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Culture and the Merely Instinctive
13
Jun
In analysis of the book malaise da civilization, Freud correctly analyzes what
is instinctive to want to dominate the other, in his psychological analysis it is with the id that prevails in childhood and it is possible to demonstrate that every civilizing process somehow deprived the satisfaction of human beings and peoples in some way.
He clarifies at the beginning of his work: “it is difficult to escape the impression that in general people use false measures, that they seek power, success and wealth for themselves and admire those who have them, underestimating the authentic values of life” (Freud , 210, p. 10), clarifying that generalization should be avoided.
Although he initially denies a judgment about religion, in a supposed dialogue of letters with an interlocutor, he describes what “he would like to call the sensation of ‘eternity’, “a feeling of something unlimited, without barriers, as if ‘oceanic’ ‘. It would be a purely subjective fact, not an article of faith; it does not bring any guarantee of personal survival, but it would be the source of religious energy that the different churches and systems of religion take hold of, conduct through certain channels and also dissipate, without a doubt” (idem).
The author makes an anthropological, sociological and, to a certain extent, clinical finding that demonstrates both the constructive and destructive nature of man as a function of life and death drives, written in the period between wars (1918-1939), reveals the effort to prevent impetus hostile to the human species overcame the barrier of civilization’s superego.
Freud thus expressed the fear of war in his time: “[…] human beings have reached such control over the forces of nature that it would not be difficult for them [to] resort to them to exterminate themselves to the last man” (FREUD, 1930, 2010, p. 79), so the systematizer of psychoanalysis seemed to see beyond his time, seeing the limits of horror in our days.
In fact, the civilizational humanizing desire is not specific to this or that religion, but when Christianity calls men and women to be “Salt of the earth and light of the world” it is so that, in addition to the power, the destructive capacity that peoples and nations have, these forces are used for the progress of all humanity and not for a particular group or social vision.
The technologies and vital forces taken from nature cannot serve any purpose other than to provide well-being to the greatest possible number of people, this is the meaning of life and it is based on the salt that gives taste to food and life. light that illuminates the people (the Himalayan salt in the photo).
Freud, Sigmund. (2010) O mal estar na civilização (Civilization and its Discontents) (1930). In: FREUD, Sigmund. Civilization and its Discontents, New Introductory Lectures and Other Texts (1930-1936). Complete works volume 18. Translated by Paulo César de Souza. Brazil, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Civilization and dissent
06
Jun
There is “An Evil in Civilization” wrote Sigmund Freud in 1929, after his
appeal reached where he predicted the 2nd. World War, at this moment extrapolates the cultural and is almost exclusively psychic, reason and high thinking are not in fashion, values are inverted, what remains is the couch.
At a time like this, everything around us gets worse, it’s not just the economy and politics, spending on medicines and doctors increases, educational and justice capabilities are distorted in defenses and accusations with the help of lawyers or public defenders without changing the course of dissent, the time and content for educating dialogue, criteria and reason is reduced.
Also in the educational and social areas; the excess of actions and attempts at models, which are motivated by misunderstandings on both sides, theoretical models and teaching methods, live with the difficulty of facing dissent and often result in the total loss of hierarchy or sense of value, the difficulty of accept (or exercise) what would be authority.
At the same time that authority is confused with authoritarianism, disorganizes the school mission and often prevents public discourses of discussion and responsible dialogue from being exercised, values, even spiritual ones, collapse, everything seems to collapse in a cascade.
Sometimes all that remains is to listen and remain silent, sometimes it is necessary to correct with courage, but dialogue is always possible, and patient listening ponders even when it differs.
It takes models that correspond to life, to ethical and moral social interaction, to save empathy and mutual respect, when only some want respect that they do not offer to others, there is no way to start a fruitful dialogue process.
There are niches of civilizing coexistence, there are peoples and places where dissent has not settled, where hatred has not won and hope still lives.
Finding and giving value to these little lights that illuminate the civilizing night is fundamental, otherwise doctors, psychiatrists and educational methods will not be functional, they will have no life.
Alienation and absolute spirit
30
May
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (Germany, 1770-1831) is considered the last
of the modern philosophers and who writes in a systematic way, where the theory forms a body.
The understanding of what alienation is becomes absolute, both in Hegel and in the philosopher Marx, pure thought becomes sensitive thought, aiming at a material realization in the form of work, and if we alienate ourselves, we separate ourselves from the pure essence and open the way for a separation between ideal and real, which unite in what Hegel called Absolute Spirit.
It is in the power relationship that both find themselves winning and being defeated that they see it: “You are the power that is above this being; well, this being is the power that is over the Other; therefore, you have this Other underneath you: this is the syllogism [of domination]” (HEGEL, 1988, p. 130).
The idealistic dualism becomes diabetic, the idea of master and slave does not value one of the self-consciousness more than that of the other, in chapter IV he speaks of two self-consciousness that are confronting each other, thus dialogue and the fusion of horizons is not possible, but opposition.
“Therefore, the relationship of the two self-consciousnesses is determined in such a way that they prove themselves and each other through a life-and-death struggle. They must fight this fight, because they need to elevate to the truth, in the Other and in themselves, their certainty of being-for-itself. Only by putting one’s life at risk, freedom [is conquered]…” (HEGEL, 1988, p. 128).
Hegel did not destroy or abandon religion, he just rewrote it in his own way: “Religion is the way in which humanity is aware of the truth and it is for everyone, whereas philosophy is not accessible to all people (HEGEL, 1988, p. 106).
He even states that religion is necessary, in which the content must become objective for the sensitive consciousness and then, through reflection, be understood in the form of the universal, that is, of thinking (HEGEL, 1995, p. 133).
Hegel, G. W. F. (1995) Introdução às Lições sobre História da Filosofia. Porto: Porto Editora.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1992). Fenomenologia do Espírito. Trad. Paulo Meneses e Karl-Heinz Efken. Brazi, Petrópolis: Vozes.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1988) Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion: The Lectures of 1827, One-volume edition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Civilizing passion: crisis and clearing
07
Apr
It is not the first civilizational crisis that humanity is going through today, if 
it has roots in the thought that developed a form of national and chauvinist polis, empires are the multinational expression of this way of looking at nations, this however has an aggravating factor: the possibility use of nuclear and biological weapons of mass extinction.
Because a passion comparing it with the passion of Jesus, we have already outlined the issue of innocence and the tragic and legal aspects that it involves throughout last week, Brazil experienced this week a drama in the city of Blumenau the death of innocent children, the world aspect is the one that from ideological conceptions and visions of the world promotes a limitless crisis, this is the passionate side (in the photo Bucha´s tragedy, Ukraine).
The entry that we announced at the beginning of the week, of Finland in NATO creates a large border area of NATO with Russia allowing a land war in an area where it is sensitive and there are remnants of recent historical intolerance, the so-called “winter war” from 1939.
If Russia takes what it calls a “countermeasure” and it could be in the military field, since in the economic and trade field there is nothing that could be more serious than the current situation between nations, military retaliation triggers a dangerous trigger. that will have a response from NATO.
A clearing is possible, the one that Heidegger claimed in the midst of these hostilities, the clarity that there will be no unilateral victories, the war with Ukraine itself does not seem to have a possible end this year, unless there is a round of peace negotiations.
China would take an offensive position in its resumption of the island of Taiwan, which it considers part of its territory, Iran is increasingly closer to Russia and a good part of Latin America currently has governments that are more to the left, in short, this complicated world scenario may be the reason to open a clearing in the middle of the forest of hatred and hostility that opens up at every step of the war.
It will be a great passion of humanity, like all suffering, this one on an unimaginable scale after a trauma and then a reflection when seeing the enormous losses that the situation involves, it will undoubtedly be in a possible tragic situation never seen before, a new “clearing” of civilizing consciousness .
Peace is always possible, it is always possible to avoid the loss of innocent lives if there is prevention.
The polycrisis and thinking aloud
05
Apr
When we think only of everyday things, they are important and even fundamental, we often fail to perceive what is deeper involved in them, the thought and culture in which we are immersed and which are rapidly pointing to a polycrisis.
The word coined by Morin was taken up again in an interview with Le Monde, where he emphasized: “The health crisis triggered a chain of crises that were linked together. This polycrisis or megacrisis extends from the existential to the political, passing through the economy, from the individual to the planetary, passing through families, regions, States. In short, a tiny virus in an overlooked village in China has unleashed the disruption of a world” (Le Monde, April 20, 2020).
In his book VI of Method: Ethics, he explains: “Our civilization separates more than it connects. We are in a deficit of reconnection and this has become a vital necessity”, so it is impossible not to think about things from above: empathy, civility, cordiality and other values that little by little were being lost and brutalizing us as a civilization.
As a complex thinker, his thinking is antidisciplinary (in the sense of rigid specialties) and transdisciplinary (in the sense of recovering the whole lost in rigid boundaries of thought that define only one aspect of life).
Operators of complex thinking (the book Introduction to Complexity is fundamental) is, as the word itself says, intricate and comprehensive, but I highlight two essential points of its method, the dialogic and hologramatic aspect.
The dialogical considers the union of opposite and contradictory terms as complementary, for example life and death, this paradox is lived in the sacred sense in this Easter week, although it is not limited to the religious, it can and should be thought of in the existential and political.
The hologramatic points out that the apparent paradox of systems are component parts of a whole (in picture the universe formation), just as each part has prefigured an aspect of the whole, the most common example is that of the kaleidoscope, but that of the human body is also interesting, each part is alive by the functioning of the whole and helps the whole to function.
We behave like fans who are fanatical and disinterested in the whole for exercising too much a material, purely earthly and human culture that makes the whole, the high and the divine inconceivable in everyday life.
Serenity and the thinking that calculates
16
Mar
Heidegger’s book “Serenity” will divide contemporary thought into that which calculates
and that which meditates, on which it calculates it states:
“The thinking that calculates (das rechnende Denken) makes calculations. It makes calculations with continually new possibilities, always with greater perspectives and at the same time more economical. The thought that calculates goes from opportunity to opportunity. The thinking that calculates never stops, never comes to meditate.” (p. 13).
He argues that this is not a “higher” meditation, every man thinks and thought can lead to meditation, just meditate on the here and now that is around us.
Heidegger reminds us that we should all think about our roots, said in a more contemporary way, not denying our origins and their influences in our world view, even if limited, he states: “the rooting (die Bodentändigkeit) of the current Man is threatened in his most intimate essence. More: the loss of rootedness is not provoked only by external circumstances and fatalities of destiny, nor is it the effect of the negligence and superficial way of Men. The loss of grounding comes from the spirit of the times into which we were all born” (p. 17).
This is what makes Heidegger and other current philosophers analyze the foundations of current thought, Edgar Morin also speaks of this need to overcome this thought, alerting to the contemporary view of education.
The most current and surprising vision of Heidegger, published in 1955, is the characteristic of our time where “the most tormenting is the atomic bomb”, he realizes that the thinking he calculates sees only the industrial possibilities and liberation of the energies of nature, however the philosopher meditates on what this domain means.
“The hidden power in contemporary technology determines Man’s relationship with what exists. Dominate the entire Earth. Man is already starting to leave the Earth towards cosmic space …” (p. 19), which, in addition to being incredibly current, also had an omen of the future.
But he did not fail to see the danger of these “great atomic energies”, and thus: “assures humanity that such colossal energies, suddenly, anywhere – even without warlike actions -, do not escape our control, and “take the brakes on us teeth” and annihilate everything?” (p.20).
We saw the accidents of Chernobyl and Fukushima, this loss of control, now we see a war that points to the warlike use of these forces, Heidegger is right to ask for serenity and meditation.
HEIDEGGER, M. Serenity. trans. Translation by Maria Madalena Andrade and Olga Santos. Lisbon: Instituto Piaget, s/d.
War becomes dangerous and can get out of hand
13
Mar
As the war scene advanced in Eastern Europe, several analyzes were made here showing
an increasingly cybernetic war and with chances of being nuclear, now both international news (such as CNN for example) and the American intelligence services, point out this tragic evolution.
Officials of the US Senate Intelligence Committee spoke last Wednesday (08/03) of this scenario affirmed what is written in the report of the Office of National Intelligence: “degraded Moscow’s conventional land and air capabilities and increased its dependence on weapons nuclear weapons”, so a window for peace is becoming smaller and smaller.
The battle of Bakhmut, which could pave the way for a larger invasion of Ukrainian territory, is costing both sides dearly, but will intensify the war on Ukrainian soil, with losses and unpredictable scenarios.
While the Russians announce victory in Bakhmut, the Ukrainians say that each Ukrainian soldier killed cost the lives of 5 Russian soldiers, propaganda aside, Russia does pay an expensive cost for the dispute in the region and shows that it will be a war step by step and costing many lives, in addition to refugees and material destruction.
At the global level, NATO’s involvement grows as Russia seeks allies beyond China.
The involvement with weapons and even training of troops from Poland and Germany, as well as the already evident involvement of NATO since the beginning of the war, can extrapolate the limits of Russia and Poland and pass to the entire European continent, already a Russian “new Pearl Harbour”. , launching long-range missiles into American territory would start a global tragedy by the power of weapons.
Weapons are available and there is also tension in the East, now with South Korea and Japan approaching Western forces.
Peace is always possible, but it requires an environment of cooperation and understanding between nations.
War and the End of Winter
06
Mar
The Russian strategy was to “freeze” the Ukrainians and their allies in Europe in the winter, so not
only did it limit the shipment of gas but it also bombed several energy sources in Ukraine, with Europe stocking gas before and knowing the Russian strategy, it went to get natural gas in other sources, such as Africa, and now we are at the end of winter there (and summer here in the southern hemisphere).
A possible war tactic now would be the use of biological weapons, there are already reports that this has occurred in Ukraine, they are prohibited by international agreements, but a direct confrontation with NATO would bring enormous wear and tear beyond the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe.
Brazil’s vote and intervention for peace had a negative reaction in Russia, which has already alerted Brazil to a confrontational position, Brazil was the only country to vote against Russian intervention in the last vote that increased the rejection of Russian intervention, there is no other name for the fact.
The end of winter brings a period of great flooding and shifting terrain and the advance of ground forces is not possible, the young people recruited for the war in Russia do not have skills for heavy weapons and aviation for the most part.
What is the path to peace at the moment, Brazil is trying to form a “neutral” bloc that dialogues with both sides, but NATO is a fundamental part of the war in Ukraine and therein lies the difficulty.
The German newspaper Der Spiegel stated that the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen said that the time of peace is over in Europe, it is a serious statement, which came in response to Russian threats, also there is already a visible movement (I am aware of some cases) of services that can be done from home are moving outside Europe.
In the event of a biological war, of course we hope it never comes to this point, the evacuation of many services would be inevitable and a completely warlike climate would settle on the continent.
We hope and always believe in possible peace.
What’s beyond human
03
Mar
Certainly existing nature, the planets and the entire universe, when seen more by human
devices: interplanetary travel and the James Webb megatelescope, more complex and challenging human intelligence.
But there is something in man in the human beyond that is in his conscience and in his feelings and affections, there is a complex divine spark, says the poet that makes him look outside for what is inside.
Imagining that this could be in a machine is just one of the aspects of control and the will to human power, whose theme we developed last week, the transhuman creates a fiction and a human fantasy that man himself would create something to overcome it, the great fantasy of the development of the resources of the current Artificial Intelligence, everything that is there the man who put it.
It is the human desire to be your own creator and who knows how to reach an earthly divinity, but contrary to what you seek, technology does not only have the purpose of destroying and also of helping, it can, by daydream, impel extra-human forces of destruction.
We were created because man has not always existed on earth, and even the hypothesis that we come from other celestial bodies, the fantasy of aliens, which may even exist, will be created by something that has an infinite consciousness and greater than ours, had to there is a celestial and ontological creative principle, with logic of being (onto).
This mystical fantasy makes sense, because any self-respecting science, philosophy, or theology will speculate about human creation, and any eschatology will wonder about our destiny.
There is a moment in Jesus’ earthly life, the historical figure is indisputable, in which he reveals himself as divine to his disciples, who are so amazed that they want to build three tents and stay there, the event called “Mount Tabor” (Photo), where they were with Jesus only three disciples.
(Mt 17,1-3): “Jesus took with him Peter, James and John, his brother, and led them to a place apart, on a high mountain. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. Then Moses and Elijah appeared to him, talking with Jesus.”
Wrath and Peace
17
Feb
It is true that the history of humanity is punctuated by wars, but what would happen if it were the other way around and men sought in all circumstances to find a more solidary and less dark path for their conflicts.
However, an international conflict at this moment would be a tragedy that could put the civilizing process itself in check and whose consequences would be unimaginable numbers of human lives lost, nature contaminated and material damage.
Meanwhile, the conflict in Eastern Europe is taking on an increasingly international outline, a Russian frigate loaded with unstoppable hypersonic missiles and with a range of a thousand kilometers is heading across the South Atlantic towards the American east coast.
The Stoic philosopher Seneca (4 BC–65 AD) who wrote a treatise on Anger, which unlike many others says that there is no wisdom in it, wrote in his work: “No man is made more courageous through anger, except one who, without anger, , would not have been courageous: anger, therefore, does not come to help courage, but to take its place” (I.13).
So war is not only a bad adviser, it takes the place of courage and true heroism, that which leads humanity to harmony, tolerance and true civility.
It may seem altruistic, but the true Christian teaching is present in many religions, remember Ghandi’s Hinduism, which intransigently defended peace, so says the attentive reading of the Bible: “You have heard what was said: An eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth! I, however, say to you: do not face those who are evil! On the contrary, if someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer him the left as well!” (Mt 5,38-39).
We can avoid a civilizing catastrophe, but not without forgiveness and concessions. There´s still time.
