Categoria: Idiomas

Erosion of the “Relational Matrix”

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

Many people in the world today, from very different backgrounds, are concerned by the present crisis, which includes a number of other crises. Each one sheds some light, and all that light is creative. But, as for myself, coming from a background in philosophy and theology, I feel the need for a reflection that goes deeper, to the roots, where the crisis that is now exploding with such virulence developed slowly. In contrast to previous crises, the present one has a singular characteristic: in it, the future of life and the continuity of our civilization are at stake. Our practices contravene the evolutionary course of the Earth. The Earth has created a friendly place for us to live, but we are not being very friendly to the Earth. We wage a never ending war against her, on all fronts, with no possibility of winning. The Earth can continue without us. We, however, need the Earth.

I think the closest roots, (we will not go back to the homo faber of 2 million years ago), are found in the paradigm of modernity that dissected reality, and transformed it into a scientific object and field of technological intervention. Until then, humanity generally understood itself as part of a living cosmos, full of meaning. They considered themselves to be the sons and daughters of Mother Earth. Now, Mother Earth has been demoted to a warehouse of resources. Things and human beings are disconnected from each other, each following its own course. This has produced a mechanical and atomistic conception of reality that is eroding the continuity of our development, and the integrity of our collective psyche.

The secularization of all the spheres of life took from us the sense of belonging to a larger Whole. We are ill-adjusted and submerged in a profound loneliness. The opposite of a spiritual vision of the world is not materialism or atheism, it is an uprootedness, and a feeling that we are alone and lost in the universe, something that is not present in a spiritual vision of the world.

These issues underlie the present crisis. To resolve it, we need to again be enchanted by the world, and recognize that the Relational Matrix, that involves us all, is eroding. We must understand the meaning of the future of humanity within a universe still in evolution/creation. The new sciences after Einstein, Heisenberg/Bohr, Prigogine and Hawking have shown us that everything is interconnected in such a way that it forms a Whole.

Atoms and elemental particles are no longer considered inert and lifeless. The microcosms emerge as a highly interactive world, one that cannot be described by human language, but only through mathematics. They form a complex unit in which each particle has been linked to all others, since the beginnings of the cosmic adventure some 13.7 billion years ago. Matter and mind mysteriously appeared, intertwined, and it is difficult to know whether mind came from matter, or matter came from mind; or if both appeared jointly. The Earth herself is alive (Gaia), containing all the elements to ensure ideal conditions for life. More than competitively, the Earth functions through cooperation of all with all. She shows an impulse towards complexity, diversity, and the appearance of consciousness at ever more complex levels, until her current expression through the networks of global connections within a process of growing globalization.

This cosmovision nourishes in us the hope that another world is possible, starting from a cosmos in evolution that, through us, feels, thinks, creates, loves and seeks a permanent equilibrium. The fundamental ideas, such as interdependency, community of life, reciprocity, complementarity and co-responsibility are keys of learning and nourish in us a more harmonious vision of things.

This cosmology is what is missing now. It has the ability to give us a coherent vision of the universe, of the Earth and of our place in the gathering of all beings, as guardians and protectors of all that is created. This cosmovision will prevent our falling into an abyss, with no return. In past crises, the Earth always came to our rescue, saving us. And it will not be different now. Together, we and the Earth, in synergy, will be able to triumph.

From the Ilusory “Selfish Gene” to the Cooperative Character of the Human Genome

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

Times of crisis of the system such as we are now experiencing favor a revision of concepts and a desire to project other possible worlds that would make reality what Paulo Freire called “a new viability.”

We know that the current world capitalist system is consumerist, viscerally egotistical and a predator of nature. It is leading humanity to an impasse, because it has created a double injustice: ecological, since it has devastated nature, and social, because it has generated immense social inequality. Simplifying, if only a little, we could say that humanity is divided between the minorities that eat to satiation, and those who are mal-nourished. If we were to expand the type of consumption of rich countries to all of humanity, we would need at least three Earths like the one we have.

The current system purports to find its scientific basis in the research of the British zoologist, Richard Dawkins, who thirty six years ago wrote his famous The Selfish Gene (1976). New genetic biology has shown that the selfish gene is illusory, because genes do not exist in isolation, they constitute a system of interdependencies that form the human genome, which obeys the three basic principles of biology: cooperation, communication and creativity. This is the opposite of the “selfish gene.” This is what notable names in biology, such as Nobel Laureate Barbara McClintock, Joachim Bauer, Carl Woese, and others, have shown. Bauer asserted that the selfish gene theory of Dawkins «is not founded on empirical data». Or worse, «it serves as bio-psychological justification to legitimize the individualistic and imperial Anglo-Northamerican economic order» (Das kooperative Gen, 2008, p.153).

It follows from this that if we want to find a way of living that is sustainable, and just for all peoples, those who consume the most must drastically reduce their levels of consumption. This will not be accomplished without strong cooperation, solidarity and clear self-restraint.

Let us pause on the latter, self-restraint, because it is one of the hardest to accomplish, given the prevalence of consumerism, which has spread to all social classes. Self-restraint necessarily implies limitations, so as to respect Mother Earth, to protect the collective interest and promote a culture of voluntary simplicity. It is not about not consuming, but about consuming in a restrained way, in solidarity with, and responsible to, our fellow human beings, to the entire community of life, and to future generations, that also must consume.

Restraint, moreover, is a cosmological and ecological principle. The universe developed from two forces that always limit each other: the forces of expansion and the forces of contraction. Without that internal limit, creativity would cease and we would be crushed by contraction. The same principle functions in nature. Bacteria, for example, if they were not mutually limited, and one were to lose all limits, in a very short time it would occupy all the planet, creating dis-equilibrium in the biosphere. Ecosystems guarantee their own sustainability by mutual limitation, allowing all to coexist.

Then, to emerge from the present crisis we need above all to reinforce cooperation of all with all, communication among all cultures and great creativity, to design a new paradigm of civilization. We must bid a definitive good bye to the individualism that excessively expanded the “ego” to the detriment of the “we” that includes not just human beings, but the entire community of life, the Earth and the very universe.

Confronting the sixth massive extenction

Leonardo Boff4 Comentários

We have previously addressed the fact that the human being, in later times, has inaugurated a new geologic era –anthropoceno–, the era in which humans appear as the greatest threat to the biosphere, and the eventual exterminator of our own civilization. For a long time, biologists and cosmologists have warned that our aggressive intervention in the natural processes is greatly accelerating the sixth massive extinction of living species. It has been going on for several thousand years. These extinctions mysteriously belong to the cosmogenic process of the Earth. In the last 540 million years the Earth experienced five great massive extinctions, about one every one hundred million years, that exterminated much of life in the sea and on the Earth. The last one occurred 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs, among other species, were annihilated.

All previous extinctions were caused by forces of the Earth, and the universe itself, such as, for example, climatic convulsions, or meteor strikes. The sixth is being accelerated by humans. But for the presence of humans, one species would disappear every five years. Now, due to our industrial and consumerist aggressiveness, we have multiplied extinction one hundred thousand times, as cosmologist Brian Swimme advised us in a recent interview for EnlightenNext Magazin, nº 19. The data are alarming: Paul Ehrlich, professor of ecology at Stanford University, estimates that 250,000 species a year are exterminated, while Edward O. Wilson, of Harvard University, gives lower numbers, between 27,000 and 100,000 species per year, (R. Barbault, Ecologia general, 2011, p. 318).

Ecologist E. Goldsmith of the University of Georgia affirms that humanity, by making the world ever more impoverished, degraded, and less capable of sustaining life, has reversed the evolutionary process by 3 million years. The worst is that we do not even notice this devastating practice, nor are we prepared to evaluate the meaning of massive extinctions. It signifies nothing less than the destruction of the ecological basis of life on Earth, and the eventual interruption of our essay of civilization and perhaps even of our own species. Thomas Berry, the father of Northamerican ecology, wrote: «our ethical traditions know how to handle suicide, homicide and even genocide, but we do not know what to do about biocide and geocide» (Our Way into the Future, 1990, p. 104).

Can we slow down the sixth massive extinction, given that we are its principal cause? Yes, we can, and we must. It is a good sign that we are developing an awareness of our origins, some 13.7 billion years ago, and of our responsibility for the future of life. The universe elicits that in us, because it is not against us, but for us. But it demands our cooperation, because we are the ones causing so much damage. We must wake up now, while there is still time.

The first task is to renew the natural pact between the Earth and humanity. The Earth gives us everything we need. The pact calls on us to be caring and respectful of the Earth’s limitations. But, ingrates that we are, we repay her with machetazos, bulldozers, bombs and ecocidal and biocidal practices.

The second task is to strengthen reciprocity and mutuality: to seek a harmonious relationship with the dynamism of the eco-systems, using them rationally, restoring their vitality, and ensuring sustainability. For that, we need to re-invent ourselves as a species that is concerned for other species, and learns to live together with the entire community of life. We must be more cooperative than competitive, more caring than willing to subjugate, and we must recognize and respect the intrinsic value of each being.

The third requirement is to experience compassion, compassion as a form of love and caring, not only between human beings, but with all beings. Whether they will be able to continue living or be condemned to disappear depends on us. We must abandon the paradigm of domination that reinforces mass extinctions, and live the paradigm of caring and respect that preserves and prolongs life. In the middle of the anthropoceno, it is urgent that we inaugurate the ecozoic era, that places the ecological at the center. Only then is there hope of saving our civilization and of ensuring the continuity of our living planet.

The Great Global and Brazilian Contradiction

Leonardo Boff3 Comentários

More and more a conviction is growing, even among establishment economists and those of the neo-Keynesian line, that we are dangerously close to reaching the Earth’s physical limits. Even with new technologies, it will be difficult to continue the project of limitless growth. The Earth can no longer tolerate it, and we have to change direction.

Economists such as our Ladislao Dowbor, Ignace Sachs, Joan Alier, Herman Daly, Tim Jack, Peter Victor and long before them, Georgescu-Roegen, fully incorporate the ecologic moment into the process of production. Especially the British Tim Jack, has become known for his book, Prosperity without Growth, (Prosperidad sin crecimiento, 2009) and Canadian Peter Victor, for his Managing without Growth, (Managing sin crecimiento, 2008). Both have shown that the growth of debt to finance private and public consumption (as the rich countries are doing), demanding more energy and greater use of natural goods and services, is simply not sustainable. 



Nobel Prize Laureates Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz, because they did not explicitly include the limits of the Earth in their analysis, fall into the trap of proposing greater public expenditure as the solution to the present crisis, supposing that this will produce economic growth and greater consumption, through which the astronomical private and public debts will be paid later on. We have said many times already that a finite planet cannot support a project of this nature, one that presupposes the boundlessness of goods and services. This is an established fact. 


What Jack and Victor propose is «prosperity without growth». In the developed countries, the level of growth is already sufficient to allow development of human potential, within the possible limits of the planet. Thus, enough growth. What can be sought is «prosperity» meaning a better quality of life, of education, health, ecological culture, spirituality, etc. This solution is rational but it can cause high unemployment, a problem they do not resolve well, suggesting a universal basic rent and reduction of work hours. There will be no solution without a prior agreement as to how are we going to have a supportive relationship with the Earth, and without defining the models of consumption so that everyone can have what is enough and decent.

That relation is inverted for the poor and emerging countries. «Growth with prosperity» is needed. Growth is necessary to attend to the minimum demands of those living in poverty, misery and social exclusion. Assuring enough indispensable goods and services is a matter of justice. But prosperity, which deals with the quality of growth, must be sought simultaneously. A real danger 
exists that they will fall victim to the logic of a system that induces greater and greater consumption, especially of unnecessary goods. The Earth’s limits would be stretched, which is just what must be avoided. We are facing a painful vicious circle, that we do not know how to make virtuous, without endangering the sustainability of the living Earth.


This is the contradiction not only facing Brazil but also the Globalization: growth is urgently needed to accomplish what the Lula’s government did, this is, to guarantee the basics, so that millions may eat and, through social policies, be incorporated into society. For the classes that have already been attended, less growth and more prosperity is needed: to improve the quality of the good life, education, less unequal social relations, and more solidarity, starting with the least among us. But who can convince them, if they are forcibly controlled by propaganda that incites them to consume?

As it happens, until now, brazilian and athor governments have had only distributive policies: unequally distributing public resources. First, 140 billion reales were guaranteed to the financial system to pay the public debt, and then for the grandiose projects, and only around 60 billion for the immense majorities that only now are ascending. Everyone gains, but unequally. Treating equals unequally is a great injustice. Never have there been redistributive policies: taking from the rich (through legal means) and passing it to the needier. Then there would be equity. 


The worst is that with our collective obsession of growth we are mining the vitality from the Earth. We need growth, but with a new ecological consciousness that can free us from the slavery of productivity and consumerism. This is our great challenge, as we face the uncomfortable Brazilian and Global contradiction.