It is true: nothing seems so intolerable and so revolting as the oppression that wants to take away from man what is perhaps the only thing truly his: the freedom to think. Such violence is nothing but an onslaught that, when carried out, results in the annulment of the individual. A whipped, mutilated or violated man does not lose, in any way, that which consists in his essence, therefore these aggressions seem much lighter when we confront them with the suppression of his thought. That is to say: man, forbidden to think freely, loses his human dimension and comes close to being an animal.
Tag: philosophy
Honor Claims Civil Disobedience
There is, as Thoreau says, a time when honor claims intransigent civil disobedience, even though the punishment for such behavior is jail or the gallows. This thing called democracy perhaps sums up its value in having replaced declared tyrannies, or rather, in having the knowledge of the latter made “democrats” out of many men of valor. So we see that, in practice, tyranny has done nothing but change its name. It is impossible not to think of Kafka when we confront such democracy with the solitary individual. If we think, for example, of the immense oppressive power of the State machine or, more specifically, of the enlightened ones in robes, who enforce whatever they want, we see on the other side a nothing on his knees, tied up and under the double threat of the whip and the gag. Yet now, in a mix of Kafkaesque plot and nuances of Orwell and Huxley, oppression is delivered in packages as affable as they are false. To understand it and accept it willingly is to throw honor and the faculty of thought in the trash.
There Is a Tension that Precedes Moments Known to Be “Important”…
There is a tension that precedes moments known to be “important” that not only disturbs the mental balance, but accentuates the propensity to sudden and radical acts. It is as if this apprehension displaces discernment and puts the mind in a state of alertness that resembles that of the soldier on the battlefield, always on the verge of a violent impulse. So that besides it is just being cautious when experiencing it, more important is attention to, noticing it in other people, not being stupid enough to trigger it.
Although It Is Very Interesting to Note…
Although it is very interesting to note similarities in the approach of different traditions of thought to the central problem of human experience, and although they can effectively stimulate the awakening of consciousness, it would not be wrong to say that all the books ever written are insufficient for the individual to complete himself on this earth, that is, they are useless unless they stimulate action. This is why this problem, which has already produced endless lines, will always remain unsolved at the individual level, regardless of the quality of the manual used. The spirit that awakens, or rather the awakening, can be summed up in the realization that there is a work to be done, a personal and non-transferable work, without which existence itself seems meaningless. So there are many roads that lead to what is perhaps the capital moment of a life, but the paths are useless, if not justified by the act of walking on them.