It seems fundamentally unfair to me that some nationalist and extremist parties take symbols that they consider to be part of tradition and folklore and make them an element of this national identity. It seems absurd and unfair to me because tradition and folklore are precisely transcultural. You see, in this shirt there are elements that come from northern Germany and southern Asia.
And she's from somewhere near Sibiu. Because, in fact, that's what tradition means. Tradition is something that belongs to all of humanity.
But, I did not came here to tell you about how I dressed, but about the fact that I feel totally inadequate on this stage. Because in the field in which I work, in the existential relationship between man and nature, there is no justice. You see, when we talk about existence, the first existential question we confront when we come into the world is ”who we are?”
It's the problem of identity. And the moment we feel like we've formulated it and that we know something about it, we realize that it's slipping away from us and that we're already someone else. Beyond that, after we know who we are, we try to see how it feels good to be, what the state of well-being is.
And we think it's good to be like this or that, there are so many states of well-being in this world. And when you have the impression that you know how it feels, that too is slipping away. But to be well, when you realize how you should be, you start making some choices and you have to choose between A and B. And you say, hey, I choose B because that's the best option, so it's right to choose.
And you choose, and only after you've chosen do you realize whether you did the right thing. And usually, we don't make the best choices. And that's the problem with our freedom.
But as we move forward in life, people start to come to us and we start to go next to them. Because, you see, we are born alone, we die alone, and our whole lives we try to be part of something bigger than ourselves. And at some point you realize that the choices you make interfere with and clash with the choices made by the people you want to be around.
And suddenly it's very hard for you to choose your choices or to give up on them and stay with the people you chose. And that's the fundamental problem with love as well. And how much injustice there is in love.
And after you make the decision that you think is right, at some point you see that no matter how much you care about people and no matter how much you value things, they disappear. And you can't do anything in the face of death. And death is another existential problem.
And after all this you look back and say ”what's wrong with this world and this life? Where is the justice in it and what is the meaning?”
And then I go and sit in the tribes to see how people respond to these existential problems. Because you see, we, if we relate to nature from this perspective of existence and I ask you a few questions, you will see how unjust it is what we are doing. And I ask you from the perspective of identity, what does it mean to be human when you know that humanity destroys so much? Is well-being something individual or is it something collective? How free do we feel when we know that the choices we make destroy and kill? What is it like to realize that you are part of a world that, just like you, is fragile and can disappear?
And one more thing. How do we realize that since the rebirth we have done everything we could for the progress of the human species? And we have invested a lot. We have given our souls, we have put our minds together for the generations to come. And when we look around today, do you know what we are doing? We are putting the generations to come into an abyss of history because this planet going down the drain.
And then, from this side of the river, I say to my brothers: ”you are absurd. Everything you do is absurd!” And from the other side they answer me: ”Yes, you are absurd too!”
Ddon't you see that we've crossed the red lines? Don't you see that the populations of wild species in South America have decreased by 97%? Don't you see that El Niño and El Niña are coming? Don't you see that there's no chance left? And that in fact everything you're doing is absurd? That everyone there, you who want to save nature, are pushing a stone same like Sisyphus, knowing it will fall. And that doesn't make any sense. And I'm sitting on this shore and because I like dialogue, I look at them and I realize, ”yes, it's absurd”.
And then, I go to the Bible of the absurd. To Camus. And in the myth of Sisyphus, Camus says that there are three ways in which we struggle with the absurd.
The first is the one in which we commit suicide. When a person realizes that life is absurd, one way is to get out of life. When we they see how absurd is everything we do in relation to nature, many commit suicide.
Look at this accelerationist movement. This accelerationism that's coming upon us now, that's what it's doing. It's hastening the end of the world.
Beyond that, look at how much we consume. As if there is no tomorrow. And we consume so much because we feel stress and anxiety.
And then, some of them commit suicide. I don't want to do that.
The second way, Camus is saying, to get out of this confrontation with the absurd is the philosophical suicide.
We invent things that make us optimistic. ”Technology will save us”
or ”The earth is a Gaya and it takes care of itself”
Let's just stay calm. One way or another, it'll be okay. We'll survive.
That's philosophical suicide. But another third way, Camus says, is to assume this absurdity and confront it rationally. And I know that what I'm doing is absurd.
The moment you rationally confront your absurdity, that makes you human. I don't want to save nature because I think I'm going to save it, no. I want to save nature because I think that's what it means to be human in this world.
And there's something else: in the myth of Sisyphus, Camus says that we should see Sisyphus happy. Because he knows that the stone will fall every time he lifts it. But he chooses to do so.
And by choosing to do that, he is free. And then I think I am not inappropriate on this stage, because freedom is an absolute form of justice. Thank you very much!
