Arquivo para March, 2022
There will be humanism after barbarism
17
Mar
Wars, plague (pandemic) and famine (crisis in the economy and supply)
all seem to indicate imminent chaos, and in fatigue people want to return to routine (the old normal) and resume life.
It is, however, necessary to be careful, review the way of living, in fact the true “Society of Burnout” that we lived before the Pandemic, treat the problems that emerge and not give in to hate.
It is hatred, wars and little concern for life that feeds those who have lost a true humanist perspective, authoritarian power, force and disrespect. Life is not human, nor does it really mean “normality”.
Athens survived the war narrated in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, probably part of it is mythical, and this was an important language of the time, but the power of the Persians did not prevail, the small Athens united with the warriors of Sparta won and it was they who gave rise to Western civilization (picture), not by chance called the Hellenistic period, already Paris, Trojan prince desired Helen, daughter of Zeus and queen of Sparta, and this would be the reason for the war.
We survived the Black Death and the Spanish Flu, it’s true not without a lot of death and in the midst of wars, but humanity found its way, in fact it was the humanism of the Renaissance that gave rise to modernity, today in crisis along with Western civilization.
There is the nuclear danger and without a doubt it threatens the entire planet, it is not just Ukraine but an entire civilization in check, and the only alternatives seem to be total war, but we will survive.
More than the resolutions taken in the midst of conflicts that gave rise to two wars, it is now necessary to present a new civilization, a new humanism capable of uniting the human family and surpassing anthropocentrism and respecting diversity, as Morin says in search of the “ Lost Paradigm: human nature”.
Mahatma Ghandi, the Hindu leader who peacefully led freedom in India from the British Empire, said of the 7 sins that cause social injustice: “The seven sins are: wealth without work; unscrupulous pleasures; knowledge without wisdom; commerce without morals; politics without idealism; religion without sacrifice and science without humanism”.
Humanity has always found paths in the midst of eminent barbarism, it will now find it too, not all have given in to hatred, indifference and unscrupulous power.
Regenerate humanism
16
Mar
In his 100th birthday celebrations, which Edgar Morin did last year,
and is in his memoirs “Leçons d’un siêcle de vie” (lessons from a century of life), long before the current war he was talking about resisting domination, cruelty and barbarism, and called for a new humanism, which was always present in his literature.
Recovering the awareness of human complexity, and including it on a new level that would overcome anthropocentrism, this was humanism taken up in the Renaissance, and above all, create a world where world citizenship was possible with respect for cultural diversities.
He who fought in the resistance to Nazi-Fascism, did not fail to show his regret for the period of Stalinism, he knew that we were at an impasse between these two thoughts that could lead us to barbarism, prophetic in relation to the current escalation of the war.
It is not an isolated development, since in other works of his such as O Praíso Perdio and the Method, his key notions of concepts such as autonomy, uberdade, love, individual and subject were developed, saving values that are inherent to them, as well as maintaining a dignity potentially threatened, I would now say, the civilizing process as a whole.
In Method II he does not hesitate to denounce the illusions of traditional humanism (right or left) and seeks to revitalize its ethical and anthropological sense: “It is not a matter of refusing humanism. It is necessary, as we will see, to hominize humanism, and therefore enrich it, based on the reality of the Homo complex” (Morin, Method II, p. 398).
The election of man as the center of the world, and the rejection of both God (or some superior division to which we submit) and the respect for nature which science thought it dominated, is a fundamental step towards regenerating humanism or we walk in the logic of domination.
Everything happens as if history began at the height of 18th century capitalism or early 20th century communism, the few references to true culture both Greek and Judeo-Christian, directly or indirectly condemned, is the cutting of this humanism root.
It is not enough to say that it is superseded, without any historical reference, for example, to Socrates and Heraclitus, where there is a deepening of the education and interiority of consciousness.
It is not enough to say that it is superseded, without any historical reference, for example, to Socrates and Heraclitus, where there is a deepening of the education and interiority of consciousness.
The question of the emergence of Being is linked to another indissolubly linked to that of freedom, the man annulling his autonomy (they say in favor of a certain anthropocentric “humanism”) is a victim of fatalism, of the absence of horizons that are not the domination of the Other , that culture or order that is different from the other and that must also be respected.
Nicolau de Cusa, Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, explored this perspective, in Ficino, for example: providence (which governs a spiritual order), fate (which directs animated beings) and nature (which allows the Being to remain in the world as a living body to which beings submit), although it needs to be updated in terms of language, it is not anthropocentric.
Morin, E. The Method vol. II, Europe-America, Lisbon, Ed. French: Paris, 1997 (portuguese edition).
Between peace and war by a thread
15
Mar
Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia show signs of progress at
the same time as delicate points such as the closing of the humanitarian corridor to the city of Mariupol, which is experiencing a calamity in several aspects and the recent bombing of the military base in the region of Lviv, just 25 kilometers from the border with Poland which is a member of NATO.
The tension is already developing from a possible attack on a NATO country, in Norway NATO forces already carry out training, since Sweden and Finland already have tension with Russia, it is worth remembering that both want to be part of NATO, but they still don’t.
What makes you imagine that an agreement is possible is that both the president of Ukraine and Russia admit that there has been some progress, a failure now would be disastrous for both sides, on the Russian side greater external pressure on its economy and on the Ukrainian side possible loss of control of their capital, which could result in loss of government by imprisonment or death.
The pressure on Kiev is immense, but taking the capital would be an effective Russian occupation of the region and the climate with NATO would be unsustainable, in addition to a conflict with some of its members, the closest to the region: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland in addition to Sweden and Finland, these countries are all closer in both humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine and fear for Russian proximity.
Today there will be a new round of negotiations and a major breakthrough is expected, Ukraine can give guarantees of its neutrality in relation to NATO and Russia can return some occupied areas, but Mariupol must be the most problematic, just look at the map where you can see the control of the Sea of Azov (see map), where Mariupol is an important port, and control of the region is an ancient conflict.
I n addition to demonstrations around the world for peace, there are solidarity actions for refugees, for example, Airbnb receives thousands of accommodation reservations from people who may never occupy those places and the company itself using these reservations will allocate 100,000 homes to refugees.
There are exciting things like the hostess Olga Zvirysanskaya who received a reservation for March and replied “we will be delighted to see you in the peaceful city of Kiev and hug you”, when fleeing with her children she left the apartment available for the people who remain in Kiev.
The pandemic is not over
14
Mar
In addition to the State of São Paulo, seven other states are already
abolishing the use of masks: Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso do Sul, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Goiás and now Minas Gerais, some states are already preparing Samba schools for Carnival, in the middle of Christian Lent.
Although the rate of spread of the coronavirus in Brazil is no longer so intense, the rates are not so low and experts consider that the measure may have undesirable impacts on the control of the disease in Brazil, but the mask must go up from the mouth to the eyes to have Carnival.
In addition to the world authorities of the WHO, such as technician leader Maria van Kerkhove, also the brazilian pulmonologist Margareth Dalcolmo, a prominent name of FioCruz in the face of covid-19 considers the measure somewhat hasty and warns of the dangers.
Authorities monitor the Deltacron variant in Europe, which is a variant between Delta and Omicron, countries like Denmark, France and the Netherlands and the WHO already monitors the variant.
A region of China of 9 million inhabitants, where the city of Changchun is (photo), ordered this Friday (11) strict confinement, with the emergence of an outbreak of the variant of the omicron, there there is discipline and control of the Pandemic.
Changchun is the capital of Jilin Province, which borders North Korea, and is therefore also close to South Korea and countries outside China.
As political authorities are less cautious than in previous periods, it now depends on local attitudes and public and private managers so that the signal passed to the general public does not prosper, the idea that the Pandemic is over sends the wrong message.
Even the numbers that were controlled by the municipal health departments seem to have already relaxed and in many places they have become unreliable, without data there is no right policy.
In addition to sending the wrong message to the public, it needs to be clear that the circulation of any one variant can lead to others and there is no guarantee that the variants will be less lethal.
New: By the end of last night, the industrial city region of Shenzhen also went into lockdown reaching a total of 40 million people.
From just human to supernatural
11
Mar
All forces that focus on polarization see only the human aspect of 
a conflict, such as the current one in Ukraine that could at any moment become global, already with some visible signs with the visit of the US vice president to Poland and the Russian reactions. to sanctions.
In the hope of peace and a solution to such a dangerous conflict, fortunately some technicians from Ukraine will be able to adjust the problems at the Chernobyl Plant, but there are countless others in Europe, including the one already occupied by the Russians, the one in Zaporizhzhia, one of the biggest in Europe.
There is a supernatural side, like the values we outlined in the previous post, but there is a deeper one, they are not just prophecies like those of Medjugorje (not yet approved by the Catholic Church) that speak of an apparition of Mary as “queen of peace” It has been 40 years since the first apparition seen by 7 visionaries, there is a lot of contestation and no evident proof of this, only people who believe and who have witnessed extraordinary facts.
The important thing is to believe in forces beyond the human ones that can be mobilized, including the struggle for peace and respect for peoples and nations, all those who defend this position are in some way cooperating with the supernatural aspect of defending peace and human coexistence.
In this case it is extreme, because civilization itself can be at stake in the event of a nuclear war, the limits begin to be exceeded, on the one hand, bombs even in maternity hospitals, and on the other, a Russophobia that wants to abolish even classics of literature such as Dostoevsky, who had a free course canceled in Italy, we cannot confuse radical criticism of dictatorial attitudes with practices that are also authoritarian.
For Christians, the moment of revelation of the supernatural aspect of Jesus is on Mount Tabor, where he chooses three to present his supernatural reality to the apostles: Peter, John and James, the choice in itself is interesting: Peter the apostle called to found His church, John the apostle that Jesus loved and James called a lesser apostle, but he was a great apostle.
A well-known biblical episode Jesus “Walking on water” was portrayed in the painting by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovskii (1817-1900) born in Crimea, precisely a region of conflict.
The reading says that when they arrived at Mount Tabor, while he was praying (Lk 9,29-30): “his face changed and his clothes became very white and shiny. Behold, two men were talking with Jesus: they were Moses and Elijah”, of course to those who believe, there Jesus reveals himself as God.
No matter the belief, what matters more is the idea of a humanity capable of living in peace and enabling the civilizing process that moves us away from injustices, scourges and hatred.
Moral force and warfare
10
Mar
Those who promote hatred and intolerance, even if beyond
values, only see it as dependent on human capacity, Mahatma Gandhi who won the English domination without using military force said: “Strength does not come from physical capacity”.
It inspired many pacifists in the 1960s, including those who were against the war in Vietnam, which was also a war of invaders, in this case, Americans.
Military analysts are surprised by Ukraine’s ability to resist amid a huge disadvantage of war power with Russia, although in military jargon there is the idea of ”troop morale” it is associated only with the battlefield and not with values.
For a moral force to exist, it must also exist in the spiritual field, in the case of Gandhi it was Hinduism that for decades inspired and attracted many in the Western world, including personalities from the pop world, such as the Beatles.
Thus, the moral degradation of the western world is also indirectly responsible for the war and in its logic, which is also the logic of NATO, only the military force is victorious and protective of its “values”, but these are in crisis and do not recognize it.
Ukraine thus ended up turning to its neighbors and the threat they also fear of Russian invasion, which hides an expansionist interest, gave rise to a third bloc to help Ukraine defend its territory: Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Finland and Canada. , countries previously seen as “pacifist”.
This bloc broke a tradition of not using weapons to help the defense of Ukraine, completes this bloc the United Kingdom, which is good to remember is out of the European Union, due to Brexit, which attracts them in addition to the fear of being the next targets of the Russia is the defense of values beyond those warlike, which ultimately also defends NATO.
It is true that they oscillate between the use of weapons and pacifism, but they realize that there is no way to prevent Putin’s expansionist desires, whose historical narrative begins with the formation of the Soviet Union, with no previous history, of the native peoples.
The logic of hate, whichever side it is on, is ultimately war, that of love is peace.
Power and service to peoples and nations
09
Mar
Wars bring out the worst in humanity, but they also bring the
best: solidarity, the greater desire to live in peace and respecting individual, collective and cultural rights of all peoples.
When the logic of power is dominated by a non-humanist vision, it seeks personal or group interests, the idea is just to submit the other by force and conquer more power, there is no predominance of the idea of leading and serving the people who need it most. of aid, your nation and all humanity by extension and respect.
The logic is one of force, and the logic of force taken to the extreme leads to war, to personal conflict, of peoples, nations, cultures and personal interests only without a reasonable collective rule.
There are also true leaders and people who really want to serve, not only because of their generous spirit, but because of the courage, the determination that can only come from human and social values, there are even those who think about the preservation of cultural heritage, animals, in short, everything. .
The principle of self-determination of peoples, in which each nation, cultural or religious group has the right to exist and the freedom to exercise its values, of course does not include non-values of extermination or intolerance towards the principles of other cultural groups, because these serve only the power and the autocrats who lead them.
There are people who think of peace and solidarity even in war (photo Russian soldier who did not fight receives food and sends an emotional message to relatives).
We have warned in several posts of the ongoing civilizational crisis, with the war some aspects become clear, but without the enlightenment of the individual conscience it is difficult to understand the ways in which the logic of war, intolerance and discrimination advances, each one must reflect about this.
There is no lack of people and groups that adhere to this type of thinking and reasoning, when power becomes exacerbated it becomes clearer, but there are micropower structures where these values are manifested.
Thus, there are structures of hatred, intolerance, and, ultimately, war, which puts life, values in check and can even put civilization itself in danger, like nuclear weapons.
No deal and Kiev besieged
08
Mar
The war remains horrendous and with no prospect of a ceasefire,
the third round of talks yesterday did not even result in a ceasefire for the humanitarian corridor that would allow civilians to leave, especially from regions where the fighting is bloodier. .
Russia has declared a series of hostile actions by the adopted sanctions that strangle its economy, among them: USA, Canada and the 27 countries of the European Union, in alphabetical order the other countries: Australia, Albania, Andorra, United Kingdom, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Micronesia, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, San Marino, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and Ukraine.
Brazil was left out, perhaps because of the president’s speech explaining the reasons for “neutrality” on Sunday, it managed to unite right, center and left: at least a diplomatic discomfort since a large part of the world has already condemned and imposed sanctions on Russia, including China and it would have more reasons than Brazil to join: ideological.
With no prospect of peace now, attention and tensions turn to Kiev, close to the city there are small towns and forests such as the Zalíssia National Park that presented some forms of resistance, however they were rejected with denouncements of violations and war crimes, there was no negotiation that would allow the evacuation of civilians, so many civilians are in the city.
In the evenings, the curfew comes and people go to improvised air-raid shelters, train tunnels, hotel basements, buildings and even churches (the crypts), which are the usual refuges.
Whatever the outcome of this struggle, the Ukrainian people and their president have won respect and admiration around the world, while Putin and Russia will come out as villains, even though there have been peace protests, Putin’s position is strong within Russia and there is a strict control of media and narrative.
Kiev lives on hope and a motivation to defend its people (in the photo a cloud that looks like an angel photographed by resident Oksana Kadiivska, from Kiev’s Darnitsa district).
To those who have some form of belief, there is hope for a better time, also in mentalities, since warmongering, intolerance and little empathy walk the streets.
Covid: Moving average of deaths drops and new concerns
07
Mar
The moving average of deaths by Covid has been falling, but
we must remember that it reached close to 100 when it rose again with Ômicron, although the relaxation in protocols and the high infection of the variant led to a new increase.
The drop is real, but the danger of relaxing the protocols is because the virus is circulating, remember that there are many cases of asymptomatic, the possibility of new strains can worsen the situation again, the WHO itself warns and has been monitoring to be attentive to this alert.
The number of cases per infection also dropped to below 40,000 new cases, although the moving average is falling, a new strain of the virus is not ruled out, the BA.2 variants that are called stealthy, it only allows the positive result to be detected or negative, with the normal PCR test, without distinguishing the variants.
The detection and monitoring of the lines is important to verify and prevent new variants, so far the Omicron variants: BA.1, BA.2, BA.3 and B.1.1.529 according to WHO data are dominant in 99% of cases currently.
Scientists have long warned that the more the virus circulates, the greater the chances of mutations, but the less lethal omicron is not being considered in this case, and this is a concern, in addition to increasing global vaccine coverage (reduces virus circulation) protocols are also responsible for slowing the circulation of the virus, as this strain can also be among those vaccinated.
It is necessary to stop the circulation or you can be surprised in new mutations of the virus.
The dramatic hours of the invasion of Ukraine and the painful situation of that nation are for tomorrow.
The Three Temptations and the Three Scourges
04
Mar
There is a strong connection between the 3 vicious scourges of
humanity: famine, war and pestilence, and the three great temptations of Christ in the desert: food (Jesus in the desert was fed by angels), power and contempt for divine things that can limit us morally. and civilized.
Yesterday, in the conversation between the President of France and Putin, he said: “the worst is yet to come”, the lands of Ukraine are fertile and are major producers of food and Russia of fertilizers.
On Wednesday we begin Lent and perhaps the great trial of man, according to the biblical readings about the temptations of Christ in the desert (Lk 4,1-13) (see the painting by Ivan Kramskoi, sec. 19):
The devil then said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command that this stone be changed into bread.” Jesus replied, “The Scripture says, ‘Man does not live by bread alone”.
And (afterward) I said to him: and I said to him: “I will give you all this power and all its glory, because all this has been handed over to me, and I can give it to anyone I want. Therefore, if you bow down before me in adoration, all this will be yours.”
Jesus replied, “The Scripture says, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.
And contempt for the power of evil and not accepting God: Then the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, placed him on the highest part of the Temple and said to him: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down! For Scripture says, ‘God will command his angels concerning you, to guard you carefully!’ And even more, ‘They will carry you in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’
But Jesus replied, “The Scripture says, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.
This must serve first of all for religious: not to put themselves in the place of God and then for all of humanity to avoid evil is to distribute bread, renounce human power and dominion while maintaining respect for the Other and respecting sanitary rules to avoid let the plague spread.
We cannot (as humanity) break through any of these temptations, but there is hope.
