Categoria: Idiomas

We need to build bridges between life and politics

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

We see today in Brazil a serious division among people for reasons of political party. There were those who stopped participating in the community celebrations of the Nativity due to divergent politics: some becuse of criticisms of the party in power for having lied in the electoral campaign; others due to the excessive corruption attributed to important groups of the Labor Party, PT. Some are strong defenders of impeaching President Dilma Rousseff. Others do not consider the famous “pedaladas” (pedal pushers) a sufficient reason to remove her from the highest position of the Republic, won by the vote of the majority of the people. Let us agree that the “pedaladas” are sinful, but it is only a venial sin, committed without ill intention. For a venial sin, in good theology, no one is condemned to hell. At worst, they spend some time in God’s purifying clinic, the purgatory. Purgatory is not hell’s lobby, but the lobby of heaven.

Let’s ignore these contradictions. The fact is that without doubt, there exists in society great irritation, racial intolerance, acid discussions and many strong words that children should never hear. Especially the Internet has opened the door through which all kinds of offenses pass. Some people remain anchored in the past and still think about the cold war. To call someone a communist is an insult. They forgot that the Soviet Empire collapsed and the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

The bridges between social spaces, different, but accepted and respected, have been damaged or destroyed. A healthy society cannot survive while its social network is being tore down. That is where the danger lies in the radicalism of the right (dictatorship such as those of the military) or of the left (as the totalitarian Soviet Socialism).

More than theoretical arguments, I believe that history can provide good lessons and convince us of the truth of things. I will relate a story that I heard long time ago and that has a strong effective conviction. Here it is:

Two brothers lived in good harmony in two farms that were closer to each other. They had good grain production, some head of cattle and well cared for pigs.

One day they had a small argument. The reasons were not that important: a calf from the younger brother had strayed and eaten a good part of the cornfield of the older brother. They discussed it with some irritation. Matters appeared to had rested there.

But it was not so. Suddenly, they did not speak to each other. They avoided seeing each other in the store or on the road. They behaved as if hey did not know each other.

One day a carpenter looking for a job appeared in the farm of the older brother. The farmer looked at him up and down and, with some sadness, he told the carpenter: “See that brook that flows down there? Is the division between my farm and the farm of my brother. With all the wood there is in that wood pile build a very high fence, so that I may not be forced to see my brother or his farm again. That way I will have peace”.

The carpenter accepted the job, took the tools and went to work. Meanwhile, the older brother went to the city to take care of some business.

When he returned to the farm, late that day, he was horrified by what he saw. The carpenter had not built a fence, but a bridge over the brook that united the two farms.

And he saw there walking by the bridge the younger brother who was coming saying: “Brother, after all that had happened between us, it is hard for me to believe that you have made that bridge just to find me. You are right, it is time to end our disagreement. Let’s embrace, brother!

And they embraced each other effusively and reconciled. The brother found his other brother..

Suddenly they saw that the carpenter was leaving. And they called him: “Hey, carpenter! Please do not leave. Stay with us for a few days… You have brought to us so much happiness…”

But the carpenter answered: “I can’t stay; there are other bridges to build throughout the world. There are still too many that need to reconcile with each other”. And the carpenter went away calmly walking until he disappeared in the distant curve of the path.

The world and our country need bridges and people-carpenters who generously would help solve the disagreements and build bridges so that we may rise above the conflicts and differences inherent in the unfinished humanity. We must always learn and relearn to teach each other fraternally, as brother and sisters.

Perhaps this is one of the most urgent ethical and humanitarian imperatives in the present historical moment.
Leonardo Boff is ecotheologian and writer

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

The Society of tiredness and dejection

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

The “society of tiredness” is being discussed all over the world. It was primarily formulated by Byung-Chul Han, a Korean who teaches philosophy in Berlin. His book of the same title has just been published in Brazil (Vozes 2015). The analysis is not always clear and, at times, it is debatable, as when he affirms that “fundamental tiredness” is endowed with a special capacity to “inspire and make the spirit surge” (cf. Byung-Chul Han, p. 73). Independent of theories, we do live in a society of tiredness. In Brazil, besides tiredness we suffer from an atrocious despondency and dejection.

Let us consider, in the first place, the society of tiredness. Certainly, the acceleration of the historical processes and the proliferation of sounds, messages, the explosion of stimuli and communications, especially from commercial marketing, mobile telephones, with all their applications, the non-stop information we receive through the social media, cause in us, these authors say, neuronal illnesses: they cause depression, attention difficulties and the hyper activity syndrome.

In effect, we reach the end of the day stressed and listless. We do not sleep well, we are exhausted.

To this we must add the neoliberal rhythm of productivity that is being imposed on workers all over the world, the North American style in particular demands the greatest possible production from everyone. That is also the general rule among us. Such demands emotionally unbalances people, causing irritability and permanent anxiety. The number of suicides is scary. As I have mentioned before, the line of the 1968 revolution, now radicalized, has been resurrected. It was said then: “bus, work, bed”. Now it is said: “bus, work, grave”. That is to say, fatal illnesses, loss of the meaning of life, and true psychic attacks.

Let’s stay with Brazil. A generalized discouragement has been growing among us in recent months. The electoral campaign, carried out with great verbal virulence, accusations, and misrepresentation, and the fact that the victory of the Labor Party, PT, had not been accepted, stirred up the desire for revenge in the opposition. Sacred principles of the PT were betrayed to the highest degree by corruption, generating profound disillusionment. This fact was contrary to good customs. The language was cannibalized. Prejudice against those from the North and the discrediting of the Black population emerged from the closet. We are also cordial in the negative sense used by Sergio Buarque de Holanda: we can act from a heart filled with rage, with hatred and prejudice. The situation became graver with the threat of impeachment against President Dilma Rousseff for unclear and questionable reasons.

We have seen the reality, not the theory, that among us there exists a true class struggle. The interest of the comfortable classes are contrary to the interests of the impoverished classes. The wealthy classes, historically hegemonic, fear the inclusion of the poor and the rise of other sectors of society that have come to occupy a space previously reserved only for the wealthy. We must recognize that Brazil is one of the most unequal countries in the world. That is, in Brazil there are more social injustices, violence is rampant, and there are numerous murders, equivalent in number to the deaths during the Iraq war. And we still have countless workers living in conditions that are equivalent to slavery.

A great part of these criminals claim to be Christians: Christians who martyr other Christians, who turn Christianity into a cultural belief, and not a faith; into something ridiculous and a true blasphemy.

How can we get out of this human hell? Our democracy is one just of votes. It does not represent the people but the interests of those who finance the political campaigns. That is why our democracy is only a facade or, at best, one of a very low intensity. From the top echelons, we have nothing to hope for, because among us a savage and world-wide capitalism has been consolidated, one that destroys any correlation of forces among the classes.

I see a possible way out, coming from a different social place, from those who come from below, from the organized society and the social movements that posses a different ethos and dream for Brazil and the world. But the people need to study, and organize themselves. They need to pressure the dominant classes and the patriarchal State, and be prepared to eventually propose an alternative society not yet tried, but whose roots are in the past, when they struggled for a different Brazil, with her own path. From there, we must formulate a new social pact, through an ecological-social Constitution, one that results from an inclusive Constitutional Assembly, a radical political reform, a consistent agrarian and urban reform, and the creation of a new model of education and social health services. An ignorant and infirm people will never create a new and possible bio-civilization in the tropics.

That dream can take us out of social tiredness and abandonment, and return to us the energy necessary to confront the bonds of the conservatives and to elicit the well founded hope that everything is not totally lost, that we have a historical job to fulfill for ourselves, for our descendants and for humanity itself. Utopia? Yes. As Oscar Wilde used to say: «if utopia does not appear on our map, do not look for it because it hides from us what is most important». From the present chaos must emerge something good and hope filled, because this is the lesson the cosmic process gave us in the past and is giving us in the present. Instead of the culture of tiredness and dejection, we will have a culture of hope and happiness.
Leonardo Boff Theologian-Philosopher Earthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

Peace: a scarce, but always desired, benefit

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

What we hear most at the start of each New Year are wishes for peace and happiness. If we look realistically at the current world situation, including the different countries, and our own, peace is precisely what is most lacking. But peace is so precious that is always desired. We must struggle hard (I almost said, we have to fight to win peace, which would be contradictory) to attain the minimum degree of peace that makes life bearable: inner peace, peace in the family, peace in labor relations, peace in the political life and peace among the peoples. And how dearly is peace needed! Besides the terrorist attacks, there are 40 centers of war or generally devastating conflict in the world.

The causes that destroy peace and impede its construction are many, and even mysterious. I will limit myself to the first: the profound social inequality in the world. Thomas Piketty wrote an entire book about The Economy of Inequalities, (La economía de las desigualdades, Anagrama, 2015). The simple fact that about 1% of the population are multi-billionaires who control a great part of the peoples’ income, and in Brazil, according to Marcio Pochman, the expert on the matter, five thousand families control 46% of the GNP, shows the level of inequality. Piketty recognizes that «the question of inequality of income from work has become the central theme of contemporary inequality, if not of inequality of all times» — Very high income for the very few and shameful poverty for the great majority.

Let us not forget that inequality is an analytical-descriptive category. It is cold, because it does not let us hear the cries of the suffering it hides. Ethical and politically it is translated as social injustice. And theologically, it is a social and structural sin that affects the plan of the Creator who made all human beings in His image and likeness, with the same dignity and the same rights to the goods of life. This original justice (the social and creative pact) has been broken throughout history and we are left with the legacy of the atrocious injustice we now have, because it affects all those who cannot fend for themselves.

One of the most powerful parts of the encyclical letter of Pope Francis on the Caring for the Common Home is dedicated to “planetary inequality” (nn.48-52). It is worth quoting his words:

«The excluded are the majority of the planet, thousands of millions of people. They are present in international political and economic debates, but frequently it seems that their problems are dealt with as an afterthought, as an issue included as an obligation or in a peripheral manner, if they are not considered as mere collateral damage. In fact, when it comes to concrete action, they are frequently left in last place… justice should be included in the discussions about the environment, in order to hear the cries of the Earth and of the poor as well» (n.49).

In this lies the principal cause of the destruction of the conditions for peace among humans or with Mother Earth: we treat our fellow humans unjustly; we do not cultivate a sense of equity or solidarity with those who have less and who endure all types of need, condemned to premature deaths. The encyclical letter touches the central nerve when it says: «We need to strengthen awareness that we are a single human family. There are neither frontiers nor political or social boundaries that permit us to be isolated, and therefore there is also no place for the globalization of indifference» (n.52).

Indifference is the absence of love, the expression of cynicism and of the lack of cordial and sensible intelligence. I always touch this last point in my reflections, because without cordial and sensible intelligence we do not offer our hand to the other to care for the Earth, that is also a victim of grave ecological injustice: we make war on the Earth on all fronts, to the point that she has entered a process of chaos with global warming and the extreme effects it produces.

In sum, either we will be personally, socially and ecologically just, or we will never enjoy a serene peace.

In my understanding, the best definition of peace was that given by the Earth Charter, that affirmed: «peace is the plenitude that results from correct relationships with oneself, with other persons, other cultures, other forms of life, with the Earth and with the Whole of which we form a part» (n.16, f). Here it is clear that peace is not something that exists by itself. Peace is the result of proper relationships with the different realities that surround us. Without these correct relationships (this is justice) we will never enjoy peace..

To me it is obvious that there can be no peace in the present context of a society that is productive, consumerist, competitive and not at all cooperative, indifferent and egotistical, globalized worldwide. Slight pacification at best. Politically, we have to create another type of society based on just relationships among all, with nature, with Mother Earth and with the Whole (the mystery of the world) to which we belong. Then the peace that ethical tradition has defined as «the work of justice» (opus justiciae, pax), will flourish.
Leonardo Boff is theologian and member of the Initiate of the Earth Charter

Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

The 2015 annus nefastus does not destroy hope for an annus propicius

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

The year 2015 that just ended deserves this Latin characterization: annus nefastus. Others call it annus horribilis. There were so many calamities that, besides fright, they cause concern. The first concern is the Earth Over-Reach Day that occurred on September 13th. It means that on that day, the required supplies to maintain the life-system and the Earth-system had surpassed the Earth’s capabilities. The Earth lost her biocapacity. She is the basis for all our projects. Since the Earth is a super-living being, the signals she sends us that she has reached her limit are droughts, floods, typhoons and increased violence all over the world.

Everything is inter-connected, as Pope Francis insistently repeats in his encyclical letter. In this context, the consensus reached in Paris on December 12th by COP 21 is an illusion: the global warming should be below 2º centigrade, closer to 1.5°C by mid-century. This implies a change of our civilization’s paradigm, to not be based on fossil fuels, even though it is clear that all the combined alternative energies do not reach 30% of what we need. The great suppliers of oil, gas and carbon can neither undergo this conversion, nor do they want to do so. The idea is rhetorical.

The third dreadful event is the violent terrorism in Europe and Africa, the thousands of refugees and the wars the militarist powers together are conducting against the Islamic State and the other armed groups in Syria. Reputable sources claim that there have been thousands of innocent civilian victims. Another dreadful fact is the transformation of the United States into a terroristic state. With its 800 military bases distributed around the world, it intervenes, directly or indirectly, whenever it perceives that its imperial interests are threatened. Internally, the United States has not abolished the “Patriotic Act”, that suspends fundamental rights. It is no wonder that in 2015, the Northamerican police killed almost one thousand unarmed persons, 60% of whom were Black or Latino.

Another horribilis fact is the corruption in PETROBRAS, the largest oil company in Brazil, that involves millions and millions of dollars. Alongside this there arose among us a wave of hatred, rage and prejudice after the 2014 presidential elections. That is not surprising, because Brazil is full of contrasts; as Roger Bastide noted it in his Brazil, land of Contrasts, (Brésil, terre des contrastres, Hachette, 1957). Even before, Bastide, Gilberto Freyre, the most important interpreter of the social history of Brazil, wrote: «considered together, the formation of Brazil was a process of equilibrium among antagonists».

This antagonism, usually kept under ideological cover by the «cordial man» has now come to light and is clearly visible, especially in the social media. The «cordial man» that Sergio Buarque de Holanda, Brazil’s Roots, (Raízes do Brasil, 21.edición, 1989, p. 100-112) took from the writer Ribeiro Couto, is generally misunderstood. It has nothing to do with civility and courtesy. It has more to do with our aversion for social rites and formalisms. We favor informality and closeness.

It is a Brazilian characteristic that we are ruled more by our hearts than by reason. Now, kindness and hospitality derive from the heart. But as Buarque de Holanda points out, «enmity can very well be as cordial as kindness, because both are born from the heart» (note 157, of the pages, 106 and 107).

This fragile equilibrium was lost in 2015 and the negative cordiality emerged as hatred, prejudice and rage against the militants of the Labor Party, PT, against the northerners and against the Blacks. Not even constitutionally respectable figures, such as President Dilma Rousseff, were exempted. The Internet has opened the gates of hell to insults, rude words, direct affronts between persons, pitting some against others.

Such expressions only reveal our backwardness, our lack of democratic culture, intolerance and class struggle. It cannot be denied that in certain sectors are found resentment against the poor and those who have ascended socially, thanks to the social compensatory policies (that are not particularly emancipating) of the PT government. The Brazilian antagonisms were clearly shown to not be harmonized, and now openly pit some against others in true struggles (call them of class, of interests, of power, it does not matter). But there is a social fissure in Brazil, and it will cost us dearly to correct it. In my understanding, this can only be accomplished through a participatory democracy, beyond the present farce that represents the interests of the wealthy classes more than the interests of the people as a whole.

What is valuable is our super abundance of hope, that surpasses the annus nefastus and leads us towards an annus propicius. There are so many good experiences everywhere, that could not be mentioned in this space, that justify this hope of a propitious year. May God hear us.

Leonardo Boff is theologian, philosopher and writter
Free translation from the Spanish by
Servicios Koinonia, http://www.servicioskoinonia.org.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.