PHA-Exchange> Food for an almost forgotten thought

[Claudio]

Human Rights Reader 149

 

MORAL PROGRESS DOES NOT EXIST; WE ARE NOT MORE MORAL TODAY THAN WHAT WE WERE A HUNDRED OR A THOUSAND YEARS AGO. (Primo Levi)

 

[When reading Levi, the Italian 20th century writer, I found a series of aphorisms, i.e., maxims that apply to the human rights discourse and to these Readers. I wanted to share them with you. He said that it was just when he put order in 'the-box-of-the-often-forgotten-ideas' that he found these].

 

1. On reason:

To believe in reason means believing in one's own reason; it does not mean that reason governs our world and not even that it governs men. Actually, we are witnessing a sinking-of-reason the world over. But your own lucid rationality is a protective shield. 

The fundamental, decisive act of rational power is for it to have succeeded in taking away the critical capacity of the oppressed to stand up to oppression. Our generation cannot 'take a vacation' on this. (citing P. Pasolini)

 

2. On writing (about human rights):

What part of our roots comes from the books we have read?

I consider that when the ideas are clear, they are automatically written in a language that is also clear.

It is a disservice to the reader to give them injections of pessimism. To be a pessimist means to give up and to let oneself be carried to disaster. Since the risk of disaster exists, the only solution is to roll up your sleeves and to start work to avoid it; to defend ourselves, it is necessary to be optimistic; otherwise you never struggle --and a struggle we have to enter there is!  It is of a distinct advantage to transmit a message that is not defeatist. (.and to get things done, it is necessary not to have too much time.).

The decisive element of a narrative must be

its careful balance between what 

is necessary and what is superfluous. I prefer writers who are intolerant of 

the superfluous.  

I think that from my writings flows a wisdom that I do not think I possess. What I try is to convey a consistent message and that comes from consciously belonging to a tradition and a culture.

It is almost impossible to distinguish a true philosopher from a false one; 

the language is the same. Every philosopher has the vice of inventing 

him/herself a language of his/her own; one has to try hard to penetrate it 

before understanding what they want to say. That does not go with me.

 

3. On the struggle (for human rights):

One cannot think in a life without confrontation and, therefore, without defeats.

Hate can be confused with the desire of justice, but these are two different things.

It is our fault if we do not know more about ongoing human rights 

violations. We should inform ourselves, read what has been written. It is 

taken for granted we know what is happening in the world in our areas of 

expertise. Evidently, if today we all 'know', we cannot ignore; we have to 

try to understand what is behind the forces that explain what is happening 

and then stop them. It is our fault not to know more! But we have not 

informed ourselves out of intellectual laziness or to avoid adding worries to 

those we have personally.

 

4. On values:

It is true that in our professional culture there is an element of elitism.

How can one communicate higher ethical (and political) values to a culturally divided world like the one we have today? It is not easy to think in a common ethics. Many of the so-called values (especially the political), and many of the ideological references have disappeared.

Learned professors in universities have themselves lost some of the values that could serve them as guides in today's world.

We have to conserve our own political sense faced with emerging false ideologies.

What is essential is to understand and make understand that we need to demystify the biased interpretation of the world we live in.  

If you do not have one, you have to invent yourself a moral and an ideology 

and behave as-if-they-matter-to-you.

 

5. On Human Rights in general:

We witness a loss of many fundamental human rights that even inmates in rich countries' prisons enjoy.. They have a lawyer, they can (at least) hope that justice will be done, they can hope to be set free.We are definitely not all equal in front of justice.

 

Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

claudio at hcmc.netnam,vn

­­­_____

Adapted from P. Levi, Entrevistas y Conversaciones, Ficciones 14, Ediciones Peninsula, Barcelona 1998.
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