Holy Trinity
The world is going through a time of crisis and questioning. Two world wars, genocide, nuclear proliferation, Neoimperialism, and, today, 2006, the Middle East crisis, at least for now. You may call me what you wish: dreamer, utopist, stupid. Alas! I believe in Man.
In the Enlightenment, mankind was a mere child who had just discovered how to use their hands and feet. Every path was available for us to tread. God, as the Deists claimed, had created the Earth and now is up to us to shape it.
In time, Father, Son and Holy Spirit has been replaced by Reason, Justice and Progress. This is my trinity! This is the trinity Time and certain men have corrupted to serve their intents. Let us go back to Enlightenment, where there was confidence in Reason, in Science, in Letters... in Man.
posted by Helel Ben Shahar at
3:47 PM
9 Comments:
You said that? I don't remember. But, thanks for the support.
5:49 PM
Maybe we should demand a new enlightnment, a different one? Many of the crimes you list were performed in the name of Reason and Progress, and this Trinity may be undissociable with European expansionism and colonialism!?
4:06 PM
That's why I say this trinity was corrupted and in its name, as you said, many crimes were comitted. Just like in the name of religion many others are comitted, because their intrinsic values are distorted. I just think if it were to be respected, mankind might have a brighter future. Utopic? I know.
4:24 PM
But what if the problem lies in the concepts themselves, and not merely in their usage? What if Progress is built on a linearity of time and history that is fallacious? Or that reason without emotion is autistic?
12:16 PM
Nope. Don't buy "The Order of Things" perspective. There is progress. At least in the West. Just look at how we lived when the Enlightenment started. Of course Progress is not a linear affair. There are always setbacks. Cicles of regression. The forces of evil are always trying to deny Progress. They are always trying to corrupt progress, as Student points out.
1:03 PM
If progress means bettering our lives, then sure, definetly, all the way. The problem is what we understand as Progress, it cannot mean merely the application of the Eurocentric experience to the rest of the world and to the rest of history. We need to be more clever than that. Reclaim the word to redefine it. Or else Back to Enlightnment means merely a return to the past. Don't we want to add something to this ideal? Shouldn't we?
8:55 PM
Yes we should. Progress is not merely historic linearity. For me progress is, as you said, bettering our lives. and of course, I do not claim eurocentric experience to be superior to others. That's the fun of our planet: multiculturalism.
9:47 PM
TO sum up, our eurocentrism stands. Want to now why? Because of its values: Democracy. Freedom. Tolerance.
4:49 AM
Yes, Picasso, that is the kind of reflection that we need to have to unpack the values of the Enlightnment. Democracy today is an emptied concept, it is used and abused and has become meaningless. Maybe we should have a series of posts, discussing this, maybe reflecting on the definitions, meanings and uses of each of these "taken-for-granteds".
6:54 AM
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home