Civilization and the Glade
The merit of Heidegger having written about the clearing in the midst of the period post world wars was that of returning to contemplate what was essentially obscured: The Being, not just the human being, since his Letters on Humanism was polemicized by Peter Sloterdijk (much later), but mainly for returning to the question of the Life of Being.
The Heideggerian reading says: “”Destiny appropriates itself as the clearing of being, which is, as clearing. It is the clearing that grants the proximity of being. without him being able to experience and assume this dwelling today” (in Cartas sobre o Humanismo, 1967).
This clearing is different from any idea about modernity, such as enlightenment or some mystical process of enlightenment, says Heidegger: “”… , nor with regard to the thing that is expressed with the adjective luminous’, which means ‘clear'”, in another of his writings on the task of thinking.
The idea of “Being”, the fact that we are and that death and war hide is once again important in the midst of war threats (see our previous post), thinking and the desire for political and social transformation cannot be allowed to submerge. this true purpose, which is the life of the Self.
This open free means that we can, faced with a situation of denial of Being, have a vision of what is ex-sistent, not as enlightenment, but as a real vision of what is in our presence, in Greek philosophy our “on”.
It is not a question of revelation, but of “unveiling”, that is, something that is always present in us, but hidden and almost dormant, returning to Parmenides’ reading of Being, Heidegger wrote: “As long as being prevails, from the aletheia, the self-revealing emergence belongs to him. (a-lethe).
Growing barbarism is not only the result of emerging social issues or territorial political disputes, but of the concealment of the Being.
HEIDEGGER, Martin.(1967) Carta sobre o humanismo (Letters on Humanism). Brazil, Rio de Janeiro: Tempo Brasileiro, p. 61.