{"id":386,"date":"2015-12-02T08:15:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T08:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=386"},"modified":"2018-04-03T21:50:23","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T21:50:23","slug":"well-protect-our-values-wasnt-relativism-the-forte-of-the-laical-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2015\/12\/02\/well-protect-our-values-wasnt-relativism-the-forte-of-the-laical-society\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019ll protect our values\u201d: wasn\u2019t relativism the dogma of the laical society?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"attentato<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll protect our values\u201d. That\u2019s Obama\u2019s, Hollande\u2019s and Cameron\u2019s way. The Italian Prime Minister Renzi stated that we\u2019ll certainly win, since these are the correct and good values. But, dear Presidents, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>what values?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Since I was five and started to go to school I\u2019ve been told that <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>absolute values do not exist<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>, that values are perspectives, and the worst you could do is to consider writing the word Truth with the capital T, and that you must <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>cultivate doubts <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>rather than having certainties, because these are always ideologies. How come that now, all of a sudden, we discover ourselves having absolute values that we\u2019re warring with and for? If \u201cnot having\u201d any values is the one big truth (which is absolute but can\u2019t be written with the capital letter, who knows), shouldn\u2019t we all be convinced? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Shouldn\u2019t we have already convinced <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>those between the terrorists who were born and raised in our republics, following the \u201cdoubting education\u201d?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What values?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> I ask myself, while I can\u2019t help feeling angry for the infinite list of words, counterposed to the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>absolute<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> thirst of life of the Bataclan guys, hanging from the windows to avoid death\u2026 Words that sound so empty.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Libert\u00e9, \u00e9galit\u00e9, fraternit\u00e9 <\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>said Obama. And Valls, the French Prime Minister, specified \u201c<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>libert\u00e9 and human rights\u201d, <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>to make it even clearer. Yep. Unluckily, a weird contradiction pops up when the equality and the right to support whatever and whoever are out of question as soon as someone says that he wants to kill me. Has it got the same worth as affirming peace and kindness?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In a more serious way, the American journalist Gareth Whittaker finally told us what these values are: <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cthe enjoyment of life here on earth, a multitude of ways: a cup of coffee that smells, accompanied by a growing one morning;\u00a0beautiful women in short dresses smiling freely in the streets\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> and then parfumes, wine, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cthe right not to believe in God\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> and of <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cflirting and smoking, and to the love outside marriage, taking a vacation, read any book, to go to school for free\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>. He\u2019s not that wrong after all, but if this is what politicians have been talking about, they should have made it clear by the very beginning that <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>what we\u2019re talking about here is defending the hedonism <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>of a low-middle-high bourgeoisie and we\u2019re saying that these pleasures are universal values worth living and dying for. It\u2019s no big thing, is it? Haven\u2019t we had a Marx in Europe a while ago, teaching how every social class gets blind of universalities about itself? Moreover, and once again, shouldn\u2019t we then try to convince the Lords of the absolute (sigh) convenience of these values of ours? Let\u2019s try to fill the Parisians <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>banlieues<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>, and the suburbs of the entire world! Wait: didn\u2019t we try to do that already, without any success? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Isn\u2019t this very empty hedonism that they\u2019ve been reproaching?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The third option, dear Presidents, would be to go back <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>reconsidering <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>what values we really have, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>where human rights come from<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> as well as where this passion for aesthetics and life was born, with all those pleasures included. It could also has come the time to truly reconsider the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>European Constitution roots<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>: Latin and Greek origins, mixed with the obstructed Christian ones, plus the scientific and the French revolution. We should change a bit our sceptical point of view, though. I\u2019d like to suggest the American philosopher Peirce, who actually thought the truth does exist, even if our limited knowledge makes it partial.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Warning, because <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>partial does not mean arbitrary<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> \u2013 we must not interpret everything according to no matter what and who \u2013 and most of all, does not mean doubtful.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Let us not pretend to doubt<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> in philosophy (and in pedagogy, in art, in politics) what we do not doubt in our hearts\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>, it\u2019s a recapitulatory quotation by Peirce, inviting people to <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>respect the common sense <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>of those who helped who was escaping, hurrying through the choice of what was the human and right thing to do, and what wasn\u2019t. And, contrary to the nice and unfortunate <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Imagine <\/b><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>by John Lennon<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> that someone played on the public crime scenes, we\u2019ll find a valid reason to live and to die if we\u2019ll need to.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

No one\u2019s able to \u201cdefend\u201d or \u201cwin\u201d anything if what you\u2019re fighting for <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>isn\u2019t actually worth it<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>, if there\u2019s nothing good in the content, in the ideas, if we don\u2019t like it. Especially if what we\u2019re fighting for doesn\u2019t have the power to fill up with life those empty words that we have to give as an answer to those guys hanging from the Bataclan windows.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Translated by Valentina Barbieri<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On fact of Paris. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[460,459,456,450,453,457,455,449,454,461,458,452,451,448],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-absolute-values","tag-bataclan","tag-christian-roots","tag-doubts","tag-egalite","tag-europe-roots","tag-european-constitution","tag-france","tag-fraternite","tag-hedonism","tag-john-lennon","tag-liberte","tag-terrorists","tag-values"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cWe\u2019ll protect our values\u201d: wasn\u2019t relativism the dogma of the laical society? - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2015\/12\/02\/well-protect-our-values-wasnt-relativism-the-forte-of-the-laical-society\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cWe\u2019ll protect our values\u201d: wasn\u2019t relativism the dogma of the laical society? 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