Activism and the human condition
18
Jul
Part of the human “weariness” of our time is that we have decided to take to the
extreme what the philosophers and mystics call “active life”, Hannah Arendt in “The Human Condition” addressed the subject, more recently Byung Chul-Han more recently in ” The society of fatigue “also addresses the issue.
It is placed next to the “contemplative life”, sometimes as opposed and at other times as complementary, the Mystic Saint Gregory Nazianus meditated and wrote on the subject, Chul-Han recovered some of these concepts.
In Arendt’s term “human condition” (2007), the term “active” refers to three essential human activities: labor, work, action, quoted in English because in portuguese no there is differentiation from the terms “labor” and “work” which corresponds to the artificialism of human existence, for example, when using machines, while Labor corresponds to the biological process of the human body as a condition for producing life.
But the action, it is for Arendt is the human condition of plurality, is mediated by things to put men in contact with each other, for this the author sees as a plurality that is tied to the fact that they are men, and not man to inhabit the Earth.
The author emphasizes that the world in which the active life takes place consists of things done by human activities; however, these things can exist only for the sake of men, and therefore they also condition them, men come into contact, and thereby make them It is immediately a condition of their existence, we live by what we do.
However the contemporary world has led people to stress, depression and now Burnout syndrome, the theme of the society of fatigue, Byung Chul-Han.
Chul-Han draws attention to the absence of contemplation, contemplative life, as part of the human need to have balance, energy and forces for action.
The biblical reading says, “Twenty to me all you who are weary” (Mt 11:28) and says the same passage “and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Mt 11:29).
ARENDT, Hannah. A Condição Humana. 10ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Forense Universitária, 2007.
