Learning from Suffering:
By Tomás Núñez, ThD
Suffering is an excellent school of human learning. Truth is in the phrase attributed to Hegel: “The human being learns nothing from history but everything from suffering.” I prefer the formulation of St. Augustine in his Confessions: “The human being learns from suffering, but much more from love.”
The amor fati (the love of pure and raw reality) of the ancients, taken up by Freud, is imposed in the present days when humanity is devastated by a great crisis of meaning underlying the economic-financial crisis. We must relearn to love the Earth selflessly and unconditionally, all beings, especially humans, who suffer, respecting them in their differences and limitations. As Dante said, love is a cosmic force that “moves the sky and the stars,” only those who love, transform, and create.
The great ones gather, are confused, and do not know preciatly what to do. They love money more than life. If there were love, they would approve of what is being proposed: a “Universal Declaration of the Common Good of Humanity,” the basis for a “New Global and Multilateral Order” considering all humanity, including the Earth. But no. Perplexed, they prefer to repeat formulas that did not work basically. In the meantime, it is worth asking: what capacity do 20 governments have to decide on behalf of 172? Where are the titles of their legitimacy? Are they just the strongest?
Even if that were the case, some useful lessons could be drawn from the successive crises that were announced.
The first is that the rulers, above their differences, can unite in the face of a global danger. Although their solutions do not represent a sustainable way out of the crisis, the fact that they are together is significant, because we will soon face a much worse crisis: that of the unsustainability of the Earth and the perverse effects of global warming. This global warming will bring a water crisis and food insecurity for millions and millions of people.
If they want to survive, such a situation will force a union of peoples and governments, which is more significant than this one of the G-20 in London. The greater the danger, the greater the possibility of salvation, said a German poet, provided this union occurs. The solution will only come from a world policy based on cooperation, solidarity, global responsibility, and care for the living Earth.
The second lesson is that we cannot prolong market fundamentalism any longer, the single thought that arrogantly announced that there were no alternatives to the current order, as if history had been frozen in its favor and had destroyed the principle of hope. We can no longer rely on mere functional reason, disconnected from sensitive and cordial reason, the basis of the world of excellence and infinite values (Milton Santos, our great Brazilian geographer) such as love, cooperation, respect, justice, and others.
This time, either we develop an alternative, that is, a new civilizational paradigm with another mode of production that respects the rhythms of nature and a new pattern of frugal and supportive consumption, or we will have to accept the risk of the disappearance of our species and severe damage to the biosphere. The Earth can continue without us. We cannot live without the Earth.
The third lesson is to note that the economy, as the structuring axis of all social life, is becoming hostile to life and the integral development of people. It must be redirected to its true nature, guaranteeing the material basis for life and society.
We live in times of significant decisions that represent ruptures that establish the new. Keynes noted, “The difficulty does not lie so much in formulating new ideas, as in shaking off the old ones.” The old ones are crumbling. All we can do is trust in the new ones. A better future depends on them.
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