EL RÉGIMEN POLÍTICO-SOCIAL DE LA LIBERTAD Y DE LA JUSTICIA: EL RÉGIMEN DE CRISTIANDAD

Por Mendo Crisóstomo

Incluso Kropotkin, enemigo de toda religiosidad, reconoce en sus análisis la dicha y bienestar existentes en el Antiguo Régimen, pese a las leyendas liberales

Nunca el ser humano gozó de tanta libertad y bienestar efectivos como durante el Régimen de Cristiandad; incluso el importante teórico anarquista Kropotkin (1), que nada tenía de católico, no tuvo más remedio que afirmar tajantemente que cuanto más investigaba, más claro le quedaba que el trabajador y el artesano jamás habían tenido iguales niveles de dicha y bienestar que los que tuvieron en la Civitas Christiana.

¿Dónde tiene su origen tal régimen de Cristiandad? En la aplicación práctica de unos principios basados en la observación natural de la realidad por parte de teóricos como Isócrates o Aristóteles y perfeccionados por la doctrina cristiana gracias la labor de sistematización operada por los Padres de la Iglesia, que, continuando la labor de los Apóstoles, buscan construir lo que llama San Agustín Civitas Dei (“la Ciudad de Dios”).
Éstos liman algunos defectos propios de teorizaciones y aplicaciones prácticas de los paganos y asumen y perfeccionan, en cambio, los elementos enderezados a construir una sociedad desde su base, con una brillante organización de los cuerpos intermedios de la sociedad.

La Revelación dada por Jesucristo a sus Apóstoles fue sistematizada por los Padres de la Iglesia mediante los principios hallados por los grandes genios de la Antigua Grecia. Tiene origen así la única sociedad libre y justa posible:"El Reinado Social de Cristo" o "Ciudad de Dios"

Posteriormente, Santo Tomás de Aquino hizo un pequeño resumen teórico en su obra De Regimine Principum.

Pero, ¡atención! esta obra no teoriza sobre ninguna utopía, como hacen los ideólogos, que hablan de “cambiar el mundo” e inventan mundos ficticios en sus obras políticas y, sin embargo, a la postre, siempre y en todo lugar se han demostrado fracasados y traicioneros en la práctica, por no basarse en la realidad sino en especulaciones mentales ficticias.

Todas las idelogías, artificiales y utópicas siempre, siempre se han demostrado, cuanto menos, fracasadas, cuando no traicioneras, criminales y asesinas en la práctica

Santo Tomás de Aquino, en cambio, al escribir esa obra, no hacía más que constatar una realidad, como fruto de la observación; aunque es cierto que esa realidad se llevará a cabo de manera aún más perfecta posteriormente: en las Españas.

En el Régimen de Cristiandad, la sociedad se ordena, pues, a la manera natural; es decir, respetando el principio de subsidiariedad, estructurando el cuerpo social en entidades sociales que gozan de autarquía y autonomía propias, reguladas por los fueros, que refuerzan las verdaderas libertades de los individuos, con independencia de la autoridad política central.

Los diferentes cuerpos sociales se rigen a sí mismos por representantes elegidos libre y directamente por los miembros de cada uno de los gremios e instituciones sociales, y no con representación puramente subjetiva y mandato artificial representativo, como sucede en el liberalismo, sino con representación objetiva y mandato imperativo:

En la Civitas Christiana, que no es ninguna utopía ideológica sino un régimen que verdaderamente existió y fue eficaz, el poder central está limitado por la autoridad de la Tradición, mediante un triple sistema:
1) Ético (por la Ley Natural).

2) jurídico-foral (por principio de subsidiariedad, imposiciones de los cuerpos sociales)

3) jurídico constitucional (que son las limitaciones legales que el pueblo -y no una comisión de políticos- haya querido imponer e imponga al poder central en el ejercicio de la soberanía política).

El Reinado Social de Cristo, que no es ninguna utopía, fue el único que fue eficaz en los últimos 2000 años, y el único que salvaguardó de tiranías y absolutismos. No como las utopías inventadas por el Sistema actual

Éste es el único sistema que ha funcionado.

Un modelo de este tipo es imposible que derive al totalitarismo o al absolutismo, puesto que el poder supremo o soberanía política está limitado y controlado por un sistema de triple control, más potente y decisivo que el de la supuesta división de poderes.

A lo largo de los siglos, desde el Bajo Imperio Romano hasta la Baja Edad Media, esta realidad, que habían reconocido incluso teóricos ya revolucionarios como Kropotkin ―o el propio judío llamado Karl Marx(2)―, se va perfeccionando en todo el continente europeo:

Se respeta el principio de subsidiariedad, el poder económico se halla absolutamente al servicio del poder social y político y, por último, la potestad se encuentra dividida en soberanía social y soberanía política.
Están limitadas una por la otra y ambas, a su vez, limitadas por la autoridad de la Ley Natural, la autoridad de las tradiciones consuetudinarias y la de la Tradición Católica.

Fue en las Españas donde este sistema cuajó de modo más perfecto. Y el saberse soldados de Cristo impulsó a los hijos de las Españas a recorrer todo el planeta: No sólo por la salvación de las almas y mayor gloria de Dios, sino por mostrar al resto de los pueblos la dicha y excelencia del único régimen natural: el Régimen inspirado en las enseñanzas de Cristo, en la Tradición

Tal ordenamiento político-social tuvo su escenario más logrado en las Españas, que consiguientemente nunca se llamaron a sí mismas “Imperio Español” como erróneamente quieren hacer ver las leyendas románticas y las deformaciones históricas del Sistema; ese conjunto de las Españas fue destruido por invenciones teóricas y tiránicas como el nacionalismo español o los nacionalismos periféricos (fundamentalmente los antihistóricos vasco y catalán), fanáticos defensores del Estado.

Y, actualmente, el Antiguo Régimen de las Españas continúa siendo calumniado con numerosas mentiras y leyendas negras, como si hubiese sido un sistema cuasi-totalitario donde el pueblo vivía esclavizado por el rey, la nobleza y la Iglesia.

el trabajador y el artesano jamás habían tenido, ni tendrán, iguales niveles de dicha y bienestar que los que tienen en la "Civitas Christiana"

En efecto, al llegar el Cristianismo, las libertades civiles comienzan a la sazón a cobrar vida y vigor a través de una participación real, basada en organismos naturales que se articulan en una sociedad conforme a normas consuetudinarias que surgen progresivamente y tomando como punto de partida siempre lo anterior, y siempre sin reñir con los preceptos evangélicos de Jesucristo y de la ley natural.

No había un “Estado” en el sentido moderno del término.(3)

No existía el Estado, esa gran bestia que engatusa a los tontos, a los incautos y a los frívolos con su palabrería, con su “pan y circo” y que, en la práctica, tiraniza a la sociedad negándole su libertad natural para acapararla en manos de una oligarquía plutocrática.

Notas:
(1) KROPOTKIN, P., El apoyo mutuo. Un factor de la evolución, Madrid, 1978.

(2) Pseudónimo de Ysisor Mardochai Levy

(3) Y por tanto, por ejemplo, no se pagaban impuestos

SOUNDTRACK: THE FEELIES-Only Life (1988).

The Feelies were based out of Haledon, NJ, a town not more than fifteen minutes from my house.  I’ve always felt this weird association to them.  One day a coworker drove me past one of the band members’ houses when I worked in North Haledon (in retrospect this was probably bullshit).

It was this album that introduced me to them.  Prior to the internet, it wasn’t always easy to find out how many albums a band had out, so I assumed this was their first.  I’d assumed that we were close in age and that I could have run into them at any local club or hangout.  Well, it turned out that this was their third and their first came out in 1980.  When I was 11.  So, clearly  there is absolutely no way we were peers.

Somehow, when I first heard The Feelies, I had not been exposed to The Velvet Underground (what?).  So, when I heard them, it didn’t occur to me to say, “Hey that guy sounds just like Lou Reed.”  And he does.  Almost uncannily so on “It’s Only Life”.

But hey, get past that and you’ve got a really great jangly alterna-pop record from the late 80s.   While R.E.M. is sort of the master of the jangly pop song, there’s no real comparison here (okay, actually “Deep Fascination” could be mistaken for R.E.M. until the vocals kick in).  The biggest difference is tempo. The Feelies just kind of meander along at a calm and relaxed pace.  Not slow enough to be, god forbid, dull, but not exactly peppy either.

One thing I like about the band is that the bass and drums are always out in front.  The bass, in particular seems to really propel the songs (especially “Too Much”) which provides a great rhythmic feels and allows the guitars ample room to roam.

And the guitars do roam.  There are two guitars and they share soloing duties.  This soloing bit is rather a departure for college radio bands in the late 80s.  So, it definitely set them apart (as did the fact that there are like 30 words in each song).

The gorgeously simple yet very compelling “Higher Ground” is certainly a high point for the disc.  As is their cover of the Velvet’s “What Goes On.”

When I was a DJ in college, I randomly selected “Away” to play during a show (the first Feelies song I’d heard).  Even after twenty-one years it’s still as fresh and interesting.  It’s also rather different from the rest of the album.  It’s uptempo for one thing.  But it also starts with a cool slow guitar opening.  The song builds faster and faster and has a great sing along chorus.   The drums also sound wonderfully abrasive.  It’s really a great song and a great introduction to an underappreciated band.

[READ: November 22, 2009] Intermere

Following hot on the heels of Symzonia, I received Intermere through Inter Library Loan.  Intermere is even shorter (at 150 pages)!

What I liked about the story is that it removes all pretense as to the setting up of and the getting to the inner earth location.  As the story opens, our narrator, Giles Anderton, is pretty much immediately in massive trouble.  The boat he is on is about to sink and he is soon plunged headlong into the ocean.  (What an exciting opening!)

When he wakes up a short time later, he is on an island and is warmly greeted by a group of very short but very beautiful (ie, very pale) people.

From here, the book follows a track remarkably similar to Symzonia.  (In fact, there appears to be a whole subgenre of Hollow Earth fiction that is inspired by Symmes’ ideas).  The first real difference, and a neat twist, is that the Intermere people are telepathic.  They immediately determine where he is from (Central United States) and who his mother is.  This is significant because Anderton’s mother is about to learn that her son has been shipwrecked and that his foster brother (a convoluted plot point) has just been killed in the war.  This double dose of bad news will likely be too much for his mother.

Oh, what war you may ask?  Well, the Intermerians keep very strict tabs on the goings on in the outside world, so even though the world was at peace when Anderton left, in the six months since then, the Chinese Empire has gone to war with the West (!).  [I'm curious about the xenophobia here, but am not inclined to pursue it much; however, note this quote:

the 400,000 Chinese and affiliated races are more insidiously dangerous than you know. They will cultivate the seed now being sown and prepare the dragon's harvest of blood.

Jeez, what do you think was on Taylor's mind?].

They show Anderton that he can communicate with his mother telepathically to assure her that he will be alright and not to fret.  (She is relieved when she gets this transmission).  When he asks them about this technology, we get the best reply ever: Would people who didn’t understand the telephone ever imagine that you could talk to someone so far away through wires?  Of course, not, and so it is with you and our wireless communication.

It’s hard to beat that logic.

As Anderton is acclimatizing to this new land, he meets many of the VIPs of the nation.  He is first greeted by Xamas, the First Citizen.  And, as soon as we see “First Citizen,” we know what that means: a detailed explanation of the political make up of their world!  And like with Symzonia, only the best people are chosen to run the country.  But it is more democratic here: everyone is allowed to hold an office for one year, although you must, of course, be qualified; they consider it an honor and a duty and one for which they receive no extra money or honors.   After the year, they return to their previous life satisfied in a job well done.

This Utopian society is sort of socialist, although it is modified somewhat.   Everyone is allowed property (there are fascinating restrictions based on age) but they mostly work for the good of the community.  The one knock against equality is that only the men can own houses while their wives run them.

Oh, and of course, as we learn more about this sort of social structure, we learn about their currency (even the exchange rate with the dollar!), and blah blah taxation etc.

But it’s the science part that is quite fun.  Like Symzonia, there is awesome energy potential down here.  And the Intermerians are willing to explain some of it to him.  They basically have this egg shaped device that somehow channel the world’s natural electricity (if they told him any more he’d no doubt use it to try and take over the world, so we never learn how they harness all of this power).  With these eggs they can make cars that go 1,000 miles and hour, they (well, the wives) can heat food with no source of fire and they can use them for illumination as well. They also have 3 different vehicles, the medocar, the aerocar and the merocar

As he’s given a tour of the main city and the lesser surrounding cities, he is introduced to many more VIP’s: Karmas, the custodian of works and polity; Maros, the curator of scientific research and application; Alpaz, the curator of learning and progress and Remo, the curator of useful mechanical devices (because no one inside the earth would be named John, of course).

There’s even a discussion of religion.  The basic tenet down here is that religious sects are quite foolish.  As long as people bow to the one true God (who I am fairly certain means a Christian God), what difference does it make if they worship via Catholicism, Protestantism, “Hindooism” or even polytheism.  These Earthly sects have caused nothing but wars, not to mention countless lives lost in aggressive missionary work.  And if they all believe in a Supreme Being who cares how they worship Him?

Since I gave away part of the story of Symzonia, how can I resist comparing it?  [So, ahem, Spoiler]: In Intermere, our hero believes that he is going to be adopted by the people there and welcomed as an honorary member.  But of course, he cannot be (especially since they told his mother that he would be back soon).  And one morning he wakes up and finds himself in merocar, speeding back to the surface, until he arrives in…Singapore?.

He sells the merocar (at the telepathic recommendation of Remo) and eventually reunites with his mother.  The book abruptly ends with this passage:

I shall not describe the meeting with my mother nor speak of what was said in relation to the strange and brief communications which passed between us months before.

Well, okay.

So, in sum, Intermere is short on plot although it’s a bit more interesting than Symnzonia in its method of arriving inside the earth.

But, as I am learning with these Utopian stories, the people who live in these Utopias are kind of jerks.  They are very smug about their superiority, they show off all of the time, and they appear to have virtually no fun.  They don’t believe in any kind of finery, they don’t believe in dressing well or adorning themselves in anything.  They barely sleep and spend most of their time in contemplation.  Which may sounds ideal, but really, it sounds kind of awful.   There’s a great episode of Red Dwarf where the crew meets a holographic Utopian spaceship that sounds not unlike this bunch, and they all come off like a bunch of tossers.

I can’t help but wonder if people were offended by these Utopian stories when they were published.  Basically, here’s this guy airing his grievances about specific things that he hates with the country or religion or technology and claiming that these Utopians are vastly superior to us because they follow the lifestyle that the author thinks is awesome.

I have recently compiled a list of some 50 Hollow Earth-related stories.  I’ve half a mind to read all of them over the next few years or so (most are quite short which will be a nice change of pace).  But if they all follow this same format of Utopian politics and unworthy Externals, I may abort that goal.  One of the sources of Hollow Earth stories listed a number of stories that are different, ether more adventurous or even satirical, so I think those will be next.  Many of them are also free from Google Books, so I’ll look into that as well.

If you’re along for the Hollow Earth journey, welcome aboard!

I’m glad to see someone else sharing my frustration with conservatives who claim to love the Boss. It’s fun to dance, but the songs have lyrics too, y’all.

Após tanta filosofia continuamos os mesmos
Tememos o futuro, construído sobre o passado
E mesmo passado o tempo, a fuga não vem
Com o presente deste presente, embrulhado em angústia
Produto de uma vida
Vida na forma de um duto
Viaduto de almas e sonhos
A felicidade que chega aos ouvidos duvidosos
Solidários solitários que ouvem a voz
Nós em nós, duros como a noz
E jaz em paz como um ás audaz
Ela triste canta enquanto encanta
Mas não alcança… e vem a lança
Que balança, mas não cansa
Como tudo que finda, a vinda vem a calhar
E no altar do olhar tudo se esquiva
Nessa nossa errante utopia

Drengene fra TomorrowsThoughtsToday har stykket en film sammen med tanker vedr Dystopia.

[Utopia]: “A name for an ideal community or society, that is taken from Of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia, a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system” – link

[Dystopia]: “The vision of a society in which conditions of life are miserable and characterized by poverty, oppression, war, violence, disease, pollution, nuclear fallout and/or the abridgement of human rights, resulting in widespread unhappiness, suffering, and other kinds of pain” – link

- Super komisk scene fra filmen They Live (1988)

Hvis du har lyst til at dykke ned i film der omhandler temaet Dystopia, så har jeg listet en top 10 over de mest anerkendte – listen er nedskrevet fra youtube filmene nedenfor. Skulle du være mere sulten, så finder du en længere liste af film på Wikipedia

Top Ten:

1. Brazil / 2. Children of Men (2006) / 3. Bladerunner (1982) / 4. They Live (1988) / 5. Silent Running (1972) / 6. TXH 1138 (1971) / 7. One point O (2004) / 8. District B13 (2004) / 9. Puzzlehead (2005) / 10. CODE 46 (2003)

Special mentions:

1984 / Akira / A Scanner Darkly / Cube / Cube 2 / Cube 3 / Dark City / Delicatessen / Fahrenheit 451 / The Fifth Element / Gattaca / Hardware / The Handmaid’s Tail / The Time Machine / Idiocracy / Logan’s Run / Mad Max 1-3 / Minority Report / The Quiet Earth / Serenity / Soylent Green / Sunshine / Tank Girl / Total Recall / Wall-E / Westworld

- Se de resterende 4 afsnit nedenfor:

SOUNDTRACK: KATE BUSH-The Red Shoes (1993).

The Red Shoes is something of a disappointment. While I enjoyed The Sensual World, it was definitely moving in a more adult contemporary vein.  The Red Shoes proceeds even further in this direction.  Since Kate is getting older, it makes sense that her music would change as well.

But there are some really fun tracks on here as well.  And Kate’s initial experiments with world music (the Bulgarian Choir) has really expanded into a more global palette (the island feel of “Eat the Music,” for instance).

The first four songs of the disc are really great.  They show an amazing diversity.  The first single “Rubberband Girl” is quite fun and bouncey.  It has a rather silly middle section where she makes rubberband-like sounds.   “And So is Love” sounds like classic Kate, with some wonderful vocals.  “Eat the Music” is a crazy, up beat horn fueled island track (with wonderfully suggestive lyrics).  And  “Moments of Pleasure” is a delightfully romantic song.

However, beginning with “Song of Salomon” with its awkward chorus of “don’t want no bullshit, just want your sexuality” the album trails off a little bit.  The rest of the songs feel kind of hurried and unspecific; there’s nothing really grabby about them.  They’re not bad, but they’re not all that memorable.  In fact, “Constellation of the Heart” is one of those rare aspects of a Kate disc: a song that sounds really dated.

The one exception to this decline is “Top of the City,” a really nice ballad that features some classic Kate vocals.

Of the remainder, “Big Stripey Lie” has some cool sound effects and lots of weirdness floating around it (and I do quite like it) although it’s really not as substantial as her previous experimental pieces.

Probably the most controversial song on the disc is “Why Should I Love You?” a duet with Prince.  While the main chorus is pretty cool (and uncannily Prince-like) the rest of the track sounds (again) very dated.  The track also features the great comedian Lenny Henry on vocals.  However, since Henry is responsible for what may be the worst sitcom theme song ever in the history of music (it may actually make you want to not watch the rather funny Chef, it is so awful) his inclusion isn’t really all that wonderful.  The disc ends with “You’re the One” a weird (in a good way) track that features The Bulgarian Chorus again.  They seem to do a great job of keeping Kate’s songs focused, so the disc ends on a high note.

This disc is pretty soundly dismissed by even diehard Kate fans.  And it is definitely her least satisfying overall. But if you look deeper into the disc, there are some unfairly overlooked gems.

[READ: November 20, 2009] Symzonia

After reading Etidorhpa, I started looking around at other Hollow Earth books.  And thankfully, someone has done most of the work already. So, for an absurdly long list of Hollow Earth books, check out this link.  I was delighted to see that so many of them are quite short!

When I saw this book, and realized that it was about the world mentioned in “Symmes Hole” (from McSweeney’s) and that it was very likely written by Symmes himself (there is still debate, but it is convincing that he wrote it) I decided to check it out.

Sadly, this book was considerably duller than Etidorhpa.  It was 250 pages and the first 100 were details of his journey to the South Pole.  Which would be fine except that since the author is a sailor he gives excruciating details about not only sailing, but even shipbuilding (including how smart he was for making the ship as strong as he did,) and the directions of the wind and speculation about longitude and all that great seafaring stuff.  That’s not my thing, so I found it rather tedious.

He also talks about the detailed process of claiming the island that he lands on for the United States (the deed that he writes up and where he buries it!).

There’s even a near mutiny.  When they approach the South Pole, they lose all connection to their compass.  No one can figure out where they are except the captain (which actually seems like a flaw for the rest of the crew, but what do I know).  As such, no one can throw the captain overboard or they will be lost at sea.  Anyhow, this was probably the most exciting part of the book.

When they finally do get to the land at the South Pole, there is an opening in the earth which leads to the center world.  Although I can’t exactly tell how they sail into and out of this hole.  There’s a  diagram at the front of the book but it’s not terribly useful.

First they make landfall and create a superb structure (the Captain is clearly a fantastic builder) that allows them to camp in a frigid tundra and to hunt seal.  Well, actually half the crew hunt seal, the rest sail off to the paradise of the land inside the hole.

The ship sails on and the Captain meets the Symzonians.  Unlike in Editorhpa, in Symzonia, there doesn’t appear to be a world in the core of the earth.  Rather, the residents seem to live on the inside edge of the globe itself.

As in Editorhpa, the people inside are enlightened.  But if you imagined that the preachiness was pretty strong there, it’s twice as bad here.  The failings of people on the earth (or Externals) are pretty explicitly detailed.  Chapters are devoted (in more excruciating details) to the Internals’ form of government (including the various levels of government and how they are selected or excluded).  He compares it to the United States government (which has only been in existence for 50 years at this point!), and, of course, he find the U.S. version to be quite lacking.

They even have incredible energy production (vehicles that can go hundreds of miles an hour and stop on a dime), and the best tasting foods with no wasted energy, and everything else that is good and wonderful.  But they are also not interested in material finery: they have unlimited access to oysters, so they have pearls everywhere.  The captain asks for a handful and they give him some since the pearls have no value to them).  Of course, none of the details behind these amazing technological accomplishments are given, ostensibly because the externals couldn’t handle it.

The Internals are quite distrustful of the captain, and they keep him from returning to their land until he can learn their language.  So the ship stays moored until he learns their language and proves himself worthy of them.  In the meantime he gives them all of the literature on the ship (the Internals are, of course, much better at learning English than he is at learning their language).  And they are horrified when they read the fiction that the Captain brought, determining that Externals are basically greedy, selfish bastards bent on war and salves to their impulses.  And, they are likely descendants from the bad apples that they cast out of their Internal world years ago.  They deem him unworthy of staying in their land, and send him on his way.

The captain feels bad that he is not as pure and good as the Internals.  But, mostly he is sad because he was hoping to make a killing on his exploration and all his information (and pearls!) and book deals and everything else.  Which (doh!) goes to show that he ISN’T enlightened, just like they said.

He leaves the center of the earth to go back to the island where the other half of his crew has been hanging out for several months slaughtering seals.  He’s able to load up (and I kid you not) 100,000 seal pelts.  Good grief.

When he returns home he entrusts the wrong man with his massive monetary gain for the seal pelts, and he hits financial trouble, which is what inspired him to write this book.  So it’s kind of meta- in an 1820’s sort of way.

I gave away a lot of the story, but there’s not a lot of story there.  Further, the Table of Contents summarizes each chapter which basically gives away everything that happens.  And if I didn’t mention these parts there wouldn’t be much interesting story left.  Although that’s not entirely true, the plot isn’t really the point of the book.  It is really an opportunity for the author to air his grievances with the fledgling U.S. and point out all of the country’s failings.

Like Etidorhpa, this book was clearly written as a kind of proof that this internal world exists.  Hence all of the matter of fact (and dull) technical aspects of the story.  It also explains the ToC giving everything away, almost like a textbook.  The strangest thing for me though is that the author clearly had an amazing imagination to come up with this, but he seemed to lack the imagination to make the story more compelling.

A lot of this Hollow Earth work is preachy, and I hope that future stories prove more entertaining.

by Matt Fraction (writer), Greg Land (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), Justin Ponsor (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: The X-Men attempt to stave off the Predator X attack.

What’s Good: This is an action comic, pure and simple and in that capacity, it delivers; it’s big, bloody, and explosive.

Better still, Matt Fraction makes the most of the fact that it’s a team based action comic.  One really gets a sense of strategy in the X-Men’s dealing with the Predator Xs.  Abilities are used in perfect concert and the X-Men feel like a well-trained, well-oiled machine.  Multi-level, cooperative strategy is employed as the mutants essentially combine and chain each other’s abilities in a sort of cooperative harmony that was clearly quite well thought out by Fraction.

Taking this perhaps a little more literally is Fraction’s use of Rogue.  He uses her power absorption ability to synchronize X-Men mutant abilities, allowing him to essentially play a cool and creative game of mix and match with mutant powers.

While action-based, the issue is nonetheless not without development.  A very interesting Phoenix-related occurrence happens with respect to the Cuckoos that is foreboding and is sure to pay dividends at a later date.  Furthermore, the last page of the book is similarly intriguing, as we get a look at Danger’s idea of a prison.  Those who have read William Gibson’s foundational cyberpunk novel ”Neuromancer” will probably get a kick out of the scene.

On art, Greg Land actually acquits himself quite well, particularly for his often-weak standards.  While certain female faces do lack detail or appear a little awkwardly photo-referenced, there aren’t any real catastrophes this month.  Compliments are due, however, for Land’s drawings of the Predator X monstrosities, which look horrifyingly savage and distinctly alien.  That last page with Danger was also quite beautiful.

What’s Not So Good: While the use of teamwork in harmonizing abilities and employing strategy was impressive, that doesn’t change the fact that this is just one big, extended action scene across 21 pages.  In other words, it’s hard not read this without realizing that while you’re entertained, the book nonetheless feels strangely hollow, shallow even.  Indeed, this is mainstream comics at its most popcorn superficial, the sort of book that the indie comic fan no doubt points to in horror.  That doesn’t mean it’s bad, but it also means that the book doesn’t summon any sort of emotion beyond the base-level amusement that comes with reading a good action scene.  It’s not a smart read in the slightest, nor is it a dense one, though it is enjoyable for what it is.

Also, some of Fraction’s voices are still off.   He struggles with Rogue’s colloquial accent, for starters.  At times it disappears altogether or is at least very minimal, while at other times, she sounds like a painfully exaggerated hillbilly.  Fraction can’t seem to find a middle ground, nor can he find consistency.

Magneto’s voice also feels problematic this month and reminds me of Fraction’s struggles to write Xavier’s voice in past issues.  At times, Magneto just sounds too young, hip, and catchy, particularly with his battle banter.  Worse still, in a later scene, he goes back to the more aged, formal tone we saw last month.  Like Rogue, not only is the voice problematic in itself, but it also lacks consistency.

Conclusion: Enjoyable for what it is, this issue still feels a little thin due to its not striving to be anything more.

Grade: B -

-Alex Evans

Der FSC wurde soeben auf der Utopia Konferenz 2009 mit dem Utopia Award 2009 in der Kategorie Organisationen ausgezeichnet. Der Preis wurde von Nina Griesshammer (WWF) entgegengenommen, einem der Vorstandsmitglieder des FSC. Dr. Uwe Sayer, Geschäftsführer des FSC Arbeitsgruppe Deutschland, musste heute krankheitsbedingt das Bett hüten.

Es freut uns außerordentlich, dass der FSC den Award erhalten hat und wir gratulieren dem FSC sehr herzlich zu dieser Ehrung, die er auch verdient hat, wenn Sie uns dieses Urteil gestatten: Der FSC setzt sich weltweit für nachhaltige Forstwirtschaft ein und hat in Deutschland in den letzten Jahren enorm viel Pionier- und Überzeugungsarbeit geleistet.

Der FSC erhält den Utopia Award 2009 in der Kategorie Organisationen (Foto: Michael Löffler, Gute Aussicht)

Uwe, auf diesem Wege gute Besserung! Es macht viel Spaß, mit Dir und dem FSC über Nachhaltigkeit in der Medienproduktion (und andere Dinge) zu sprechen. Nina Griesshammer, ich freue mich auf Ihren Besuch am Montag. Mein herzlicher Dank an Mike Löffler von Gute Aussicht für die schnelle SMS-Berichterstattung und das superschnelle Foto. Ihnen allen bei Utopia weiterhin viel Spaß bei der Veranstaltung und noch einen schönen und erlebnisreichen Abend.

Προσπαθούμε να δημιουργήσουμε ένα χώρο που θα έχει τα χαρακτηριστικά της αλληλεγγύης, της συντροφικότητας, της αυτονομίας. Να φτιάξουμε ένα ζεστό πολύμορφο τόπο που να χωρά και μακάρι να μην αντέχει τη πολιτική και πολιτιστική μας δημιουργικότητα. Θέλουμε, παράλληλα, να βρισκόμαστε κάπου που δε θα πληρώνουμε πολλά για να πιούμε καφέ ή ποτό και θα μπορούμε να μην ακούμε και να μη βλέπουμε τα κυρίαρχα πολιτιστικά σκουπίδια.
Θέλουμε να φτιάξουμε κάτι που δεν υπάρχει.

Θέλουμε να μπορέσουμε να εμπλέξουμε όλο και πιο πολλές και πολλούς σε οτι μέχρι στιγμής ψυχανεμιζόμαστε οτι είναι καλό: θέλουμε να αναπτύξουμε τα ταλέντα μας και θέλουμε να απολαύσουμε όμορφες μουσικές και καλές ταινίες. Θέλουμε να ζωντανέψουμε συλλογικές κουλτούρες χωρίς οποιαδήποτε γραφειοκρατικά χαλινάρια. Θέλουμε όλες και όλοι μαζί να συνδιαμορφώσουμε μια ουτοπία μέσα σε έναν ελεύθερο κοινωνικό χώρο δίχως αυτό να σημαίνει οτι δε θα αγωνιζόμαστε για τη δημιουργία της ουτοπίας και έξω από τους τέσσερις τοίχους του στεκιού μας.

Είμαστε αριστεροί και αριστερές της σημερινής εποχής και δεν μας αφορά να εγκλωβιζόμαστε σε στρεβλά πρότυπα που πλασάρονται ως επαναστατικά. Για μας η αξία της συλλογικής δράσης είναι ανεκτίμητη. Και έτσι όλοι και όλες θα προσπαθήσουμε να μάθουμε και να διδάξουμε αγγλικά, γαλλικά, ισπανικά, ελληνικά, πολιτική επιστήμη, ιστορία, κινηματογράφο, λογοτεχνία, ψυχολογία και ότι βάλει ο αλήτης νους μας. Διαλέγουμε να διαλεχθούμε για να αποκτήσουμε αντιρατσιστική, αντιμιλιταριστική, αντισεξιστική συνείδηση έχοντας κατά νου φεμινιστικά, οικολογικά και ταξικά προτάγματα. Θα ασχοληθούμε με οτι σημαντικό συμβαίνει στην Πετρούπολη και θα προσπαθήσουμε να κάνουμε και την κοινωνία της να ασχοληθεί με ότι εμείς θεωρούμε σημαντικό.

Τέλος λέμε να ανταμώνουμε συχνά πολύ, σχεδόν καθημερινά και να δραστηριοποιούμαστε είτε εντός είτε εκτός του Utopia. Και καλούμε όποια και όποιον σκέφτεται λεύτερα και νομίζει πως μπορεί να μας μοιάζει να έρθει να μας βρει. Θα συνεδριάζουμε κάθε δεύτερη Κυριακή του μήνα μετά τις 7.

Και θα βγάζουμε γλώσσα. Και θα αντιμιλάμε.

Και λέμε να εθίσουμε πολλές και πολλούς σε αυτό.

Υπογραφή,
Σύντροφοι και συντρόφισσες που στήνουμε την Utopia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEIvlihb2Ms

Ero ancora giovane. Eppure non ero ancora nato.

Non ero ancora  nato, quando Gozzano sognava, pazzo, la verità di sogno della sua Utopia. E intanto ero ancora troppo giovane per capire i versi di Francesco che prendeva a prestito Gozzano per cantare il nostro sogno. Sognavamo.

I versi di Guccini si intrecciano con quelli di Gozzano.  L’età dell’adolescenza s’incrocia con quella degli studi liceali. L’età età della incoscienza s’intralcia con quella della presa di coscienza.

Nel 1971  avevo 12  anni. Troppo pochi per una coscienza che guardasse all’Utopia come ad una metà,  reale o irreale, dipende solo dalla capacità di sognare o dall’incapacità di sopportare l’illusione del sogno.

Mi resi conto dell’importanza dell’Utopia solo più tardi. Crescendo. Tra una lezione di filosofia ed una canzone di Francesco. Guccini.  In quei giorni, quando a scuola avevo finalmente le lezioni di filosofia, ormai, raggiungevo i 16 anni.

Era il 1975.  Erano anni che duravano un’eternità. Erano anni che non tornano più. In quegli anni cambiava il mondo, mentre, dentro e fuori cambiavo io, per primo. Cercavo di diventare uomo. Di essere. Cosa avevo dentro, allora?

Era il 1975, allora. Dentro e fuori c’era un mondo che cresceva, si agitava, si contorceva, come i rami di un ulivo costretto a stare dentro una gabbia. Erano gli anni in cui si inseguivano i sogni, le utopie.

I sogni, le utopie. I sogni, le utopie di un’intera nazione, di un popolo. Oltre che di un piccolo ragazzo che voleva diventare un uomo. Parlavamo, allora. Discutevamo. Non c’era una sola verità. Non c’era.

La verità. Non c’era una verità. La dovevamo misurare. Dovevo essere io stesso la misura della mia verità. Dovevamo costruire tutti insieme la Verità. Una verità nella quale stare tutti, comodi. Nella quale viaggiare veloci.

Era una macchina, un aereo supersonico, una capsula spaziale, il mezzo che ci spingeva verso quel sogno. Verso l’Utopia. Verso la Verità. Avevo fretta. Una fretta giustificata. La stessa fretta di un pazzo.

Avevo fretta. E non ero il solo. Ero pazzo. E non ero solo.  Volevamo raggiungere la verità, il sogno l’utopia. Esistevamo per questo. Sbagliavamo per questo. Peccavamo per questo. Morivamo per questo.

Morivamo dannati. Come Jim Morrison. Come Jimy Hendrix. Come Janis Joplin. Eravamo dannati. Pazzi. dannati. E disperati. Come Allen Ginsberg. Come Bob Dylan. Come Joan Baez. Eravamo pazzi. Come Syd Barret.

Morivamo pazzi e dannati. Morivamo e diventavamo grandi, nel frattempo. Diventavamo adulti. Ci piaceva parlare. Discutere. Mettere tutto sottosopra. Niente era vero. Noi dovevamo misurare a grandi passi il mondo della verità.

Gozzano impallidiva,  a vederci così, coi capelli arruffati dei ragazzi lentigginosi. Impallidiva, ma era felice di camminare al nostro fianco. Camminavamo, compatti. Marciavamo, nelle piazze. E urlavamo. Pazzi. Di gioia.

Marciavamo e riempivamo le piazze. Urlavamo. Come un’onda inarrestabile conquistavamo lo spazio che avevamo davanti. Uno spazio immenso. Senza limiti. E avevamo al fianco poeti e filosofi. Pazzi di gioia. Cantavamo. Felici.

Tutti insieme. Tutto il mondo era nostro. Tutto il futuro era squadernato davanti a noi. Era tutto nostro. Avevamo 12 anni. Nel 1971. Avevamo il vento nelle ali. Volavamo alto. L’Utopia era la nostra meta. La nostra verità.

Hooray, another new show (on AMC)! Granted, there have been six episodes already but I have only just discovered it.

The Prisoner is an awesome new show (if you like dystopian stories, which I LOVE!) about a man who wakes up in the middle of nowhere by a place called “the Village” and is told that his name is Six and that there is nowhere else. The Village is a little utopian town where all is well, all people have numbers rather than names (so on tv soap operas, 2597 dates 5620 to spite 284 who is secretly in love with 86…) and everyone seems happy. Seems being the key word. The master villain, known as Two, is Ian McKellan, who runs the place (but begs the question, who is One?). Six is convinced that he “is not a number” and has vague memories of his past, living in NYC. (Oddly though, we never hear what he thinks his real name is.) The further he searches for answers, the more he gets pulled back in.

It’s a little hard to explain it all since it’s a made up world, but it’s pretty awesome. Sort of like the Giver. But without the actual Giver part.

If you’re looking for a new show, and even if you’re not, I highly recommend this one. And I hope that Ian McKellan gets an award for his role.

I do many different so called genres of photography, but there’s a special place in my heart for night photography, for that time when most photographers put away their cameras. The night removes many veils that our society uses to obscure its less “safe” aspects. Without the presence of people, our buildings are revealed for the ridiculous edifice they are. People who society and (especially) police generally see as less desirable or attractive come out of hiding, allowed to be present in the anonymity of darkness. The night provides space for the less typical to exhale.

At first, night photography appealed to me because of its novelty, the prospect of revealing that which the naked eye alone is incapable of seeing. As time has gone on, I learned the above, of the ability of such work to de and recontextualize what we all encounter in everyday experience. The buildings and streets we walk among and on, the people (human and non-human alike) that we do or do not see or notice, the spaces, occupied or not that normally exist beyond our rushed daytime perception.

A formerly unconscious strand of such work of mine has been the need to see solitude in these busy and inhuman (and inhumane, and inanimal for that matter) environments. There is a certain apocalyptic outlook to be seen through my eyes. A place with less human presence, where the collective monolith of our society, out civilization has gone to seed. But there is also a hopeful aspect here, as this new absence creates a void waiting to be filled with the possibility of a new kind of existence that draws from the very, very old, from a time in which humans did not destroy through poisoned relations with the rest of the world.

So these pictures portray not only the dystopia in which we live that is revealed beneath the veneer of rushed daily existence, but also the utopian possibilites that lurk beneath such seemingly unlikely places. I’m not content simply to take pictures, I have an urge to use this capturing of perception to open up a dialogue that prepares us for an uncertain future, while also helping us see the beauty and the ugliness that exists just beneath the mundane surface of the everyday.

Sometimes I wonder if photography is the most effective medium with which to do this. Certainly a precedent has been set in both writing and music for such work that as described above. But photography (or at least my own) must work with what exists and with the narrow scope of narrative available to it compared with those forms. To attempt a dialogue about an uncertain future, and the past that led us to this present, in a medium that can describe only the present is perhaps setting myself up for disappointment. But maybe having to use the reality I see now to portray any of a number of realities I or others can envision for the future will make that portrayal all the more poignant.

E’ abbastanza indicativo che la maggior parte dei vocabolari dia come prima definizione del lemma “pace”: «La situazione contraria allo stato di guerra…» (Devoto – Oli); oppure: «Assenza dello stato di guerra» (Gabrielli); oppure: «Non belligeranza» (Diz. Dei sinonimi – Garzanti). Questi dizionari rispecchiano la mentalità comune: c’è pace là dove non c’è guerra. In realtà, l’assenza di guerra non significa pace. Possiamo costatarlo osservando ciò che sta avvenendo nel nostro “pacifico” Paese. Intelligentemente Alessandro Niccoli nel suo dizionario, riporta solo come terza definizione: «Relazioni cordiali tra uno Stato e un altro; periodo in cui non ci sono guerre»; mentre dà come prima definizione: «Condizione di tranquillità di chi non è turbato da passioni o preoccupazioni», e come seconda: «Stato di concordia e armonia tra persone». E questi ultimi significati sono giusti criteri per capire se sussiste la pace. Riguardo al singolo individuo, ad esempio, in Italia non sono in pace, pur non essendo in guerra, le persone che si trovano o sono venute a trovarsi senza lavoro; gli stranieri cui si dà la caccia come se fossero malfattori; non sono in pace le donne vessate dagli uomini. Ed ovviamente neppure i malfattori sono in pace. Riguardo alla nostra società, essa non potrà dirsi in pace fino a che sarà in mano alla mafia, fino a che esisteranno leggi inique, fino a che coloro che governano penseranno al proprio interesse anziché a quello dei cittadini. C’è pace là dove c’è “concordia e armonia tra le persone”. C’è vera pace là dove tutti sono liberi. Tutti. (Renato Pierri Scrittore)

Abhijeet Ahluwalia

There are prog rockers, there are producers. And then there’s Todd Rundgren. In any given year of his 40 year career, few artists would have been as active both in front of the microphone and behind the mixing desk as Runt. I could keeping waxing lyrical all night long and still not cover all he’s done, or the impact he’s had. Little wonder then, that British fans are foaming at the mouth at the prospect of seeing Todd perform A Wizard, A True Star in its entirety.

A theatrical show replete with costume changes and props, the extravaganza was initially conceived on tour in England in support of the  2008 Arena record. “Last year’s English promoter came up with the idea,” Todd explains to me over the phone from Hawaii. “Younger acts and electronic artists had been name checking it in interviews and citing it as an influence, and we thought this was a better vehicle to attract a better audience. Word eventually got back to the US and some fans didn’t want to wait until 2010 to see it live, so they got together and did the promotion themselves! We didn’t go to a promoter, it was someone who runs an online station that only plays my music.”

What started with one show in Ohio quickly ballooned into several as crowds took to the idea in the way only a dedicated fan-base can. It is an overused cliché in the music industry to describe an artist’s fans as ‘the most hardcore’ or ‘rabid’, but Todd Rundgren fans are the rare set to whom such definitions can actually be applied. But, even amongst them, there was some unease over the choice of the record to perform.

To understand the significance of A Wizard, A True Star (AWATS), you have to place it in the context of Rundgren’s previous work, the popular Something/Anything? The album remains his best-selling work and got him one of his biggest hits – Hello, It’s Me, which went to No.5 on the Billboard charts. Which is why fans were forgiven for being completely flummoxed by his follow-up, AWATS. It was a complete change of sound and parked very firmly in progressive rock territory. The recording sounded muddled and cacophonic at first, because there was so much going on. Yet, the faithful persevered – slowly picking it apart, layer by layer, to uncover what was arguably the defining prog rock record of the decade.

“A lot of people gave up after Something/Anything? because AWATS was so different from anything I had been doing up till then, and other records at the time,” reflects Todd, then laughs as he says, “The rest of my fans have been with me the whole time and survived the change, and lots of other bizarre excursions and hip-hop experimentations!!”

In fact, the complexity of AWATS became a bit of a stumbling block for Todd himself: “I went back to deconstruct the original master tapes because people couldn’t figure out what to play! I had to do remixes of just certain parts like guitars or bass so we could accurately reproduce the music part of it.”

Did that also force his hand slightly when choosing which musicians would back him up? “Yes,” is the straightforward reply. “It would be tempting to call up people I know who had no direct connection with the project, but I didn’t know if I was on solid ground myself, so I wanted familiar faces. For e.g. I had to fill in the keyboard slots so I first asked Greg Hawkes if he would join, and he was important because he has a lot of the original keyboards that were on the record. He actually has them and remembers how to play the stuff!!” says Todd, laughing heartily like he often does.

“Then I got Roger Powell because he had played some parts before. Unfortunately he is gainfully employed!!! He has a real job he has to go back to, so I went back further and got in touch with Ralph Schukett, so he’ll be pianist in London and Amsterdam.”

Credit: Jean Lannen

Of course, what makes this tour so special is the fact that there is a theatrical element added to the music, giving fans a visual element to the emotive music. This, in itself, presented some unique problems. Not all venues can accommodate this show, so immediately the touring scope was a limited one. And, as Todd points out, people already have a ‘mental movie’ that goes with the record, so he had to create something that, while fresh and interesting, didn’t completely clash with what fans had visualised. Imagine taking the best book in the world and making it into a movie. Then chuck out the script, and replace readers with ridiculously dedicated fans, and you being to get a glimpse of the effort that went into creating this tour.

“We concentrated on reproducing the fashion sense, based it on weird costumes back in the 70s and then that expanded to 12 costume changes. Which means there are music passages where I’m back stage going through a frantic costume change! We have modern day production gimmicks but …a lot of the essence of the song comes from the costume.”

What makes the European shows a fascinating prospect is what the opening act of this opus will be. In the US there were Utopia songs played, amongst others, but Todd remains tight-lipped on what European audiences will get to see. “There will be an opening act but I’m not going to elaborate,” is all he’s willing to divulge.

He’s a lot more forthcoming when confronted with a trickier subject. Cynics would see this entire idea as a way for an old musician to make a quick buck. Certainly, if this was true, Todd wouldn’t be the first musician to try doing it. Is this whole tour just a ruse then, Mr. Rundgren?

“I’m not making any money!!” Todd manages to splutter out after laughing. “I was lucky to break even at the end of the American leg because we have a larger band, crew and production. We’re coming over to Europe and only doing 2 dates with so many people. There is no big payday, at least not yet. As for my age I don’t feel any shame because I’m in my 60s and still have an audience. People did better than me (in the 70s) yet I’m the one who’s still around. My heroes are BB King and Tony Bennett, people who play till they collapse. That’s what a musician is. I could start lying about my age and getting cosmetic surgery but the whole pop-star thing doesn’t last long.”

In fact, Todd has been able to experience the joy that is reserved for very few musicians – seeing fans grow up and bring their children to his shows, thus exposing a whole new generation to his music. “Most tours have been a cross section of age groups. Part of it is the natural evolution of fans becoming parents and forcing their kids along, and some kids come on their own!”

He even credits some of this to the ubiquity of music on the internet, a topic that can and has generated miles of column inches. For Todd though, it’s quite simple: “The internet works!! Yes, it’s having an effect!! It is the domain of a young audience and they’re using it do discover stuff radio isn’t giving them. I’m meeting fans that have discovered me last year and they’re 25. When fans are young they don’t have compartmentalised attitudes towards music. They’re open to different styles and music. With so much stuff I’ve recorded over the years, they’re bound to find something they like!”

All this talk of new generations of fans and 70s prog rock does beg the question – how long can Todd Rundgren go on touring? It is a lifestyle that can take its toll on the youngest of bodies, let alone one that has been slaving out on the road for 3 decades, winning fans the old fashioned way – through the sheer brilliance of a live performance, night after night. Todd himself is realistic about his physical condition and where that leaves him.

Credit: Mark Mawston

“My back is weak. About 2 years ago, I did a tour of Japan and there you play smaller venues where they charge a lot for tickets; these are really tough gigs. In between 2 shows, I wrenched my back really bad, and had to complete the tour on painkillers. I would do the show but the rest of the day was complete fucking misery. Sometimes, the day began by crawling from my bed to the bathroom. Literally crawling. Then I’d somehow get my shoes on and walk around until everything loosened up for me to move, for the 2 hours I’m on stage.

“At 20 you don’t think about it. As you get older and your performance becomes more refined, your day revolves around those 2 hours on stage and the rest is a regime getting ready for that. That’s how it will be for me, the only question is will I crawl or walk!! It’s more and more a mental game; there’s nothing you can do about the atrophy attacking your body but hey, this is way better than a coal mine.”

All through this conversation the one thing strikes me is how amazingly light hearted Todd manages to be at all times. Even a graphic description of the aforementioned day of ‘complete fucking misery’ is said with a chuckle, and I can just imagine him grinning away as he patiently answers my questions over the phone. And that’s what makes Todd Rundgren such a great musician. There are lots of creative geniuses in the music industry. Many have attempted grandiose live shows, some have even succeeded. But it is rare to find a talented, critically lauded musician, who is also popular with the fans, but still manages to keep his sense of humour through the darkest of times. I didn’t ask him if the title was auto-biographical, but I realise I never needed to. Here’s to Todd Rundgren – A wizard, a true star.

Todd Rundgren performs the British Premiere of “A Wizard, A True Star” at the HMV London Hammersmith Apollo on Saturday 6th February 2010.  Box Office: 08700 603 777.  Book Online: www.seetickets.com

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Ecco qui uno schema su Machiavelli. Quando finisco quello sull’utopia lo metto online.

Machiavelli .doc
Utopia e città del sole . doc

Nicola

It is 2028 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, posing as Will Armstrong, is alive and composing. The immortal who has survived history’s greatest challenges including its most recent, the asteroid strike called “the Shudder,” now finds his identity at risk. But the science and arts utopia in which he resides, Ipolis or the sapient machine One, favors Mozart above all its citizens and goes to extreme measures to ensure his safety.

What unfolds is a comedic opera with an intricate plot. While Mozart pines for the sexually confused sex-change clinic nurse Katerina, investigative journalist Helen Printo and spy Alex Burton scheme to catch the immortal, Canadian diplomat Lester Parson ponders his role in the North vs. South nuclear war as well as his empty love life, and sadistic art student Bella Gunn searches for the emotion that first drew her to painting, One works to keep the world safe. Each character delivers his/her own song, a story of his/her past, and as the work progresses these distinct threads join to create an unlikely symphony.

Rayner’s novel sets the most timeless themes of love, identity, and art in a technological world endangered by greed and corruption. Individual viewpoints recount personal pasts and solidify Ipolis as the nurturing utopia. But Mozart remains at the center of this humorous story, weighing his secret immortality as the world approaches self-destruction.

Charles Fourier.

Quando si parla di teorie utopistiche la maggior parte della gente pensa a Marx e al socialismo. Altri, più raffinati, forse pensano alla Repubblica di Platone. Pochi, sicuramente, ricordano la figura di Charles Fourier, spesso dimenticato e forse volutamente ignorato da filosofi e politici per la sua carica avveniristica ancora capace di creare “scandalo” e disagio.

Fourier  nasce il 7 aprile del 1772 a Besançon. Il padre è un ricco commerciante e dopo la morte dello stesso il giovane Charles intraprende la carriera commerciale. È forse grazie all’esperienza in questo campo, alla conoscenza delle piccolezze, degli imbrogli e dello sfruttamento che sono alla base del mercato che l’autore comincia a sviluppare la sua teoria. Egli immagina un mondo nuovo, dove la società è costituita da Falangi, gruppi organizzati per quanto riguarda la vita in comune, il lavoro e perfino l’amore. Le Falangi fanno vita comunitaria dentro ai Falansteri, strutture edili funzionali e create ad hoc per la vita sociale. Ma il mondo di Fourier va ben oltre…

Il suo pensiero rivoluzionario si spinge ad analizzare in modo molto critico le strutture della società capitalistica e mercantile, a denunciare la sua immoralità e la sua ipocrita falsità. Citiamo un suo passo:

“…A proposito di una mela a portata di mano. Sarebbe forse più corretto considerare questo furtarello originario come

La tomba di Fourier. l'epigrafe dice: Qui giacciono i resti di Charles Fourier/ La serie assegna le armonie/ le attrazioni sono proporzionali ai destini.

conforme al terzo dei nostri diritti naturali: il diritto di raccolta. Del resto è cosa evidente che sin dall’origine del mondo si è sempre avuto come regola quella di punire soltanto i piccoli ladri e sono pronto a scommettere che se nostra madre Eva, al posto di rubare una misera mela, avesse rubato tutti i frutti del Paradiso terrestre e poi sottratto anche la chiave del frutteto, la si sarebbe considerata donna onestissima…”

Fourier cita spesso la religione che non gli era estranea. Egli criticava l’immagine ufficiale della morale divina che, a suo parere, era solo e unicamente fatta per asservire il popolo ai “ladroni” che stavano al potere. Egli sostiene invece che la più grande creazione di Dio è data dalle passioni che danno gioia all’uomo e che, se vissute in un mondo equo e giusto, divengono forza produttiva e positiva. Delle passioni egli fa un campo di studio primario e basilare. Le divide in dodici differenti tipologie raggruppate in tre gruppi: sensitive (tatto, gusto, udito, vista, odorato), affettive (amicizia, ambizione, amore,

la pianta di un ipotetico Falansterio.

familismo), distributive (cabalistica, sfarfallante, composita). Alle ultime tre dava un’importanza sostanziale nei meccanismi sociali. La cabalistica (o cabalista) è emulativa e tende a portare all’intrigo. La sfarfallante è la voglia di cambiamento e la composita è il bisogno di soddisfare più cose insieme. Questi tre meccanismi sono alla base del vivere sociale.

Tra tutti gli argomenti che Fourier analizza nelle sue opere quello che destò più clamore fu la sua visione del rapporto amoroso. Egli negava la coppia e il matrimonio, invenzioni del sistema oppressivo. In particolare Fourier sosteneva la perfetta parità di uomo e donna nei diritti e nel ruolo sociale e la possibilità quindi di disporre del proprio corpo liberamente. L’”amore libero”e la parità dei sessi nella società di fine XVIII secolo era cosa impensabile…

“La seduzione composta, il fascino indiscreto dell’utopia” è un

la copertina del libro.

libro interessante che raccoglie tre inediti frammenti di Charles Fourier: “Dialogo del Selvaggio e del Filosofo” dove un selvaggio dimostra con la semplice forza logica del “ho fame quindi mangio” la vanità delle tesi filosofiche che vorrebbero sostenere che è giusto morire di fame in nome del mercato e del commercio, “Citerlogo, accordo della morale con i diritti naturali per integrazione composta”, dove attraverso il paragone tra la società del suo tempo e quella ideale Fourier spiega la sua concezione morale e sociologica e “La seduzione composta” dove ci educe sulla teoria delle passioni.

È un libro breve, facile da leggere e divertente anche grazie alla sagace ironia dell’autore che con esempi tuttora attuali ci mostra le sue tesi. Il libro è stampato dalle edizioni Stampa Alternativa.

Capricho 43 de Goya. Fuente: Cervantes Virtual y Wikipedia

Merece la pena tener a la vista el Capricho 43 de Goya. En este grabado figura, literalmente, la frase “El sueño de la razón produce monstruos.” Goya, el gran pensador Ilustrado que escribía con pinceles y grabados nunca dijo que la Razón generara monstruos, la frase en cuestión tiene sujeto, verbo y predicado, y otra cosa es cómo se le entienda.

Vamos a ello: El sujeto de la frase es el sueño. No desde luego un sueño cualquiera, sino el de la razón. Por tanto, vemos que para que los monstruos aparezcan en escena la razón debe estar en suspenso, ausente, dormida. La oscuridad rodea al sujeto, y de ella emergen, amenazantes, los monstruos que la razón, por estar ausente, no disipa con su luz. Esto es literalmente lo que nos enseña la escena.
Luego y visto desde lo que hoy sabemos podemos entrar en disquisiciones acerca de si se podría entender que en el sueño o cuando la razón cede aparece lo onírico, lo instintivo, lo subconsciente y a veces irracional, aberrante y monstruoso.

Tampoco cabe desechar una interpretación de sueño como ensoñación, como utopía. No olvidemos el contexto del grabado. Los ideales de la Ilustración han desatado la revolución francesa, y a la postre la invasión napoleónica. Ambas proporcionaron un final de reinado de Carlos IV convulso con terror a las ideas revolucionarias e invasión napoleónica después. En este sentido el grabado advertiría no contra la razón, sino contra la excesiva candidez o utopismo, lo que sigue siendo plenamente moderno. Pensemos que la razón y la modernidad no sólo están encarnadas en el método deductivo y el idealismo continental sino también en el método inductivo, la ilustración escocesa y el empirismo anglosajón.

Al hilo del sueño como ausencia de razón productora de monstruos es como se entiende al nazismo como irracionalidad máxima hija antes del romanticismo y el nacionalismo que de la ilustración alemana, a la que niega, aunque tampoco podamos cargar el monstruo a las espaldas y responsabilidad de Herder o Fichte. Aunque no pueda entenderse sin ella como precedente conscientemente negado, el nazismo encarna la fuerza política del irracionalismo y es antítesis de la razón y la modernidad.

Al hilo del sueño como ensoñación, aparecen los monstruos del utopismo llevado a la práctica. A la utopía revolucionaria soñada por Marx, asentada esta sí en las bases racionales de la modernidad ilustrada, le fue dada vida por Lenin y la hizo crecer como monstruo Stalin. Pero no es la razón, sino el sueño quien la engendra, y aun acaso sea excesivo cargar en el soñador la responsabilidad que compete al tirano y al matarife.
Bien está ser cauteloso con los idealismos totalizadores, pero hasta la fecha, el único freno eficaz ha sido la racionalidad empírica y científica, una razón despierta, no dormida ni ensoñada, ni disminuida ni ausente. El postmodernismo insuflando su aire revoltoso sobre el débil pábilo de la razón hace las delicias de los pre-modernos, que ya esperan ver las tinieblas del dogma y la arbitrariedad restauradas.