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Among the corrupt, thieves and the blind
15
Nov
Blindness is not the privilege of a few, but birth blindness would
be something almost incurable because the cognitive apparatus is not prepared to see, corruption is practically an addiction, a compulsion and difficult to reverse as a character, and finally, theft is a compulsion not only moved by hunger, but mainly by the desire of usurpation and envy of many.
There are in the Bible three rare and personal cases in which there is a complete reversal of these values, this to show the radicalism and strength of faith on paradigmatic cases, the rich and runt Zacchaeus who needs to climb a tree to see Jesus has a radical change of life , the man born blind is healed and the thief crucified next to Jesus, who tradition has called Dimas, is not only redeemed but is invited to go to paradise, said from the mouth of Jesus: “he will still be with me today”.
These examples are to understand why life and society require change and conversion not only in large social plans, but in the individual attitude, however small it may be of each person, a moral and personal conversion is necessary to reverse a situation of obscurity.
In Brazil, it’s Republic Day, and the republican spirit means treating it with the “res” public thing, and Plato’s classic work brings some important thoughts, which need to be updated, of course (photo Praça da República, São Paulo, Brazil)
An interesting universal thought in Plato’s work is: “and each of us does not seek to obtain a certain particular benefit not common to all”, in another passage: “the evil that is not discovered becomes worse still, while, when discovered and punished, the bestial element calms down and softens…”, in short, these are republican norms that must be respected.
Plato, who believed that the soul was immortal, not in the Christian sense, states that it is “capable of enduring all evils, as well as all good, we will always keep to the ascending road, and in any case we will practice justice and wisdom.” ”, which are essential.
Plato Republic. (Wikipedia).
Live like it’s the last day
02
Nov
Days of anguish and euphoria in which one broods over the past
and rambles on about the future, but the day of the dead is for thinking that we have an end to earthly life and we must live each day as the last, and at the same time we must think what exists on the other side, even if there is nothing, what legacy we leave, the goods will only serve for disputes, the gestures and attitudes that will remain.
The prudent man always thinks that there may be a moment of departure and tries to leave the house in order, to weigh less on his neighbors and the people he passed by, he left a message of love and hope.
What we do in secret will be revealed in the light of day, so the search for justice could not be far from looking for the light, it could not be far from moral and cultural values that promote peace and the good of humanity.
There is a little thought value that is the ability to forgive and start over, many injustices that occur are personal, but we must take a step forward and ask and wish well for these people too, in short, forgive those who will never be able to ask for forgiveness, see the previous post, there is a pride in these people and this will always lead them to error.
We also have flaws and mistakes and we must be able to recognize and go through different paths and if we have wronged someone to have the courage to heal and repair that mistake, a simple sincere request for forgiveness is a balm in the lives of many “resentful” people.
Although he abandoned his Lutheran origins, Nietzsche wrote about a great Christian, opposing resentment to oblivion, in his book Genealogy of Morals, he saw the resentful type as the one who does not channel his hatred outside, but in himself, building a kind of imaginary revenge, that is, self-destructive.
There is a quote attributed to Shakespeare: “holding a resentment is like taking a poison and waiting for the other to die”, and it is a type of feeling that prevents us from living the present moment fully.
Diversity and adversity
27
Oct
A society that lives in balance and serenity is one that admits
diversity, see that adversity is precisely the denial of diversity, where differences can coexist.
It is not possible for the civilizing process and the public sphere to develop without diversity being accepted, harmonized in which all differences are respected, says Byung Chul Han: “Respect is the foundation of the public sphere. Where it disappears, it crumbles. The decadence of the public sphere and the growing lack of respect are conditioned.” Byung Chul Han No swarm” (Han, 2018, p. 12), which by the way is a reasoned and balanced critique of digital media.
Adversity is even worse when it comes from the powers that be, because having authority they should precisely oppose the hostile and hateful climate between differences, this does not mean that exactly they should curb exaggerations and abuses that powers have no legitimacy to have.
The public sphere has the right spaces and forums where those who feel that abuses may be committing, it is true, there are cases in which the desire to react is violence, one can enter a vicious circle in which it is often possible not to find the return, behold the wars.
So the ad-diversity school is the choice of conflict, hatred, dispute and death.
The greatest desire of sincere religion cannot be other than that space where there is peace, justice, harmony and respect for differences, difference is part of nature and in it human nature, one of the mistakes is not to be within the ecosystem , read Nature of Nature, we already made a post about this.
Jesus’ anguish when he saw the religious divided was greater than seeing his countrymen divided by the Roman Empire, greater than the theft and exploitation of the humble, we will come back to this tomorrow.
Diversity is a wealth for plurality, for dialogue, hatred and revenge are ad-diversity, the non-acceptance of what is not a mirror, the lack of respect and empathy.
The real nuclear danger
17
Oct
While Russia threatens Ukraine’s entry into NATO would lead
to a third war, the rhetoric of Western countries is that Russia’s use of “tactical” nuclear weapons would be war, so the war between these two countries indicates the possibility of a war. world confrontation that would be catastrophic.
It is difficult to find breaches in this scenario for any peace agreement, the escalation of the war is ascending and even public opinion is divided, as in the scenario before the 2nd. War.
North Korea has already tested its cruise missiles, China, in the view of Japan, would reach its territory, China censored its internet (there is a control of the nationalized electronic network) and India presented its submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles, Russia already has in time.
The idea of a shield in the form of a mosaic (several countries would help Ukraine to defend its airspace), is an attempt to respond to Russia’s demonstration of its ability to reach not only strategic points in enemy territory, but also tested a response to NATO.
Turkey wants to mediate a deal and Iran continues to send its drones to Russia which has improved its attack capability, also the powerful Himars missiles are now being reached by the Russian anti-aircraft battery.
It is little remembered in the literature, but we have more than 400 nuclear plants, each bombed one is a bomb, and the largest plant in Europe, Zaporizhia (photo before the war) is in the middle of the conflict, the presence of troops there is a possible scenario of a catastrophe that would hit the whole of Europe.
It is difficult to talk about peace, but it must be thought of within a civilizing process that is capable of reversing the tendency to hate, intolerance and peaceful coexistence between different opinions, the social and world scenario is increasingly polarized and the idea of submitting the other by force grows.
Crime, punishment and regret
05
Oct
The novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is
considered one of the great novels of universal literature, it tells the story of a character who plans the death of an old loan shark, and when he comes across her sister, he ends up killing her too, he will live a drama of conscience.
The character Raskolnikov, the police arrest an innocent man who ends up confessing because of the pressure he suffered, the character will confess the crime after suffering a huge influence from Sonia, who shares with him the description of the resurrection of Lazarus, contained in the New Testament.
The book was launched in 1866, but it was published in excerpts before in a literary magazine, in eleven chapters of the Russian Messenger, it also deals with socialist themes, but in a deep and special way the question of conscience.
The idea that crimes are justified on the basis of social issues, and evidently a loan shark is not a pleasant figure, but death and war more broadly is deplorable.
The question of this individual conscience is not only of the author’s period, who lived for a few years even in Siberia during the period of the tsars,
Several stories develop in parallel, among them Raskolnikov’s novel, among them Sonia’s romance with the protagonist, daughter of a civil servant, and to whom he donated the money, individual and social conscience are widely discussed in this novel.
Repentance is an interior cure, the greatest of all that we can have in life, it heals and even “resurrects” people who die after committing serious acts and not just murder, every act of hatred and lovelessness is a thesis a small act. of “death” of the other.
Dostoevsky’s novel is of great importance for the present day, when death, theft and the various deaths seem justifiable and are not.
Dostoievsky, F.M. (1866) CRIME AND PUNISHMENTS, Transl. Constance Garnett. (Planet pdf)
Wisdom and training
27
Sep
The most beautiful image that Plato made of Socrates about
philosophy was not the ordering of knowledge, the epitheme that is also necessary, through which the sophists were fought, but the image that exists in his book Symposium, the one with which we have access to philosophy and knowledge of the Supreme Good and in it “the” wisdom.
The one that says that a philosopher is not moved only by a “know-how” as the utilitarian world wants, the presence of Socrates by the “testimony” of Alcibiades, with an appearance without any compatibility with the Beauty of classical Greece, and which imposed to whom he was questioned a change of attitude, not a passive receiver of ideas.
Questions and interrogation are no less important than putting oneself actively in front of oneself and the world, there is a desire to take the lead and to respond to really important questions.
As we read in Theaetetus, Socrates is defined as atopos, with “no-place”, or even “weird”, as one who creates aporias, that is, he does not solve things, he only raises questions, he does not then help the harmony of the “polis”. ” or the cosmos.
What kind of wisdom is this then, “not knowing” is very significant for Socrates, he is a scathing critique of the pretension of the known, after all their knowledge is not the result of conversation, of dialogue, it is not aware of the contradictory questions of the your knowing.
Every Socratic-Platonic-Aristotelian edifice did not resist the brute force of the Roman empire, and falls into ruin before the mighty Roman army, as war won Greek wisdom, acquiring it and making it serve its purposes, the Roman gods were no other. but those corresponding to the Greek gods, but philosophy has decayed.
This is the possible current parallel, there is an almost general feeling that regret is no longer useful or reasonable, and philosophy would be nothing more than mere speculation, says Sloterdijk “it is not a favorable time for thought”, or we go for pragmatism of action or for the deleterious.
There is little room for the birth of the new, for Paidéia with its effect of education and training, everything goes towards the immediate and the market.
Even in environments where culture is present, it seems that the ideals of wisdom are under suspicion and vulgarity is promoted even with a certain ‘status/’, the way out is to call men to conscience and common sense.
Plato. The Banquet of Plato. CHICAGOWAY AND WILLIAMS, 1895. (pdf).
The winter and the war
20
Sep
Ukraine has announced a counter-offensive in the Oskil region where they
have won important points and begins a counter-offensive in Kherson promising to reach even the occupied region of Crimea.
How will Russia react and what is the importance of this resumption of Ukraine? Before any analysis, it is necessary to recognize that the collapse of Russian forces on the Kharkiv front is a serious defeat and it is unlikely that Putin will not react, the problem is what the reaction is.
News from various sources is that Ukrainian troops have made major incursions on the Kharkiv front, for example the US-based Institute for War, where around 2,500 square kilometers have been recovered from Russian forces.
Ukrainian forces pushed the front line from Kharkiv some 70 km east to the Oskil River, capturing several key strategic points, particularly in the Izyum region, where bodies were in common speech with marks of torture and on the west bank. from Kupyansk.
Winter is coming, and Russia in addition to controlling energy sources, also the nuclear plants that are under its control, can cut off the gas and suffocate not only Ukraine, but much of Europe.
But what is more worrying is Russia’s reaction if the defeats are prolonged, the use of strategic nuclear weapons could trigger a NATO chain reaction and a difficult scenario could be drawn.
We will enter the autumn of Europe, which corresponds to our winter in the southern hemisphere, and tensions tend to escalate.
It is necessary for peacekeeping forces to mobilize and prevent a crisis that could lead to drastic actions and even greater horror.
The idolatry of perfection
07
Sep
Myths and idols were created precisely to divert the understanding
of human nature, they change according to the contexts and the evolution of languages, but they have always been present in the history of humanity and thus they themselves must have human considerations.
Nietzsche warned us about the risks of living fed by idols (or ideas, which for him were synonymous), showed that by dominating our mind and conditioning our thinking, feeling and acting in the world, we become strict with our life and that of others, claimed to be a monstrous force, as a myth it can be said that its maximum expression is Narcissus (image) and this led to sameness, the lack of originality and diversity, the demand for the same.
In the name of some idealism, and in modernity it itself became a philosophy after Kant, people are capable of hurting and reaching the other who is outside their model, and even not allowing to build in life what they allowed themselves to be conquered by Is it over there.
The model of efficiency, productivity and social rigor is also a model of perfection.
This happens because the idealist model formulates that there is an ideal model to follow and reality is always imperfect and thus they prefer to follow the perfection of ideas and reach the absurdity of submitting others to their model of perfection, they believe that there is a top to be hit.
So it is not possible to formulate a human model to be followed, of course it is possible if we understand human imperfection as part of a process of hominization and civilization in which all other humans must have the same possibility of living and sharing the common environment.
Edgar Morin called this “planetary citizenship”, many political and religious models speak of solidarity, of rejection of hatred, but it is necessary to observe if they do not build something that excludes.
Today is the day of the Brazilian nation, so diverse and rich in races and ethnicities, any model that does not support the other is the type of idolatry of perfection that must be rejected, does not lead to solidarity.
Spinozian Ethics, a strong counterpoint to idealist ethics, formulated that reality is always equal to perfection, because perfection only makes sense when it is reality not something imagined or thought, so perfection is reality to the same extent that reality is perfect.
Without love and respect for the Other, for diversity and tolerance, every ideal model is imperfect.
Energy crisis and tension in the east
06
Sep
Moscow’s retaliation to the sanctions imposed after the invasion
of Ukraine, begin to have an impact on the European economy and in the United Kingdom caused the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, although the problem is wider than inflation, which in 2023 could go even above 20. %, the main impulse is the rise of natural gas throughout Europe, Russia blames Germany for the crisis.
European Union countries are looking to stock up on natural gas for the coming winter period.
Prime Minister Liz (Elizabeth) Truss was sworn in, in an internal election of the Conservative party against former Treasury Minister Rishi Sunak, she is known for being a chameleon, adopting speech according to the context, in fact similar to many leaders today.
It was against, for example, Brexit and after it was adopted it became in favor.
The people of Taiwan watching the Ukrainian war always quoted in local news, are aware of a possible war with China, and prepare for possible crises with exercises, first aid training and logistics to avoid bombings.
Last week a drone was shot down traveling in Taiwanese territory, according to news from Deustche Welle, reproduced on the G1 portal, since March an NGO called the Forward Alliance, in addition to offering civil defense training, seeks to improve national resilience.
According to Enoch Wu, founder of the Forward Alliance: “The objective is to keep communities functioning, and the trainings help prepare citizens against natural or man-made crises”, but the backdrop is a possible war with China.
Tensions rise between China and the US due to the announcement of the sale of 1.3 billion dollars of weapons to Taiwan, China promises to respond to what it considers “destruction of peace”.
It may be a deception, but the main trainings that the Taiwanese prime minister participates in are on the island of Penghu (Fishers), it is small and although it has a defense structure, it is isolated and far from Formosa Island, which is in fact the territory of Taiwan.
The peace and salvation
03
Sep
Contrary to what common sense thinks, the afflicted are not among the unfortunate, but among the wronged, so it is necessary to think about the life of the just and their salvation.
As we wrote earlier: “Blessed are the afflicted, for they shall be comforted, blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth”, and verse 9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God” and these are the righteous and suffer affliction.
But Kierkegaard’s fundamental help is on the question of identity, definitions as being-in-itself and being-in-the-world, and, the concept of the eternal, which is a launching into the “infinite” which is where salvation is.
So it must be that the calculation we make when we face injustice is between an account that only in the face of infinity and consequences can it be defined, and as we put the fall in reverse, we could place the biblical passages of the new testament the beatitudes in Mt. 5:1-12, verse 5: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”.
Thus it must be understood that this calculation is made when referring to the calculation of salvation made in Luke 14:28-30: “For which of you, wanting to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if have enough to finish? Otherwise, he will lay the foundation and will not be able to finish. And everyone who sees it will begin to mock, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish!’
This peace is different from the “perpetual peace” proposed by Kant and by idealism, it resulted in two big wars and in the belief in the state as a mediator of conflicts.
