Arquivo para a ‘Linguagens’ Categoria
Success and joy
06
Jan
Anselm Grün begins this chapter making a counterpoint, as both the German
Jewish philosopher Martin Buber who said “Success is not a term from God”, and the famous psychologist Carl Jung who said that success is the greatest enemy of the transformation of the human being is a life full of successes, the monk ends by saying that “success is part of life” and we should be happy about it (Grün, 2014, p. 73).
He considers that we can “enjoy the moment”, a joy of gratitude, a “free gift, not a merit, it is something that I perceive and am happy knowing that it happens and passes” (Grùn, 2014, p. 74).
Then he corrects and says that joy is mainly associated with creativity, quoting Aristotle and Erich Fromm, “we are satisfied with a job well done and when we realize that we have accomplished something today” (p. 75), and completes that artists are “great connoisseurs of this joy”.
Thus, there is a difference between Euphoria and true Joy, what is sought today at concerts, gyms and beauty clinics is a fleeting, fleeting success, especially when one is not looking for health and well-being. this joy that remains, I would call joy.
Recognition is also important, but it will not come from the powerful, greedy or vain, they look for spotlights and committed or even purchased success, it is not wrapped in true joy because it arises from ephemeral values and truths and therefore, that pass, but that wise minds and hearts know how to find.
In the biblical passage, the birth of Jesus, in a humble place in a small town of Bethlehem, and the recognition first by humble shepherds from the countryside and later by “kings” from the east, a clear allusion to distant peoples and of other beliefs, which announces a real joy, a jubilation and what we should remember at Christmas and the year that begins, this that can give us real joy.
This day is Christmas in Russia and declare stop war for this days.
Grün, Alselm (2014) Viver com Alegria (Life with joy). Brazil, Petrópolis: Vozes.
Obstacles to joy
05
Jan
Certainly the opposite of joy is sadness, but the problem is not the certainty that
we will have many difficulties and sadness in life, the problem is not knowing how to deal with it.
Several psychologists point out that the problem with current family education is not letting the children or relatives or even aggregates that make up the contemporary family circle learn to deal with the loss, obstacles and sadness of life, I remember my father who on his deathbed death asked about a son who had not yet come to see him, only later left in peace.
In Anselm Grün’s book he recommends reading “Happy John” (Hans im Glünck) by the Grimm Tales (Cinderella, The Little Thumb, Hansel and Gretel, etc.) where the character expresses that he does not need gold, strength or despite the success of the work, when he lost the stones he was sharpening scissors in a well, the last thing he had left, he jumped for joy and thanked God for the grace to get rid of those stones.
My second annual purpose book “The new Vicky syndrome” by Theodore Dalrymple, which talks about European barbarism, also points to a cultural background of unhappiness, now social, in readings he does on dating sites, they arose because people are trapped in small universes, although they are in crowds at concerts, parties and nightclubs (note that it is not specific to the virtual world, as some authors indicate), they will eagerly look for a way out of the illusion on social networking sites.
Among several essays, the author cites two cases of Muslims, a man and a woman who, when describing the type of people they are, say this: “I am a distracted and relaxed guy. I’m quite sarcastic and I have a great sense of humor. Sometimes I’m a child, but I know when I have to be serious. I believe we have our ups and downs, but we should try to see the best in people… I like to get in my car and go… Keep up with the changes in the world. I like eating out, going to the cinema, bowling, pool and cricket” (Dalrymple, p. 42), trying to be a Muslim, “trying to become a five a day” (Muslims pray 5 times a day) ), according to the author, in the United Kingdom many declare themselves religious, it is still a synonym of reliability.
Another case that he cites, on the next page, is that of a Muslim woman, who says on the website: “Hi, guys, I am a woman who likes to have fun, I have my feet on the ground and I don’t judge people”, as if I had already excuse for the posture of some Muslims of judging people (“the infidels”), but what the author wants to point out is that everyone wants to apologize for something, they are trying something and rarely define themselves, the fact of being Muslim is just an example could be any other religion, or in the case of political polarization, any ideology.
The theme of doctor and psychologist Anthony Daniels (Dalrymple is a pseudonym) is the malaise of culture and the adherence of intellectuals to a certain type of barbarism, which we will make some notes on next week, but I will link here the theme of joy, which must be and it can only be something interior at this moment in history, since a civilizing crisis reigns externally and we try to explain its reasons and foundations.
It is possible, in the midst of an individual or social crisis, to find reasons and motives to maintain joy and help humanity to find paths that lead to truth and happiness.
Dalrymple, Theodore (2016). A Nova syndrome de Vicky (The new Vicky syndrome – why European intellectuals surrender to barbarism). Trans. Maurício G. Righi. Brazil, São Paulo: É Realizações.
The nature of joy
04
Jan
This is the name of the second chapter of the book “live with joy” by Anselm
Grün, the idea of something physical (nature) of joy seemed strange, but from the beginning the author quotes Aristotle, who sees in joy the fullness of life, as “an energy that drives and awakens life in people”, and thus “those who feel inner joy in what they do, this one obtains, at work, the joy of life” (page 15).
Thus he removes the purely spiritual alveolus to incarnate it “it is the expression of a life in which we deal with the difficulties that arise and develop all the capacities that God has given us” (p. 16).
Psychologist Verena Kast mentions that she defines it as an “elevated emotion”, textually “animates us, stimulates us, gives us a certain lightness, and also generates unity between people” (pgs. 16-17).
Psychologist Verena observed this in many therapies, and in her I found a definitive vision of nature, according to Verena the decisive condition for joy is “to be absorbed in an act, in an activity, in a moment” (p. 17).
After developing the state of joy, as something that “we don’t even realize”, she observes that joy has a healing power: “the question is to know why we tend to pay more attention to the sadness than to the joys we have” (page 18), and points out that one of the factors may be the excessive attention given by parents as children, so we are saddened to “get attention”.
Finally, remember that it is healthy and sensible to assume positive attitudes, both remembering past joys and obtaining them in our life here and now.
Laughing even in difficult situations is not an alienated attitude, but a proactive one.
Grün, Alselm (2014) Viver com Alegria (Life with joy). Brazil, Petrópolis: Vozes.
Joy in hard times
03
Jan
It seems counterintuitive to have joy in difficult times, many have difficulty, the
Pandemic depressed and the world situation does not help, it is not even about alienation much less irony, it is about spirituality.
We indicate the book of the German monk Anselm Grün: Living with Joy (Vozes, 2014) he indicates in the introduction his intentions: “My goal is to draw your attention to many situations that we can rejoice” (p. 9) … ” I’m talking about getting in touch with the joy we all have in the depths of our souls” (p. 9).]
He clarifies that many people think that there are few reasons in life to rejoice: “thus they tend to regret themselves and life itself, in which they see no reason to rejoice” (idem).
He is convinced that this negative posture hides a great yearning and clarifies what was also the reason for choosing this book: “in the conjuncture in which we live, there are more reasons for sadness” (p. 10), although he speaks of a personal conjuncture it is possible to extend it to the social.
Thus, it invites us to observe “life in a different light”, in my case I operated on both eyes, to change glasses, not only to see more deeply, but from the perspective of other values and motivations.
It says in the introduction that it is a decision: “consciously choosing joy or regret in the face of difficulties”, it does not eliminate the negative aspects of life, but it avoids groping in the dark, light is created.
Even a small beam of light is enough to eliminate total pitch.
Grün, Alselm (2014) Viver com Alegria (Life with joy). Brazil, Petrópolis: Vozes.
Turn of the turn: 2023
31
Dec
Where we will go depends on us, on a healthier, more fraternal environment
where men desire and build peace.
Not only because of the pandemic, because of the economy and wars, the social environment becomes toxic, it is in micro-relationships, in cultural and even falsely spiritual propaganda, that the new is built or destroyed.
We talk about violence, we indicate some readings to understand cultural aspects (we indicate Zizek and Darlymple), technological with the very brief introduction of Margarete A. Boden and spiritual (we indicate Anselm Grün), but there are many other serious authors (it is necessary to separate superstitious, fatalists and soothsayers in this field), many of which indicate a great civilizational danger every year that begins.
Anselm Grün quotes in his book Aristotle: “Joy is an expression of the full life” and says it is characteristic of “those whose activities are not blocked by internal or external factors” (Grün, 2014, p. 15) and thus we also find joy in times of tension and anger, and we make room for the hopes that can only spring from a full life and its social exercise.
Zizek, in a broader sense, often defends violence in a more conscious way, states that: “Not even in the field of politics should we aspire to systems that explain everything and to projects of global emancipation; the violent imposition of great solutions must give way to specific forms of intervention and resistance”, he also said in an interview that “We do not need prophets, but leaders who encourage us to use freedom”.
In the field of technology, which is subject to criticism yes and we often quote the lucid and critical of digital media Byung Chul Han, there is a lot of daydreaming and attempts at explanations by essayists (which is what they really are) who write about technology, but because they don’t know their insides, they navigate through problems and questions that are neither demystifying nor clarifying and they do what they most criticize, which is political and religious fanaticism, due to technological ignorance.
Margarete A. Bodan’s proposed text (Artificial Intelligence – a very brief introduction), although it is historical and not very deep (in the technological aspect) is illuminating and can help critics.
All this is not because of the pandemic and the economic crisis, which are just new harmful elements, but mainly because we don’t introduce more empathy, more joy into personal and social life.
Happy 2023, Monday I have a new vision operation and we will be without access to digital media and devices for a few days, it’s a good start with this forced break.
GRÜN, A. Viver com alegria (Live Joyfully) Trans. Luiz de Lucca. Brazil, Petropolis: Voices, 2014.
Violence and power
28
Dec
All contemporary Western literature leads to the reading of two things that are
apparently not opposed, but are frontally opposed: love and power.
Violence has been a common theme since man has been a man, the confrontation was initially aimed, like animals, at the domination of a territory, the demarcation of countries, it does not always mean nation and its culture, it is imposed by the dominating power, thus the first Babylonian empires were born , Persian, Roman in its decadent stage, the medieval monarchies, the Mongol empire and later the Turkish-Ottoman one.
Since the discussions of Thomas Hobbes, David Hume and John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, the so-called contractualists, who disagreed about the violent origin of man: man is bad, man is good and it is society that corrupts him and man natural is good, the so-called good savage, what is certain is that the modern state, unlike the Greek polis, is the one that has the right to violence.
In Plato’s Republic it was not like that, the idea of this philosophical school was to educate man to be a politician, he should have wisdom and virtues (aretê), wisdom being the greatest of virtues, but it is necessary to remember the polarity between Athens, city of the wise and Sparta, city of warriors, so the idea of violence remained in everyday life, and Aristotle not only walked in this direction but also became tutor of Alexander the Great, Emperor of Macedonia.
Thus, Plato’s idea remained influential in Greece, and the attempted alliance between Greeks and Macedonians to defeat the Persian empire did not happen, even so the empire extends throughout Asia Minor, reaching India, but not the conquest, without heirs and with disputes between his generals the empire splits and weakens, soon in the following period the Roman Empire begins to form.
Modern violence before the wars was concentrated in the division of kingdoms, with the Protestant reform and also the Anglican one in the United Kingdom, until the Peace of Westphalia was established.
The great theory about the modern State and power will be elaborated by Hegel, it is dominant today regardless of ideological positions, after all Karl Marx was also Hegelian (news, as he called himself), but it is the modern state that holds the power to cause Peace, Pax Eterna as Kant intended, but which resulted in two wars and we are on the verge of a third, which we hope will not happen.
However, looking at the current literature, a good part of it deals with barbarism, the two books that I indicated and will read next year go in this direction, although with opposite political tendencies, Zizek and Dalrymple focused on the theme, but there are many others: “Anger and time” by Peter Sloterdijk, “Violence” by Slavov Zizek and “Nonviolent Communication” by Marshall Rosemberg among others.
I remember Byung Chul Han’s quote from his book No Enxame, which analyzes the violence of new media, where he states that only respect is symmetrical, that is, both sides are non-violent.
The novel/fiction by Gabriel Garcia Márquez “Love in the Time of Cholera” risked a happy ending, unlike other books he wanted to make happiness possible, creating a kind of modern fable or a desperate hope, where “a utopia of life , where love is indeed true and happiness possible” (Márquez, 2005).
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia (2005). Love in the Time of Cholera. Rio de Janeiro, ed. Record, Brazil. (in portuguese)
Reflections for 2023
27
Dec
I always make a proposal for some readings at the end of the year, sometimes
I abandon some and always attach others, due to the duty of the teaching profession and the emergence of new facts, as was the case of the pandemic in 2020 and the war in Ukraine in the last year.
Among others, four books already ordered, which I intend to read in the year 2023 are: “The new Vicky syndrome: why European intellectuals surrender to barbarism” by Theodore Dalrymple (pseudonym of British physician, psychiatrist and essayist Anthony Daniels, 72). years), although 2016 had several successes of the conjuncture, the second book is by Slavov Zizek: “The year we dream dangerously” (2012), the third is about technology, many bizarre things are written about technology and its advances, since we quote Jean Michel Ganascia: “The Myth of the singularity”, now we want to reread Artificial Intelligence from the author of the area but on basic things and on the dilemmas of AI: “Artificial intelligence: a very brief introduction”, basic but knowledgeable of the subject, a deeper reading requires study and specialization in the area.
A book of a spiritual nature could not be missing from the list, the book by Anselm Grum, who is a 77-year-old German Benedictine monk, and many of his books have had an impact on different situations, and now he wants to respond to anxiety, depression and hopelessness that affects a large part of pandemic humanity.
From Dalrymple we already posted about the book “Our culture or what we made of it” where the cultural analysis precedes the economic one and converges with the social one, about Slavov Zikek we had some quotations and we already have some reflections on his updated vision of socialism, but whose aspect of violence is not discarded.
In Zizek’s view, the overcoming of the social state or the welfare state, the state today is the administration of a permanent social crisis, and in this book still to be read, the releases and readings allowed online that I could read, he reveals the appreciation of intellectuals (I would say especially of the current editorial groups and their narratives) for the catastrophe, and I would say in disagreement with Zizek that he is also in this process, only due to the aspect of the use of violence expressed in several of his books, the indicated however shows the renewing aspect and true change that these movements of the 2011 were marked, but they were consumed by the current culture.
Although he has this ideological disagreement with Zizek, his analysis of 2011 should be quite interesting, remember the Arab Spring, the occupation movements like “Occupy Wall Street”, in Tahrir Square, in London and in Athens, there were strong movements, there were dark dreams, and certainly an event that Zizek does not remember, but it is important: the Fukushima catastrophe, the nuclear problem, was on March 11, 2011.
AI have much literature with little foundation ventures into the area, where the biggest problem is neither mystification nor ethical problems, but knowledge of the basic elements and future possibilities of the area, specialist Margaret A. Boden who researches in the area and understands the doubts on the subject, makes a very brief introduction capable of elucidating lay people already confused by the obscure and critical literature on the issue.
Perhaps there is a lack of frazilian, Latin or African literature, a book that I have seen and I have not formed an opinion is: “Guimarães Rosa: Dimensions of the narrative” catches my attention, I am not aware of the authors Maria Célia Leonel and Edna Maria F. dos Santos, I’m going to research, the synopsis looks interesting when approaching authors like Gèrard Genette and Ernest Cassirer, among others.
Between what is said and what is said
13
Dec
In a strong time of narratives, what is said has
nothing or little to do with the actual attitudes of men, it applies to politics, culture and religion, so not everyone who wants to help the most humble of actually do, not everyone who claims to be religious is actually connected to the values and divine message, whether of any religion or Christian denomination.
There are very simple things to be identified: a good tree bears good fruit, correct words should indicate an upright life, but the philosophical or theological discourse is often confused and in this case it is necessary to be guided by attitudes that are also simple to observe and that say a lot. : there is no arrogance of temporal power of any kind, from a head of department to governments and constituted authorities, past and recent history is full of these examples.
The reason why we live in a time when truths are not welcome, is more than the construction of narratives and they do not lack human creativity, it is mainly because it is difficult to say that things are going wrong, despite everyone feeling bad. being, there is no lack of false prophets making unrealizable promises, self-help consolations and even those who prescribe happiness like a medicine leaflet.
The civilizing malaise detected by Freud (book from the 1930s) more than just psychological aspects spoke of instinctual impulses (we made some posts about this) and the inadequate outlet for them.
Of course this goes to politics, and from politics to social aspects: economy, health, education and the increasingly serious environmental problem, but the depth of this crisis requires another analysis: war.
As we said a little while ago, the arrogance of the constituted authorities and the rabid collective adhesion, I am not talking about any specific current, but almost all, stimulates hatred and violence, and the path and outlet of this current is none other than the sea of human violence: war.
The positive message in this regard is to do what is a problem, and often not even proclaim it, but to set an example of what is fair and sensible, says popular wisdom: example leads.
What did they do with the culture?
06
Dec
Theodore Dalrymple, is the pseudonym of the English psychoanalyst
Anthony Daniels, who worked in English prisons with highly dangerous criminals, and saw in them not only aspects of poverty and exclusion, but also the development of a culture of tolerance for acts of arrogance, theft and immoralities.
In a book of 26 essays he describes how the cultural media spread this culture (picture inside).
He wrote in one of his works: “For the sentimentalist, there is no criminal, but only an environment that did not give him what he owed”, and so those who said aloud that they suffered a lot in trivial situations of life, that many people go through and this does not mean that they fall into delinquency, of course this does not mean that re-education is not necessary, but preventive education is better than medicine.
It is not an exclusive sector of society, or just an ideological issue as many authors point out, but a matter of cultural influence, especially radio, television and cinema, when everyone starts to justify violence, hatred and cruelty , I remember phrases from the movie Joker that were repeated in a cult tone, for example, “cold, sarcastic and heartless. That’s what I became and I thank society”, the question is which society he chooses: efficiency or solidarity.
I don’t want to give popularity or play the role of the cultural industry that I condemn, and it is the true producer of strange values and without a humanistic perspective, as the psychoanalyst points out in his books, values penetrate society through the selective publishing culture that is highly permissive in values and customs.
True solidarity does not just condemn, there are cases where condemnation is necessary to repress violence and hatred, but education, gives dignity and rebuilds people who have succumbed to a society of efficiency and arrogance, I remember here another successful book, which I read up to the tenth page: “The Subtle art of turning on the f**k” (in English the word also starts with f), yes it is true that there is in the book a cry against perfectionism and the culture of the extremely efficient in photos and texts in the “ media” of social networks, but it is important to remember that the author is American and there this is a general culture and not just in the media.
If last week we posted about the “paths” and the “paths”, we now want to emphasize the micro-culture, the day-to-day with more empathy, more respect and less hate, and if possible more polite.
There is no way to find ways of solidarity and peace in society if the vast majority chose to fight with weapons equal to those that the haters fight.
DARLRYMPLE, Theodore (2O07) Our Culture, What’s Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses,
Changes in earth and sky
25
Nov
Little is analyzed about the great social changes in the history
of the earth and in human life, the earth came long before human life, they also represented man’s vision of the universe and its mysteries, and thus there is a correspondence between earthly changes and their corresponding cosmogony , whether this is just a coincidence or divine providence depends on the cosmovision itself, but it has changed for sure.
Thus, the vision of the cosmos at the beginning of Classical Antiquity is as evident as the birth of the Greek polis and its consequences for the modern world, Aristarchus of Samos (310 BC – 230 BC) came to calculate the radius of the Earth long before the circus navigation ( Fernão de Magalhães 1512), and also at the end of the Middle Ages the Ptolemaic idea of Geocentrism gave way to Copernican heliocentrism and the change from feudalism to modern liberalism can be linked to this change in astronomical vision.
In current times, initially Hubble and now James Webb have made man look to the ends of the universe and even a change in the modernity of relativity theory, black holes and wormholes show a universe in greater mutation than we expected, thousands of galaxies are born and die throughout the universe and our system is just a grain of sand.
Perhaps the great revolution is the change in the conception of time, we can look at the birth of the Universe (see our post on the divine locus) which may not be called eternity, but is more than a simple absolute dimension of time and space, and perhaps it is more than Einstein’s space-time dimension.
In the biblical path Adam and Eve appear at a time when man is already sedentary and no longer nomadic, since Cain was a farmer of the earth and Abel a shepherd of sheep, who knows, the death of Cain was the first land conflict of humanity, the It is certain that this fact is linked to a new sedentary worldview, just as Noah would correspond to a deluge, or perhaps a simple flood that occurred in the Arabian peninsula, since it is located below the Negro, where we can observe the narrow Bosphorus, the path of sea between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Thus, the time of Noah may have meant a geographical change, at least in that region of the planet that involved the transformation that took place further down between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the cradle of Arab civilization, and if there is no historical record of Noah, there is of his descendants: the Semites, from his son Shem, who had populated the region.
Thus, when speaking of the transformations that heavens and earth would undergo, the biblical reading of Luke (Lk 24, 37-39): “The coming of the Son of Man will be like in the time of Noah. For in the days before the flood, people were running and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark. And they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away. So shall it be in the life of the Son of Man,” the second coming called the Parousia.
The great civilizational crisis will not have to be just a change in the social structure, but it will certainly accompany a physical change on the planet, since its environmental forces are running out.
