Arquivo para October, 2022
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.
Crisis, hypocrisy and clearing
14
Oct
Today, what you really are is worth very little, what matters more
is personal marketing, the makeup that hides the defects of what the man really is, this is a consequence of the hiddenness of the Being.
So the concealment of the truth is the result of this concealment of the Being, not its cause, the thought goes in this direction because within each Being there is room for falsification, lying and hypocrisy.
So it is not the case of those who lie the most, it is the absence of a clearing where the conscience of each Being presents itself, and the leaven of the liars grew, as the biblical passage of Lk 12,1=2 “take care with the leaven of the liars”. Pharisees which is hypocrisy, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing hidden that will not be known.”
It is true that Heidegger’s category of “clearing” has a more general meaning, it involves the whole that is hidden within a Being, but for those who believe this whole is hidden in God, what we are in the divine heart, and even not believing this seems proper to modernity that does not see the whole.
The fragmentation of knowledge, the social division, the absence of transdisciplinary thinking led to a new type of occultism, one that specialized only sees the part and does not see the whole, even though quantum physics, the search for the infinite or finite universe ( looking for its edge) seen by James Webb, it is nature and within the Being that this whole inhabits and where the truth is hidden.
How it was hidden was the social fragmentation, the absence of communion, where the Whole is complete, the absence of transcendent Love (not that of idealistic subjectivity), where we are able to see the other.
We thus form a generation (in the sense of several since the last century) that became evil, selfish and individualistic, autophagic and exclusionary and unable to see the whole clearly.
It is true that divine justice is superior to human justice, but it does not ignore it, Jesus told a parable of a widow who goes to an unjust judge who then bothers him so much, he decides to stop having her bothering him anymore and “ don’t come and attack me”.
And Jesus explains the parable to the disciples (Lk 18:6-7): “And the Lord added: “Listen to what this unjust judge says. And will God not do justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will it make them wait?” so we can also hope for earthly justice.
The Civilization Crisis and Thought
13
Oct
It is not a propitious time for thought, said Peter Sloterdijk, 
in other words Edgar Morin asked for a revolution in thought through education, what is observed are increasingly dogmatic currents (different from orthodox) in duel, without a understand or argue in terms of the universe of the other.
The outline of this crisis has its origins in the inability to move forward, the proposed models show signs of exhaustion, the media and common sense appeal to superficial arguments, without a clear reference and sometimes appealing, this has reached the social body and politics.
They blame the new media, they are just vehicles of thought, their cognitive basis is in education and in what is digested in people’s daily lives, and since the beginning of the last century it was already showing signs of exhaustion, not a few serious thinkers comment on this, from Nietzsche to Freud, through conservative writers on the right and left, because both returned to their origins.
There is a social crisis, no doubt, but it exists due to the absence of consistent responses that mobilize everyone, thinking is segmented, the great models and theories have failed and the sign of this is its radicalization to irrational levels, and the horizon of war emerges.
In A well-made head, a book by Edgar Morin, he states that the reform of thought would allow the full use of intelligence to respond to these challenges and a link between cultures that are dissociated, it is not a programmatic reform, but a paradigmatic one, that is, with regard to our ability to organize knowledge.
Putting everything together, exercising a transdisciplinary approach, as described in the opening remarks of Arrábida’s letter (Morin, Barsarab Nicolescu and Lima de Freitas subscribed to it): “Considering that the contemporary rupture between an increasingly cumulative knowledge and an increasingly impoverished leads to the rise of a new obscurantism, whose consequences, at the individual and social level, are incalculable.” (Feitas, Nicolescu, Morin, 1994).
This letter establishes a new ethics: “Transdisciplinary ethics rejects any attitude that rejects dialogue and discussion, whatever their origin – ideological, scientific, religious, economic, political, philosophical” (Freitass, Nicolescu, Morin, 1994).
Freitas, Lima; Morin, Edgar; Nicolescu, Basarab . (1994) Carta da Transdisciplinaridade de Arrábida, Portugal Convento de Arrábida.
The unwanted peace
12
Oct
Two sides measuring forces, with increasingly aggressive attacks,
is not just what is happening in Ukraine, but the general civilizing climate, few believe in peace and reconciliation of peoples.
The civilizational crisis predates the two wars and for many analysts it expanded afterwards.
Even in the religious milieu, there are those who condemn, saying that they seek a “single religion” or the work of the devil will be a climate of tolerance and peace between religions, after all what Bible they read.
The latest attacks by Moscow on Ukraine, launched 80 missiles in several cities, including the capital Kiev, the objective was mainly to hit infrastructure, some cities had power cuts and supply difficulties, it is considered a response to the bombing of the bridge that connects the Crimea to Russia.
The G7 scheduled an emergency meeting (photo), we warned in a post that the wait for the G20 meeting for November was a very long period, and the northern hemisphere will already be on the verge of winter and dependent on Russian gas for heating environments.
The entire West condemned the Russian attacks, of course there are many websites and newsletters that are pro-Russia and in fact we warned in Monday’s post that a peace proposal would be possible.
Is Russia in despair over the setbacks or now we actually have a total and open war, what kind of response the G7 can give is a question, Ukraine wants a protective shield for these attacks, Russia wants recognition of the annexed regions.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cabusoglu called for an urgent ceasefire, but stressed that a “just peace” would mean maintaining the integrity of Ukraine’s territory.
Yesterday’s G7 meeting announced “indefinite” support for Zelesnky, but practical is humanitarian aid until 2024, while the Ukrainian president calls for an air defense system that he called his “number 1 priority”, the war. goes beyond the limits.
Russia tries to drag Belarus into the war, while Ukraine involves the European Union.
When we see the sanity response coming from Turkey and a west dragging itself to war, we have to understand where this crisis of civilization comes from where hatred and intolerance spread.
Post-God or the Theocide attempt
11
Oct
More than the reading of Nietzsche on the “death of God”,
understanding religious radicalism, in addition to the evangelical, there is the Semitic, the Islamic and neo-Pentecostal currents, the reading of Post-God is actually a re-reading of the issue of evil or more correctly “God is dead, and we killed him”, what I call the attempt at Theocide, impossible, whether it exists or not.
If God exists, he cannot be killed, just erased from the human mind, in the logic of Ludwig Feuerbach’s Hegelianism he exists only in the human mind and in this case he would not exist in fact and if he exists, we cannot kill him since he is immortal and precedes everyone and to everything.
Peter Sloterdijk in part of the proposition and of course of the hypothesis that it only exists in the human mind, a delusional fantasy of men, say many convinced atheists, since the Gnostics do not consider the hypothesis, the most important living German philosopher (I consider the pope emeritus also important), will analyze, in addition to Nietzsche and Cioran, Luther’s intermezzo.
Luther is particularly important because he is the undeclared root of Nietzsche’s thought, son of Lutheran parents and relatives, some pastors, the Protestant Reformation is fundamental to understand the religious phenomenon or the so-called “revenge of the sacred”, it entered the political scene .
The book, with this name will attract few Christians, has an interesting dialogue path that goes through Hans Jonas (The Gnostic Religion), Harold Bloom (Omens of the millennium), Franco Volpi (Nihilism), Sergio Givone (Storia della nulla), Ioan Culianu (The Tree of Gnosis) and Sylvie Jaudeau (Cioran or le deernier homme), all authors and exegetes of Cioran, who had a “disfigured” mystical experience of an atheistic, disenchanting and nihilistic nature.
Who was Emil Cioran (1911-1995), author who wrote from Nag Hammadi, a series of manuscripts found after World War II that killed more than 40 million lives in Africa 50 km from Luxor, in a large container of clay, numerous papyrus codices written in Coptic language and in great condition.
The great “Gnostic” library quickly spread among intellectuals, dating from about seventeen hundred years ago, therefore during the western emergence of Christianity, the author projects a mystical message for our current state.
This aura of “discovery” of Nag Hammadi remains until today, in fact it gave wings to what I call Theocide, taking it not only from minds but building a nihilistic “mystic” without God, but it does not escape what it is, a exotic nihilism.
Sloterdijk talks about despiralized asceticism, Cioran is also, the search for an asceticism without all this false diffuse radicalism, does not resist the slightest idea of practiced principles, confuses everyone, and politics is also contaminated by it, the only possible way to everyone seems to be hate.
Hatred is the most vehement and efficient Theocide, where it entered, any possible asceticism left.
SLOTERDIJK, Peter. (2015) Post-God. trans. portuguese by Markus A. Hediger, Brazil, Petropolis: ed. Vozes.
The possible peace
10
Oct
While Ukraine makes progress in the south, in the region close
to Kherson, and Putin formalizes the annexation of the 4 disputed regions (Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporijia), American/South African businessman Elon Musk proposes a surprising peace plan. for your vision.
The idea was to hold referendums in the four annexed regions mentioned above, but this time under the supervision of the UN, to supply the Crimea with drinking water (which depends on Ukraine for this) and to keep Ukraine neutral in relation to NATO.
Of course this is to be put on the negotiating table, surprising because the businessman until now was fully in favor of Ukraine, and now he has suffered harsh criticism from the country, and on the other hand a nod from Russia to his proposal.
How much are human lives worth there, on both sides, the danger of a nuclear war, now the tension is also rising in South Korea with missile and plane tests on the North Korean border, in short it is necessary to take some of the pressure off to make healthy minds breathe.
The military side of the war saw small advances from Ukraine in the South and the explosion of a bridge in Crimea, while Russia prepares its reservists for new offensives in the region, the very expensive HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) missiles that have been successful Ukraine’s advances are limited in number and very expensive, I remember that in the war in Afghanistan they were just over 5 million dollars, an affront to poverty and the living standards of many peoples.
Winter arrives at the end of the year in the northern hemisphere, and the race against time in the war could be a bad sign for both sides, Ukraine advancing at any cost and Russia risking the lives of millions of young people in an insane war and the constant nuclear threat.
There are already tests being carried out, the possible targets and what weapons would be used are thought by war analysts, as if it were a simple game of chess and not a civilizing risk.
Thinking about peace is urgent, everyone says they want it, but what you see on the field is a growing tension and challenge to the limits of human rationalism (in the photo above is the surrender of a Russian tank, but it could well be a peace flag) .
Repentance, Grace and Gratitude
07
Oct
When we are able to meet the Other, forgive him and also
repent for what did not go well in this meeting, we find space in life for grace and gratitude, not by chance one is derivative of the other.
Gratitude does not exclude but overcomes bad feelings from our lives, excess positivity can also lead to demands and perfectionism that do not lead to an encounter, but the exclusion of the Other, tolerating small faults, which are often just differences, is necessary to attain grace, and grace when it comes to us must find gratitude.]
Many remember to ask for graces, when they don’t ask God, they ask some form of false mysticism or false gods, to find cosmic energies, which in fact exist, but will only have an ex-sistence if they are in front of the Being, the one who is and the one which has always been, after all, the most current theory in physics is that before the Big Bang there was already something, so something beyond this ex-sistence, a pure Being.
So a true philosophy of grace must lead to gratitude, it’s not just the Universe and luck that conspire, or even some “secret” that would be pure positivity, it can be illusory.
So gratitude removes feelings of evil and intolerance from our lives, includes people who are actually good and increases our potential for good virtues.
In the biblical passage where 10 lepers are healed, only one returns to thank Jesus,
When Jesus saw him, he asked where the others were (Lk 17:17-19): “Were not ten healed? And the other nine, where are they? 18 Has anyone returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19And he said to him, “Get up and go! Your faith has saved you.”
Ingratitude not only drives away grace, but explains its absence and the difficulty of living in environments of harmony, sincerity and peace.
Repentance, start over and grace
06
Oct
Repentance is not the same as remorse, it is linked to the pastand prevents a positive start, there is no awareness of guilt and a new state of grace is not achieved.
Grace is living life to the full, with the limits that life imposes on everyone, however repentant, you can compress the past strictly to what it was: a mistake, and live well the present and the future by overcoming an anguish that is inalienable responsibility for the fault or error committed.
To repent is to live intensely and truly in the present, even if some suffering or mark remains from the past, whoever took a step after that managed to start over.
Ludwig Feuerbach, best known for Marx’s Theses against his Hegelianism, called old Hegelianism, in his maturity wrote about remorse, his reading is important for the confrontation he makes both with Schopenhauer and with Kant.
Feuerbach recognizes the originality of the subject and proposes it in a broader scope of freedom, examining remorse and regret as conditions of imputability of an act,
In opposition to Schopenhauer, Feuerbach will affirm that the character of a man is not innate, nor unchangeable, that is why the death penalty is wrong, and here too, the discussion about the right of the Modern State on human life, an always controversial topic is important.
Against Schopenhauer, Feuerbach argues that man’s character is neither innate nor unchangeable, so the death penalty is mistaken.
The foundation of freedom is the self that acts in the game of passions and is essentially the relationship with the Other, which is widely explored in modern literature by Paul Ricoeur, Lèvinas and other authors, there is a phenomenological resumption of this issue.
The suggestions in the moral and legal field are essentially in relation to this relationship with others, and the suggestions in these fields are particularly interesting, but ethical questions remain, such as that of the absolute foundation of moral obligation, which is posed in Kant in the explanation of the which is moral conscience.
This discussion expands in some authors to the field of sensitivity (SERRAO, 2007) and mysticism (TOMASONI, 2010), where the issue of grace can be included more broadly, adding the recognition of grace where there is repentance and a new beginning.
References:
Adriana Veríssimo SERRÃO (2007). Pensar a sensibilidade. Baumgarten – Kant – Feuerbach, Lisboa, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa, PT: Lisbon.
TOMASONI, Francesco (2010). Tra misticismo e scienza: l’uomo e la sua ‘sensibilità’ nell’Eklektik, in: L’umanesimo scientifico dal Rinascimento all’Illuminismo, a cura di Lorenzo Bianchi e Gianni Paganini, IT: Napoli.
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)
There is no neutrality or presumed innocence
04
Oct
The electoral result in Brazil was a surprise to many people, among the parties in dispute there is always a triumphalism, that is even natural, but within the rules
and electoral laws that include the rules for the dissemination of polls and this is the biggest surprise of the election in Brazil.
The worst result of democratic elections is always some scratch on the already fragile democracy.
The free debate of ideas and political proposals is essential in politics and in society as a whole, these limits when they are extrapolated create gaps of hate and intolerance harmful to the political process, there is no way to say that the researches were very wrong, but they were only wrong in a sense and this is beyond the assumed neutrality of research institutes.
There is not only misinformation, therefore, there is also bad information and badly worked by the bodies that should preserve the scientific, mathematical and statistical criteria, to say that there was a turnaround on the eve of the elections, it is possible in two to 4 percentage points, above the alleged margin of error, but they reached 10% and even more, this does not contribute to democracy and turmoil.
Even the STF and STE are exempt from any blame or request for an investigation, after all, all polls must be taken to the STE (Supreme Electoral Court) in order to be disclosed, that is, it may not endorse (it is not he who does the research), but authorizes the disclosure and is solidary.
In order for there to be no political-electoral exploitation, a response to society is necessary, even serious researchers and analysts have commented on the fact, I quote Pablo Ortellado from USP (see BBC interview) who gave an interview saying that they should review the “methods”, understand- if here method by methodology, I think that it is not necessary to have a criterion of scientific and political neutrality.
For the sake of democracy, for a peaceful and democratic course in the second round, it is necessary to clarify society as a whole, saying that polls do not influence is sophistry.
It is necessary to safeguard the democratic electoral process and respect the rules of the game, in Brazil it is very difficult, but fragile democracy needs this and society is expected to respond.
