¿Por qué no te callas?
King Juan Carlos I , 2007
The statement above translates to “why don’t you shut up?” In normal context whether in Spanish or English this statement can be considered rude. Now when you hear it from the King of Spain Juan Carlos I it has additional weight.
Around this time in 2007 was the Ibero-American summit. The Prime Minister of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was giving a speech on the challenges that faced the Latin American countries just as we were about to enter the era of the great recession. He made statements regarding the need for Latin American countries to do a better job to combat poverty and a backward economic slide by encouraging additional foreign capital — and encouraging more welcoming policies rather than those taken on Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.
This in turn caused Chavez to continually hassle and interrupt Zaptero’s speech throughout. Eventually, King Juan Carlos I had enough interruptions and asked Chavez the then infamous question: “¿Por qué no te callas?” This led to much sensational reactions ranging from praise to criticism for the King’s outburst. Like the many memes that are shared widely today around today — King Carlos’s question popped up on merchandise around the globe.
Normally the question would give some pause to an individual asked to shut up. Chavez, being the strong man he was — took no heed and rather continued his routine approach as is.
More recently in the past year a moment that reminds me of the same is when now President-Elect Joe Biden asked President Donald Trump during the first presidential debate “Will you shut up man?” as Trump continually interrupted Biden’s responses to questions posed by the moderators.
In fact, most of that first debate moderated by Chris Wallace of Fox News was considered one of the worst in Presidential debate history. The interruptions and inability to effectively answer a single question indicated how low American political discourse had fallen. Like Chavez, Trump simply brushed off the request and continued to ramble through Biden’s portion of the debate. It made the whole debate a difficult conversation in policy making — that many American’s were desperately seeking to tune into.
When we allow our discourse in politics to fall as low as the common denominator — it shouldn’t be seen so much as fighting fire with fire, rather it reflects upon ourselves as drop in quality discourse societies need to succeed. No matter how vulgar or difficult one’s opponent may be — we mustn’t stoop down to the same level as others. Rather the continued effort, no matter how infallible one’s opponent may seem to reason, is critical in making rational discourse the key takeaway of any discussion.
Similarly, Joe Biden took it upon himself to retract or apologize for his terminology used towards Donald Trump during the debate. Biden often turned many of Trumps ad-hominem attacks and distractions into those directed toward the American people and the issues at hand.
Some people may find the high minded, level headed route difficult when trying to negotiate or reason with more boorish individuals. However, whether it is Chavez, Donald Trump, or anyone similar, their goal through their disruptions is to do just that: to make you as equivalent as them. When you’re considered equal at that point, one’s case is harder to make; you cannot claim to have the moral or intellectual standing that was initially present. The values and ideas you initially sought to present are lost and/or muddied by the language used in discourse.
Its important to convince those around you and those you have conversations with on the daily the value in having meaningful discourse — whether that be as complex as geopolitics or figuring out what to have for dinner. Good discourse leads to good decisions, its as simple as that!
Given these two examples in fairly recent history — I think it is worth noting that emotion should be there in many debates or conversations. If we do not feel for the topic nor lack the conviction our words have less weight, less intentions. However, if we let the emotions take control of the discourse, even if that is in response to another or our own elevated feelings, we lose sight of the content sought to be presented.
On a closing note, Hugo Chavez within the same week of being asked to shut up by the King of Spain received less jarring but also was rebuffed by the King of Saudi Arabia during an OPEC summit. Chavez then told reporters who were hounding him with questions: “For a while now, I have needed to go to the bathroom and I am going to pee … Do you want me to pee on you?”
