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We are better than this

15/03/2025 1:00 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

We know we are better than the news updates that read like dystopian sci-fi every morning. But what specifically are we?

Late capitalism is a church without god, without heaven and without penance. Its monstrous glass and concrete temples signal power, but no promise of absolution. No reward, no relief, no angels, no virgins. Earth burns. Millions toil but cannot escape the precariat, their promised repay not even a pension, let alone comfort. Righteous and rightful pitchforked rage is harvested greedily by callous heirs of blood emerald mines and property speculation.

Our reality is immoral, illogical and unhopeful.

Whether we like it or not, western liberalism is right now the emptiest of promise of all contemporary doctrines. Even bloodthirsty autocrats offer something greater than the self, as we obsess over pronouns while forgetting to utter the value system that sits behind them - one of dignity for all.

We can give each other the confidence to voice and shape what being better than this means. Join us for a hopeful conversation.


Comments

  • 24/08/2025 6:27 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
    REMNANTS OF OUR SESSION


    INTRO: Have we forgotten?

    We know we are better than the news updates that read like dystopian sci-fi every morning. But what specifically are we? Whether we like it or not, western liberalism is right now the emptiest of promise of all contemporary doctrines. Even bloodthirsty autocrats offer something greater than the self, as we obsess over pronouns while forgetting to utter the value system that sits behind them - one of dignity for all.

    MAPPING THE FLOW OF THOUGHTS: The missing glue

    · What are the values of the Western liberalism that holds us together? Is it prosperity, is it the sense of reason, it is individual freedom? But facts without faith do not satisfy our souls. Increases in wealth and individual freedoms seem to come at the cost of social cohesiveness loss. According to the 2022 JRC survey, 13% of Europeans feel lonely all the time and 35% feel lonely most of the time. So, how much further can we go like this?
    · And who are ‘we’ in this context and in all contexts? Are we enemies to each other or are we all people of the earth? Is belonging to a tribe defined by a common threat? Is work the only tribe left in our capitalistic societies?
    · If we think of Trump as a forcing event, we understand that the world has come to a point of no return. It is almost like a homeostatic process due to which the system’s rebalancing has been self-initiated. The political pendulum is hitting its extreme ends. How do we get it back into its center? But what is the new center?
    · Is size of the system part of the problem? Are the structures in which we live too big and complex that we fail to change them in time to adapt? Are the structures in which we live too big and complex that they alienate us? Maybe so, but size is not always the problem. China is big and it is cohesive. Culture plays its role too.
    · Our school systems are designed to cater for capitalistic needs. Schools do not teach children how to connect to their souls and how to love themselves. Spirituality is not part of schools’ curriculum, although many experimental schools exist where education builds from concrete examples towards abstract principles. Such schools often face conceptual difficulties though because they have to comply with state standards.
    · Social media has brought back oral societies. But losing the written word means losing a reference point. We need to keep the written word, but we also need storytellers who engage people with the written word.
    BOOKS TIPS: More food for thoughts

    Vanessa ANDREOTTI

    · Hospicing Modernity (A guide to face global pandemics, climate change, and other modern crises with maturity, humility and integrity)
    Rutger BREGMAN

    · Utopia for Realists (How can we build the ideal world?)
    · Humankind (The book argues that people are decent at heart and proposes a new worldview based on optimism.)
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