Mês: setembro 2018

Neo-fascism: a world-wide wave

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

Fascism is an extreme derivative of fundamentalism, with a long tradition in almost every culture. In his 1996 controversial work, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order, Samuel P. Huntington denounces the West as home to the most virulent fundamentalists. They imagine that their culture is the best in the world, that their religion is the best, the one and only true religion, that theirs is the best form of government, democracy, with the best techno-science, that has changed the face of the planet, and with its lethal weapons, it has given humans the ability to destroy humanity and much of the biosphere.
We know of Islamic and other forms of fundamentalism; also of the fundamentalism of sectors of the official Roman Catholic Church that still believe that she is the one and only and exclusive Church of Jesus Christ, outside of which there is no salvation. This erroneous vision allows for the satanizing and even the persecution of other Christian and non-Christian denominations. Thank God for the present Pope, a man of rationality and common sense that invalidates such distortions.

Those who pretend to be the exclusive carrier of truth are condemned to be fundamentalists and to close in on themselves without dialogue with the other.

Here we remember the words of the great Spanish poet Antonio Machado, who wrote: “The truth. Not your truth. Come with me to search for the truth. Your truth? Keep it to yourself. ” If together we search for the truth, it will be the full truth.

Fascism was born, and is born, within the context of the breakdown of social norms, social disorder and generalized crisis. Security disappears and the established orders are weakened. Society and individuals have difficulty living in such a situation. Social scientists and historians, such as Eric Vögelin (Order and History, 1956), L. Götz, (Entstehung der Ordnung, 1954), Peter Berger,(A Rumor of Angels: Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural, 1973), have shown that humans possess a natural tendency towards order.

Wherever they arrive, they soon create an order and their habitat. When order disappears, violence is commonly used to impose a kind of order which does not lead to the social cohesion of coexistence.

Fascism’s niche finds its origin in this disorder. Thus, at the end of the First World War, social chaos ensued, especially in Germany and Italy. The way out was to establish an authoritarian system of domination that monopolized political representation, through a single, hierarchically organized political party of the masses, forcing everything; politics, economy and culture in a single direction. This was only possible through a chief (Fürher in Germany and the Duce, in Italy) who organized an authoritarian corporate State of terror.

National myths were created for symbolic legitimacy, the heroes of the past and old traditions, usually in a framework of great political liturgies inculcating the idea of a national regeneration. Especially in Germany, Hitler’s followers were filled with the conviction that the white German race was “superior” to the others, and had the right to subjugate and even to exterminate inferior races.

The word fascism was used for the first time by Benito Mussolini in 1915 when the group “Fasci d’Azione Revolucionaria” was created. Fascism derives from the term “fasci,” a bundle of leafless branches, strongly fastened, with an ax on one side. A single branch can be broken, breaking a bundle is much more difficult. In 1922-23, Mussolini founded the National Fascist Party (Partito Nacionale Fascista) that lasted until his overthrow in 1945. In Germany, it was established in 1933 by Adolf Hitler, who upon being appointed Chancellor created National Socialism, the Nazi party, that imposed on the country a hard discipline, total vigilance, and a state of terror.

Fascism was sold as anti-communist, anti-capitalist, as a corporation that is above class, and creates a socially closed unity. Vigilance, direct violence, terror and the extermination of the opposition are characteristics of the historic fascism of Mussolini and Hitler. Violence is also present in neo-fascism.

Fascism has never totally disappeared, because there always are groups that, moved by a fundamentalist archetype, seek order at any price. This is what the present neo-fascism is about. There is in Brazil today a figure more hilarious than ideological, that proposes fascism, in whose name violence is justified, and which defends torture and torturers, homophobia and other social deviations. It is always in the name of an order to be forged, using violence against the current disorder.

Fascism has always been criminal. It created the shoa (the Holocaust, which eliminated millions of Jews). It used violence as a way of relating to society, which is why it never could and never will be consolidated for long periods of time. It is the greatest perversion of human sociability. It will not be different in Brazil, where this perversion has no possibility of success.

Leonardo Boff  Eco-Theologian-Philosophe and of theEarthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

The current demise of ethics

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

Between July 10 and 13, 2018, an international congress organized by the Society of Theology and Sciences of Religion, (Sociedad de Teología y Ciencias de la Religión, SOTER) on the subjects, Religion, Ethics and Politics was celebrated in Belo Horizonte, Brazil,. The expositions were very timely, and of superior quality. I will only deal with the debate on the Demise of Ethics, that I introduced.

In my understanding two factors have touched the heart of ethics: the process of globalization and the commercialiization of society.

Globalization has revealed the different types of ethics, based on cultural differences. Western ethics, one of many, has been relativized. The great Oriental cultures and the cultures of the original Nations have shown that we can be ethical in very different forms.

For example, the Maya culture centers everything in the heart, because everything was born from the love of the two great hearts: those of the Heavens and of the Earth. The ethical ideal is to create in all persons hearts that are sensible, just, transparent and true: the ethics of “good living and coexisting” of the nations of the Andes, centered in the equilibrium of all things, among human beings, with Nature and with the Universe.
A consequence of this variety of ethical paths has been generalized relativity. We know that law and order, values of basic practical ethics, are prerequisites for any civilization anywhere in the world. The ethical disaster that we now foresee is because humanity is yielding ground to barbarity, towards a true worldwide age of darkness.

Shortly before his death in 2017, thinker Sigmund Bauman warned: “either humanity joins hands to save all of us together; or together we will swell the funeral procession of those who walk towards the abyss”. What kind of ethics could guide us as humanity living in the same

Common Home? The second great obstacle to ethics is the commercialization of society, that already in 1944, Karl Polanyi called “The Great Transformation”. That is the phenomenon of transitioning from a market economy to a society of pure commerce. Everything is transformed into merchandise, which Karl Marx already foresaw in his 1848 text The Poverty of Philosophy, where he noted that the most sacred things, such as truth and consciousness, would be commercialized; and this would be the “time of great corruption and universal venality”. We are now living in that time. The economy, especially the speculative sector, dictates the path of politics and of society as a whole. Competition is its trademark and solidarity has practically disappeared.

Which is the ideal ethics of this type of society? The capacity for unlimited accumulation and limitless consumption, that creates a great gap between a very small group that controls most of the world economy and the great majorities, who are excluded and drowning in hunger and misery. Here are revealed traits of barbarity and cruelty as rarely have been seen in history.
We must go back to create an ethics rooted in that which is specifically ours as human beings and which, for that reason, is universal and can be adopted by all.

I believe that in the very first place, is the ethics of caring. According to the fable 220 of the slave Higinio, well interpreted by Martin Heidegger in Being and Time, it consists of the ontological substratum of the human being, that group of factors without which the human being and other living beings never could have arisen. Because caring pertains to the human essence, we all can live and give in concrete ways, according to our cultures. Caring presupposes a friendly and loving relationship with reality, an extended hand for solidarity and not a clenched fist for domination. Life is at the center of caring. The civilization must be bio-centered.

Another part of our human essence is solidarity and the ethics that derives from solidarity. We now know from bio-anthropology that it was solidarity among our anthropoid ancestors that allowed them to hone their animal state into humanity. They searched for food and consumed it together, in solidarity. We all live because there existed, and still exists, a minimum of solidarity, starting with the family. What was foundational yesterday, continues to be so today..
Another aspect closely tied to our humanity is the ethics of universal responsibility. Either we together undertake responsibility for the destiny of our Common Home, or together we will walk a path of no return. We are responsible for the sustainability of Gaia and the ability of her ecosystems to flourish within the whole community of life.

Philosopher Hans Jonas, who first elaborated “The Principle of Responsibility”, added the importance of collective fear. When collective fear arises and humans start to realize that they may come to a tragic end and even disappear as a species, a primordial fear erupts that puts them into survival mode ethics. The unconscious presupposition is that the value of life is greater than any other value: cultural, religious or economic.

Finally, it is important to resurrect the ethics of justice for all. Justice is the minimum right that we must guarantee the other to be able to continue coexisting and receiving what we as people deserve. In particular, the institutions must be just and equitable, to avoid class privilege and the social exclusions that produce so many victims, particularly in our country, which is one of the most unequal and most unjust in the world. This explains the hatred and discrimination that tear society apart. They come not from the people but from the moneyed elites that have always lived a privileged life, and who do not allow the poor to move even one rung up on the social ladder.

We presently live under an exceptional regime in, where the Constitution and the laws of the country are trampled by the Lawfare (the distorted interpretation of the law practiced by a judge, so as to hurt the accused).

Justice has value not only among humans but also with nature and the Earth, which are.the carriers of rights and for that reason they must be included in our concept of socio-ecological democracy.

These are some minimum parameters for an ethics to be valid for each individual, and for all of humanity, gathered in our Common Home. We must incorporate an ethics of a shared sobriety to accomplish what Xi Jinping, supreme leader of China, used to call “a moderately supplied society”. This is a minimum and reachable ideal. Otherwise, we may experience a socio-ecological Armagedon.

Leonardo Boff Eco-Theologian-Philosopher and of  TheEarthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

III. Congreso Continental de Teología Latinoamericana y Caribeña:“el clamor de los pobres y de la Tierra nos interpelan”

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

Del 30 de agosto al 2 de septiembre se celebró en El Salvador, tierra de mártires, especialmente de Don Arnulfo Oscar Romero, el III. Encuentro Continental de Teología Latinoamericana y caribeña con ocasión de los 50 años de Medellín (1968), reunión de los obispos latinoamericanos y caribeños que sellaron el gran viraje de la Iglesia en dirección a los pobres y a su liberación. Fue el bautismo de la Iglesia en esta nueva fase de la historia. Acudieron más de 600 personas de todo el Continente y del extranjero, lo que demuestra el interés general por ese evento y sus consecuencias posteriores. Damos aquí parte del documento final que nos ofrece un bello resumen del evento promovido por la Red Amerindia en la Universidad UCA de San Salvador: LBoff.

Mensaje a los pueblos de América Latina y del Caribe

1. Estuvieron presentes jóvenes teólogos y teólogas, así como algunos hermanos y hermanas de Iglesias evangélicas y pentecostales.

2. En estos días hemos reaprendido a leer nuestra fe ya vivirla a partir de los principios que nos enseñaron Mons. Oscar Romero, el sacerdote asesinado Ellacuría y tantos otros hermanos y hermanas que se hicieron nuestros maestros y maestras en el seguimiento de Jesús. Ellos y ellas nos revelan que tenemos que vivir la fe dando atención e importancia a la realidad social, política y cultural, vista a partir de la causa de los empobrecidos.

3. En Medellín, la Iglesia se insertó en los procesos de transformación social y política vigentes en el continente. No descansaremos mientras no podamos vivir una economía al servicio del bien común y del cuidado hacia la Tierra, el Agua y toda la naturaleza a la que pertenecemos como hijos e hijas.

4. En todo el continente nos continúa interpelando lo que en Medellín se llamó “violencia institucionalizada”. Hasta hoy, la sociedad dominante no respeta ni valora a las comunidades indígenas de diversas etnias ni sus culturas ancestrales.

5. Nos unimos a las luchas de las mujeres que, en todos los países, son víctimas de distintos tipos de violencia. En estos 50 años reconocemos la contribución de las teologías negras, las de los pueblos originarios y, de manera especial, la propuesta hecha por la teología feminista de pensar una Iglesia fundamentada de hecho en el discipulado de iguales. Asumimos la causa de las víctimas de abusos sexuales cometidos contra niños, adolescentes, contra mujeres y contra hermanos y hermanas LGBT. Es urgente cambiar la estructura patriarcal y clerical de nuestras Iglesias.

6. Sabemos de las masacres de jóvenes, especialmente pobres y, en algunos países, en su mayoría negros, víctimas del deterioro de las condiciones de vida y de la violencia urbana. Algunos de nuestros teólogos y teólogas jóvenes están acompañando de forma creativa esas luchas.

7. Las conquistas de nuevos procesos sociales y políticos pertenecen al pueblo y merecen ser defendidas a partir de las bases.

8. Denunciamos la responsabilidad del imperio norteamericano, que prosigue con su política de desestabilización de los gobiernos que no se dobleguen a sus exigencias colonialistas.

9. Seguiremos luchando contra las políticas xenófobas, racistas e inhumanas del presidente de Estados Unidos contra los migrantes, especialmente nuestros hermanos y hermanas pobres que intentan pasar la frontera norteamericana.

10. La conferencia de Medellín propuso una Iglesia profética al servicio de la liberación de nuestros pueblos a partir de la opción por los pobres. Hoy queremos comprometernos con el proyecto de una Iglesia más sinodal y valiente, en permanente diálogo con la humanidad y especialmente con los movimientos sociales, organizados para cambiar el mundo.

11. Reconocemos como señal del Espíritu la propuesta del “Bien Vivir”, que recibimos de los pueblos originarios del continente. Comprendemos que el “bien vivir” es camino de una sociedad de comunión que privilegia el bien común sobre lo particular y toma en serio los derechos de la hermana Madre Tierra y de la Vida.

Los zapatistas del sur de México nos enseñaron: Somos un ejército de soñadores/as. Por eso, somos invencibles. Como dijo San Oscar Romero “sigamos haciendo lo que podamos hacer, pero lo importante es hacer”. En esa esperanza firme e inquebrantable, la fuerza del Espíritu que se expresa en la fuerza de los pobres nos ilumine y nos guíe a todos/as por los caminos del Reino.

Nota: Todos los presentes suscribieron un texto de apoyo al Papa Francisco ante las oposiciones y resistencias que viene sufriendo últimamente por parte de los grupos conservadores que no quieren cambios en el estilo de vivir la fe cristiana en los conturbados días actuales.

Traducción de Mª José Gavito Milano

O golpe de 2016 interrompeu construção de um Brasil autônomo

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

Observador atento dos processos de transformação da economia mundial em contraponto com a brasileira, Celso Furtado, um dos nossos melhores nomes em economia política, escreveu em seu livro “Brasil: a construção interrompida”(1993):

“Em meio milênio de história, partindo de uma constelação de feitorias, de populações indígenas desgarradas, de escravos transplantados de outro continente, de aventureiros europeus e asiáticos em busca de um destino melhor, chegamos a um povo de extraordinária polivalência cultural, um país sem paralelo pela vastidão territorial e homogeneidade linguística e religiosa. Mas nos falta a experiência de provas cruciais, como as que conheceram outros povos cuja sobrevivência chegou a estar ameaçada…Não ignoramos que o tempo histórico se acelera e que a contagem desse tempo se faz contra nós. Trata-se de saber se temos um futuro como nação que conta na construção do devenir humano. Ou se prevalecerão as forças que se empenham em interromper o nosso processo histórico de formação de um Estado-nação” (Paz e Terra, Rio de Janeiro 1993, p.35).

A atual sociedade brasileira, há que se reconhecer, conheceu avanços significativos sob os governos do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) e de seus aliados . Nunca ocorreu issso antes nas fases históricas hegemonizadas pelas oligarquias tradicionais que sempre detiveram o poder de Estado, nunca tiveram um projeto de nação, apenas o propósito corporativo de enriquecimento ilimitado. Agora com um Estado pós-democrático (cf;Rubens Casara) e de exceção está ocorrendo celeremente a desmontagem destas políticas aumentando o sofrimento do povo.

Estamos nos aproximando daquilo que Celso Furtado chamava de “provas cruciais”. Talvez como nunca antes em nossa história, atingimos este estágio crítico das “provas” como atualmente após o golpe de 2016. Dada a aceleração da história, impulsionada pela crise sistêmica mundial, seremos forçados a tomar uma decisão: ou aproveitamos as oportunidades reafirmando nossa soberania e garantindo nosso futuro autônomo ou as desperdiçamos e viveremos atrelados ao destino sempre decidido por eles que nos querem condenar a sermos apenas os fornecedores dos produtos in natura que lhes falta e assim voltam a nos recolonizar.

Não podemos aceitar esta estranha divisão internacional do trabalho. Temos que retomar o sonho de alguns de nossos melhores analistas do quilate de Darcy Ribeiro, Luiz Gonzaga de Souza Lima e de Celso Furtado, de Jessé Souza entre outros que propuseram uma reinvenção ou refundacão do Brasil sobre bases nossas, gestadas pelo nosso ensaio civilizatório tão enaltecido e reconhecido mundialmente.

Este desiderato foi profundamente ferido pelo golpe parlamentar que por detrás dele estão as classes dominantes internacionalizadas que tentam impor uma agenda política de um neoliberalismo radical, que lhes devolva os privilégios históricos, ameaçados pelas políticas sociais populares que tiraram da miséria e da invisibilidade milhões de brasileiros pobres.

O sonho de uma reinvenção e refundação do Brasil não pode ser perdido, nem sepultado pela voracidade destruidora dos donos do ter, do poder e do saber. Seu tempo já passou. Cresceu uma nova consciência política, especialmente, a partir dos movimentos sociais populares que se contam às centenas. Aí sempre se coloca a questão: que Brasil nós queremos (cf.L. Boff, Concluir a refundação ou prolongar a dependência, 2018)? Como vamos juntos construí-lo? Com que forças e aliados podemos contar para essa tarefa gigante?

Poderão elas ser coparteiras de uma cidadania nova – a cocidadania e a cidadania ecológica e terrenal – que articula o cidadão com o Estado, o cidadão com o outro cidadão, o nacional com o mundial, a cidadania brasileira com a cidadania planetária, ajudando assim a moldar o devenir humano? Ou elas se farão cúmplices daquelas forças que não estão interessadas na construção do projeto-Brasil porque se propõem inserir o Brasil no projeto-mundo globalizado de forma subalterna e dependente, com as vantagens concedidas às classes opulentas.Pois este é o projeto dos que deram o golpe parlamentar,jurídico e mediático de 2016.

A atual crise brasileira nos força a decidir não que partido apoiamos, mas de que lado estamos. A situação é urgente pois, como advertia pesaroso Celso Furtado: “tudo aponta para a inviabilização do país como projeto nacional” (op.cit. 35). Mas não queremos aceitar como fatal esta severa advertência.

Ainda há tempo, nestas eleições, para mudanças que podem reorientar o país para o seu rumo certo, especialmente agora que, com a crise ecológica, se transformou num peso decisivo da balança e do equilíbrio buscado pelo planeta Terra. Importa crer em nossa missão planetária.

Tudo está a clamar para uma refundação do Brasil sobre outras bases porque as vigentes são altamente antipovo, destrutivas das pessoas, desrespeitosas da natureza, espoliadoras dos bens públicos, violadoras da soberania nacional e negadores de um futuro melhor.

Leonardo Boff escreveu: Brasil, Concluir a refundação ou prolongar a dependência, Vozes 2018.