Principia Vitae Oecologicae
Ideas for a new world
Those that follow are drafts of a manifesto of around twenty points, all yet to be written.
Joking with a friend, we said that there are still no philosophers of our generation (millennials). There will be soon (and I certainly won’t be among them)
What are the themes?
Let’s start with the key word: “Ecology” = the care of our common home. But also the ability to manage balance, and maximization. To look at stability over time, and not at rapid growth. To think about the relationships between the elements, and therefore about people, and not about our individual well-being.
It is a philosophy — the ecological one — that applies at many levels. From the general one (“the economy”) to the humble personal one: the relationship with loved ones, with work, with things.
Every chapter should hold onto this ambivalence → introduce a theme at a general level and always translate it into the small scale.
A. Reviving Stoicism
See Marcus Aurelius etc. An approach to life focused on managing desires and passions. It is important to know oneself and to stay in control of one’s own existence.
B. Time as a circle and not as a line
Reference to Nietzsche — the eternal return of the same. Time made of cycles etc. Forgetting the “capitalist/progressivist” vision in favor of a time that concentrates on what remains immutable.
C. Starting again from our bonds
Cf. De Amicitia by Cicero.
The importance of community, of help, of being together. (cf. Principle of subsidiarity)
D. The right to attention
Includes the right to the preservation of focus.
→ too many things today compete to steal our focus.
ref. DSM6 (will it include Instagram?)
E. The fight against informational entropy
it is the fundamental ethical principle
“Let your words be Yes Yes, No No”
F. Starting again from Kant
That the maxim of your actions may be elevated to a universal law.
G. Rebuilding real communities
To resynchronize life with the real rhythms of the world.
Cite Heidegger “Why do we remain in the provinces?”
H. The right to Serenity
Which is not the right to happiness.
1. invest in studies on the origin of serenity / happiness- free psychological support etc…
I. Rediscovering the gods
= Rediscovering the world.
Starting again from the logos, from listening, from meditation. —> listening to the world = listening to God.
J. What matters is measuring.
To rediscover the right indicators to understand how much good one is doing for the people around oneself and for one’s own community.
K. A society of love
To abandon narcissism → to rediscover wanting to do good for the other.
L. The broken chain of knowing how to live in the world
The wisdom of grandparents, handed down for generations, broken by the modernist and mass revolution of information.
M. Understanding and reading the other
… and ourselves.
The great fight against emotional illiteracy.
N. The fight against the dominant ego
Pride and shame in public discourse.
O. The fight against anger.
Anger as a “sin”. (see above: stoicism)
P. A society based on responsibility
… but not on guilt.
Irresponsible = irrational. → unaware.
See AI and the theme of the attribution of responsibility.
Q. Rediscovering Gramsci
And the struggle for cultural hegemony → but for the purpose of propagating these principles: entering the institutions.
R. The fight against inequalities → a fight for dignity
Not to redistribute wealth, but to avoid first-class and second-class lives ( = not only the economic aspect must be considered).
→ we must avoid the ecological damage that inequalities create.
(Zones of high pressure and deep depression create stormy phenomena.)
S. The care of the body
Starting again from Athens.
T. As in Céline
Hand in hand in the darkness.
(Principle of subsidiarity. Small communities that support one another.)
U. Si vis amari, ama.
V. Truth comes from transparency
Freedom = playing with your cards face up.
W. The fight against the “pornification” of reality — does truth exist?
The importance of knowing how to let oneself be surprised in a continuous dialogue with the real.
Y. Toward a society of risk = a free society
Let us accept that there is disorder, entropy, dangers in the world. It is the price of freedom.