The paradox of the universal

There's a persistent fantasy in our time: that of a universality that erases differences, that standardizes experiences, that flattens singularities. But true universality operates in a radically different way: it doesn't eliminate differences but traverses them, finding what's common precisely in the recognition of what separates us.

Genuinely universal thought doesn't emerge from ignoring the fractures that divide us, but from confronting them in all their rawness. It's precisely when we recognize the depth of our differences that we can begin to build real bridges, not simulacra of understanding. The common doesn't pre-exist the encounter: it emerges as a consequence of traversing what distinguishes us.

The paradox is that we can only reach the universal through the particular, we only arrive at the common through the recognition of the singular. A universality that cannot contain differences is nothing but disguised totalitarianism. True common thought is not a starting point but a construction that emerges from facing our differences head-on.