We Westerners, the Most Responsible of the actual Crisis

Leonardo Boff2 Comentários

The number of crises overwhelming humanity forces us to stop and take stock. It is a time for all critical observers who wish go beyond the conventional and intra-systemic speeches to philosophize.

Why have we come to the present situation, that objectively threatens the future of human life and of our civilizing work? Our response lacks serious justification: those principally responsible for putting us on this path are those who in recent centuries have held the power, the knowledge, and who owned everything. They wanted to dominate nature, conquer the whole world, subjugate its peoples and put everything at the service of their interests.

To this end they employed a powerful weapon: techno-science. Through science, they determined how nature functions, and through technology they created interventions for human benefit, with no thought for their consequences.

The men who did this were the Western Europeans. They incorporated us Latin Americans, by force, as an appendix: the Far Westerners.

These Westerners, however, are now enormously perplexed. Stunned, they ask themselves: how can we be at the center of the crisis, when we have the best knowledge, the best democracy, the best technology, the best movies, the biggest military and the best religion, Christianity?

Now these “conquests” are in question, because in spite of their value, they undeniably fail to offer us a vision of hope. We sense that the time of the West has been used up, and is already past. This is why it has lost its legitimacy and convincing strength.

Arnold Toynbee, analyzing the great civilizations, noted the following historical constant: when the answers to the challenges no longer suffice, civilizations always enter into crisis. They start to decay, until they either collapse or are assimilated by another. The new one brings renewed vigor, new dreams and new meaning for personal and collective life. What will come? Who knows. That is the crucial question.

What makes the crisis more serious is the persistent Western arrogance. Even in decay, Westerners imagine themselves to be the obligatory point of reference for everyone else.

For the Bible and the Greeks, such behavior constituted supreme deception, because it puts oneself on the same pedestal as the divinity, considered to be the supreme reference and the Last Reality. This attitude was called hybris, this is, arrogance, and extreme egotism.

It was this arrogance that led the United States intervene under false pretenses in Iraq, then in Afghanistan, and previously, in Latin America, for many years supporting military dictatorships and the shameful Operation Condor, in which hundreds of leaders of several Latin American countries were kidnapped and murdered.

With the new president, Barak Obama, a new path seemed promising, a more multipolar one, respectful of cultural differences and compassion for the vulnerable. It was a huge mistake. Obama is carrying out the imperialist trajectory, in the same line as fundamentalist Bush. He has not substantially changed anything, in this strategy of arrogance. To the contrary, Obama inaugurated something outrageous and perverse: un-declared war, using “drones”, un-manned planes. Electronically directed from cold rooms in military bases in Texas ,they attack, killing individual leaders and entire groups whom they suspect to be terrorists.

Christianity itself, in its different forms, has distanced itself from ecumenism and is taking on fundamentalist traits. There is a competition in the religious market, to see which denomination acquires more of the faithful.

We have witnessed in Rio+20 the same arrogance of the powerful, who refused to participate and to find even minimal points of convergence, that could alleviate the crisis of the Earth.

And to think that, deep down, we only seek a simple utopia, well expressed by Pablo Milanes and Chico Buarque: “history could be a happy bus, filled with contented people”.

Das unmögliche Bündnis zwischen Wolf und Lamm

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

Im Nachhinein können wir feststellen: Das Abschlussdokument von Rio +20 bietet ein reichhaltiges Menü an Anregungen und Vorschlägen, von denen kein einziger verpflichtend ist. Es gibt eine Portion an ergreifend gutem Willen und einer erschreckenden, ja beklagenswerten analytischen Naivität. Dies ist kein Wegweiser zur „Zukunft, die wir wollen“, sondern geradewegs in Richtung Abgrund.

Dieses gescheiterte Ergebnis ist dem fast religiösen Glauben zu verdanken, die Lösung für unsere aktuelle systemische Krise befinde sich in dem Gift, das sie verursachte: in der Wirtschaft. Es geht dabei nicht um die Wirtschaft im allgemeinen Sinn, also dem Prozess, der, auf die ein oder andere Weise, die materielle Lebensgrundlage gewährleistet.

Es geht vielmehr um die alltägliche Ökonomie, die real existierende, die vor kurzem allen anderen Strukturen (wie Politik, Kultur und Ethik) einen Schlag erteilte und sich selbst souverän zum einzigen Motor der Gesellschaft erhob. Das ist die „Große Transformation“, die der ungarisch-nordamerikanische Ökonom Karl Polanyi 1944 energisch angeprangert hat. Diese Art von Ökonomie deckt alle Lebensbereiche ab. Geleitet durch grausamsten Wettbewerb sucht sie Reichtum anzuhäufen bis zum Gehtnichtmehr und zieht aus allen Ökosystemen bis zu deren Erschöpfung alles, was sich verkaufen und konsumieren lässt. Diese Logik hat die Beziehungen der Menschen untereinander und mit der Erde aus dem Gleichgewicht geworfen.

Angesichts dieses Chaos wird Ban Ki Mun, der Vorsitzende der Vereinten Nationen, nicht müde, bei Konferenzeröffnungen zu wiederholen: „Die Zeit für unsere eigene Rettung läuft uns davon.“ Im Jahr 2011 erklärte er im schweizerischen Davos vor den „Herren des Geldes und des Wirtschaftskrieges“ ausdrücklich: „Das gegenwärtige Weltwirtschaftssystem ist ein weltweiter Selbstmordpakt.“ Der bekannte französische Genetik-Wissenschaftler Albert Joacquard gab einem seiner letzten Bücher den Titel: „Hat der Countdown begonnen?“ (2009).

Die Entscheidungsträger kümmern sich nicht im geringsten um die Warnungen der internationalen Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft. Nie zuvor gab es eine solche Kluft zwischen Wissenschaft und Politik und zwischen Ethik und Ökonomie. Das erinnert mich an Napoleons zynischen Kommentar nach der Schlacht von Eylau, als er tausende toter Soldaten im Schnee liegen sah: „Eine Nacht in Paris wird das alles wieder ausgleichen.“ Sie hören nicht auf, ihr Credo zu wiederholen: Noch ein bisschen mehr von dieser Wirtschaftsweise, und die Krise ist überwunden. Kann es ein Bündnis zwischen dem Lamm (der Ökologie) und dem Wolf (der Ökonomie) geben? Alle Anzeichen stehen dagegen.

Man kann dieser Art von Wirtschaft jedes beliebige Adjektiv geben – nachhaltig, grün oder wie auch immer – , es wird doch nichts an ihr ändern. Sie bilden sich ein, durch das Feilen seiner Zähne dem Wolf seine Grausamkeit nehmen zu können, während diese nicht in seinen Zähnen, sondern in seiner Natur liegt. Die Natur dieser Ökonomie besteht in konstantem Wachstum, selbst wenn dies bedeutet, das Natur- und Lebenssystem zu zerstören. Ein Nullwachstum käme für sie dem Todesurteil gleich.

Doch die Erde kann diesen systematischen Raubbau an ihren Gütern und Dienstleistungen nicht länger standhalten. Hinzu kommt noch die soziale Ungerechtigkeit, die ebenso schwer wiegt wie die ökologische Ungerechtigkeit. Ein durchschnittlich Reicher verbraucht 16 mal so viel wie ein Armer. Und ein Afrikaner hat eine um 30 Jahre kürzere Lebenserwartung als ein Europäer (Joacquard, S. 28).

Wie kann man sich angesichts solcher Verbrechen nicht empören und einen Richtungswechsel fordern? Die Erd-Charta bietet uns einen verlässlichen Weg: „Wie nie zuvor in der Geschichte der Menschheit fordert uns unser gemeinsames Schicksal dazu auf,einen neuen Anfang zu wagen. Das erfordert einen Wandel in unserem Bewusstsein und in unseren Herzen. Es geht darum, weltweite gegenseitige Abhängigkeit und universale Verantwortung neu zu begreifen.

Wir müssen die Vision eines nachhaltigen Lebensstils mit viel Fantasie entwickeln und anwenden, und zwar auf lokaler, nationaler, regionaler und globaler Ebene.“ (letzter Absatz der Charta) Ein Bewusstseinswandel beinhaltet eine neue Sichtweise auf die Erde, nicht als eine „Welt-Maschine“, sondern als einen lebendigen Organismus: Mutter Erde, die Respekt und Achtsamkeit verdient.

Ein Wandel des Herzens bedeutet, die Diktatur der wissenschaftlich-technischen Vernunft zu überwinden und die feinfühlige Vernunft zurück zu erlangen, in der die tiefen Gefühle wie Leidenschaft für die Veränderung und Liebe und Respekt vor allem Existierenden und Lebendigen beheimatet sind. Anstatt Wettbewerb die Erfahrung von weltweiter Verflechtung machen, die ein anderer Ausdruck für Kooperation ist, und anstelle von Gleichgültigkeit universelle Verantwortung wahrnehmen, d. h. sich dafür zu entscheiden, globalen Gefahren gemeinsam zu begegnen.

Das entspricht den Worten des Nazareners: „Ihr alle werdet genauso umkommen, wenn ihr euch nicht bekehrt.“ (Lk 13,5)

übersetzt von Bettina Gold-Hartnack

The impossible pact between the wolf and the lamb

Leonardo Boff6 Comentários

Post Festum, we can say: the final Rio+20 document offers a generous menu of suggestions and proposals, none of which is obligatory. There is a dose of moving good will, and a scary, even pitiful, analytical naiveté. It is not a compass leading us to «the future we want», but in the direction of an abyss.

This failed outcome is due to the almost religious belief that the solution to the present systemic crisis is found in the poison that produced it: the economy. It is not about the economy in the transcendental sense, namely, the process –without regard to the means– that guarantees the material basis of life, but the economic structure, that which actually exists, that has recently dealt a blow to everything else (to politics, culture and ethics) and installed itself, sovereign, as the sole engine of society. It is the «Great Transformation» that the Hungarian-Northamerican economist Karl Polanyi energetically denounced in 1944. This type of economy fills all aspects of life. Governed by a ferocious competitiveness, it proposes accumulating as much wealth as possible, utilizing, to the point of depleting all ecosystems, everything that can be commercialized and consumed. This logic has thrown all relationships with the Earth and among humans off balance.

Facing this chaos, Ban Ki Moon, General Secretary of the United Nations, never tires of repeating at Conference openings: we are running out of time to save ourselves. In 2011 in Davos, Switzerland, he emphatically declared in front of the «lords of money and of the economic war»: «The present world economic model is a pact for global suicide». Albert Joacquard, the well-known French geneticist, titled one of his last books: Has the countdown begun? (2009). The decision-makers do not pay the least attention to the warnings of the world scientific community. Never before have there been such chasms between science and politics, between ethics and economics. It reminds me of Napoleon’s cynical comment after the battle of Eylau, on seeing thousands of dead soldiers in the snow: «One night in Paris will make up for all this». They continue reciting the creed: more of the same, of economics, and we will emerge from this crisis. Can there be a pact between the lamb (ecology) and the wolf (economy)? All indications are that it is impossible.

You can add any adjective you want to this type of economy — sustainable, green… or any other — but it will not change its nature. They imagine that polishing the wolf’s teeth will remove its ferocity, when the ferocity does not reside in the wolf’s teeth, but in its nature. The nature of this economy is to grow constantly, even if it means devastating the nature-system and the life-system. Not to grow would mean death itself.

But the Earth can no longer tolerate this systematic assault on her goods and services. To this, add social injustice, which is as grave as the ecologic injustice. The average rich man uses 16 times more than a poor one. And an African has a thirty year shorter life expectancy than a European (Jaquard, 28).

Facing such crimes, how can one not be indignant, and demand a change of direction? The Earthcharter offers us a secure path: «As never before in history, the common destiny calls us to seek a new beginning, one that requires a change of mentality and of heart, a new sense of global interdependency and universal responsibility… to reach a sustainable mode of life at the local, regional and global levels» (final). A change of mentality implies a new view of the Earth, not as a «world-machine» but as a living organism: Mother Earth, who deserves respect and caring.

A change of heart means overcoming the dictatorship of scientific-technical reason, and regaining sensible reason, wherein reside profound feelings, passion for change and love and respect for everything that exists and lives. Instead of competition, to experience global interdependency, another name for cooperation; and instead of indifference, universal responsibility, that is, deciding to face global danger together.

The words of the Nazarene are on point: «unless you change, all of you shall perish» (Luke 13,5).

L’impossibile patto tra lupo e agnello

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

 

Post festum, possiamo dire: il documento finale della Rio +20 presenta un menù generoso di suggerimenti e di proposte, senza nessun obbligo, con una dose di buona volontà commovente ma con una ingenuità analitica spaventosa e, direi, persino deplorevole. Non è una bussola che segna il «futuro che vogliamo» ma la direzione di un abisso.

Tale risultato tronfio è un tributo alla credenza quasi religiosa che la soluzione dell’attuale crisi sistemica si trova nel veleno che l’ha prodotta: nell’economia. Non si tratta di economia in un senso trascendentale, come quella istanza che, in un modo o nell’altro, garantisce le basi materiali della vita. Ma dell’economia di tutti i giorni, quella realmente esistente che, negli ultimi tempi ha colpito tutte le istanze rimanenti (la politica, la cultura, e quella ’etica) e si è istallata sovrana come unico motore che fa andare la società. È la «Grande Trasformazione” che già nel 1944 l’economista nordamericano di origine ungherese, Karl Polanyi, denunciava vigorosamente.

Questo tipo di economia copre tutti gli spazi della vita, si propone di accumulare ricchezza fino a non poterne più, strappando a tutti gli ecosistemi, fino al loro inserimento, tutto ciò che sia commerciabile e consumabile, mantenendosi in piedi attraverso la più feroce competizione. Davanti a questo caos, Ban Ki Moon, segretario generale dell’Onu, non si stanca di ripetere all’apertura delle conferenze: stiamo davanti all’ultima opportunità che abbiamo di salvarci. Enfaticamente nel 2011 a Davos, davanti ai «Signori del denaro e della guerra economica» dichiarò: “L’attuale modello economico mondiale è un patto di suicidio globale”.

Albert Jacquard, noto genetista francese, ha intitolato così uno dei suoi ultimi libri: “Il conto alla rovescia è già cominciato?” (2009). Quelli che prendono le decisioni non danno la minima attenzione agli allarmi della comunità scientifica mondiale. Non si era mai visto uno scollamento tra scienza, politica e etica da una parte e economia dall’altra come ai nostri giorni. Questo mi riporta al commento cinico di Napoleone dopo la battaglia di Eylau al vedere migliaia di soldati morti sulla neve: “Una notte di Parigi compenserà tutto questo”.

Loro continuano a recitare il credo: un po’ ancora di questa conomia, e presto usciamo dalla crisi. È possibile il patto tra l’agnello (l’ecologia) e il lupo (economia)? Tutto indica che è impossibile. Potete affibbiare tutti gli aggettivi che volete al tipo di economia in vigore, ‘sostenibile’, ‘verde’ e altri che però non ne muteranno la natura. Loro immaginano che limare i denti al lupo gli toglie la ferocia. Ma questa risiede non nei denti ma nella sua natura.

La natura di quest’economia è volere crescere sempre, a dispetto della devastazione del sistema-natura e sistema-vita. Non crescere significa condannarsi a morire. Il fatto è che la Terra non ne può più di questi assalti sistematici a i suoi beni e servizi. A questo aggiungiamo l’ingiustizia sociale, altrettanto grave quanto l’ingiustizia ecologica. Un ricco ‘medio’ consuma 16 volte più che un povero ‘medio’. Un africano ha 30 anni di aspettativa di vita meno di un europeo (Jaquard, 28).

Davanti a tali crimini come non indignarsi e non esigere un cambiamento di direzione? La Carta della Terra ci offre una direzione sicura: “Come mai prima di adesso nella storia, il destino comune ci chiama a raccolta per trovare un nuovo inizio. Questo richiede un cambiamento nella mente e nel cuore; esige un nuovo senso di interdipendenza globale, di responsabilità universale… per raggiungere un modo sostenibile di vita ai livello locale, nazionale, regionale e globale” (finale).

Mutare la mente implica un nuovo modo di guardare la Terra non come il “mondo-macchina” ma come un organismo vivo, la Terra-madre alla quale sono dovuti rispetto e cura. Mutare il cuore significa superare la dittatura della ragione tecnico-scientifica e riscattare la ragione sensibile dove risiede il sentimento profondo, la passione per il cambiamento dell’amore e il rispetto per tutto quello che esiste e vive. Al posto della concorrenza vivere nell’interdipendenza globale, altro nome per la cooperazione al posto dell’indifferenza, la responsabilità universale, cioè, decidere di affrontare insieme il rischio globale.

Valgono le parole de del Nazareno: “Se non vi convertirete, perirete tutti” (Lc 13,5).

 

Leonardo Boff è autore di Proteggere la Terra-curare la vita. Come evitare la fine del mondo, Record 2011.