El Ninguneo: When Others Ignore You

The ninguneo is a social practice that consists of disqualifying another person, by way of indifference. He speaks and it is as if he did not say anything. Ask for something and it’s like you don’t need it. In a word, as if it didn’t exist. That is no-one: implementing behaviors to make someone understand that they are nobody.

It must be said that ninguneo is a form of moral or psychological violence . An expression of cruelty that some people or groups believe they have the right to display. It is very common for the victim of this practice to be someone who is in a fragile condition or who is considered inferior.

The ninguneo is equivalent to the symbolic elimination of someone. It is a way of giving him social death. There are many cases in history in which this symbolic murder precedes the physical murder. These types of premises become the justification for concrete violence, exercised against specific individuals or groups.

Ninguneo levels

The disqualification or symbolic elimination does not always have the same degree, nor the same intensity. The ninguneo applies to certain ideas or certain feelings. Also for one person, as a whole. And it reaches a certain social group, as occurs with the different forms of McCarthyism, xenophobia or discrimination.

An idea is ignored when it is said, for example: “What you say is totally wrong.” Or “Thinking like this is a mistake.” Or maybe: “That way of thinking is stupid.” The question is: who has the real authority to radically disqualify what another thinks? At most, opposing arguments or opposing evidence can be presented. Perhaps state or describe different ideas, but not disqualify those of the other.

The same goes for the neglect of feelings. “It is not possible that you feel that”, “How are you going to be afraid of …” or “You are crazy if you bother about ….” All this implies denying the symbolic world of the other. Who would have the right to ask for certain emotions , certain fears, certain anger, or whatever to disappear ? Nobody.

The social neglect

These types of practices are also carried out socially or collectively. It does not necessarily imply “bullying” or direct bullying. It is enough with the indifference , to make the other feel that what is, does not count. This is what many governments and individuals do in the face of poor people. They are called to vote, but the policies that are implemented do not take them into account at all.

It also happens in the daily life of some cities. They are made not to obstruct the traffic of motor vehicles, not to protect the lives of pedestrians. For this reason, those who have a car, especially a high-end one, feel that the street is theirs and that they can go over anything. This is not an exaggeration: more people in the world die from traffic accidents than from any known disease.

The bureaucracy is an expert in nothing. It happens when you have to do a paperwork and they play with your time as if they were doing it for sport. They send you from here to there, they sometimes demand ridiculous requirements, they hinder you, etc. All to justify that a function that could be performed by a single person, should be performed by 20. It is due to the lack of management, or the exchange of political favors.

Fight the ninguneo

The ninguneo creates a germ of violence in those who are its victims. That violence is not diluted: either it ends up turning against whoever originated it, or it turns against the same victim, making them sick and undermining their well-being. In both cases, sooner or later society will end up paying the damage.

It is important that at the individual level we develop antibodies to combat the nuisance. We must be aware that there are serial noungers and that we are going to run into them at some point. The appropriate thing, then, is not to bite the hook and allow them to make us insecure, or make us feel inferior. They are the problem, not us.

On the social level, there is a call to promote inclusion. No matter how different we are from others, everyone has the right to their place in the culture. Nothing forces us to share or accept the ideas, feelings, or conditions of others. What we do have is the obligation to respect their right to be who they are, think how they think and feel how they feel. Our well-being depends to a large extent on that broad mind.