Posts Tagged ‘pandemia’
Deserts and the oracles
04
Dec
We walk like somnambulists in the dark, points out Edgar Morin, this
is not a favorable time for thinking, says Peter Sloterdijk, Byung Chul Han says that our time is the “desert or hell of the same”, but I would say that the desert can still be fertile, and having an Oasis, however sterile, is mass, depersonalizing and more than authoritarian, it identifies us to nothing.
These are some of the voices that I identify as a desperate search for a return not to the old normal, but to a really new normal, it must not be this at the end of the pandemic, but the hell that leveled us all below, for the inhuman, the irrational and cynicism.
Edgar Morin points to education as a path to this renewal, but who will be teachers with new thinking and new mentality, Byung Chul Han points to the care of the land, his new book “Praise of the Earth” that points to a community garden, where the rhythms and characteristics of each flower are registered and received with their oriental attention, centered on the simple elements of each flower.
Peter Sloterdijk had already written if Europe Awakened, we could say now if the world woke up in the post-pandemic, if we really looked at the Moral Good that Morin proposes, for a concrete and truly universal fraternity offered by Father Francisco in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti but I think they are voices that cry out in the desert like John the Baptist who died beheaded by the request of a sensual dancer who had enchanted Herod.
When the Pharisees went to John the Baptist, who lived in the wilderness, wearing camel skins and eating bee honey and cereals, he replied (John 1:23): “I am the voice of the one who cries out in the wilderness, ‘Make a straight path to the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
When there are oracles, thinkers, and scholars who speak in the wilderness a change is near.
The desert and the future
03
Dec
It is not just the pandemic, in fact it can pass, but its problems have
not only passed but are getting worse, the future ahead may be a serious crisis, not only due to economic and social difficulties, at the root there is a crisis of the thought.
The number of emotional and psychological problems of a long period of isolation is already visible, and the following cycles of euphoria and exaggeration may be worse, part of the second wave in Brazil reveal the data are parties and inexplicable agglomerations in the middle of a pandemic .
Augusto Cury’s novel talking about the Future of Humanity, seems to point only to the focus of people with psychic problems can be solved and that the relationship with these patients who are marginalized and treated as without identity, indignant a young student named Marco Polo, the adventurous Venetian navigator of the 13th century, whose name his father gave in his honor.
The challenge for this young man is that in addition to medication, treatment with dialogue and psychology can lead to a real revolution in the treatment of people like that.
The world has already changed, the new normality can present serious problems of both social and psychological origin, but the awareness that all this can and should be treated with dialogue and without escape mechanisms, such as drinks, drugs and parties, can help a another cure besides the pandemic, of course this is not the subject of the book.
The book The travels of Marco Polo certainly inspired the navigations and explorations of the East in the passage from the Renaissance to Modernity, written between 1271 and 1295, tells the experiences of this young man in the court of Kublai Khan, however the journey is made of struggles and challenges (see illustration of the original work above) and the voyages of great navigators came in the following years, there is a crossing to be made today.
I also remember the phrase by Augusto Cury in which he says that only those who can cross the desert are worthy of the oasis.
The pandemic is a warning about education
02
Dec
The pandemic could have helped our human understanding, 
about our limitations, about our interdependence and above all about the uncertainties we have lived since our birth, life as well as goodness and goodness are fragile and need to be taken care of.
Throughout his 99 years, the thinker Edgar Morin lived what many of us read only in books, the experience of this remarkable educator is that there is an evil that all provided in different degrees, human understanding, humanism that encompasses every man and change your life.
The fundamental philosopher’s concern in times of pandemic is political and religious polarization, which, in convergence with Jonathan Haidt’s thinking, leads to the idea that empathy and collective consciousness are essential to avoid or minimize this dangerous polarization.
The thought developed by Haidt around the pandemic is the fact that “we are stuck together here”, takes the idea of everyone in the same boat, also the name of a book by Peter Sloterdijk, it is from there that he starts trying to lead to a new horizon of well-done and civilized dialogue, patient listening and acceptance of different views, in fact always happened, but the issue is moral differences.
It is not an easy task, says Morin, the ways in which our moral psychology has evolved, precisely for education, it is necessary to teach human understanding in schools and understanding, because it is an evil that we all suffer to a certain degree.
In addition to this, the philosopher, who is almost a hundred years old, must be taught that the only certainty in every human destiny is that life is made up of uncertainties, last week we posted Heidegger’s being-to-death poorly understood and that in this time of pandemic it can lead the human being just to the opposite to which we are heading, the discovery of the infinite, of respect for the other and of morals, as Morin wants.
A cold analysis makes us pessimistic, because the dangers are so many, even with the vaccine, with it there may come an even bigger problem, which is ignoring the problems we have beyond the pandemic, but Morin’s insistence on educational and moral issues points a way good
Vaccines under test and an economic dispute
30
Nov
Even recognizing flaws in the theses, Pfizer’s vaccines against 
covid-19 should be approved within a few days, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, so the United Kingdom becomes the first country in the west to have a vaccine, and vaccination can begin. on December 7, in Brazil, the race is for Coronavac, no matter which one is safer, behind the vaccines there are economic deals and investments made in the manner of betting and not really scientific criteria.
In Brazil the authorization is made by Anvisa, in Europe by the European Medicines Agency and the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union, a final Brexit transition is for December 31, but the Regulatory Agency for Medicines and Health Products in the United Kingdom has the power to temporarily authorize the products, and there is an obvious interest in the UK even though it is in partnership with German BioNTech.
The process could be applied to the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford (Brazil participates in FioCruz), on Sunday, Friday (27) the government asked the regulator to review the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, thus showing the real interest .
Current data on the efficiency of Coronavac, a medical vaccine by the Chinese company Sinovac and which has a partnership with the Butantan Institute, should be announced in early December, and an approval in record time would be for January, however the effectiveness is different from the tests that verify side effects, contraindications and long-term efficiency, also a Pfizer was questioned recently due to the tests.
The long-term effects studies indicated that perhaps a single vaccine would not solve the pandemic problem, an article was published in October in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, which lit up a warning sign about vaccines, and said that he did not know until that time. data if vaccines were candidates were effective in severe forms of the disease, the warning sign remains on.
Eroticism in times of crisis
18
Nov
The subject is difficult when it does not deviate towards general liberalism,
defense of the erotic at any price or “freedom of the body”, but what happens is that among the various civilizing crises, human love is also in crisis.
I find little literature exists about it that does not go to laisses faire or to unhealthy moralism, what happens is that, recognizes the philosopher Byung Chul Han, we live The agony of eros, the inability to love, and in the diagnosis of the Korean philosopher- German, we are destroying relationships based on the erosion of the Other, which affects all areas of life and goes hand in hand with a “sick narcissism” that invades our lives.
He writes his most profound diagnosis: “The fact that the other person disappears is a dramatic process, but it fatally advances, in a sneaky and barely noticeable way”, an indication is the number of selfies where people try to show their different faces, without choosing a situation and anywhere.
If we do not recognize the other person as an “other”, we become unable to love, and thus to reach a living and liberating experience of love, it is liberating even from ourselves, from our frustrations and inconsistencies, summarizes Han is the other who saves us from ourselves.
In times of crisis, love, affection and true interest in the Other is what can make the crisis less serious, if we are living the opposite, more selfishness, more narcissism and more competition (Han argues as the society of efficiency and appeal success) means more crisis and less eroticism.
There is no way to develop love and joy around these situations, even those who have a love relationship suffer the consequences of the violent environment and calls for attitudes contrary to love and affection, even friendly relationships that require empathy are at stake .
I also make a reflection beyond Han, because precisely the society that most exalts eroticism suffers from his agony, perhaps what we see as erotic goes beyond the limits of privacy, of some modesty and of respect for the limits of the Other and of the body itself.
The discourse of respect is not outdated, after all, what are the frightening numbers of domestic violence of all kinds, but the absence of respect, André Groz’s “Inside and Outside” (1929) image gives interesting outlines on the connection aspect of eroticism with a lack of sensitivity;
The second wave and vaccines
16
Nov
The second wave arrived in the United States, it is good to remember
that it is in the same hemisphere as Europe, so the seasonal period in which the virus prefers colder and wetter periods, there are in the middle of autumn and approaching winter, caused the numbers of infections and deaths to rise in the U.S. territory, last Thursday reached the
The vaccines follow coronavac’s controversy, while the initial success of pfizer and biontech testing pointed to an efficacy of more than 90%, made until the exchanges rose and there was an optimism around the pandemic, affecting even the exchanges.
The development formula has a different action from the traditional ones, functions as an immunizer that rather have the ability to end the pandemic of Covid-19, most vaccines use the idea of the weakened virus or the inactivated virus, which is the case of Coronavac.
The vaccine of pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech, pointed out an efficacy greater than 90% and the formula has a different action from traditional vaccines, it has an immunizing the idea is to make our own body produce the protein of the virus and thus expand the possibility of producing antibodies.
The reported cases that claim that the vaccine causes a “hangover”, as the name says are cases and there are no scientific studies that indicate any problem due to this side effect, almost all vaccines cause some effect a small fever, a tiredness or some pain in the body.
Also the anticipation of the vaccine is possible for both Pfizer and coronavac, with proof of a second wave coming, the number of cases in the U.S. grew surprisingly reaching 76,195 last Thursday (the record of July 16 was 77,299) and Europe already adopts social isolation measures to try to contain the second wave , which have already announced measures to close schools and restrict bars and restaurants.
In Brazil the numbers are also rising, still without concrete measures, most state governments falter in taking hard measures due to the tiredness of the population with the restrictions that are prologing, although there has never been a hard measure such as a lockdown or restriction of movement.
A comparative analysis of the second wave of the Spanish flu (figure) that killed 50 million people in a much smaller global population than the current one shows that the second wave may in fact be much worse than the first, and also seasonality (autumn and winter in Europe) should be considered.
Power and gifts
10
Nov
It is possible that someone who has very special gifts also has power, 
but only as a service to a certain group and in a certain context, the two things are not very confused, and confusing them is almost always a demagogic trick.
Wise people will be given positions or be in power structures only on merit, or because there is a need for their gifts for that structure or center of power, but if they are people who desire power at all costs, they will rarely have the gifts necessary for that to which are designated.
Power has already been studied in philosophy in different ways, in the Greek polis it was an invitation to citizenship, but almost all philosophers (of course after Socrates and sophists) should be trained in values and have virtues that would contribute to a position within of the Greek polis.
Among contemporary philosophers Max Weber defined power as the imposition of the will of a person or institution on individuals, while for Marx the power resides in the one who has the material means of capital production, which in his time was factories and land, but today they would be the big corporations, the owners of vertical media (TVs, Radios, etc.) whereas for Michel Foucault the power in contemporary times is not centralized, but dissolved in society, it also created the concept of biopower, while the practices by which modern states seek to regulate subjects and “obtain subjugation of bodies and control of populations”.
Peter Sloterdijk wrote about the “timotic” situation of our time, the term “thymós” is based on Plato’s theory to designate the “organs” from which the impulses, the excitations, the most inflamed affections are born, in fact seem something common in our times, we do not react with reflexion to situations of power and command, almost always emotionally, on impulse.
Byung Chul Han, who was influenced by Sloterdijk, wrote about psychopower, influenced by vertical media and of course also present in social media, where the state of high tymotic tension is established by the successive and repetitive news that guarantee this state.
The personal, collective or social gifts of each person are submerged by these structures of power and propaganda, similar to the fascination exercised by the speeches of dictators and populists during the war and afterwards, and we cannot imagine that this is far from the current reality.
What are the gifts of those who could serve the population if they are not subjugated to this or that pressure group, is less and less plausible, so the stage for demagogues and populists is open, and dictators are on the prowl.
Pandemic and its second waves
09
Nov
In history there have been eight pandemics of this type since 
1700, we will notice that at least seven had a second wave in some part of the world, according to the records of infectologists, but we have the Russian Flu (from 1889 to 1890), with the Spanish Flu. (from 1918 to 1919), Asian Flu (from 1957 to 1958), Hong Kong (1968 and 1969) and more recently Swine Flu (from 2009).
The second wave of covid-19 in Europe is spreading faster than the first, said infectologist Arnaud Fontanet, scientific adviser to the French government to fight the pandemic, while the virus mutation has spread from Spain. it is already 80% of new cases registered.
The second wave can occur for several reasons, including human behavior, which means how we deal with the virus and its seasonality, also the number of susceptible people, duration of immunity and mutations (like the second wave in Europe) are other possible explanations for this wave.
The behavior is easy to explain, hardly in more liberal countries people will be less inclined to accept the deprivations of isolation, since seasonality can be understood as peaks in different seasons of the year, in Europe the peaks are autumn and winter that happens now, while in Brazil it varies according to the region: the North and Northeast have more rainy periods, in the Southeast and South that will start in March 2021.
The promise of a “faster” vaccine is fearful, experts who respect the testing period understand that a vaccine will be very difficult before July of next year, and we must respect and be cautious with the testing period, mistakes in a vaccine may be more serious than the pandemic itself.
If the second wave occurs, the intensity and severity will depend on our ability to apply intervention measures and coordinate measures in a world that polarized even basic issues such as health, food and social security, it will depend on whether the second wave is more serious than the previous one.
The main function of clarifying the second wave, the regulatory process for testing vaccines and preventive measures is to keep the population calm and trust that there is a fight against the damage caused by the pandemic, it is difficult but without this we will have social chaos ever bigger.
A citizen planetary and prudence
06
Nov
The pandemic crisis showed that our most serious problems are 
global, affecting the entire planet, the second wave that is already in Europe will soon arrive in the different continents, if it has not arrived in small doses already, they lead us to think globally what it seems difficult with political polarization.
What is needed is to abandon old proposals, and make possible the coexistence of private freedom with the strong social urgencies, the proposal of the banker of the poor Mohanmmad Yunus goes in this direction, eliminating poverty, carbon emissions and guaranteeing jobs for all, has become the most urgent pandemic.
It is not the only proposal, of course, another such as solidarity, creative economy, groups of cooperatives of small farmers, can compose a productive ecosystem capable of adapting to local interests and vocations of production and human life, it is above all necessary to leave the excess consumption and social stress.
The cultural aspects in which the religions and beliefs (in the broadest sense of the word) of peoples and nations are included are not minor or negligible. I distinguish because many nations already have people of different cultural origins within them, what is called here original culture, which also includes indigenous peoples.
There is no clear agreement on how this can happen, a wide pan-national dialogue (which we have just said about “peoples”) is essential to organize a new social ecosystem where the foundation of social security combined with personal freedom are as premises for chart this future.
For the time being, as a family that has disorganized the accounts of the house, and reaps many troubles from this disorganization, there are still dictatorships of different ideologies on the planet, wars such as attempts at cultural submission, new types of colonialism, although a strong current of decolonization has emerged ( the term is this), what happens on the planet can be a rupture in serious situations and the “common home” itself can react, what we already call an aortic mutation.
A biblical passage talks about wisdom and those who seek it, it is a stage above simple intelligence, it is necessary to be open to the new and also leave what it “enters”, says the book of Wisdom (Sb 6,13-15 ): “It even anticipates itself, making itself known to those who desire it. Those who wake up early will not get tired, as they will find her sitting at their door. Meditating on it is the perfection of prudence; and whoever stays awake because of it, will soon live carefree”.
So wisdom is combined with the gift of “prudence”, and meditating on it is “the perfection of prudence”, ignorance creates only fanaticism and cruelty.
How to account for our faults
04
Nov
We all commit faults, if it is true that we cannot deceive life with
death, said the poet Goethe, we cannot fail to recognize the fatality of life that is its final decline. There is no contest to be made, nobody stayed for seed, says a popular Brazilian saying, and we don’t know what is wrong with the other, except for those who believe.
During years of life we walk inattentive with small and large faults, most of them we push under the carpet, other times we justify not always in a fair and coexistent way the faults we had, attributing the blame to the Other, but what to do before a moment that we must recognize what we did not do well and that we may have harmed many people.
Leon Tolstoy describes in “The death of Ivan Ilitch” a man in the face of death, who sees relatives more concerned with inheritance than with his own life, describes in the book: “He cried like a child. He wept because of his enormous weakness, and the terrible abandonment in which the family left him and for the cruelty and absence of God.”
Of course, not everyone will remember the absence of God, it is a kind of sacrament of ignorance, but there are also those who, even having “practiced” a religion, will find it difficult to perceive their faults and thus will have difficulties to account for them.
Even the joys of life seem distant at a time and that we will all be very fragile, Tolstoy describes in his tale: “The further away from childhood and closer to the present, the more insignificant, the more doubtful were the joys.”
It would be good if, due to a supernatural event, we could have clarity about our weaknesses and time to redeem them, but not everyone will, maybe something can happen.
It would be a great proof of existence and God and the idea that it is possible for humanity to have salvation, the pandemic crisis is greater because there is a civilizing crisis.
