Arquivo para a ‘Social Network’ Categoria
Wars, narratives and cruelty
18
Dec
It was scary that in times of pandemic there were
groups, people and even leaders who cared little about the sudden death of people who were infected by the COVID-19 virus. An increase in solidarity and compassion was to be expected, but it did not happen.
Now with the wars that are escalating and reaching countries that orbit around ideologies, they awaken a feeling of hatred, revenge and terror that borders on psychopathy, not having sympathy for the brutal death of a human being, whoever it may be, has a certain psychopathy.
There is no shortage of narratives, even apocalyptic fatalism, as if human evil was justified by some sincere religious feeling, everything that is not love and compassion should never be linked to a divine connection or a sincere humanitarian feeling.
Chinese social media giant Tik Tok released data on fake accounts that spread disinformation about Russia’s war with Ukraine last Wednesday (12/13) in an attempt to “artificially amplify pro-Russian narratives,” the report says verbatim .
The site directed videos to Ukrainian, Russian and European users, falsely labeled as official news outlets, seeking to confuse the real data of the war.
Also regarding the war against Hamas, the data released is not always what witnesses, not only pro-Palestinian, but also bodies present for humanitarian aid in Gaza, report that there are deaths of civilians and cruelty also against the population, which is not all Muslim and not pro-Hamas, does not in any way mean justifying Hamas’ terrorist acts, but simply establishing the truth.
Fortunately, the conversations between the presidents of Venezuela and Guyana (photo), despite there being no agreement on the disputed territory of Essequibo, the dispute was agreed in the diplomatic field without involving military forces, we hope that the word will remain.
The United States once again moves maritime forces close to North Korea due to intercontinental ballistic missile fire, which caused an immediate American reaction.
The year-end scenario is worrying due to the forces involved, so far countries such as Iran, Turkey, Qatar, Syria and Yemen, potential allies against Israel, remain in diplomatic threats, while Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt still remain in conflict. diplomatic pressure, an all-out war in the region would be catastrophic and trigger a global war.
Smooth the paths
15
Dec
All of reality seems like a huge mess, and in fact it
is without a meditative perspective (the vita contemplativa that we posted last week) and without a prophetic vision that goes beyond factual reality, which is almost always dualistic because it only sees through one aspect. guys.
There will be wars, revolutions, people against people, everything that overwhelms false prophets, soothsayers and bad biblical readers, announcers of themselves and not of divine reality.
Yes, the biblical reading is this Mt 24,7-8: “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places; but all this is the beginning of sorrows” yes, but this “will not be the end” and the reading does not stop there: “many false prophets will arise and deceive many”.
Although we are experiencing a great civilizational crisis, the Bible speaks of the “great tribulation”, all of this is in reality a “straightening of the paths”, as John the Baptist did at the time of the coming of Jesus.
They asked him if he was the Messiah or Elijah (John 1:22-24): “They then asked: ‘Who are you after all?’ We have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’ Then John declared: “I am the voice that cries in the wilderness, ‘Make the way of the Lord plain’” as said the prophet Isaiah”, who prophesied that God would send light and joy through a child , and who would break the “yoke of his burden” (Isaiah 9:4) and would be called “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (verse 6).
It is indeed a civilizational crisis, models of society in shock, dangers of wars in limits and proportions never imagined, but all of this is also “smoothing the paths of the Lord”, the coming of a New Civilization, not that of false prophecies, but the kingdom of peace.
Beware of false prophets, with promises of paradise that do not come true, they also feed on crises, cruelty and wars, but do not propose peace and justice, or they don’t build them.
The last prophet and his culture
14
Dec
John the Baptist was the son of Elizabeth, married
to Zechariah and cousin of Mary, who upon receiving the sign from an angel that she would conceive goes to visit her, the biblical narrative hurriedly says, but also because the angel tells her that she is full of doubts: “her cousin, who was barren, conceived in old age” (Luke 1:36-40), a passage full of interpretations, but that’s for later.
Who John the Baptist was was better clarified in the Dead Sea Scrolls (see reference) found in the Dead Sea, very recently, but which biblical readers and exegetes completely ignore.
Many controversies arose from the Qumran manuscript, including that Jesus was actually an Essene, another that some fled to India and founded communities there with their principles, some of these manuscripts were inside clay jars and spoke about the life of Jesus Christ and talked about the importance of cures with alternative medicine and the importance of vegetarian culture.
The Essenes also defended unity and peace, as it was a period of division among the Jews, several had contact with Jesus and are present in biblical passages, and thus already had a different cult than the Sadducees and Pharisees.
The Sadducees were people from high society, members of priestly families, educated, rich and aristocrats; The Pharisees did not believe in life after death and therefore said nothing about their eschatological vision (of the beginning and end), becoming more concerned with Jewish rules and “laws”.
The zealots, others who joined Jesus, rejected paying tribute to the Roman empire, on the grounds that such an act was a betrayal against God, among Jesus’ apostles, Simon was a zealot and Judas, the traitor too, and also the late apostle Paul of Tarsus refers to himself as a religious zealot (Acts 22:3; Gal 1:14).
This gives a more cultural and political context about Jesus and his apostles, it does not take anything away from their divinity, but it explains the controversies and contradictions with the more orthodox Jewish culture of the time.
Regarding this controversy, the Jewish academic Dr. Israel Knohl, president of the Biblical department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and guest at the universities of Berkeley and Stanford, presents in his book: “The Messiah Before Jesus”, writes based on these parchments, the thesis that around the year of Jesus’ birth, a supposed messiah Menahem, the Essene, had died in circumstances similar to those of Jesus and this was known to Jesus.
Controversies aside, it does not weaken the biblical narratives of Jesus and John the Baptist, but it clarifies cultural and historical aspects better.
«The Weirdo Cult That Saved the Bible» (in english). Slate. Consulting in July of 2015.
Ukraine without progress, Hamas in trouble and Guyana
11
Dec
Winter is just beginning and Ukraine lives in
constant bombings made by drones in Kiev, on the front few advances the so-called counteroffensive did not happen due to Russia’s strategy of installing mines on the combat front, Ukraine’s only advance was crossing the Dnipro river In the North, little or nothing is done in the field of negotiations.
With the dominance of Russia and the decline in aid to Ukraine, not only in Western countries, but also in the USA, where promises of support are blocked in congress, the number of nationalist governments is growing and that plan to maintain national reserves than support an external war, Finland and Sweden, which fear a Russian attack, reinforce their arsenal, and in Finland’s case the border was closed.
With an attack in the middle of the war, Hamas saw Israel withdraw from the truce negotiations and the war resumed, there is no prospect of peace and the Arab countries tried to approve a UN resolution of truce, but the United States, Israel’s ally, vetoed it. .
Hamas continues to suffer heavy losses with Israel present massively in the north of the Gaza strip (photo), certainly the leaders must be out of the country, but its military structure in Gaza is being destroyed, even the complex of tunnels built that gave Hamas security and mobility, some made under hospitals that they used as human shields.
The danger that Hamas did not count on was the strategic and military support from the USA, but the opposition from Iran and some Arab countries, where there are groups similar to Hamas, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, in recent years, is increasingly strong. Now Hassan Fadlallah, the group’s political leader, said that Israel’s air strikes are a new escalation of war against the group.
There are more than 70 small conflicts across the globe, they are not forgotten here, we talk about coups and violence in Sub-Saharan Africa, in the east there is always tension between China and Taiwan, but in the escalation of a third war Venezuela’s willingness to invade comes into play. the Essequibo region, today belonging to Guyana, which is rich in oil.
Brazil has already sent troops to the border, at the moment it is just about preserving the national territory, however Lula oscillates between support and criticism of Maduro who approved a popular consultation on the subject, the United States sent planes to the region in a military exercise air force in support of Guyana.
The good news is that there is a round of dialogue scheduled for next Thursday (14/12) between Guyana and Venezuela, but for Guyana there is no question of giving up part of its territory, the Essequibo region represents more than 70% of the territory and is rich in oil.
Duns Scotto and moderate realism
07
Dec
Duns Scotus is the most typical thought of moderate
realism, as it linked the question of language as part of the essence of being (as the question is presented today) to the existence of universals, but he knew that he also admitted nominalism in part.
He was a philosopher and theologian from the 13th century, his main theological thesis is that God exists through the question: “whether there is among beings an infinite being currently existing” (Ordinatio I, part 1, qq. 1-2) and for him universals how “truth” and “goodness” really exist.
Duns Scotus supported a universal foundation in things (some philosophers will call it quiddity) that was stronger than those supported by Thomas Aquinas, and the entity proper to common nature that serves as the basis for individuation (so there are horses and there is the “ horse” particular to a breed, color, etc.) as well as to the universality that it adds, leaving it as if untouched (the specific horse remains a universal “horse”).
The argument that separates the “contemplative” from the “active” is in this origin of thought, the idea that the Universal is outside the intellect with the same way of being that is in the intellect and was what the scholastics called “naive realists”, returning to Plato, there are two worlds: the sensible world and the world of ideas (eidos, different of modern concept).
Even though eidos may be different from post-Kantian idealism, there remains within this thought a conception of the world “of ideas” different from the real world, that is, a radical nominalism whose Aristotelian categories were transformed into “concepts”.
Plato’s fundamental idea, and don’t be alarmed, is at the basis of modern thought, is that the truth is out there and not inside man, where he sees it through a process of meditation or contemplation, as Arendt (and others) have already argued. interpreters of philosophy) see the cave myth differently, argued Byung-Chul.
It is not this type of “parreheia” (opening of the Truth) that Duns Scotus speaks of, and Augustine of Hippo also spoke of, but rather that truth that dwells within every man.
It is in the fifth argument that Scotus uses Augustine: “If we both see that what you say is true, and if we both see that what I say is true, where, I ask, do we see it? Neither I, without a doubt, see it in you, nor you in me, but we both see it in the immutable Truth that is above our intelligence.”
Something similar is said by Socrates: “the truth is not with men, but among men”.
Scotus, John Duns. (1973) Text Selection. In: Os Pensadores (Braziliam Collection). São Paulo: Abril Cultural.
Palestine, Winter General and Essequibo
04
Dec
The truce unfortunately ended because Hamas
committed an attack on the last day of the truce, killing a rabbi and two women, according to the Israeli press, and the Al-Qassan militia, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) 200 Hamas targets have already been hit, one of them a sumptuous building that housed the Hamas Supreme Court, the scale of the war returns.
Winter General is the name given to the Russian winter during the wars because both in the Napoleonic invasion (1812) when the army of a set of alliances (it is important to remember that some European nations supported it) lost the war due to the winter, also in the second war Worldwide, the winter was decisive for Germany to lose the war.
What to think now about the winter in Ukraine, where Russia has made advances on several fronts, however it has problems in Crimea where there is a large part of Russian ammunition, the winter there lasts until March and Ukraine shows signs of weakness and loses part of its support, now countries like Finland and Poland are already mobilizing in their own defense against a possible invasion.
Finally, a front may appear on the Brazilian border, the army has already sent troops to the region due to the possibility of an invasion of Brazilian territory, which would be strategic for an invasion of Venezuela against the fragile military strength of Guyana (formerly British Guiana).
A referendum held in Venezuela these days, it is good to remember that Maduro controls the entire State apparatus, gave a favorable opinion to 5 questions about a possible invasion of Guyana from Essequibo as the region that today belongs to Guyana is called, one of the questions challenges the International Court of Justice that prohibited Venezuela from any invasion.
Ultimately, a disastrous scenario of civilizational crisis is getting worse, but we believe in Peace.
The society that comes
01
Dec
This is the title of the last chapter of Chul Han’s book
“Vita contemplativa”, in which he analyzes the religious crisis and its consequences for culture, being and current society.
It begins by stating: “the current crisis of religion cannot be reduced simply to the fact that we have lost faith in God or become suspicious of certain dogmas” (page 153), it resides in the fact that we have lost the capacity to contemplate, a growing coercion Both communication and production make “contemplative time” difficult, there is no way to “stop”.
He quotes Malebrance who said that attention is like a “natural prayer of the soul”, our hyperactivity can be blamed on religion, “the crisis of religion is a crisis of attention” (page 154), and the worst thing is that the author does not points out, fanaticism dominates “attention”.
The author says “listening is the verb for religion” (page 155), but it is also for meditation, study, contemplation and reflection, whatever the threshold principle of a thought, it requires a stop, an inactivity.
In the current thought of romanticism, “freedom is decoupled from the self”, action gives way to listening: “only the tendency to intuition, when directed towards infinity, puts unlimited freedom in mind” (page 159) says the author now quoting Schleiermacher.
Still quoting Schleiermacher, he writes that tears interrupt the “spell that the subject places on nature” (page 160), dissolved in tears, the subject surrenders to the Earth.
Now quoting Agamben in “The Coming Community” he states about the coming kingdom of the Messiah that Walter Benjamin would have told Ernest Block and is quoting in Han:
“a rabbi, a true Kabbalist, once said: to establish the kingdom of peace, it is not necessary to destroy everything and start a completely new world; it would be enough to move that cup or that bush or that stone a little bit, and all things in the same way. But this little bit is so difficult to achieve and its measure so difficult to find that, as far as the world is concerned, men cannot achieve it and the messiah must arrive” (Aganbem apud Han, 2023, pg. 171).
It is this arrival, called parousia (a new coming for Christians) that is also celebrated at Christmas.
HAN, B.C. (2023). Vita Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity, transl. Daniel Steuer, USA, ed. Polity.
Contemplation and the polis
30
Nov
The fifth chapter of the book “Vita Comtemplativa”
is The pathos of action, it begins by describing the two sacred concepts of the Jewish tradition: God and Sheba, for Jewish culture God is Sheba, that is, he is redemption, the immortal (page. 107), yesterday time is suspended, that is, compared to Han’s concept, it is inactivity.
The creation of the human being is not the last act of Creation, only the Sabbath rest completes it, the world is similar to the bridal chamber: “but the bride is missing. Only with the Sabbath does the bride arrive” (Han, 2023, p. 108), which is a quote from “Der sabbat” by Heschel.
The analogy with the bride will also be used in the parables of the brides, the arrival of “that day” when the groom comes to look for her and must find the lamps lit (developing around the theme of prudence), Arendt will modify the idea of rest divine complementing it with the principle freedom for a new beginning (or a fresh start, necessary in many stages of life), says Han’s quote:
“with the creation of the human being, the principle of the beginning (which in the creation of the world was in the hands of God and, therefore, outside the world) appears in the world itself and will remain immanent in it as long as there are human beings; which, of course, naturally, ultimately, means nothing other than that the creation of the human being as a ‘someone’ coincides with the creation of freedom” (apud Arendt, Han, 2023, p. 109).
“The “feeling of reality” that is due only to action; that is, when acting and producing an effect, it completely represses the feeling of being. The feeling of festivity, in which it is possible to experience a superior reality, is foreign to Arendt” (Han, 2023, p. 112).
This concept is the temenos of the Greek polis, which means the sacred space cut off from the public space that is reserved for deities; a peribolos (literally a playpen or enclosure), that is, a fenced space, an area of the temple delimited by walls. Temenos is a templum, a consecrated and sacred place, the word contemplation goes back to the templum (in picture the acropolis).
Thus the templum is part of the polis, on his trip to Greece, Heidegger has the acropolis in mind when he writes about the polis: “… this polis did not know, therefore, subjectivity as a measure of all objectivity. She submitted to the yoke of the gods, who, in turn, were subjected to destiny, to Moirá” (apud Heidegger, Han, 2023, p. 113-4).
By presenting it only as freedom and action, Han criticizes Arendt, the cultural dimension of parties, rituals and games has no place in her thinking and they were members of the polis.
HAN, B.C. (2023). Vita Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity, transl. Daniel Steuer, USA, ed. Polity.
Life and contemplation
28
Nov
No, it is not about the art of observing nature or the
universe, as the act of observing is also an “active life” as there will certainly not be any interpretation or detail that catches our attention.
It is about other meanings: listening without interpreting, looking with a purified gaze and understanding what is incomprehensible to human reason, so it is not a rational attitude, nor a madness or sensitive delirium, it is an exercise of “inactivity” writes Byung- Chul Han.
The author writes in Vita Contemplativa: ou sobre a inativa (Han, 2023, p. 11): “Inactivity constitutes the Humanum. What makes doing genuinely human is the amount of inactivity in it. Without a moment of hesitation or restraint, acting degenerates into blind action and reaction. Without rest, a new barbarism emerges.”
Therefore, contemplative inactivity is not to be confused with laziness, absence of action, but a rest for clairvoyant action and deep speech, says the author: “It is silence that gives depth to speech. Without silence there is no music, but only noise and noise. Play is the essence of beauty. Where only the scheme of stimulus and reaction, of lack and satisfaction, of problem and solution, of objective and action, prevails, life is reduced to survival, to naked animal life” (idem) and it is not by chance that it is confused with current modern life.
We are not machines always destined to function, the true life of conscious action begins when the concern for survival ceases and the need for raw life is born.
The confusion appeared because of the confusion between history and culture, not the history of ideas (in the sense of the Greek eidos), but that which ignores culture and deals only with the power and oppression of peoples, says the author: “action is, in fact, constitutive for history, but it is not the formative force of culture” (Han, 2023, p. 12) (paint: Contemplation of philosopher, Rembrandt, 1632).
And he adds in the same passage: “Not war, but celebration, not weapons, but jewelry, are the origin of culture. History and cultural do not coincide” (Han, idem).
“Jewelry” may seem strange, but the core of our culture is ornamental. It is situated beyond functionality and utility. With the ornamental that is emancipated from any purpose or utility, life insists on being more than survival” (idem).
The great religions have established the sacred in inactivity: Christian Sunday, the Jewish Sabbath, Islamic Ramadan, these are not just about inactivity, but a day of “contemplation”.
The “active” man searching for an “intense” and unbridled life of stimuli and responses falls into a void of meaning and into merely fighting for survival, little or nothing human resists, and if we want to return to the civilizing process, culture, the ornamental and the party must return to everyday life, time for Christmas and end-of-year celebrations, time to stop.
HAN, B.C. (2023). Vita Contemplativa: In Praise of Inactivity, transl. Daniel Steuer, USA, ed. Polity.
Intense war and freed hostages
27
Nov
Russia stated this Sunday (26/11) that it shot down
drones in the four regions at war, including some near Moscow and two missiles were also intercepted, while Ukraine claims to have eliminated more than a thousand soldiers and 30 Russian tanks in the war regions.
On Saturday there was a strong drone attack against Kiev, according to Moscow the biggest since 2022.
War negotiations continue, but the sanctions imposed by Moldova have created a new zone of conflict between Moscow and the West, Moldova fears being Russia’s next target.
The most serious thing about the Hamas and Israel conflict is the use of civilians as hostages (photo).
In the Gaza strip, the truce between Hamas and Israel continues, the exchange of hostages by Hamas soldiers continues, yesterday was the third day, in total | Hamas released 58 hostages while Israel released 117 Palestinians, in order these were the numbers of hostages released.
First day of truce 24 hostages, second day (Saturday) 17 hostages and third day (Sunday) 17 hostages, although the agreement is only for 4 days, and would end today, the expectation is that it can progress until Wednesday. fair.
Pope Francis, always optimistic, said in his last reference to war that humanity (of course those who make political decisions) chose war instead of peace.
Conflicts are already a major humanitarian tragedy and could become a serious humanitarian and civilizational crisis.
