Arquivo de behavior | Page 44 of 47

The Desire for Agreement

Few instincts are as pernicious to social relations and especially to the personality of the artist as the desire for agreement. Firstly, because this is a manifestation of vanity. Secondly, because of the natural implications: useless discussions, free antipathies and strengthening of attachment to one’s own ideas. All this is poison for someone who wants to cultivate friendly relationships and, worse, to give rise to artistic work. Living with the dissident is not only mandatory, but the world is better because two people do not think alike. And about the artist: what does he have to do with the opinion of others or with his own opinion? Wishing to agree will make him an egocentric, blinkered, inclined to use art to adorn his own convictions. As an artist, he will inevitably fail, since the desire for concordance is a stain that, in contact with art, impregnates and does not come out.

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The Bureaucrats’ Resistance

I admire the resistance of the bureaucrats. In the world, there are many bureaucrats. Ten, fifteen, thirty years performing exactly the same functions, fulfilling the same processes, satisfied and proud of their own experience. The serious countenance at work, the words filled with security, skill, precision. Experts in reports, forms, formal requisitions. Masters in procedures, specifications, certificates, regulations, minutes… I admire the resistance of bureaucrats, for I cannot imagine myself in such a universe but in despair, extreme frustration, eager for death. Filling out forms for thirty years? Please, please, give me the same hemlock as Socrates…

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About the Pest

As usual, the contingency exposing the fragility of man, baring him completely. Its natural reflexes: fear and despair. So, nothing new: corpses have always scared. However, perhaps the new pest has exposed a fresh mass phenomenon: the dependence on work. I say this because I see those who, forcibly cloistered, scream when they see their lives emptied of meaning, i.e., if there is no work, what remains of man?

We talk here about a class that at least has some purpose in life… But here is what the pest illuminates, despite the obvious modern economic and social fragilities: the profession-oriented life involves an obvious risk, aggravated gradually by time, of converting into a fatal disease the emptiness of the hands that watch the work flow through their fingers.. Hands that, retired, can find on a rope their only relief.

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Evangelical Pastors

Capitalism is full among evangelical pastors. I am not saying that it constitutes any demerit, but capitalizing on God’s name sounds to me too aggressive marketing. Why do I go back where I could avoid it? In all times and in various religions, the spiritual leader was an ascetic: denying the pleasures of the flesh, he paid for the title of spiritual authority. Exactly with the evangelical church this has changed, and today the pastor wears full costume, has wife and drives luxurious cars. Is it strange only for me? I perceive, disconcertedly, the obsession of pastors with the Pharisees: I see them condemning, in one package, knowledge and greed. But I have never seen, nor have heard, in all my life, of a single middle church pastor in financial difficulties: more, preaching pays them like successful businessmen. I think we need a redefinition: what is greed? Above all, who always represented greed in ancient times?

I go on — and I shudder at the obsession: — only those who turn their backs on money can speak about greed. And if I see an evangelical pastor with more money than his acolytes, I consider him a hypocrite. Patience, a lot of patience with my generalizations… But it is not me preaching that we are all brothers. Why does not the pastor lead by example? He could willingly begin by sharing his wealth and keeping to himself only what is necessary for life — and to spread his word as a messenger of God. But is the pastor content with so little? Absolutely not! The pastor wants luxury apartments and cars, wants to travel around the world and considers himself the son of God, that is, he thinks he is able to enjoy, too, the pleasures of capital. All right, all right… And each one dealing with your own greed and looking at the hypocritical face in the mirror.

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