terça-feira, 24 de abril de 2012

Among human habilities, only Arts can save our humanity...


 Most human beings have some believing and some ideas about spiritual salvation.
This is very important but it is not what we are talking about.
We are talking about human habilities acquired through centuries.
In Postmodern times, Science could explain everything about nature and humanity.
Science had a discourse about any trace of the human being: genes and molecular biology could answer any question.
Science is still more and more usefull and necessary, but it is not sufficient anymore to account for our humanity.
In the after-postmodern times, efficiency is not sufficient to fill our humanity.
We need something more.
Science can save my kidney, my brain, my body, but not my humanity...
In that context, only Arts can save my humanity.
Some discourses about the human being can only be made by poetry and cannot be replaced by Science.
Maybe poets could have some suggestion for current economic crisis...   

quinta-feira, 19 de abril de 2012

Consumer: the new old citizenship...

In modern times, from 1800 to 1950, products were made to last and people dreamed and searched  first to be a citizen than to buy things. 
In the second half of the 20th century the "concret dreams" replaced the subjective aims. So, the postmodern brought more and more dispensable products and "to consume" became a verb to exercise like a kind of sport.
In the "after-postmodern" with the end of bipolarization of the world and the multilaterality of economy, almost everyone want to become a "world citizen" or, in other words, to become "a consumer". 
Freedom became "a capacity ro buy things" as anyone of the so called rich countries. 
Maybe in a certain way it is true... But also maybe it is true that it could be more important to be "first a citizen" and to be on control of what to buy, than to blindly follow advertising.
Of course there is ethic advertising... or there ethic "anything"... 
And that is the reason because we say that in the after-postmodern times there is a space for Ethics to come before other values, because in after-postmodern that other values maybe are still necessary but not anymore sufficient to achieve what people need to live well...

   

quarta-feira, 11 de abril de 2012

Do international "megameetings" work in after-postmodern?

Postmodern Era was time of efficiency, time of results.
Big political international meetings had the attention of the world every time bringing news, even someone could doubt about the directions of the results of such meetings.
In after-postmodern times it seems that more and more the official international meetings have some week results and directions.
We are not talking about sports and art, even they are intertwined with economy, politics, etc.
In a certain way it seems that the in the "internet world" things work better for social and political movements.
The megameetings spend too much energy, material and money for few results.
Maybe they are necessary but they are not sufficient anymore to solve big problems.
Maybe international environmental megameetings could be less expensive and more sustainable if it uses more the communication technology and diminish the need of big trips of many people and the waste of resources, energy and material just to talk about environmental issues...
There are some paradoxes around these questions...
In after-postmodern they become more visible...