Die Schlacht auf dem Lechfeld

Sarrazin warnt vor ungesteuerter Einwanderung in den Sozialstaat

Ex: http://www.jungefreiheit.de/

Thilo Sarrazin warnt einmal mehr vor ungesteuerter Einwanderung in den Sozialstaat Foto: JF

BERLIN. Der frühere Berliner Finanzsenator Thilo Sarrazin (SPD) hat vor der für 2014 geplanten Öffnung des deutschen Arbeitsmarktes für Rumänen und Bulgaren gewarnt. In Berlin gebe es gegenwärtig einen starken Zustrom von rumänischen Roma und bulgarischen Türken, die dadurch alle ein dauerhaftes Aufenthaltsrecht und Anspruch auf deutsche Sozialhilfe erhielten, sagte Sarrazin der österreichischen Tageszeitung Kurier. „Es wird nicht funktionieren, die wachsenden Lasten von demographischer Alterung plus weiterhin ungesteuerter Einwanderung in den deutschen Sozialstaat durch mehr Belastung der sogenannten Reichen zu finanzieren.“

Gleichzeitig widersprach Sarrazin Forderungen seitens der Wirtschaft nach mehr Zuwanderung aus Gründen des Facharbeitermangels. „Es gibt einen Facharbeitermangel, aber 40 Prozent der Türken in Deutschland haben keine Berufsausbildung. Durch die Art des Zuzugs in den sechziger und siebziger Jahren haben wir die Probleme, die wir heute mit dem Facharbeitermangel haben, großenteils erst geschaffen“, stellte der frühere Bundesbankvorstand klar.

Die Deutschen hätten auf die Zeugung eigener Kinder verzichtet und wenig bildungsbereite muslimische Einwanderer hereingelassen. „Deutsche, die gar nicht geboren wurden, können natürlich weder Facharbeiter noch Ingenieure werden“, betonte Sarrazin.

Keine Sozialleistungen für Einwanderer in den ersten zehn Jahren

Um der negativen Entwicklung ernsthaft gegenzusteuern brauche es vielmehr eine Reihe von gesetzlichen Änderungen. So dürften Zuwanderer für die ersten zehn Jahre keine Sozialtransfers bekommen. Ein Aufenthaltsrecht sollten nur diejenigen erhalten, „die auf Dauer in Deutschland einen qualifizierten Beitrag leisten können und wollen“ und Sozial- und Familienleistungen müßten von ausreichenden Sprachkenntnissen und dem Bemühen um Integration abhängig gemacht werden.

Muslimischen Einwanderern müsse der Staat zudem deutlich machen: „Irgendwann werdet ihr Deutsche, auch wenn ihr natürlich weiterhin türkisch kochen und in die Moschee gehen könnt, und wenn ihr das nicht wollt, geht ihr besser zurück.“ Umfragen zeigten laut Sarrazin, daß über 60 Prozent der Türken in Deutschland nicht oder nicht gut Deutsch sprächen, und ein Drittel sofort Deutschland verlassen würde, wenn es keine Sozialhilfe gäbe.

Zu der Frage, ob Berlins Regierender Bürgermeister Klaus Wowereit (SPD) ein geeigneter Kanzlerkandidat wäre, wollte sich der frühere SPD-Politiker nicht äußern. Insgesamt habe die SPD bei der Wahl zum Abgeordnetenhaus vor einer Woche aber leicht verloren. „Überall dort übrigens, wo die SPD auch türkischstämmige Kandidaten im Zuge des integrationspolitischen Mainstreams aufgestellt hat – piep, piep, piep, wir haben uns alle lieb –, hat sie überdurchschnittlich verloren“, sagte Sarrazin. In Neukölln habe die SPD mit Heinz Buschkowski, der ähnliche die Thesen und Analysen vertrete, trotz des dortigen hohen Einwandereranteils dazugewonnen. (krk) 

> Institut für Staatspolitik: Ein Jahr nach Sarrazin. Eine Debatte und ihre Folgen 

Absolute Woman: A Clarification of Evola’s Thoughts on Women

Absolute Woman:
A Clarification of Evola’s Thoughts on Women

By Amanda BRADLEY

Ex: http://www.counter-currents.com/

One of the central concepts of Julius Evola’s philosophy of gender is the distinction between absolute man and absolute woman. But he seldom gives explicit definitions of these terms. Absolute man and woman can be likened to Platonic Forms, thus defining them can be as difficult as defining Justice, Truth, or Love.

The term “absolute woman” inspires more controversy than “absolute man.” Since the male principle is associated with light, goodness, and activity, whereas the female principle is associated with darkness, evil, and passivity, feminists can easily claim that Evola’s views are inherently misogynist. Another point of controversy is Otto Weininger’s influence on Evola. Evola himself admits that Weininger must be read critically due to “his unconscious misogynous complex” (Julius Evola, Eros and the Mysteries of Love: The Metaphysics of Sex [Rochester, Vermont.: Inner Traditions, 1991], 157–58).

It is important to address Evola’s writings on women so that his views are correctly understood. Since he was opposed to the emerging feminism of his day, it would be easy for those unfamiliar with his ideas to infer that Evola also was anti-woman. By explaining his views and not glossing over any points that do in fact sound misogynistic (as is the case with some Evola devotees) the New Right can set the terms of discourse and accurately elucidate his position.

Evola on the Composition of Human Beings

The simplest definition of “absolute woman” is the female principle, the feminine force of the universe. Individual men and woman have varying degrees of the absolute man and woman, although the feminine principle usually is the underlying force in women.

In the modern world (the Kali Yuga) these forces appear in more degenerate forms and also do not always manifest properly. In fact, Evola said that “cases of full sexual development are seldom found. Almost every man bears some traces of femininity and every woman residues of masculinity . . . the traits that we deemed typical for the female psyche can be found in man as well as women, particularly in regressive phases of a civilization” (Eros, 169). In addition, these “manifest differently depending on the race and type of civilization” (Eros, 168).

To understand the influence of the “absolute woman,” it is first necessary to understand Evola’s conception of the human being. He held that humans are comprised of three parts:

1. the outer individual (the personality, or ego).
2. the level of profound being, the site of the principium individuationis. This is the true “face” of a person as opposed to the mask of the ego.
3. the level of elementary forces that are “superior and prior to the individuation but acting as the ultimate seat of the individual.” (Eros, 36)

It is at the third level, that of elementary forces, where sexual attraction is aroused (Eros, 36). Thus it is here that the elementary forces that comprise the absolute man or woman are located. This matches Evola’s description of some modern women, who are able to develop “masculine” skills such as logic or intellectualism. He says they have done so “by way of a layer placed on top of [their] deepest nature” (Eros, 151–52). However, they have not succeeded in altering their fundamental nature, only their superficial personalities.

A Metaphysical Starting-Point for Male and Female

According to Traditional doctrines, the sexes were metaphysical forces before they manifested in the world. Absolute man and woman exist from the beginning of time, when the Universal One splits into a Dyad, which then causes the rest of creation. In most forms of Hinduism, Shiva, the male principle, is identified with pure Being. Shakti, the female principle, is identified with Becoming and Change. In a similar vein, Aristotle associated the male principle with form and the female with matter. According to Evola, form means “the power that determines and arouses the principle of motion, development, becoming” while matter means “the substance or power that, being devoid of form in itself, can take up any form, and which in itself is nothing but can become everything when it has been awakened and fecundated” (Eros, 118). In the Far Eastern tradition, yang (the male principle) is associates with heaven, while yin (the female principle) is associated with the earth (Julius Evola, Revolt Against the Modern World, trans. Guido Stucco [Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions: 1995], 157.).Thus, form and matter combined to create the manifested universe. And from the coitus of Shiva and Shakti “springs the world” (Eros, 122). (This is in contrast to Oswald Spengler, who believed that becoming was the essential element, rather than steadfast being.)

The male principle is associated with truth, light, the Sun, virility, activeness, and stability. Sometimes it is associated with the Universal One that existed before the Dyad. The female quality is associated with deception, changeability, the moon, the earth, darkness, wetness, passivity, and dependence on another. In Evola’s words:

What the Greeks called “heterity,” that is, being connected to another or being centered on someone other than oneself, is a characteristic proper to the cosmic female, whereas to have one’s own principle in oneself is proper to the pure male. . . . female life is almost always devoid of an individual value but is linked to someone else in her need, born of vanity, to be acknowledged, noticed, flattered, admired, and desired (this extroverted tendency is connected to that “looking outside” which on a metaphysical level has been attributed to Shakti). (Eros, 157)

These forces then manifest in actual men and women. But Evola is clear to maintain that absolute man and woman are not simply aspects of character. Instead, they are “objective elements working in individuals almost as impersonally as the chemical properties inherent in a particular substance” (Eros, 152). As Evola says:

before and besides existing in the body, sex exists in the soul and, to a certain extent, in the spirit itself. We are man or woman inwardly before being so externally; the primordial male or female quality penetrates and saturates the whole of our being visibly and invisibly . . . just as a color permeates a liquid. (Eros, 32)

As such, the absolute woman is not simply an idealized concept of woman. She is defined from the divine down to the human, and is not a human conception of something divine.

Evola’s Description of Absolute Woman

The absolute woman is the rod by which all women are to be measured. Evola writes, “the only thing we can do is establish the superiority or inferiority of a given woman on the basis of her being more of less close to the female type, to the pure and absolute woman, and the same thing applies to man as well” (Eros, 34). In addition, superiority is defined by how closely one realizes the absolute woman or man. “A woman who is perfectly woman is superior to a man who is imperfectly man, just as a farmer who is faithful to his land and performs his work perfectly is superior to a king who cannot do his own work,” says Evola (Eros, 34).

Many more characteristics are associated with the female principle than those described below; however, these are the primary ones highlighted by Evola in his writings on the subject.

The Waters and Changeability

The fundamental feminine characteristic is changeability. Thus, the female is associated with water, which is fluid, and adapts to whatever form it is put into, just as matter/Shakti is shaped by form/Shiva. Evola writes that woman “reflects the cosmic female according to its aspect as material receiving a form that is external to her and that she does not produce from within” (Eros, 153). This fits in with Carl Jung’s description of woman’s animus, which is not self-created, but instead is a subconscious collection of the thoughts of men.

This changeability is related to woman’s tendency to live for someone outside of herself, due to the fluidity and changeability of her nature. For Evola, this means following the path of a mother or lover, fixing herself to a virile force in order to obtain transcendence. In contrast, “modern woman in wanting to be for herself has destroyed herself” (Revolt, 165.). By believing that she is merely her personality, she loses her transcendent aspect.

This changeability is seen in the association of the female with water. According to Evola, water represents “undifferentiated life prior to and not yet fixed in form,” that “which runs or flows and is therefore unstable and changeable,” and “the principle of all fertility and growth according to the analogy of water’s fertilizing action on earth and soil” (Eros, 119).

Evola also describes the correct relationship between the principle of water and that of fire, associated with the male: “when the feminine principle, whose force is centrifugal, does no turn to fleeting objects but rather to a ‘virile’ stability in which she finds a limit to her ‘restlessness’” (Revolt, 158).

Evola assents that certain modern women may appear very unchangeable, but stresses that this is at an outer level of her being:

a possible rigidity may follow the reception of ideas due precisely to the passive way she has adopted them, which may appear under the guise of conformity and conservatism. In this way, we can explain the apparent contrast inherent in the fact that female nature is changeable, yet women mainly show conservative tendencies sociologically and a dislike for the new. This can be linked to their role in mythology as female figures of a Demeter or chthonic type who guard and avenge customs and the law—the law of blood and of the earth, but not the uranic law. (Eros, 153)

Thus, a woman may be quite unchanging in her beliefs about society, etiquette, and morality, but will lack an attachment to a transcendent truth. Many of women’s ideas regarding social truths such as honor and virtue are “not true ethics but mere habits,” Evola says (Eros, 155).

This changeability of women explains the notion that women are at the same time more compassionate and more cruel than men; as woman is associated with the earth, she expresses both the tenderness of the mother and the cruelty of nature. The best example of this duality is the Greek goddess Artemis, who was both the protector of wild animals and the huntress.

Woman’s Lack of Being or Soul

Perhaps the most controversial characteristic of Evola’s absolute woman, which he gets from Weininger, is a common conception throughout history: that woman has no soul, or being. Weininger states that woman has no ego, referring to the Transcendental Ego of Immanuel Kant, which Evola describes as “above the whole world of phenomena (in metaphysical terms one would say ‘above all manifestation,’ like the Hindu atman)” (Eros, 151). In some schools of Hinduism, the atman (or “higher self”) is identical with the Brahman, the infinite soul of the Universe. In other Hindu conceptions, the atman is the life-principle. As manifested existence would be impossible without the atman, this description of woman as lacking a Transcendental Ego should not be taken to mean that women are incapable of developing and solidifying this aspect, though they may be at a disadvantage to men. Also, in the Kali Yuga, all people are the furthest removed from the divine, so modern men and women are likely in the same starting position in terms of development of Being.

Evola expands on the notion, stating that if soul means “psyche” or “principle of life,” then “it should signify in fact that woman not only has a soul but is eminently ‘soul,’” whereas man is not a soul but a “spirit.” He continues: “the point we believe settled is that woman is a part of ‘nature’ (in a metaphysical sense she is a manifestation of the same principle as nature) and that she affirms nature, whereas man by virtue of birth in the masculine human form goes tendentially beyond nature” (Eros, 151).

Deception and a Connection to Truth

Another attribute of absolute woman is deceitfulness. In fact, Evola states that it is so essential that telling lies has been acknowledged as an essential characteristic in female nature “at all times and in all places by popular wisdom” (Eros, 155). According to Weininger, this tendency is due to her lack of being. With no fixed essence, most women (and modern men) are attached to no transcendent truth, and therefore there is nothing to lie against—Truth only exists when one has substance and values. In Evola’s words:

Weininger observed that nothing is more baffling for a man than a woman’s response when caught in a lie. When asked why she is lying, she is unable to understand the question, acts astonished, bursts out crying, or seeks to pacify him by smiling. She cannot understand the ethical and transcendent side of lying or the fact that a lie represents damage to being and, as was acknowledged in ancient Iran, constitutes a crime even worse than killing. . . . The truth, pure and simple, is that woman is prone to lie and to disguise her true self even when she has no need to do so; this is not a social trait acquired in the struggle for existence, but something linked to her deepest and most genuine nature. (Eros, 155)

This quality of deceitfulness, while springing from the fundamental makeup of women, should not imply that it must be accepted as a given trait of all women, as some of Weininger’s writings imply. For, just like man, the ultimate goal of a woman’s existence is to connect with and live by the transcendent, which requires a fixation that cannot accept deception.

Woman’s Intuition, Man’s Ethics and Logic

Another idea Evola gets from Weininger is the notion that absolute woman, since she lacks being, also lacks memory, logic, and ethics (Eros, 154). In order to explain this, Evola distinguishes between two kinds of logic: everyday logic, which women can use quite successfully (though sometimes like a “sophist”) and “logic as a love of pure truth and inward coherence” (Eros, 154). This distinction can most commonly be seen when women use logic in arguments as a means to personal ends, rather than to arrive at a truth beyond their desires. Evola writes that

woman, insofar as she is woman, will never know ethics in the categorical sense of pure inner law detached from every empirical, eudemonistic, sensitive, sentimental, and personal connection. Nothing in woman that may have an ethical character can be separated from instinct, sentiment, sexuality, of “life”; it can have no relationship with pure “being.”

Women’s primary tool of cognition is not logic but intuition and sensitivity (Eros, 154).

In explaining memory, Evola turns to Henri Bergson, who described two types of memory. One is more common in women: the memory connected to the subconscious, which may remember dreams, have premonitions, and unexpectedly recall forgotten experiences. The second type of memory, which women lack due to their fluid nature, is “determined, organized, and dominated by the intellect” (Eros, 154).

The Female Principle as Powerful, Sovereign, and Active

Generally the female principle is described as passive, and the male as active. According to Evola, this only is true on the outermost plane. On the subtle plane, he says, “it is the woman who is active and the man who is passive (the woman is ‘actively passive’ and the man ‘passively active’)” (Eros, 167–68). In Hindu terms the impassible spirit (purusa) is masculine, while the active matrix of every conditioned form (prakriti) is feminine (Revolt, 157). Thus, to use the creation of a child as an example, man gives his seed, but it is woman who actively creates and gives birth to the child.

Mythology supports the sovereign aspect of woman. Evola gives the examples of the Earth goddess Cybele drawn in a chariot led by two tame tigers, and the Hindu goddess Durga seated on a lion with reins in her hands (Eros, 167). Evola states that man knows of this sovereign quality in women, and “often owing to a neurotic unconscious overcompensation for his inferiority complex, he flaunts before woman an ostentatious manliness, indifference, or even brutality and disdain. But this secures him the advantage, on the contrary. The fact that woman often becomes a victim on an external, material, sentimental, or social level, giving rise to her instinctive ‘fear of loving,’ does not alter the fundamental structure of the situation” (Eros, 167).

 

Association with the Demonic and Aspiration

Another “negative” quality of the absolute woman is that of aspiration, in the sense of a sucking quality, which also is associated with the demonic. On a profane level, in a degenerate form, this could be the woman who is constantly demanding more from her husband and others—more time spent together, a better car, a bigger house, or more attention. Since she has no “soul” (as defined above), she must fill the void within herself by sucking the vital force from others in emotional, monetary, or temporal vampirism.

On a metaphysical level, this quality merely refers to the divine female, Shakti, pulling Shiva into the world of manifestation. Thus, it is not good or bad, except for Gnostics or other sects who believe the created world to be evil. As Evola states, woman “is oriented toward keeping that order which Gnosticism, in a dualistic background, called the ‘world of the Demiurge,’ the world of nature as opposed to that of the spirit” (Eros, 141). This demonic element is expressed in actual life when women draw men to the realm of earth, nature, and children. It is expressed in sex when man’s seed being draw into the woman, creating a child bound by nature. “Although ‘woman’ can give life,” Evola writes, “yet she shuts off or tends to shut off access to that which is beyond life” (Eros, 142).

In some Eastern thought, the man’s seed is thought to be the spiritual manhood—hence the formation of sects that teach men to retain this force to attain liberation rather than wasting it through ejaculation. Women properly trained are said to be able to capture this essence during sex, thus seducing the man into giving up his manhood.

The positive aspect of this trait lies in woman’s ability to overcome it, most often by following the path of the mother or lover. In the actions required by these paths (if following them in an attitude of self-sacrifice and not self-aggrandizement), she no longer drains others, but instead learns to build up a vital force within herself through renunciation of desires. By relinquishing the control of the ego/personality by instead being devoted to others, woman is able to fix herself to the transcendent.

Like the other qualities of absolute woman, that of aspiration also can be found in man, especially in the Kali Yuga. Evola refers to sexual practices found in Chinese Taoism, India, and Tibet, where the man sucks the vital female energy from a woman during sex, a technique he describes as bordering on “male ‘psychic’ vampirism” (Eros, 249).

 

The Value of Absolute Woman in the Modern World

In the Golden Age, we can imagine that the metaphysical elements comprising a person manifested in the proper way. In such a time, the highest classes gave birth to the highest people; race was indicative of a corresponding inner quality; beauty on the outside attested to an inner beauty; and physical gender aligned with the qualities of absolute man or woman.

But in the Kali Yuga, there are pariahs in the highest classes, men who act like women, and men of Aryan stock who do not embody any of the virtues attributed to their race. As Evola says, it is possible for a person to be a different sex in the body than they are in the soul. These cases are similar to those where individuals of one race “have the psychic and spiritual characteristics of another race”(Eros, 34).

Therefore, men today may not innately possess any virile seed, just as modern women do not necessarily express the absolute female principle. In reading Evola’s work, then, we must not mistakenly interpret what he says about absolute man or woman as corresponding with individual men and women of today. Modern men and women are almost completely removed from the deepest aspects of themselves, functioning only as personalities. Thus, a person’s sex or caste has little importance in determining vocations or social relations. What relevance, then, do Evola’s descriptions of absolute man and woman have in the modern world?

An answer is found in the existential Angst that defined the twentieth century. Martin Heidegger wrote of the inauthentic life, and Jean-Paul Sartre of bad faith; most people today still fit the description of mere personalities, lacking divine connections or the means to find them. In a world that has lost its values and connection to Tradition, discovering these principles in our innermost natures becomes even more important. By examining Evola’s work, and that of other Traditionalists, we can find our way back to our true selves, the true relation between the sexes, and a connection to the transcendent.

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Article printed from Counter-Currents Publishing: http://www.counter-currents.com

Contre la dictature des chiffres : le monde n’est pas une addition

Contre la dictature des chiffres : le monde n’est pas une addition

par Pierre LE VIGAN

Tous les jours des chiffres. Même dans le secteur social et humain, il est question de quantitatif. Quelle est le chiffre de votre « file active » ? Combien de contrats d’insertion par mois ? C’est la tyrannie du nombre. Et plus encore la tyrannie du calcul. Tout se compte, s’évalue en nombre. Le corps se réduit à son poids, l’intelligence se réduit à la mesure de sa performance. Isabelle Sorente, polytechnicienne, femme de théâtre et aussi amateur de voltige aérienne a consacré un livre à ce phénomène. « Compter, toujours compter, les heures, les minutes, c’est ce qui nous perd ». Le titre du livre : addiction générale. Un titre un peu trompeur. On croira qu’il s’agit d’un livre sur les addictions, les dépendances excessives en d’autres termes. Ce n’est pas tout à fait cela. C’est un livre sur la dépendance aux chiffres. La dépendance aux additions. La volonté de tout chiffrer. Même les malheurs du monde. Peut-être pour les exorciser. « Nous nous trouvons dans la même situation que les hommes du dix-huitième siècle, face au défi de réhabiliter la raison, non pas devant un Dieu mais devant une croyance réductrice, addictive, un obscurantisme aussi toxique pour l’individu que pour son environnement, ce mythe naïf qui veut qu’un chiffre fasse le bonheur. Il est temps d’en finir avec cette superstition » dit Isabelle Sorente (entretien à R.F.I., 3 juillet 2011). L’imitation de la machine calculante a remplacé pour les esprits modernes l’Imitation de Jésus-Christ, note-t-elle encore.

La pensée calculante remplace l’expérience

Calculer est souvent nécessaire mais calculer seulement c’est plus souvent encore ne pas comprendre et ne pas ressentir. La pensée calculante remplace l’expérience. Le res cogitans est rabattu sur le res extensa, le non mesurable sur le mesurable. D’où une dichotomie néfaste à l’équilibre humain : dans le travail, tout est calcul mais l’homme étant ce qu’il est, on lui concède de se « lâcher » ailleurs, dans un cadre bien précis : clubs, vacances, … « On nous force à avoir des affects séparés de la raison » remarque très justement Isabelle Sorente. Comme s’il fallait compenser un abrutissement par un autre. Face à cela, il faut réhabiliter plusieurs choses. Il s’agit d’abord de la compassion. « J’appelle compassion ce déplacement élémentaire de l’esprit humain, qui permet de s’imaginer à la place d’un autre. »  La compassion n’est pas la pitié. C’est bien plutôt le complément de la sympathie chez David Hume (Traité de la nature humaine, 1740). « La compassion est la seule façon de penser notre relation bien réelle d’interdépendance au reste du monde, de la penser sans romantisme ni naïveté. Elle n’est pas réservée aux croyants, aux psychanalystes ou âmes sensibles. […] La compassion est ce qui distingue la raison multidimensionnelle, créatrice, humaine, d’un calcul linéaire, compulsif, largement insuffisant à penser les mutations technologiques et écologiques que nous sommes en train de vivre » (entretien d’Isabelle Sorente avec Fraterphilo, 19 février 2011). La compassion ne suffit pas à faire une politique mais elle y entre pour une part : c’est la pensée du « care », c’est-à-dire du soin. « Celui qui veut retrouver la raison doit pouvoir se mettre à la place d’une bête. » Le « care » est une idée qui a été développée par le sociologue Carol Dilligan, elle est en rapport avec une justice proche de l’équité telle que John Rawls l’a défendue dans Théorie de la justice. On est bien sûr loin de Rousseau et de ses rêves sympathiques mais sans doute impraticables de souveraineté populaire absolue. Deuxième valeur : retrouver la distance à soi. C’est précisément parce que la compassion n’est pas la pitié ni la fusion que la distance à soi et aux autres est nécessaire pour retrouver le meilleur de l’individuation, à savoir l’autonomie du sujet, être social et politique : jamais sans les autres mais jamais non plus noyé dans les autres. Bonne antidote contre les totalitarismes, non seulement ceux d’hier mais aussi ceux d’aujourd’hui, particulièrement pernicieux car avançant masqués : masque de l’hygiénisme, du politiquement correct, etc. Au moment où l’individualisme se réduit à des choix marchands (se distinguer des autres par sa  voiture ou son écran de télé), la distance à soi est le moyen de retrouver les vertus de l’individu sujet raisonnant et sensible à la fois, non plus arraisonné par les machines et par une société machinale. Comme l’avait bien vu Marcuse, l’homme n’est pas unidimensionnel. Il est pluridimensionnel. C’est pourquoi il faut sortir à la fois du calcul et de la dictature de l’urgence que notre société génère. C’est pourquoi il faut retrouver la bonne distance aux autres : « Trop loin, l’autre n’existe pas plus qu’un passant sans visage. Confondu à moi, nous nous perdons ensemble dans le délire fusionnel » écrit Isabelle Sorente. « L’ami présent en cas de coup dur ne nous remonte pas seulement le moral, il nous fait aussi retrouver la raison. » Sortir donc du « tout tout-de-suite ». Réhabiliter la raison contre les superstitions modernes de la maîtrise de tout, y compris de l’espace et du temps. Ne pas croire que la maladie ou l’échec vient forcément d’erreurs de calcul dans le programme de la vie mais d’une erreur plus fondamentale : croire que la vie est un programme.

Éloge de la sobriété

Compassion, distance, mais aussi une troisième valeur : la sobriété. Savoir se limiter. Trouver les chemins de la sobriété heureuse, comme dit Pierre Rabhi. « Nous vivons dans une société qui n’a mis aucune limite à la recherche de satisfaction de nos besoins réels et imaginaires » dit Pierre Rabhi. » La modernité, dans son principe premier et ses intentions originelles, aurait pu, en s’appuyant sur la révolution industrielle, être une chance pour l’humanité. Mais elle a commis une erreur fatale, dont nous commençons seulement à mesurer les conséquences désastreuses avec la grande crise d’aujourd’hui : elle a subordonné le destin collectif, la beauté et la noblesse de la planète Terre dans sa globalité à la vulgarité de la finance. » De là s’impose la nécessité de se recentrer sur l’essentiel. Un programme à engager de suite mais en prenant son temps : l’avenir dure longtemps.

Pierre Le Vigan

Isabelle Sorente, Addiction générale, J.-C. Lattes, 2011, 220 p., 17 €.

Pierre Rabhi, Vers la sobriété heureuse, Actes Sud, 2010, 140 p., 15 €.

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Article printed from Europe Maxima: http://www.europemaxima.com

Carisma político, éxtasis, orgía: descubrir al Weber oculto

Ahí,
donde los gritos ancestrales
pueblan el jacinto de vida.

Sofía Tudela Gastañeta

Carisma político, éxtasis, orgía: descubrir al Weber oculto

Por Giovanni B. Krähe

http://geviert.wordpress.com/

Urmensch und Spätkultur (1956) de Arnold Gehlen es uno de los textos claves y necesarios para cualquier compresión o teoría moderna de las instituciones. Las ciencias sociales alemanas reconocen, en efecto, la importancia de la antropología filosófica gehleniana para la teoría institucionalista. En Urmensch, Gehlen nos invita a considerar con suma atención la sociología de la religión de Max Weber. Esta parte de la obra de Weber, menos conocida o limitada únicamente al debate sobre la ética protestante, es, como para Carl Schmitt, el lugar de la intuición que fundamenta la antropología de las instituciones de Gehlen. Según éste, Max Weber nos da los elementos necesarios para la compresión de la génesis de las instituciones, de la forma institucional. Para el autor de Urmensch, el fundamento de la forma institucional es el mito: dos elementos esenciales forman parte de cualquier estructura o sistema mítico (Mythenssystem). El primer elemento es la orgía (Orgiastik), el segundo es la mímesis (cfr. Gehlen, prefacio a Urmensch; Weber, Sociología de la religión, 105 ss.). Veamos brevemente el segundo elemento. El rito imitatorio, circular, mecánico del culto animista pre-cristiano, tiene su fundamento en la realización de una idea de representación como conducta, como forma de conducta (Verhaltensform). Esta inmanencia entre representación (idea) y conducta (forma), a través de la mímesis cultual, es posible gracias a la completa y necesaria ausencia de cualquier contenido espurio o idea de trascendencia. Según Weber, el culto animista primitivo es extraño a cualquier idea de trascendencia en su sentido cristiano, monoteísta. Se podrá notar fácilmente que esta premisa modifica radicalmente el significado del espacio cultual para el rito mimético: el lugar no será un ámbito religioso definitivo dedicado a un abstracto deus absconditus, sino simplemente cualquier lugar consagrado en cuanto únicamente separado del resto (de donde deriva el término sacer, sacro). En la visión del mundo pre-cristiana, cualquier lugar y cualquier circunstancia hacen posible el advenimiento y la ausencia del Dios, que no es único (se piense en los numina en Roma). La relación con los objetos rituales y cotidianos cambia radicalmente, gracias a una relación diferente que se tiene con la tierra y finalmente con la materia misma. Ya una fina autora como Marie-Louise von Franz afirmó que el núcleo más íntimo de la religiosidad pre-cristiana no está en la compresión de un corpus abstracto de divinidades colocadas en una trascendencia indeterminada e idealizada en el sueño poético-pastoral (según la lectura moderna del mito), sino únicamente en la compresión del vínculo religioso e in-mediato entre dos aspectos fácticos evidentes: mito y materia. Ninguna trascendencia o tardía miseria escatológica ocupa el espacio inmanente entre el mito y la materia. Tampoco algún tipo de práctica simbólica. En efecto, en la mímesis no hay símbolo, solo acto puro (Weber, p. 107, Cfr el concepto de uno actu en Gehlen). Para Weber, la génesis de aquello que modernamente es entendido corrientemente como símbolo, contenido simbólico, acto simbólico, simbología y demás combinaciones culturológicas, es tardía, no pertenece al mito en los dos aspectos que hemos señalado, la orgía y la mímesis. De la misma forma es tardío aquel pensamiento abstracto que manipula símbolos. La manipulación obsesiva y viciosa de conceptos a través de la denominada “reflexión” (acto autístico por antonomasia) tampoco pertenece al acto mimético-religioso. Todos estos bagajes del individuo y la modernidad son extraños a la forma de conducta mimético-religiosa en su relación con la representación. En efecto, aquello que ahora es entendido modernamente como una mera disposición mental-ideacional (Mannheim) o peor, categorial-conceptual (el moderno concepto de representación, el representarse algo mentalmente, intelectualmente, reflexivamente, hermenéuticamente), es recuperado y completamente depurado por Weber en su forma originaria de acto y forma de conducta según su análisis idealtípico de las religiones primitivas.

¿De qué tipo de forma de conducta nos habla Weber exactamente? Se trata de una forma de conducta religiosa que se relaciona con la materia en una forma específica (el culto mimético), determinando un vínculo directo con el espacio que ha sido escogido para el acontecimiento religioso. Tal vínculo no es religioso en el sentido de una presunta re-ligio trascendente o soteriológica, plagada de viciosos dualismos (cuerpo/alma, espíritu/materia y símiles). Tampoco está fundado en esquemas dogmáticos o escatológicos según una supuesta y espuria ideología de la redención á la Rosenzweig: la forma de la conducta mimético-religiosa que Weber nos quiere mostrar es stricto sensu de carácter ordinario, “mundano”, fáctico (Weber, Cap. V). En esta “mundanidad” que Weber observa, los aspectos racionales de la conducta mimético-religiosa (la repetición circular, el ritmo acústico del rito, la búsqueda del espacio consagrado, el obsequio, el don, la maravilla) están completamente engarzados en la re-presentación (es decir, en su permamente reiteración en el presente) de una idea que es completamente irracional (1). La racionalidad del rito mundano (sus reglas) permite, entonces, la re-presentación, permite re-introducir la irracionalidad de la idea en el mundo ordinario del tiempo humano y la materia. La forma de conducta mimético-religiosa repite circularmente la irrupción de aquello que será re-presentado en el culto, “prepara” el cuerpo comunitario a la irrupción de la idea que será representada cultualmente en el mundo. Este tipo particular de “mundanidad inmanente”, “ordinaria”, relacionada con la forma de conducta mimético-religiosa, es ordinaria porque simplemente distingue el momento sacro a través de la separación del espacio consagrado. Gehlen llamará a este mundo ordinario Transzendenz ins Diesseits (trascendencia mundana). Este término es introducido por Gehlen para marcar una diferencia neta con el concepto tardío de transcendencia extra-mundana, monoteísta, judeo-cristiana (Transzendenz ins Jenseits). Para Gehlen, no se trata de recuperar un “materialismo religioso” o debatir con la crítica clásica del “naturalismo” pre-cristiano, sino más bien de observar qué tipo de forma de conducta religiosa se relaciona (y es adecuada) con el ámbito de los eventos de la physis y en la physis no fuera de ella. Se trata, entonces, más precisamente, de un ejercicio de comprensión fisiológica (la primera filosofía) dirigido a esta forma de conducta mimético-religiosa. Por el lado del participante a la mímesis cultual, se note, a su vez, que la forma de conducta mimético-religiosa no significa el desarrollo de una supuesta “interioridad” psicológica, personal en su relación con lo divino (ese deísmo sofisticado, timorato y ocasionalista del “dios privado” de los posmodernos). Porque, en efecto, en la mímesis, en la reproducción automática y circular del acto mimético-cultual, no hay ni persona, ni conciencia. Un gran estudioso del mito como Walter F. Otto añadirá: mito es solo la realización de un simple acto ritual como porte y disposición corpórea (Haltung).

 

Según Weber, aquel que cultiva un tipo de conducta ritual, mimético-religiosa, en el ámbito de una realidad que hemos denominado “mundana” y ordinaria (porque es simplemente in-mediata, irreflexiva), se distingue inmediatamente en la comunidad por su virtud. Tal persona que vive en esta realidad ordinaria se caracteriza poco a poco por poseer un don extra-ordinario que cultiva y posee. Con estas comparaciones terminológicas (ordinario/extra-ordinario), Weber quiere introducir el rol de la magia al interior de las primeras formas sociales (!) de conducta mimético-religiosa (p. 116). Se note que, según nuestro breve análisis, estamos entrando ahora en el ámbito de una forma de conducta mimético-religiosa de tipo social, colectiva. A este don extra-ordinario que es de tipo mágico en el sentido propio del término, don que puede ser innato o producto de un relación particular con la materia (la gratia infusa), Weber le pondrá el nombre de Carisma. El rito mimético religioso mencionado hace posible, entonces, una forma social de conducta particular al interior del culto y de la vida ordinaria: se trata de la conducta carismática de la guía, del mana, orenda (derivado del iraní, mago, mágico). Aquel que posee el mencionado carisma y lo cultiva, hace posible socialmente la reiteración comunitaria, en el tiempo, del rito mimético-religioso mencionado, conferiéndole el carácter de rito mimético colectivo. Por este motivo, el carisma, el carácter carismático – en cualquiera de las acepciones psicologistas que se le quiera dar al término – siempre es socialmente reconocido y aceptado como expresión virtuosa de la persona que lo posee ( en la práctica social de la adivinación, por ejemplo). El moderno carisma que conocemos como mero perfil psicológico es, pues, un residuo (en la terminología del gran elitista Vilfredo Pareto) de esta primera forma social de conducta mimético-religiosa. Una forma de conducta carismático-comunitaria que todavía es evidente, según Weber, en el fenómeno secular del carisma político, típico de las democracias plebiscitarias. Weber creará e introducirá un término nuevo (sumamente polémico entre los habermasianos y el debate alemán interno) para comprender el nexo entre este tipo de carisma y la dimensión de la política: plebizistäre Führerdemokratie (democracia plebiscitaria del líder). La dimensión de esta nueva relación social que se instaura, cada vez, como nueva forma extra-individual, posee dos momentos interelacionados entre sí, a saber (1) la forma de conducta mimética y el carisma como don, por un lado y, por el otro, (2) el carisma mismo, pero como ejercicio de un rol público en la comunidad cultual propiamente dicha (el mago, el sacerdote, el líder carismático). Según Weber, esta nueva forma extra-individual de mímesis colectiva tiene un nombre específico: éxtasis (p.107).

Tenemos, entonces, una forma de conducta mimético-religiosa (la mímesis) que es carismática, por el lado de su guía religioso, y extática, por el lado de la praxis religioso-comunitaria de sus miembros. Intentemos unir estas dos relaciones con la siguiente pregunta: en esta caso ¿cuál sería la correspondiente forma que re-representaría a esta específica experiencia colectiva de carácter extático, señalada por Weber? ¿Cuál es el rito mimético-religioso correspondiente que conservaría y mantendría el culto en el tiempo de este nuevo vínculo extático-comunitario? Según Weber, la primera forma pre-institucional o proto-institucional si se quiere – en cuanto se trata de la primera definición social de roles y vínculos extra-individuales al interior de la praxis religiosa y cultual, hasta llegar al concepto de representación en su significado político más moderno - es la orgía (Weber, p. 107). A partir de aquí, Gehlen notará cómo estos dos elementos weberianos claves – la orgía, como primera forma social extra-individual, pre-institucional y la mímesis, como forma de conducta social bajo la guía del carisma – formarán parte, en su desarrollo tardío, secularizado y despolitizado, de la génesis de las instituciones modernas.
 
 
 
 
 
(1) la idea de la irracionalidad como elemento formante del acto racional será desarrollada por Weber en su famoso texto sobre la ética protestante y el espíritu del capitalismo. La forma de conducta que Weber observará ideltípicamente, en este caso, es la ética intra-mundana puritana, calvinista. Su forma económico-social correspondiente será lo que Weber denominará conjuntamente como el “espíritu del capitalismo”. Schmitt, por su lado, hará lo mismo paralelamente, tomando la misma intuición y método, explicando en su caso la génesis del espíritu de la política (parafraseando a Weber) según la forma del catolicismo romano. “Catolicismo romano y forma política”, al igual que la “teología política” de Schmitt, son textos en diálogo (crítico) con su maestro Weber.

Textos recomendados:

Arnold Gehlen: Urmensch und Spätkultur. Frankfurt/M.: Klostermann, 1956.
Max Weber: Economía y sociedad, cualquier edición (cap. V, sociología de la religión y tipos de comunidad religiosa).