The future of barbarism
Cruelty in humanity
behavior that makes sense
It is necessary to give a name to what has no name, to what is intangible ... All in all, this is the job of philosophers and philosophy. Vladimir Jankélévitch
For a long time, men considered cruelty as inevitable. It was an almost positive value. It was part of the daily life of the gods and kings of Antiquity.
The Romans used it in their shows that they offered to the people and medieval Christianity used it as an expiatory therapy (the ancient Christians had nevertheless overcome Roman cruelty thanks to the primitive messages of Christ based on love).
The rebirth begins to inflect this idea of fatality. Machiavelli writes: I say that every Prince must greatly wish to be considered ruthless and not cruel; nevertheless he must be very careful not to misapply this mercy.
But at this time still, cruelty seemed to be the only alternative to control cruelty. The cruelty of César Borgia reformed all Romagna, united it and reduced to peace and fidelity, writes again Machiavelli, and Hobbes thinks that it is necessary a capacity which makes observe the laws by the terror which it inspires.
The new world
For a few centuries, however, humanity has transferred cruelty to the negative side. The slightest cruel act revolts the human mind. A panoply of laws was instituted to combat it. This is the normal mechanism of the evolution of humanity.
We are becoming more and more sensitive to the cruelty, violence and suffering inflicted. This is the logic of our progress (no offense to Frédéric Nietzsche).
Today, we even consider this trend as a pathology. The current is therefore reversed. For a long time, you had to be really lucky not to cross the path of barbarism. Today, apart from periods of war, it is a real misfortune to meet cruelty in its ultimate form.
From barbarism to love
Une pathologie en déclin
It represents the painter's wife, Amélie Matisse. This painting is part of the artistic movement of fauvism. A declining pathology
The point of view of the contemporary world has changed vis-à-vis cruelty. His conscience is capable of fighting all its forms. Our species has acquired a powerful education in respecting others (even if sometimes it is subject to strong moments of regression, as under the current market empire).
It has also created a number of laws likely to dissuade candidates from doing so. Whatever one may say, the major religions (Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, Christianity, Islam) have made it possible to reduce the influence of this negativity.
The contemporary world
Before the advent of modern democracies, there was no obstacle to limit the arbitrariness of the dominant. Today, state cruelty has become extremely rare.
Obviously, when it has the means to use technical progress, its ravages go far beyond ancient cruelty. This is the case of the wars that bloodied the 20th century.
But in general, barbarism is decreasing (even if its consequences, initiated by cruel states, increase). This sad pathology is being sprayed and time will completely uproot it from our cortex
2003
Tant que l'homme continuera à être le destructeur impitoyable des êtres animés des plans inférieurs, il ne connaîtra ni la santé ni la-paix. Tant que les hommes massacreront les bêtes, ils s'entre tueront. Celui qui sème le meurtre et la douleur ne peut, en effet, récolter la joie et l'amour.
Pythagore
