The Earth is crying

Among populations that still live close to nature (very few!), that we call primitive from the height of our pride or stupidity, there is a concept of cyclical time tied to the natural rhythm of the seasons. For the Greeks it was the same, Nature was eternal, it was contemplated and even the social order had to reflect this natural pattern, although already Socrates began to see men independently from Nature. With Christianity time begins to be experienced as linear and God, who created humans from nothing, gives them power over Nature. With the Renaissance, Humanism, from Descartes on, God is removed from the center. Mankind is at the centre of the world nowadays and can dominate and manipulate Nature as a God but with the danger of destroying everything. The most tragic aspect is that we think we can dominate the technical device that we invented but in reality we are controlled by it. How do we get out of this? First, we must change the way we think.
We need to put limits to our activities and ourselves. Mankind cannot be at the center of everything, but needs to be in harmony with Nature that surrounds us, stay rooted in Mother Earth and feel as a whole with It. We need to create an ethic that involves the defense of Nature.
Will we change our way of thinking, decrease the economic activity, use the technique to clean up the environment and then live in harmony in it? Possible but very unlikely if we do not start acting immediately.

Il Mistero dell'Essere

L'Essere o la Natura o il Tutto, etc.., come si preferisce,  non puo’ essere entificato, cioe’ essere ridotto ad un ente, o somma di tutti gli enti, e quindi conoscibile, afferrabile e magari manipolabile. Questa e’ stata la storia della metafisica occidentale secondo Heidegger, culminata con il dominio della tecnica. L’Essere pero’ non puo’ essere neanche qualcosa di fluido, diveniente, possibilita’, perche’ non frena la forza creatrice/distruttrice dell’uomo nell’eta’ della tecnica. La critica di Severino all’Essere proposto da Heidegger mi sembra giusta. Ma direi che lo stesso Heidegger se ne rende conto. Nella sua famosa frase “solo un Dio ci puo’ salvare” e’ implicito secondo me che la sua idea di Essere e’ inadeguata perche' ha bisogno di un Dio che gli stia sopra. L’Essere non puo’ che essere allora un immutabile, infinito, eterno, immobile, che ingloba tutto (gli enti, la materia, l’energia, le idee, i progetti, le possibilita’ percorse e quelle imcompiute, etc..). Con un’operazione di astrazione possiamo pensare il Tutto ma non possiamo afferrarlo perche’ ne siamo parte. Possiamo manipolare la natura attraverso la tecnica, potremmo perfino cambiare la nostra natura di uomini e diventare immortali ma non potremo mai dominarlo, stare sopra ad esso. Se ce ne renderemo conto finira’ questa quest’epoca folle, nichilistica dove l’unico dio e’ il denaro e finira' questo delirio di onnipotenza attraverso la tecnica come rimedio all’angoscia della morte che non sappiamo gestire. Direi quindi che solo un'apertura mistica al Mistero del Tutto ci puo' salvare perche' possiamo pensare l'immutabile ma rimane ineffabile e inintelligibile.

On Free Will

We always take for granted that we have free will, that we decide freely, we consider freedom as one of the most important value of our society. However I would like to ask: are we really free? And what freedom really consist of? There is a long tradition of determinism, great philosophers like Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Emanuele Severino, just go mention a few, even Einstein, argue against freedom.

What about if it is just an illusion? What about if the future is there already and we do not see it just because we live in a very limited time? What about if time is illusion too and the past, the present and the future are just conventional and part of the whole?

Maybe we need to live in this illusion to avoid paralysis, we need to think that our very act of thinking is free. However it would be useful if we doubt and not take freedom as the Truth.

Community versus individualism

Nowadays we live in an atomized world where each of us is considered only an individual and not part of a community. We are only important as consumers. Instead we should re-discover the importance of our roots, the attachment to the land. However we should also bear in mind that communities can be stifling, rule-binding with little room for self expression. Will we be able to return to medium-small communities where there is solidarity and connection among people but also space for self emancipation? I think that is the best option in a world that tend to be more and more globalized.