Categoria: English

The auspicious meeting of Pachamama and Gaia

Leonardo Boff8 Comentários

I want to introduce a book that will be published soon in Brazil: Pachamama and the Human Being, (La Pachamama y el ser humano, Ediciones Colihue, 2012) by Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni, well known in Brazil’s judicial circles. Zaffaroni is a distinguished Argentinean magistrate, a member of the Supreme Court from 2003 to 2014; and professor emeritus at the University of Buenos Aires.

Pachamama and the Human Being is among the best eco-philosophical contributions written of late. It is in the lineage of the 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si, on the Caring for the Common Home, by Pope Francis, also Argentinean. With admirable scientific and philosophical data, Zaffaroni addresses the question of integral ecology, especially social violence, and in particular, violence against animals.

The most important aspect of his book is its critique of the dominant paradigm, that arose with the founding fathers of the XVI and XVII century modernity that abruptly introduced a profound division between the human being and nature. The natural contract, present from time immemorial in the Occidental and Oriental culures, suffered a fatal and lethal blow.

The Earth stopped being The Magna Mater of ancient times, the Pachamama of the nations of the Andes… the Gaia of the contemporaries, something alive and a generator of life, and was transformed into an inert thing (the res extensa of Rene Descartes): a collection of resources at the disposal of the unlimited voracity of human beings. The formulation by Descartes is classic: the human being is the maître et possesseur of nature, namely, the human being is master and lord of nature. The human being can do with nature what the human being pleases. And humans have done exactly that.

Modern culture was built on the understanding that the human being is dominus, lord and owner of everything. Things do not have intrinsic value. Contrary to what later will be affirmed by the Earthcharter, and with powerful strength by Pope Francis’ encyclical letter, things have value only because they can serve human beings.

This is the project of power, understood as a capacity to dominate everything, based on who holds the most power. In this case, it was the Europeans, who carried out the program of subjugating nature, the invasion and conquest of the world, the colonization of whole nations, the genocide, ecocide and destruction of ancestral cultures. And they did it using the brutal strength of their weapons: the sword and the Cross. And now they accomplish it with weapons capable of extinguishing the human species.

Zaffaroni studies the emergence of this aspect of civilization, and does so with a great bibliographical wealth. Courageously and with great critical freedom, he faces the conceited coryphaeus of modern thinking like Friedrich Hegel, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin and Martin Heidegger. I will concentrate on his criticisms of the Hegel of the Geist, (spirit). With his philosophy-ideology Hegel became the main exponent of ethnocentrism. Spencer with his biologism enshrined the White race as superior and considered all other races inferior, which wound up legitimizing colonialism and all types of prejudice.

Zaffaroni touches the question of the animal, understood as a subject of rights. He writes: “in our judgment, the juridical value of the crime of mistreatment of animals is none other than recognition of the right of the animal itself not to be object of human cruelty, for which it is necessary to recognize the character of the animal as a subject of rights”. The author is harsh in demonstrating that “we have turned out to be the biological champions of intra-species destruction and the greatest inter-species predators”. His proposal is clear: “Only by substituting the knowledge of the dominus for the frater we can regain human dignity” and experience brotherhood and sisterhood with all other beings.

Latin America was the first to inaugurate an ecological constitutionalism, including the rights of nature and of Mother Earth in the Constitutions of Ecuador and Bolivia. Previously, and also for the first time, it was Mexico that introduced social rights in her Constitution of 1917. Zaffaroni eulogizes the creative potentialities inherent in the Andean vision of “good living and coexisting” (sumak kawsay) – the harmony of the human being with nature; and as also seen in Gaia – the Earth as a living, self-regulating super organism, always producing and reproducing life. Pachamama and Gaia are two paths that encounter each other “in a happy coincidence of the center and the periphery of planetary power”. Both are carriers of the hope for an Earth Common Home, where all beings are included. They will liberate us from the apocalyptic threats of the end of our civilization and of life.

Zaffaroni brings us a brilliant and convincing perspective, a severe criticism on the one hand, but also one filled with hope on the other. He deserves to be read, studied, and that his vision of an holistic ecology that profoundly integrates all the elements of nature and of the universe be incorporated into our understanding.

Leonardo Boff Theologian-Philosopher Earthcharter 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 corrupt cannot outrun their conscience

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

There is a voice within us that we can never silence. It is the voice of our conscience. She is above the established order and prevailing laws. There are criminal acts, such as violating the innocent, denying hungry humans the bread that could save their lives, stealing funds destined for health and education, practicing such corruption as the pillage of millions of reales destined for the infrastructure; and other horrendous crimes. Delinquents become accustomed to such practices to the point that they become second nature and a way of thinking: «since it belongs to all, and to no one in particular, I can make it mine». The delinquent in public office says: «one who gets rich in this position is smart, the one who does not is stupid». Corruption, endemic in Brazil, obeys that sophism.

But no-one can escape the inner voice, the first nature, that accuses him and demands punishment. He can run away, like Cain, but the voice continues, like a kettledrum, pounding within. The corrupt one runs away even though justice does not look for him. Who can see within the heart of one for whom neither secrets nor secret chambers exist? Once again, it is the conscience: she judges, admonishes, corrodes within, applauds and condemns.

Spiritual persons of all ages offer this testimony: the conscience is God within us. The name we give to God according to the different cultures matters little. It is about something much higher than us, whose voice cannot be smothered by human uproar, no matter how strong the uproar is. With certitude Seneca wrote: «The conscience is God within you, near you and with you».

Historical examples abound. I will mention an old one and a modern one. In 310, A.D., Roman emperor Maximilian ordered the decimation of a battalion of Christian soldiers because they refused to kill innocent people. Before they were decapitated they wrote to the emperor: «Emperor, we are your soldiers, but before that we are servants of God. We made the imperial oath to you, but to God we promised not to practice evil. We prefer to die than to kill. We prefer to be killed as innocents than to live with our conscience always accusing us» (Passio Agaunensium, n.9).

Fifteen hundred years later, on February 3, 1944, a Christian German soldier wrote to his parents: «Beloved, I have been condemned to die because I refused to shoot defenseless Russian prisoners. I prefer to die than to carry the blood of innocents on my conscience the rest of my life. It was you, beloved Mother, who taught me to always follow my conscience before the orders of men. The time has come now for me to live that truth» (P.Malevezzi & G.Pirelli (org), Letzte Briefe zum Tode Verurteilter, 1955, p.489). And he was executed.

What is this force that in these two short tales gave the Roman and German soldiers the courage to be able to act like that? What voice told them to die rather than to kill? What power does that inner voice possess, to the point of overcoming the natural fear of dying? It is the imperious voice of conscience. We did not create her, and therefore, we cannot destroy it. We can disobey her. Deny her. Repress the remorse. But silence her? That we cannot do.

The conscience is untouchable and supreme. The respect we owe her is so profound that even the invincibly erroneous conscience must be listened to, and followed. Because of that, the Bishops gathered in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) wrote: «The conscience, even when it invincibly errs, does not lose its dignity» (De dignitate Humana, n. 2).

He has an invincibly erroneous conscience who dedicates all his efforts to sincerely seeking truth, asking, studying, following the advise of others and questioning himself, and even so, errs. Someone who does all this, and errs, has the right to be respected and listened to because he has obeyed his conscience.

Everyone can tragically err, with the best intentions. Therefore, we always must ask whether he is listening to the interior voice or not. Blaise Pascal wisely pondered: «We never do evil so perfectly as when we do it with a clear conscience». Only that conscience is not good. Albert Camus dealing with the morality of blind obedience wrote: «Good will can cause as much evil as bad will, when it is not sufficiently well informed», this is, when the voice of conscience calling for the good action is not listened to.

We write all this thinking of the shameful corruption that has contaminated our society, practically at all levels, especially the owners of the great enterprises and the politicians of the highest ranks, up to the filthy President of the Republic. They are deft before their own consciences that incriminate them. But the time will come when they will have to respond to Someone Higher.

Leonardo Boff  Theologian-Philosopher,Earthcharter 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 political strength of hope

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

We live in times of great social unrest. There has been a kind of earthquake, provoked not by nature, but by politics.

There was a coup d’etat by the moneyed class, their privileges threatened by the beneficiaries of the social policies of the governments of the Labor Party, PT, (from the Portuguese, Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT), that lifted them to places from which they had been excluded before. To that end, they used the Parliament, as the military had done in 1964. The removal of President Dilma Rousseff, democratically elected, served the ends of these economic elites (0.05% of the population, according to the Institute of Applied Economic Research, IPEA, (from the Portuguese, Instituto de Pesquisa e Economia Aplicada), allowing them control of the apparatus of the State, thus guaranteeing their historic-social status based on privilege and dirty business. Having made corruption seem natural, they had no scruples about amending the Constitution and introducing reforms that eliminated workers rights, and profoundly modified Social Security benefits.

Corruption, first detected by the intelligence branches of the United States, and passed on to our judicial system, enabled the installation of a judicial process called Lava-Jato. There an unimaginable scheme of corruption was detected, involving large enterprises, both of the State and private enterprises, their funds and other organs, under the logic of inheritance. The corruption identified was of such a magnitude that it scandalized the world. It caused the bankruptcy of states of the federation, such as, for example, Rio de Janeiro.

Many, including myself, have not received our salaries as University Professors, retired or not, since December, 2016.

The result is a political, judicial and institutional disaster. It would be deceitful to say that the institutions are functioning. Every institution is contaminated by corruption. Justice is shamefully biased, especially Justice Sergio Moro and much of the Public Ministry, backed by a reactionary press with no commitment to the truth. This “justice” openly carries on a furious and contemptible persecution against former President Inacio Lula and his political party, the Labor Party, PT, the largest in the country. They want to destroy his unquestionable leadership, defame his biography and in any way possible, keep him from becoming a candidate. They push his prosecution, grounded more on political convictions that actual evidence, in order to impede his candidacy, which is preferred by the majority.

The consequence is a painful lack of hope. But it is important to retake the politically transforming character of hope. Ernst Bloch, the great philosopher of hope, talks of the hope-principle, which is more than the common virtue of hope. It is the impulse that lives within us, that always moves us, that projects dreams and utopias, and from failure, finds reasons for resistance and struggle.

From Saint Augustine, perhaps the greatest Christian genius, a great inventor of phrases, comes this sentence: hope has two beloved daughters: Indignation and Courage; Indignation teaches us to reject things as they are, and Courage inspires us to change them.

At this moment we first must evoke the daughter Indignation: facing what the Temer government is criminally perpetrating against the people, the indigenous, the small farmers, women, the workers and the elderly – taking away their rights and lowering millions of Brazilians from poverty into abject misery. Not even national sovereignty is safe, because the Temer government is allowing the sale of national lands to foreigners.

If the government offends the people, the people has the right to invoke daughter-Indignation, not giving the government peace, but demanding in the streets and squares that it be removed, because it is already being accused of criminal corruption and is the result of a coup, and for that reason, lacks legitimacy.

Daughter-Courage is seen in the movement for change, even though the confrontations could be dangerous. Courage keeps our spirits high, sustains us in the struggle and can led us to victory. It is important to follow the advice of Don Quixote: “Do not accept defeat if the last battle has not yet been fought.”

A fact that we must always keep in mind is that reality is not only what is visible, like something we can reach out and touch. What is real is more than the things that we can see. The real carries within itself hidden potentialities and possibilities that can be brought out and become new facts.

One of these possibilities is that of invoking the First Article of the Constitution, that says: “All power comes from the people”. Government and politicians are only delegates of the people. When they betray the people, they no longer represent the general interest, but the interests of the enterprises that finance their elections. The people has the right to remove them from power quickly, through direct elections.

“Temer out and direct elections now” is not a slogan just of groups, but of great multitudes. Daughter-Courage must demand this option as our right, the only one that will guarantee authority and credibility to a government capable of leading us out of the present crisis.

The two daughters of hope could make their own this phrase of Albert Camus: «In the middle of winter I discovered there was, within me, an invincible summer».
Leonardo Boff, Theologian-Philosopher Earthcharter 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 political strength of hope

Leonardo Boff2 Comentários

We live in times of great social unrest. There has been a kind of earthquake, provoked not by nature, but by politics.

There was a coup d’etat by the moneyed class, their privileges threatened by the beneficiaries of the social policies of the governments of the Labor Party, PT, (from the Portuguese, Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT), that lifted them to places from which they had been excluded before. To that end, they used the Parliament, as the military had done in 1964. The removal of President Dilma Rousseff, democratically elected, served the ends of these economic elites (0.05% of the population, according to the Institute of Applied Economic Research, IPEA, (from the Portuguese, Instituto de Pesquisa e Economia Aplicada), allowing them control of the apparatus of the State, thus guaranteeing their historic-social status based on privilege and dirty business. Having made corruption seem natural, they had no scruples about amending the Constitution and introducing reforms that eliminated workers rights, and profoundly modified Social Security benefits.

Corruption, first detected by the intelligence branches of the United States, and passed on to our judicial system, enabled the installation of a judicial process called Lava-Jato. There an unimaginable scheme of corruption was detected, involving large enterprises, both of the State and private enterprises, their funds and other organs, under the logic of inheritance. The corruption identified was of such a magnitude that it scandalized the world. It caused the bankruptcy of states of the federation, such as, for example, Rio de Janeiro.

Many, including myself, have not received our salaries as University Professors, retired or not, since December, 2016.

The result is a political, judicial and institutional disaster. It would be deceitful to say that the institutions are functioning. Every institution is contaminated by corruption. Justice is shamefully biased, especially Justice Sergio Moro and much of the Public Ministry, backed by a reactionary press with no commitment to the truth. This “justice” openly carries on a furious and contemptible persecution against former President Inacio Lula and his political party, the Labor Party, PT, the largest in the country. They want to destroy his unquestionable leadership, defame his biography and in any way possible, keep him from becoming a candidate. They push his prosecution, grounded more on political convictions that actual evidence, in order to impede his candidacy, which is preferred by the majority.

The consequence is a painful lack of hope. But it is important to retake the politically transforming character of hope. Ernst Bloch, the great philosopher of hope, talks of the hope-principle, which is more than the common virtue of hope. It is the impulse that lives within us, that always moves us, that projects dreams and utopias, and from failure, finds reasons for resistance and struggle.

From Saint Augustine, perhaps the greatest Christian genius, a great inventor of phrases, comes this sentence: hope has two beloved daughters: Indignation and Courage; Indignation teaches us to reject things as they are, and Courage inspires us to change them.

At this moment we first must evoke the daughter Indignation: facing what the Temer government is criminally perpetrating against the people, the indigenous, the small farmers, women, the workers and the elderly – taking away their rights and lowering millions of Brazilians from poverty into abject misery. Not even national sovereignty is safe, because the Temer government is allowing the sale of national lands to foreigners.

If the government offends the people, the people has the right to invoke daughter-Indignation, not giving the government peace, but demanding in the streets and squares that it be removed, because it is already being accused of criminal corruption and is the result of a coup, and for that reason, lacks legitimacy.

Daughter-Courage is seen in the movement for change, even though the confrontations could be dangerous. Courage keeps our spirits high, sustains us in the struggle and can led us to victory. It is important to follow the advice of Don Quixote: “Do not accept defeat if the last battle has not yet been fought.”

A fact that we must always keep in mind is that reality is not only what is visible, like something we can reach out and touch. What is real is more than the things that we can see. The real carries within itself hidden potentialities and possibilities that can be brought out and become new facts.

One of these possibilities is that of invoking the First Article of the Constitution, that says: “All power comes from the people”. Government and politicians are only delegates of the people. When they betray the people, they no longer represent the general interest, but the interests of the enterprises that finance their elections. The people has the right to remove them from power quickly, through direct elections.

“Temer out and direct elections now” is not a slogan just of groups, but of great multitudes. Daughter-Courage must demand this option as our right, the only one that will guarantee authority and credibility to a government capable of leading us out of the present crisis.

The two daughters of hope could make their own this phrase of Albert Camus: «In the middle of winter I discovered there was, within me, an invincible summer».

Leonardo Boff Theologian-Philosopher,Earthcharter Commission

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