Whereto?
It seems that our fate is to be permanently in turmoil, seeking answers between two extreme ideals, trying every time the limits of each one of them, without being able to find the reasonable way. Why? Because, the more the seas are 'troubled', the more fish can be caught. And these lucky fishermen are the ones who lead the world. But can we find a different way forward? Maybe yes, maybe not! I do not know, and do not expect me to give an answer, but this is what I like to discuss about.
For the moment, let me notice a short remark: we often observe that many old people are dissatisfied with a lot of things. The cause is evidently: they did not reach their long-term ideals. It is not difficult to find out why: the ideals were not appropriate for their possibilities. If these discontent persons had been only a few, we could have said that it was their fault. But too many old persons are in this position. It means a general cause must be the reason. Certainly it is nothing else but our education. Our wrong education! Not only that from schools. The education of all our days: from cradle,
from the street, from everywhere. Besides, it continuously changes itself, imperceptibly. It means that we should analyze its way and see if it is what we want or not. If men have to search for an equilibrium between two intangible ideals, they will find a realist way, according with their desires, desires that are a result of their education. Not only that from schools! The education of all days: from cradle, streets, everywhere. And it is changing already. Imperceptibly, slowly, without informing the "scholarly men". And, if they must find a balanced position between two intangible ideals, people search for a more realistic aim. So, speaking about democracy, an idea that the Greeks invented and they repudiate as well, then the demos will find the solution too. Not as a form of government, which proved to be a vision, an illusion, but as a new philosophic concept, with a new ethic.
It result – I hope – from all I said so far that the arguments in favour of a type of society or another are deceitful and this seems to me to be our fundamental error: THE LIE. Instead to focus our attention on searching for some natural solutions, we build faithless scenarios. I wrote at the beginning that we oscillate between opposite ideals. I would have nothing against the oscillations, as they give life to the system and assured its progress, but the amplitudes of the last oscillations have become so great, that the whole mechanism is in danger to destroy itself. The leaders have become more and more sly and their capacity to manipulate scenarios greater and greater, so that the only real progress was the growing of the organizational capacity. I first wrote "to imagine scenarios" instead of "to manipulate scenarios". Meanwhile I realized that not their imagination is so productive but their capacity of manipulation. Look at Christianity, for example: from a religion of poor people, it became during the Inquisition an instrument of tyranny, namely the opposite of the original idea. In the same way it happens with every political paradigm. The modern paradigm, appeared as an alternative of monarchy, the most perfidious propaganda was developed, in order to persuade people that their country is not simple democratic, but just a symbol of it, or at least a model for the others. And if it is still not a perfect one, people must be quiet, because, anyway, a better one does not exist, betting in this way their indulgence.
Surely is that, if we emit less fantasist theories and philosophical systems (sometime not understandable for their author himself), and if we renounce to think that man is the final aim, but watch more attentively the nature, then we will find more useful principles of life and will help people to make less mistakes. The fact that man is today the most powerful of all beings is not a greater advantage than that of the dinosaurs of old times. It is not at all useful if our theory is an anthropomorphist one, in style of vital energies or of the souls haunting the space in searching of an unhappy body I will not approach essential topics like the universal suffrage – by which the stupid people elect his "scholars" – as I do not want to provoke polemics. I will exemplify the idea only by several reasons in order to underline the weakness of some current customs, on the one hand, and the possibility of their correction, on the other hand, under the condition we want. Many times, small problems helps us to understand clearer the great ones. As for me, I sometimes use an indirect way: for avoiding the subjectivism and preconceived ideas, change the domain with a different one in which I am not skilled at all or at the very least. I try to identify there some principles, after which come back in the first domain and verify their veracity. In most cases I noticed that, mutatis mudandis, they are valid. It is not a piece of news the fact that, sometimes, some experts in a field "do not see the wood for the trees" and, either do not catch sight of new solutions or their solutions act against their own system. The classical example is that of the militaries, who should be the latst called when two countries want to maintain peaceful relations. I mention these because the following examples are picked up from relative tiny problems. Their role here is only to bring into relief the wrong way in which we resolve them, with the mention that great problems are exactly in the same situation.
Here is a very concrete example: the tax for the profit. The one who works pays; the one who avoids work and shirks responsibilities receives. This principle is not only revolting, but it denotes a society inversely settled. The cause is to be found in the past. There was a time when it had a logic, but it occurred long time ago, into a society radically different from that of nowadays. I am remembering a book – Citadel, I think - by an English woman, the name of which I forgot. Her surname as "romantic" that period. At that time, those entering politics did not do it in order to enrich themselves, as they already were so, and neither to thieve from the propriety of state, as the state was just their group, usually fighting against a common enemy. They were entering the parliament or something similar in order to defend their common interests and were doing it with responsibilities. It was natural they would see about state’s affaires and not the mob; and it was naturally as well they had to subsidize general outgoings of the state. They were to ones who product, collect and expend. The idea that rich men pay the taxes has its origin from those times. But it happened then. It is not only an anachronistic one, but it is in contradiction with the principles of democracy. People are equal to each other in rights, they are equal in obligations as well. As for the politicians, do you see today any of them responsible for anything?
Now, I think of William the Conqueror. Not being a native-born chief, immediately after the conquest of the island, he organized a census, in order to know what he could obtain in case of war or peace, calamities etc. He imposed in this way a taxing according with everyone’s estate. He was not the single one doing it. In the Roman Empire, they used to do a census at every 14 years, and something similar organized every true civilizations. In this way, the first institutions appeared, and together with them, the modern state. As a matter of fact, the first characteristic feature of modern states is just the fact that they have institutions for every important activity. It is no longer a person – king, shah, emperor etc. – the arbiter in all questions, because the state has specialized institutions for it. It is true the institutions generate bureaucracy, corruption, etc., but that it is.
Coming back to the idea of taxes on profit, even if it is anachronistic, we still use it today, in spite of its prejudices, among of which the moral ones being not at all for neglecting. It gives a reason for avoidance from payment, lie, appropriation etc.
One says that theft is as old as the world exists. Which world? The world of religious man, namely after the appearing of the lie? Here is a proof proving that the spirit of equitableness was not only older, but natural. There is a species of very communicative monkeys, greatly fond of cucumbers and, especially bananas. A group of such monkeys was obliged to do some works, after which they received as recompense either cucumbers or bananas, all equally. At a given moment, for the same work, some of monkeys received cucumbers and the others bananas. The first ones refused to eat, even if cucumbers were good enough for them in normal conditions. Not only their spirit of equitation is obvious, but their power of sacrifice, for demonstrating their desire for keeping up a principle. Here that equitation is not our product. On the contrary, civilization brought in the inequity.
As for the taxes that every person ought to pay toward the state, we certainly are able to find solutions that are more reasonable. This is one, for the first example:
• One base tax for every mature person for state’s expenses due to the fact that he simply exists;
• One tax upon the estate of a land surface, differentiated according with its position: field of different qualities, village, town in downtown or peripheral, etc.
In this way, every person should pay according with what the society consumes for him, and people should not lie any longer. The tax on the land surface, and not on the building, obliges the owner to render it profitable, according with its position. It will be in his interest to build high and/or pretentious buildings on the grounds with high taxes. As for the payment, the state need not an army of bureaucrats, but should offer jobs to those unable to find one by themselves. Therefore, it will be in people’s interest to work in order to produce profit and not to enter that category of people working at the state for a minimal income. Unfortunately, it is evident that our society is not able to do this simple thing now, so we may ask: what it will first happen? The society will be able to change the taxing system or the wrong taxing system will be one of the arguments motivating the change of the society?
I write about the tax for profit not because it could solve all the problems of the society, but only as an example. The our whole way of thinking social-political problems is troubled by ideas more or less fixed and worn-out. We are in the situation of the producers of manual adding machines, striving for improving their products, while the computers appeared.
In politics – where we are all experts, aren’t it? – they adopt as principle that a country could not be governed but a parliamentarian majority formed by a party or an alliance of parties. I think the contrary: a party that obtains more than 50% would be automatically dissolved, because it is no longer a part and could assume the whole and is able to impose its will. This is totalitarianism. A law, if it is really good, will be approved by all parties, because the one, which does not do it, will lose its credibility. Instead, a bad law should not pass through parliament only because it put in advantage the members of the party at power. In this way, the parliament would be truly democratic, a forum of debates, and the laws really useful.
In moral, they exaggerate with the example of good man, hoping in this way to counterbalance the acts of evil, unpolished man. However, the real man apprehends the exaggerations and abandons the moral entirely. Besides, in the struggle for life, the polished man is offhanded and loses in every case. One arrives at the paradoxical conclusion that education would be detrimental. Of course, education is good, but a realistic one.
All people speak about ecology and the dangers in case we do not keep account of it. But the USA is the greatest polluter and – to reach a climax – it is the first opponent for all important solutions. A greater proof of hypocrisy would be difficult to find.
It is clear that, among the fundamental errors of the society, one of the most important is education. I think it is the most important. The educators, whosoever they would be, think they inoculate morality inside of children, but when later the experience gives to children a lesson completely different, these find out the teachers deceived them. Such a discovery could bring more prejudices.
The desire to be an important person is inborn in everybody. And if he has not even one aptitude, what he does? And if at school he realizes there is not a single chance for him that teachers will praise him, what does he? Among the first alternatives at hand, he may chose to become a brawler, thief something similar. But even for that some qualities are necessary: a brawler must be strong; a thief must be bold and so on. And if he has none of them, what does he do? Probably he becomes a politician.
The whippersnappers have a quality, yet: they know to join in doing evil. And thus appears clans, cliques, coteries, groups of interests, political parties appears.
We have just found out a first consequence of the wrong way in which the education is organized. It would be of no use to identify all of them, as they are too many.
The school, long time ago, was an attribute of the church. If the church proposed to itself to be the representative of good extreme - even if there is not an official institution representing the bad extreme, maybe except the political ones, but they do not recognize to play this role - then, laic education would be preoccupied in seeking for the reasoning way.
Here is a solution, even if it seems to be a utopia, which show us that we could think the system much better. It starts from the assertion that grandparents are excellent pedagogues for children. Some of them! As for adults, at the courses for specialization, refresher courses etc. the lecturers are some elder work fellows with more experience and/or more qualified, because at the adult age the professional training is what counts and not the pedagogic talent. Only the schoolchildren are left to the hand of some supposed professional in pedagogy. Error! Pedagogy is a talent that you have or not. One could not learn it. Some ability might be acquired in time, but only if the person loves children. This is why some grandparents succeed in it. We may develop this idea and look the right of grandparents in the education of their grandchildren as a prize, recompense, as they really won it on merit. Those close to the retiring age could be reward with the right of teaching children. The elder ones could deal with small pupils and relative younger ones – but not under 50 years - with the elder schoolchildren. Of course, not everyone might become a teacher, but only those that prove that they have the necessary pedagogic calm and culture according. Only in this way, the education would fall into the good hands and would have a positive role. Otherwise, with small retributions, education will be populated with teachers who have chosen this profession not being able to do something more profitable.
In many respects, the human society, at least the European or American one, is laid inversely. This is probably why every innovative idea seems to be better than the existed ones. Unfortunately, as we cannot modify the position of a working machine modifying, by turns, all pieces one by one, we cannot modify a social system with small changes. The only effect would be to affect the functionality of the system. Unlike the social system, a machine could be stopped. This is why the revolutions seem to solve the problem, but the history proved this is the worst solution. All revolutions brought much more disasters than improvements. And still, something must be done. What? We have to change the important principles, by putting them in according with what we really want, honestly and not demagogically. Universal suffrage, for example, does not belong to a democratic society, but to an oligarchic one, which use it for manipulating the mob. A truly democratic society would find some more intelligent modalities to elect its leaders.
That religion is necessary I already showed. I am rewording. The religion is indispensable. The priests cannot say to their parishioners to be faithful only half- dose. They claim the whole, hoping that people will keep at least a half. Wrong! When people realised the error, they abandon it entirely. The target of the religion is to give to people a hope. For this, the religion must show a way, not a lie. All of them invented some cosmogonies. Do we really need them? If yes, I imagined not even one, but at least a starting point.
When thinking of micro-cosmos, we have in view tiny lifeless particles having certain characteristic physical features. In macro-cosmos, the only difference is that the tiny particles become very large cosmic bodies. We wonder ourselves if life exists on other planets but any planet strictly speaking is conceived as something without life. Into this inanimate and simple medium, between micro and macro cosmos, life does exist at least on our planet on which we live with all of our faiths and fights. Odd, isn't it? The culprit is our imagination, or more specifically, our lack of imagination. We understand what occurs around us but our knowledge decreases substantially as our thinking moves farther away. In both micro-cosmos as well as macro-cosmos, our mind imagines simple particles whirling unceasingly around each other. Really? Is the world senseless? Unlikely! What would be the sense of a world without sense? We will never be able to provide answers to these questions but this does not prevent us from imagining other cosmogonies. But why? The reason for any cosmogony ever conceived was to make sense of our life and to serve as support of morality. Any religion does offer some moral norms based upon a particular cosmogony. The science, on the other hand, destroys any cosmogony, and implicitly the moral norms that had used that cosmogony as support, offering nothing as a replacement. If you are not a religious person at all, consider the following proposition. As science accepts the infinite as mathematical notion, then we may accept that Earth is a particle in the micro-cosmos of another superior system which, in turn, is a particle in other systems and so on. Perhaps we are somewhere in an infinite flight of stairs. Can Earth be a particle of the liver of an upper being? It seems we must accept that life could exist both in small and large infinite. There is a god for us and we are gods for our some smaller ones. But, how could I tell to those smaller beings (part of my body) what I want them to do? How could I address to them? They do not know Romanian language, not even English. It must be another way, not to make them to understand me, but to oblige them to work properly. Unless, the inflicting punishment will be drastic and then... what, for example, a section of the liver becomes out of the body? A decaying material! Of course, it would be naive to think that God looks like us and he watches our individual existence. Is there a moral? From an individual point of view the answer is NO, but - from a collective one - it is YES. For example to keep Earth alive; otherwise the vital functions of the upper being will surely remove us as a decayed corpuscle! In which way? This would be the topic of the religion. This is not just a cosmogony but it deserves to think on it.
As God could not address us in a direct way, it is supposed that he do it indirectly. Consequently, we only have to be receptive for his signs and interpret them correctly.
Those several ideas that I yarned up to here, some of them maybe eccentric, will not change the system. Probably not even other ones like them would. Still, that does not mean that it is nothing to do. On the contrary, the system changes itself permanently and it will be better or worst, depending on us, if we succeed in seeing where we are wrong and have the courage to put the finger on the sore place – even a sterilized dressing. Before any solution, we need to know ourselves better.
I do not know what the future society will be like. What I know is it will be different from the current one, because nothing stands unstirred. We could imagine something, because social changes depend on people’s wish of banishing what they found to be evil. We only have to identify the existing evils. At first sight, we may say that the lie is that. But lie will exist for ever, because the society must directed, the leaders need arguments, the truth is often disliked and a lie nicely spoken is preferable. So, what will be? A new lie!
Still, let us see what people identify as wrong in the society and should be removed. The first is the lie about democracy, but the politicians know best about this and try to cover it up, saying that, anyway, a better one does not exist. Here, they are right. The mistake consists in placing the discussion at a rather general level. There need some more concrete arguments.
"Man begun as a worm", Geoffroy said, in an optimist- evolutionist vision. The reciprocally would be to arrive there, having in view that we started from Creator’s hands. Personally, prefer a static variant: to remain if possible men!
Oswald Spengler - after he demonstrates nice and convincing where we start from and where we arrived - feels the need of a final for the humanity. I thought this was his aim. Unfortunately, the future in his opinion is as romantic as demoralizing. It is true the artistry is present. Instead of characterizing his conception, it is easier for me to cite the last paragraph from "Man and Life Philosophy": "We are born in this time and have to cross courageously the road destined to us up till its end. There is not the other one. Let us resist on the lost redoubt without hope, without rescue, here is our duty. Let us resist like that Roman soldier the bones of which were found in face of a gate from Pompeii, and which died because during the eruption of Vesuvius they forgot to revoke the command. This is the greatness, this means to have first-rate. This honest end is the single thing, which can be taken from the man."
All right, it is grandiose, nothing to say, but it is non- lucrative and in contradiction with his demonstration so far that – I repeat – is very reasoning. Maybe just this uninspired final attracted the critics of his adversaries. It is of no use for us to do the same. Spengler is a philosopher. From his wish to finish nicely the book, he did not realize that he went down at the level of common literature, and lost. His analysis is perfect. The prolongation of the trend has not justification. Any mathematic simulation based only on the broadening of the trend is negative. In life, instead, new elements always appear, elements we cannot prefigure. This is why, a correct simulation must have in view the apparition of some surprises, even if we cannot determine them a priori. Besides, as life has priority, we may suppose the apparition of news where, in their lake, an irremediable catastrophe should occur, which Spengler did not do. It is true, he was only an analyst, even if a very good one. His main idea starts from the assertion that man tries not only to defeat the nature, but want to make it to work in man’s service. "Civilization itself became a machine". Now, "its creation rises up against the creator", "the team (of animals and the vehicle harnessed to them) out of control drags the fell conqueror.
There were catastrophes in the past and some will be in the future as well. Surely, one will come: the nuclear one. But men are not dinosaurs. They will not disappear in the same way, as humanity built a culture, and this one does not perish so easily.
If we look in the past, we may notice that, in the history of humanity, cultural catastrophes had negative effects just more powerful than some nuclear bombs would produce. If we think of the morality of some antique civilisations, we may come to the conclusion that our so called modern civilisation represented a greater catastrophe due to downfall of morality. (It seems I begin to step in Spengler’s traces!) Surely, new solution will appear. A first proof is the fact that more and more people search for naïve solution in all kind of fields, including some occult ones, only, and only, for getting away from the actual "philosophy", which reflect the conviction that it is wrong. Do you want to be assured of it? Enter a good bookstore, where the owner knows to sell his goods, and you will find how large the stands with occult books are. Besides, there are even specialized bookstores. What exactly the readers searching for I do not know, probably neither they, but surely they will find something, even if not there. For the moment, I only noticed that an intense preoccupation already exists, sign that people want a change.
An eventual nuclear catastrophe will not be as big to make Terra blow to pieces. A smaller one will be sufficient to wake the people. What we know is that the whole propagandistic arsenal used today, starting with Christianity and ending with democracy, will fall lamentably, but not before putting something else instead.
I discuss a little about goodness. Some people are good- hearted, others are not, according with their nature. Still, all of them change their point of view toward the end of life. Here is an argument. Apparently, most young people want to have money. Either they do not have any, or have not enough, spend almost whole their life trying to earn money. More and more money! In order to earn/gain money people often fight against each other with all the means more or less admissible. The goodness is forgotten. Becoming old-aged persons, they come to the conclusion that money is not so important. Why? At the beginning of this paragraph, I said that people 'apparently' want money. Actually, they have in view other objectives and need money in order to buy them (objects, services, etc). The objectives are not the same; as a young man he maybe wants a motorbike, later on a car, another car, a house, a larger house, and so on. As an old man, he has other criterions for evaluation and other things are in his area of interest. He wonders: what was the use of his efforts to obtain all those objects or services? They are useless now! In that moment he comes to the conclusion that the goodness deserves a greater appreciation. Sometimes it is too late. The education helps us to understand this truth sooner.
We saw how educated people made wrong decisions or were incapable of reacting correctly in face of less educated ones. It is clear that education did not help them. On the contrary, it hampered them, because of an inefficient scheme. One could give an examples in almost every field, not only some small ones from the personal life. It is clear that we have to change some principles and not some cosmetic measures.
I discussed mainly two fields, apparently opposite: religion and politics. I would choose some others as well, but these seemed to me to be the most actual. Solutions? It is exactly what I do not do. I am anything else except a utopian. Maybe people are full up of the utopias. A profound analysis of what we really are, where we arrived, in what way we arrived here, etc. is all we have to do. With one condition: SINCERITY. Let us no longer cheat our time with illusions!