Polar opposition
Carbajo / 15 Aprile 2022

Pope Francis asserts that the unity «we seek is not uniformity, but “unity in diversity”».[1] Taking inspiration from Romano Guardini, the Pope describes this unity using the dialectic of polar opposition.[2] During the Synod on Consecrated Life (1994), J.M. Bergoglio explained this dynamic: «A tension, for its life to be maintained, cannot be resolved by assimilation of one of the poles to the detriment of the others, nor by a synthesis (of a Hegelian type) that annuls the polarities. The tension (in this case the ecclesial tension) must be resolved on a higher level, that would not be a synthesis, but a resolution that virtually contains the tensioned polarities».[3] Unfortunately, the current technocratic paradigm, homogeneous and one-dimensional, overrides this dynamic, thus opening the way to globalized indifference, despotic domination, and the throwaway culture. Romano Guardini’s dialectic of polar opposition Romano Guardini proposed a dialectic of polar opposition to explain the original structure of reality and the dynamism that characterizes it.[4] In all life, he says, there is a tension between two poles which are bound together, united and indissociable.[5] «It is not a “synthesis” of two moments into a third. Nor is it a whole, of which the two moments…