth, who at 76 years of age has the lucidity to narrate different topics of general interest such as science, education, religion, among others.
Wasserman Lerner indicated that society in any field of life is sometimes dominated by a “confirmation center” in which they only seek to interject their ideas.
“There is a visionary statement: ‘The human understanding, once it has formed an opinion, pushes all the evidence to support it and agree with it, and even if there are large numbers of contrary ones, they will be ignored,'” he said.
POLITICS AND NETWORKS
This perspective lands her in reality with the position of many public figures, who resemble Mr. Turnbull, a character created by the English novelist Anthony Trollope.
For this reason, the academic once wrote the columns ‘Mr. Turnbull on Twitter’ and ‘Mr. Turnbull and his predictions’, in which he criticized the way of doing politics.
“He was a very special character (Mr. Turnbull), he was a very sacred, very successful politician, who made terrible predictions and then dedicated all his efforts to make the predictions come true,” he said.
He added that these types of figures obtain power through social networks, which have become a central axis in social relations.
“Networks in general are an important social phenomenon and they are here to stay (…) They constitute a democratizing force in which everyone can enter without hindrance, something unprecedented in human history, the fight then is not against Twitter but against Mr Turnbull”, he specified.
SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Finally, Moisés Wasserman reflected on current religion in society and science, a subject that, although he acknowledges that it is complex, considers that it has been changing due to the replacement of some beliefs.
“As humanity progresses in the direction of knowledge, beliefs are being replaced a lot, not all of us, and possibly not all of us will get there because there are things that are inherent to the human being, but in any case, I believe that it is changing,” he said. .
He added that some changes in religion were also necessary for the rights of humanity.
“I am not religious. Religion is one of the things that at some point in humanity was diminishing a lot, but I understand that it is a deeply strong feeling among many people and that it should not be fought or contradicted, that does not make sense, although it has changed, and it had to keep changing because at one time in the name of religion you could kill”, Wasserman pointed out.