Estado Sentido

O advogado de defesa do rapaz que pretendia imitar um massacre à americana numa escola de Massamá diz que este se encontrava triste e magoado com os valores individualistas e materialistas da nossa sociedade. As parvoíces e clichés do costume, portanto. Mas claro que isto justifica plenamente sair por aí a esfaquear pessoas.

Mario Vargas Llosa, A Civilização do Espectáculo:

«Por outro lado, algumas afirmações de A Cultura-Mundo [Lipovetsky e Sarroy] parecem-me discutíveis, como a de que esta nova cultura planetária fez desenvolver um individualismo extremo em todo o Globo. Pelo contrário, a publicidade e as modas que lançam e impõem os produtos culturais no nosso tempo são um sério obstáculo à criação de indivíduos independentes, capazes de julgar por si mesmos o que é que lhes agrada, o que é que admiram, o que acham desagradável e enganador ou horripilante naqueles produtos. A cultura-mundo, em vez de promover o indivíduo, torna-o submisso, privando-o de lucidez e livre-arbítrio e fá-lo reagir perante a «cultura» imperante de maneira condicionada e gregária, como os cães de Pavlov perante a campainha que anuncia a comida.»

"Resistance to the organized mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself." (Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self)

Carl Gustav Jung, The Undiscovered Self:

"The seemingly omnipotent State doctrine is for its part manipulated in the name of State policy by those occupying the highest positions in the government, where all the power is concentrated. Whoever, by election or caprice, gets into one of these positions is no longer subservient to authority, for he is the State policy itself and within the limits of the situation can proceed at his own discretion. With Louis XIV he can say, “L’état c’est moi.” He is thus the only individual or, at any rate, one of the few individuals who could make use of their individuality if only they knew how to differentiate themselves from the State doctrine. They are more likely, however, to be the slaves of their own fictions. Such one-sidedness is always compensated psychologically by unconscious subversive tendencies. Slavery and rebellion are inseparable correlates. Hence, rivalry for power and exaggerated distrust pervade the entire organism from top to bottom. Furthermore, in order to compensate for its chaotic formlessness, a mass always produces a “Leader”, who almost infallibly becomes the victim of his own inflated ego-consciousness, as numerous examples in history show.

This development becomes logically unavoidable the moment the individual masses together with others and becomes obsolete. Apart from agglomerations of huge masses of people, in which the individual disappears anyway, one of the chief factors responsible for psychological massmindedness is scientific rationalism, which robs the individual of his foundations and his dignity. As a social unit he has lost his individuality and become a mere abstract number in the bureau of statistics. He can only play the role of an interchangeable unit of infinitesimal importance. Looked at rationally and from outside, that is exactly what he is, and from this point of view it seems positively absurd to go on talking about the value or meaning of the individual. Indeed, one can hardly imagine how one ever came to endow individual human life with so much dignity when the truth to the contrary is as plain as the palm of your hand."

Por motivos profissionais, isto é, por me encontrar até dia 30 no 16.º Seminário da Associação da Juventude Portuguesa do Atlântico, não posso agora continuar a alimentar este debate, pelo que apresento as minhas desculpas aos respectivos interlocutores. Voltarei ao mesmo no início de Agosto. Entretanto, registo apenas que talvez muitos devessem ler On Liberty de Stuart Mill e os vários ensaios de Oakeshott sobre o que é ou deve ser uma Universidade. Em Portugal, como mostra esta atitude da UCP, são cada vez mais, apenas e só, um prolongamento do tipo de ensino do Secundário. Num país onde a cultura e o modo de pensamento universitário são o que todos sabemos, subverte-se completamente a ideia de universidade. O mesmo é dizer que os estatutos de presunção artificial continuam a fazer escola num país onde importa mais o parecer do que o ser. Eu que até sou um tipo conservador no que à indumentária diz respeito, não deixo de notar que a UCP e muitos outros parecem ter-se esquecido de uma ideia chave do liberalismo anglo-saxónico (o tal que gerou as melhores universidades do mundo), a da tolerância. E posto isto, deixo-vos apenas esta breve passagem de Stuart Mill: "To be held to rigid rules of justice for the sake of others, developes the feelings and capacities which have the good of others for their object. But to be restrained in things not affecting their good, by their mere displeasure, developes nothing valuable, except such force of character as may unfold itself in resisting the restraint. If acquiesced in, it dulls and blunts the whole nature. To give any fair play to the nature of each, it is essential that different persons should be allowed to lead different lives. In proportion as this latitude has been exercised in any age, has that age been noteworthy to posterity. Even despotism does not produce its worst effects, so long as individuality exists under it; and whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called, and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men."