Is it just a matter of subjectivity or are there rational elements that are directed towards the quality of the object in order to recognize that we like it? I don’t want to get lost in the search for philosophical steps that bring taste closer to aesthetics. There must already be research examining the neurons and functions of the brain to locate the activation point of this very human expression. So we love things, people and even concepts.

Sometimes some blurt out the phrase as a justification for any attitude or inclination, at times when it is useless because rationality would expect an argument. “I don’t like going to elections,” someone might say, when tastes are not opposed to obligations. But others, on the other hand, would go the way of defending voluntary voting, arguing the reasons. Despite such visible bipolarity, we walk through life based on those liberated subjectivities that are emotions or secret drives.

I will not advocate a bourgeois education which assimilates taste to fashion, or which camouflages it under the rubric of good manners. Women, more inclined to follow both opinions, seem convinced of good looks when they accept the dictates of current dress, as well as when they respect de rigueur social behaviors and pass them on to their children because “it should be” or because it’s “nice”. It is clear that the environment imposes behaviors for everything that is visible, that imitation becomes natural and many of us accept what is acquired as spontaneous.

Authentic “likes” must come from a core of good exposition, links and examples, amalgamated into the person’s intimacy. Why do children of readers not read? Why has classical music lost its audience? Why don’t children learn with curiosity and enthusiasm? I am releasing three questions that require answers just in case. They say the example is valid: I had an older brother who lent me his comics and a father with his library who never defended me in my early consumption; I learned to listen to great musicians in the classroom; Some subjects excited me more than others. Sometimes I open my ear to what young people listen to and I get bored of the reggaeton drumming, just as I am disappointed by their unimaginative lyrics. Age? I am sure; rock and roll wasn’t poetry either.

They say that taste is cultivated. I checked it with a certain gastronomy

They say that taste is cultivated. I checked it with a certain gastronomy. The invitation to Guayaquileñidad touched me and today it seems like a lost nostalgia that I only find again in the warmth of some literary works written out of anger and from the heart. In any case, I mean the transformations, the changeability of the point of view, the new flow of experiences. And on the difficult citizenship in the confused present, in which there is too much room for despair. Time for more “dislikes” than positive and pleasant tendencies. Someone asks, “Who are you going to vote for?”, and the simple answer is “I don’t like any couples,” an answer that carries all the richness of judgment and criticism, because behind every emotion there is an idea.

I continue, zealously, opening books, yes, which were not written by artificial intelligence, because it does not know how to convey feelings. As Pliny said: There is no book that does not contain something good. (OR)