Arquivo para June, 2023
Where to solve the civilizational crisis
16
Jun
During this week we developed the idea that amid so many shadows,
still light and salt to give meaning and life to the civilizing process, it is possible to overcome the anger of war and the hatred of differences of opinion if we introduce new elements of healthy living into society.
From NGOs and volunteers who work in war camps, to people who work with determination and self-control in an increasingly difficult and intolerant daily life.
There is no general rule, it is necessary to accelerate the diplomatic process for understanding and overcoming war, it is necessary to advance a process of educating an integral man who knows how to deal with different factors of social life, including ethnic, political and religious differences.
The growth of the egocentric circle due to ideologies and bubbles of closed circles, they reinforce individualistic and group thinking, can be changed by widening the circles of coexistence and allowing and giving belonging to excluded groups and people.
But above all, it is necessary to strengthen the healthy tissue, the little light and little salt that, even if it is little, can make a difference and change environments, groups and even entire nations, restoring their self-esteem at the same time as developing tolerance with other peoples.
The tragic scenario that is being designed may have its course altered, but it is first necessary to save that healthy tissue where respect, tolerance and social peace still breathe.
The most peaceful and responsible religions and social groups, the lack of control attached to the ego is childlike as Freud developed, it can give way to mature relationships between people, groups and peoples.
In the biblical passage in which Jesus notes that the crowds were “like sheep without a shepherd” (Mk 1:15) he not only encourages the disciples to help them, but also reminds them that first: “6 Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel!” and say that the “Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” and it will not come by the hand of powerful and narcissistic people, but by the life and word of these followers of yours
Cholera and phobia, results of civilizing malaise
15
Jun
It may seem sugary or even childish, Freud says the opposite, that we
adopt more reflective and tolerant attitudes in the face of difficulties.
The Greeks knew that without self-control men could surrender to two paralyzing poles: deimos and phobos (terror and fear).
Adam Smith, whose thinking influenced modern economics including Marx, also wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments, that self-mastery is fundamental in the face of a terrifying situation, and sets out two modes of self-mastery.
He theorizes that “acting in accordance with the dictates of prudence, justice and appropriate beneficence, seems to have little merit if there is no temptation to act otherwise”.
We should be educated to the ability to undertake self-control in the face of pathós (affections of the soul) where we must highlight our greatest virtues, or we will succumb to vexatious processes and hateful vices, and, incredible as it may seem, it already dominates most social media, reaching to the highest courts in the country.
According to the author, the second group of passions over which we should exercise self-control, lead to the context of “the love of peace, pleasure, applause and many other selfish satisfactions”.
So if we compare those of the first with those of the second group, it might seem easier to master them, as these inclinations allow us some minimal time for reflection; at least, more than when we are attacked by fear and anger (first group), however we experience the context of immediate reactions or paralysis, without realizing that these extremes touch each other.
If we give in to all impulses, if we give little time or space to reflection, silence and even the cultivation of interiority, what we express is almost always lacking in empathy, and at the opposite extreme, anger and barbarism remain.
Emotional intelligence has developed methods that suggest how to control your emotions and help you more easily recognize when it improves your relationships and empathy.
Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Semtiments, first Ed. 1759.
Promote good and peace
14
Jun
The convictions and theories that lead men both to the civilizing process
and to its opposite, barbarism, stem from inner motivations and they had different contexts at different times in history, following Freud’s reflection in his analysis of the “malaise” says:
“We see that this feeling of the I that the adult has cannot have been the same from the beginning. It must have gone through an evolution that understandably cannot be demonstrated, but we can construct with a certain degree of probability” (FREUD, 2010, P. 12).
But before carrying out a historical analysis, he starts from intrauterine life, what Peter Sloterdijck also sees as a primordial sphere, he still does not separate the Ego from the outside world, but learns to do it little by little, “in response to different stimuli” , but part of an interior.
Freud points out: “This is how an “object” is initially opposed to the I, as something that is found “outside” and only through a particular action is forced to appear. Another incentive for the ego to detach itself from the mass of sensations, for it to recognize an “outside”, an external world, is given by the frequent, varied, inevitable sensations of pain and displeasure that, in their unlimited duration, the pleasure principle seeks to eliminate and avoid”. (FREUD, 2010, os. 12-13).
This will explain his isolation and self-centeredness, but if he does not advance into adulthood and does not know how to live with contradictions and contempt, he will remain in this “childish” circle, in the bubble where everything seems to revolve around him and made for his pleasure.
And he continues: “The borders of this primitive Pleasure-I cannot escape rectification through experience” (p. 13), otherwise the tendency to isolate oneself will arise and this is the difficulty of promoting good and social peace, which it includes the other, society and peoples.
Thus, those who promote peace, well-being and social dialogue are more adult, more mature, and those who promote war, hatred and intolerance are more childish.
The fact that, from family upbringing to adulthood, difficulties are not imposed and people are taught to live with them, with contempt and losses, has created a vicious and self-centered circle of bubbles, where peoples and cultures cannot coexist without war and without tolerance.
The fact that, from family upbringing to adulthood, difficulties are not imposed and people are taught to live with them, with contempt and losses, has created a vicious and self-centered circle of bubbles, where peoples and cultures cannot coexist without war and without tolerance.
There continue to be institutions, NGOs and people that promote dialogue, peace and are clearly opposed to war, lack of freedom of expression, dictatorships and autocratic cultures.
Happy those who promote peace, those who promote social well-being and cultivate the empathy.
FREUD, S. O mal estar na civilização (1930). In: FREUD, Sigmund. in: O mal estar da civilização, leituras introdutórias e outros textos (1930-1936). Obras Completas. volume 18. Trand. Paulo César de Souza. Brazil, São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2010.
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.
War and humanitarian actions
12
Jun
The explosion of the dam in the region of Nova Kakhovka, region of 
Kherson, aroused a stronger humanitarian feeling due to the disaster that is also environmental and that affects all residents of that region, including the Crimea that is Russian domain.
Despite being a huge and dangerous challenge, Ukraine is the victim of bombing almost every day, many humanitarian organizations help people who live there or who are returning (a large number decided to take the risk), according to the NGO Zoa, help from various NGOs reached around 5.5 million people.
One of the destroyed regions in the north, which borders Russia and Belarus is Cherniguive or Chernigov, there the NGO Zoa helps rebuild life and gives assistance to people, this is a way to encourage people to continue living there (photo ZOA credits).
Iceland has severed relations with Russia, Putin vows to retaliate.
Certainly, life in Ukraine will never be the same again, and generations will remember this horror as they remember the Holodomor (1932-1933) in the Stalinist period, one of the reasons that separate peoples who are ethnically close.
The war enters a period of possibility to escalate to other countries and explode into a new world catastrophe of a global war, Russia has already moved “tactical” nuclear weapons to Belarus, a clear threat to the countries that help Ukraine.
Attempts to establish peace or a ceasefire are increasingly desperate and with little chance of success, but they continue to happen, at this moment they are heroic.
The painful and dangerous stage represented by the Ukrainian counter-offensive and the Russian threats, represent the limits of an even more cruel and dangerous total war, many countries are already taking a stand for a possible intervention and support for one of the sides in this insane war.
The appeal must be made to common sense, true humanitarian values and the danger of an unprecedented civilizational crisis.
Dialogue and diversity
09
Jun
The clash between two Hegelian conceptions of the state and the
absence of dialogue and new horizons are among the causes of the civilizational crisis.
Both the modernist old Hegelians and the new revolutionaries point to a vision of the state with a single discourse, absence of dialogue and tolerance, this is the root of the crisis.
What we notice is the superficiality of this fundamental problem, each one creating truths that they think are universal and sometimes are even bizarre, as they are only at the level of ideas and do not correspond to reality, they do not contribute to a real way out of the crisis of civilization.
Every day, “wise men” of some kind emerge who already have the solution to major problems involving leaders, nations and cultures that have developed, in general taken root and have great difficulty in dialoguing with other worldviews.
Coexistence in diversity is fundamental for a democratic society, when only a vision of the world and a way of administering the state is imposed a part of the population is outside this dialogue and will not see any way out other than rebellion, at the level of the state it means war.
We have lived through two world wars, the result of a colonialist conception of the state, however the current one is more serious because it is a vision of imperialist hegemony of opposing forces.
It is true that there are social forces striving to open a path of dialogue, but in the diplomatic field it has failed, not for lack of proposals, but for discreetly aligning themselves with one of the conflicting sides.
In the religious field this also occurs, the Pharisaic view that it is not possible to dialogue and see how important it is to live with “sinners” and “tax collectors” (those who mismanage the state or are corrupt today) is described in Matthew 9,11 -13:
“Some Pharisees saw this and asked the disciples: “Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard the question and replied: “Those who are healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick do. So learn what it means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ Indeed, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners “.
The sacrifice of millions of innocents takes place in a war because there is no force that dialogues with the sin of conflict, hatred and war without human and moral limits (in photo, the explosion of the dam in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson region).
Without tolerance and dialogue, no peace is possible, and civilization is currently experiencing a crisis.
Dualism and unity
08
Jun
Dualism comes from Parmenides’ idealism and reaches Hegel, we have
already posted in its categories in-itself, of-itself and for-itself, being for-itself a certain return to in-itself.
There are two types of dualism: substance dualism and property dualism. While substance dualism (or Cartesian dualism) argues that the mind is an independently existing substance, property dualism describes a category of positions in philosophy of mind that advocate that, although the world is constituted by only one type of substance, of the physical kind, there are two distinct types of properties: physical properties and mental properties.
This quarrel within dualism continues on the separation of substance and mind, whether as substance or property.
Unity is possible if we think beyond the logical ontology of Parmenides where Being is and non-being is not, there is a Being that is not, that is present in the soul, and that in the trinitarian sense is a Being-for-itself, that is is a for in the sense of beyond, in this case beyond the substance, and if we think of Absolute God (using the Hegelian category) the for-itself is substance and materializes in the “son” of the Trinity who is Jesus, being-in – himself man and being-for-himself God.
Thus God enters history and substance as mind and property, what the French theologian and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin calls the noosphere, which is the subtitle of this blog.
God mind and property enters history and eternalizes himself as a substance in body and blood, with the substances bread and wine, which are human artifacts, the wheat made bread by man and the grape made wine by man, thus human substance, deified and eternalized at the supper of Jesus, this is the feast of the Body of Christ held today by most Christians.
In Chardanian reasoning, God removed the universe from its sub-instance, which is also God, from the body of Christ, so the whole universe is Christocentric and penetrated by His divinity.
The human attempt to create an intelligent and beyond-human “being” is an ex-machina incapable of being for-itself.
This is how Trinitarian and human unity is achieved, it is necessary to pass through the non-Being that is Being, it is necessary to overcome contradictions and go beyond oneself, to enter a divine and eternal for-itself.
Hermeneutic circle and dialogue
07
Jun
Before the dialogue, Heidegger’s hermeneutic circle builds a concept
of fusion of horizons, it seems idealistic, but it is just the opposite, knowledge does not happen by revealing the object to the subject, as understood by Kant, it is not a mere projection of the subject on the subject. object as thought by Kant’s idealism.
Subject and object have their own horizons, as both are endowed with historicity, I exemplify with a very present example: war, it is not enough to look at the subjects at war on both sides of a dispute, there is war as an instrument of hatred and oppression, and it itself has its historicity, of course the subjects at war as well.
Knowledge then takes place from the fusion of the horizons of the subjects, hence the overcoming of the subject-object scheme, it is dualistic and in it the dialogue is segmented.
When perceiving an object, the subject always contributes with his pre-understanding, his interpretation is partial, so it is necessary to understand the other pre-understanding, in philosophical hermeneutics although they are called pre-concepts, it has a positive aspect, the starting point of dialogue and the next step is the fusion of horizons.
If both want peace, and this cannot be just rhetoric, it is necessary to know the prejudice.
Gadamer criticizes Dilthey’s romantic historicity and clarifies: “[…] the idea of an absolute reason is not a possibility of historical humanity. For us, reason only exists as real and historical, which simply means: reason is not master of itself, since it is always related to the data on which it is exercised. (GADAMER, 1998).
Kant provided the overcoming of the object paradigm, with his spiritual vision he went to the philosophy of subjectivity, however today, with the studies pertinent to the linguistic turn, there is already a vision of overcoming subjectivity through intersubjectivity, manifested in language as a condition for the possibility of knowledge and not just as a third thing between subject and object or simple opposition and confrontation.
Philosophical hermeneutics is based not on the duality of meanings, but on its broad and plural vision of possible meanings, the possibility created by the understanding that takes place in the fusion of horizons that is not “anything about anything”, but rather penetrating what Husserl’s phenomenology called “the thing in itself”, that of the Being of beings.
The dialogue of positions in confrontation is just another form of war, there is no analysis that goes to the bottom of each subject’s pre-understanding and what is in the objects.
A sincere dialogue is necessary for a new civilizing step, an “other” dialogue.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. (1998) Método e Verdade (Truth and method) Trans. Flavio Paulo Meurer. 2nd ed. Brazil, Petropolis: Vozes.
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.
The war beyond territorial limits
05
Jun
With very limited attempts at peace, the war in Eastern Europe threatens
to go beyond the borders, which makes the limits dangerous, both the attempt to invade Russian territory and destabilize Moldova,which now considers being a member country of NATO (its constitution prevents it).
Russia already has weapons and troops in Transnistria, a narrow strip in northern Moldova, while Soviet groups with support from Ukraine begin to launch attacks inside Russian territory.
While Russia’s land and sea access to Moldova is limited, the government of Moldova’s President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of using “saboteurs” disguised as civilians to stoke unrest amid a period of political instability, but Russia would gain access to southern Ukraine, leaving it more besieged and fragile.
The Ukrainian counter-offensive so far seems not to have taken effect, the Donesk region that would be a possible target has not proved fragile, with Russia defending its positions.
In terms of international diplomacy, an ideological alignment begins to grow, the so-called third way, which China and Brazil would also be part of, are increasingly closer to the Russian discourse of “conquered” territories and the discourse of peace is weakened .
Europe will hold a new meeting to discuss Ukraine’s entry into the Eurozone, it seems more plausible than entry into NATO, since in its statute no country at war can enter, it would be a serious exception and Russia would understand a declaration of war open.
Open because the sending of fighter jets and weapons to Ukraine is already a declared support, the countries, however, allege that it is for the “defense” of the territory, and for this reason the entry into territory is not well regarded by the NATO countries, it was even a condition for sending fighter jets to Ukraine.
The week will be decisive with the discussion of the countries of the Eurozone, and the counter-offensive of Ukraine, for the time being many attacks on Kiev, some of which hit children and a clinic.
The signs of peace are increasingly difficult and less effective, what happens is a strong alignment at all levels, from the economic to the political, each side tries to strengthen itself.
