The Re-emergence of the West

A century has passed since Oswald Spengler wrote his Decline of the West. Prophesies may become self-fulfilling, therefore I opted for a more positive title. Admitted, the Decline of the West is the only belief the political left and right seem to have in common. A cultural pessimism dominates the media, and there are indications other geopolitical powers support such pessimism through social media propaganda as they know it weakens us.

It is true that the West doesn't seem to get rid of the pain of postmodernism, which halted our belief in progress. And as belief creates the actual fact, non-belief destroys the actual fact. Very few European leaders (one of them was the Belgian prime minister) have sufficiently pointed to the fact that economic welfare is in our hands and needs to be re-established. This requires a sacrifice from all of us. In his book Against the Tide, Roger Scruton points to the fact that anything worth pursuing, requires sacrifice. The Left and the Right however, believe the sacrifice should be brought by the political opponents at the other side.

Here is the truth, not generated by AI:

1)      We will see more poverty entering Europe through migration. Whether that migration is legal or illegal, we may be able to slow it down a little, but we won’t be able to stop it.

2)      Some of us may open the door a little for humanitarian reasons, but the imported poverty is not an enrichment in the economic sense. Our economy falters and our integration capability is too limited. As a result of this, we will need to work harder for less money. Being human can be costly; don't deny it if you claim to be human.

3)      We will face more mental risks in life. Loss of jobs is the most bearable one of these risks.

4)      We will be more exposed to safety threats, be it physical threats, environmental threats, technological threats. Some of the upcoming threats we don’t know yet.

The re-emergence of the West will depend on our willingness to bring sacrifices. Clinging on to old certainties, such as untouched pension schemes, company cars, four holiday trips/year, not-in-my-back-yard vetoes against the industry etc… will only make the insecurity worse for the generations after us. It will turn us into a prey for other more autocratically led geopolitical powers. 

Picture: Prometheus statue at Rockefeller Centre, NYC 2015 ©Wim Lahaye

Epictetus’ Toolkit for a Good Life

Epictetus was the main contributor to the late Stoic Roman philosopher school of which Seneca and Marcus Aurelius were the best-known representatives. His work Enchiridion is a handy pocket guide for a good life according to the Stoic tradition.

One of the foundations of his teaching is that man should make a clear distinction between the feasible and the unfeasible. To the realm of the feasible he considers our feelings, emotions and opinions about the things we go through. To the realm of the unfeasible are the things we go through themselves: changes in material prosperity and honour, health and disease, life and death. Epictetus states that whoever masters the feasible, will be equanimous towards the unfeasible and therefore he will be happy.

While writing this, it struck me that postmodern man has an almost opposite view on the feasibility of things. He considers his possession, his health and his personal safety as belonging to the realm of the feasible, whereas he keeps shouting, in this age of endless self-expression, he can’t do anything about his feelings, emotions and opinions. By sticking to this inverted view on the feasibility of things, postmodern man actually follows the perfect recipe for unhappiness as we can see from the full therapist waiting rooms.

Epictetus considers possession, fame, health and safety (the unfeasible) as belonging to the authority of the gods. He recommends people to become philosopher, to accept the godly decisions and to believe they happen for the greater good. As such, we should remain respectful towards our gods, we should neither be upset from injury nor from insults against us, we should neither engage in gossip nor in judgement. (Surprisingly, we should not even engage in praise towards third parties according to Epictetus – I still need to think why not.)

The Enchiridion is really another Swiss army knife for a Good Life and I intend to keep it in my travel bag for interrupted reading in public places. This theme is also related to Hartmut Rosa’s book about unavailability.

The Measure of a Man

This autobiography of Sidney Poitier is certainly worth reading. First, it sheds an interesting light on the conditions in which a black man could reach the top in the Hollywood film industry. Being raised in a poor tomato farmer environment on the Bahamas, in a simple, almost idyllic environment where everyone was poor, he hadn’t undergone the ‘conditioning’ in the back ghettos in American suburbs. In spite of the racial tensions and the underlying social injustice, he never felt inferior and could keep up a modest pride as a human being to be respected. In this way, he developed a ‘character’ of authenticity and integrity in full accordance with the actor roles the film industry needed at that time. He testifies he wasn’t that much aware of his race before he left his idyllic youth environment on the Bahamas as a young man.

The other reason why this book is worth reading resides in the title. What is the measure of a man, the author asks himself. We know we should be mild on people. Do we have the right and the capability to take the measure of a man? The author refers to his father, who repeatedly claimed the measure of a man resides in his ability to provide for his children. As his father was a poor man, he certainly must have meant provision in the material sense, but it was much more than that. It was also the education he gave and his example of a decent life in courage and integrity. Sidney Poitier sees the greatest part of his father’s legacy as the knowledge that in discipline and commitment lies hope. Nevertheless, Poitier remains realistic enough to see this will not solve all problems in society.

We tend to measure a man by his income. As a result, we live in idolatry for billionaires. The measure of a (wo)man should actually be estimated by what (s)he brings to society, not by what (s)he gets from society.

It seems like Poitier's education didn't burden him too much with status anxiety. I also refer to my Dutch blog Elitaire of egalitaire samenleving?

The Secret of Simple Sound World Economics

In this merciless world, we observe chaos, corruption, trade barriers, extortion and exploitation of the weak. We wonder if there exists any solution to the unsurmountable problems of world economics. We acknowledge there will always be shortages. There is simply not enough for everybody on this planet.

Puzzled by these questions and by feelings of guilt two thousand years ago, people asked John the Baptist what they should be doing. You would expect a very demanding list of charity related duties. The answer was astonishingly simple, minimalistic even. To the public officials, he said: “Don't ask more than what has been established for you.” To the soldiers he said: “Don't rob anyone. Don't extort or fine anyone falsely. Be satisfied with your pay.”

Especially the idea of showing satisfaction with your pay seems unworldly strange in this era of never enough. Showing satisfaction with your pay sounds like asking to be robbed.

Nevertheless: could we try this? And see where we end up in this chaos. In combination with modest generosity, this is the best simple cure for a sound world economy.

I refer to my blogs Temperance saves the World and to Economics of Good and Evil.

Picture: retable ‘The Life of John the Baptist’ from the Notre-Dame cathedral of Amiens 2019 ©Wim Lahaye

Pray for Peace

Together with pity, peace is the most requested gift from God. Does it make sense to pray for peace? Perhaps the efficiency of praying is unmeasurably low, but our aversion of war and our longing for peace is so strong that we can't stop praying, even if our own homes are safely far from the fighting front lines.

More worldly solutions to motivate war lords in making peace are embargos, exclusions from international events and travel limitations. The problem is that these predominantly affect the ordinary people. Apart from weaponry embargos and confiscation of high capital, they don't affect the decision makers that much. Economic embargos and exclusions could even have an adverse effect. People feel excluded by the rest of the world and start adhering even more to their war lords who give them a feeling of protection against the rest of the world.

What we can do, is stop voting for belligerent politicians and refrain from our own war propaganda. Stop demonization of other people and maintain cultural connections with the people we tend to call our enemies. The world religions can play a positive role in the required diplomacy, in peace preaching and in praying for peace. Let us keep Jesus’ name clean. “Peace be with you!” was his most quoted wish and let us repeat it as if it were our own.

I refer to my last post on De Zwijger: Oorlog, hoelang nog?

Picture: Saint Michael’s peace church, one of the marvels of my home town Leuven 2023 ©Wim Lahaye

A New Chance for Europe

Europe is often criticised. In this time, Europe is even being criticised for being a moral reference in the world in aspects like ecology, adherence to dialogue and peace and social protection. When shameless stupidity rules, moral behaviour is considered a weakness.

Even in academic circles it has become ‘bon ton’ as they say in French to criticise political authorities from the side line in choir with the bullies. It's all going too slow. As highly educated people we tend to put ourselves at the same height as the political authorities and by means of a sharp tweet or a witty post we believe we can save the world from the politicians’ ignorance and incompetence. 

At least the sharp tweets and witty posts free us a few seconds of our general feeling of being totally unimportant. The breakdown of authority has gone so far that anybody carrying power should be ashamed of how badly things are going and how weak Europe is against the other geopolitical powers. We should be grateful for our freedom of speech, but we tend to look too negatively at things.

Europe is collaborating better than ever since it got under pressure to take a new course. Collaboration is the key to every successful step in space, defence, ecology or social advancement. If Europe now succeeds in putting aside the national interests in favour of the general European interests, we are on our way to success. 

I refer to earlier blogs about Europe.

Picture: The Abduction of Europa by Zeus, statue in the town of Leuven 2023 ©Wim Lahaye

Ode to Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics deals with the behaviour of small particles such as electrons. This turns out to be important for engineers when they deal with semiconductors. That's how I got in touch with this exotic subject myself when making my master's thesis in 1988.

Quantum mechanics leaves no doubt: everything is uncertain. On the one hand, this is a damper on the revelry of science. At the end of the nineteenth century, it seemed that the world was deterministic and that science could understand and predict everything. Since then, we have discovered counter intuitive phenomena and uncertainty principles. Schrödinger's cat was no longer to be found where we thought.

There is also a good side. Quantum mechanics introduces a certain magic to science. Georges Lemaître's primordial atom, the idea that quantum mechanics could be at the origin of our existence, may not make the miracle of being any less miraculous, but it is already somewhat possible in the scientific sphere. In quantum mechanics, measuring is really observing. The observer inevitably influences the measurement he makes. John Archibald Wheeler's thought experiment even suggests that quantum mechanics plays a role in our perception of the origin of the universe.

It may be just a dreamy thought, but quantum mechanics seems to be a scientific basis for love. Just like in love, in quantum mechanics there is attraction, repulsion, ambiguity and unpredictability. A colleague of mine once asked me the question: "How can you be so sure that an atom has no consciousness?". Perhaps the behaviour of small particles is unpredictable because they have consciousness. Alles Leben ist eins. But this is not a scientifically based claim.

I also refer to my blogs: "The origin of time" and "The nature of light".

Image by WikiImages from Pixabay