Paradise for some, oblivion for many

For a long time I have desired to go to Sri Lanka. The reason has been the serenity and peacefulness of this small and culturally rich island. Now, I’m not so certain of my plans anymore.

People tend to go on vacations to distant countries where they can fulfill their need for escapism; daily life needs a healthy break. Picturesque beaches and little umbrella drinks are what we grave for, and we are willing to pay relatively large sums for our luxury. At the same time we enjoy our vacation in fancy hotels with respectable room service the locals usually enjoy a far more moderate life style.

In 2004 occurred a deathly tsunami in the Indian Ocean causing 227,898 deaths, the worst tsunami in history. This horrible incident was a major personal and communal catastrophe especially for those living on seaside and coastal line of countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Many lost their livelihood and habitation as well as families. But the tsunami was not their only tragedy. In Sri Lanka poor fishermen were in some parts unable to return to their home areas because the lands were seized by government officials. They said that new buildings were meant to build on the tsunami cleansed beaches. Tsunami was used as an excuse to get rid of the rubbish caste.  Afterwards resorts were built for rich people to savor. Sri Lanka is becoming a paradise for people with wealth. These privatized lands have once been a home of the native people - but not anymore. We can still do a “once in a lifetime” trip and surf in dreamlike conditions but the truth behind this bliss is an ugly one.

The situation is similar for example in Maldives. It faced the same fate as other tsunami devastated countries, and 106 people died. Infrastructure suffered greatly but luckily there were companies ready to invest innocuous money so that people would get their life in order. Those living near the sea suffered drastically and were moved elsewhere to live. Usually this kind of relocating of deprived is executed by force; the locals don’t want to move. The most important thing is to get rid of those who would oppose the chances to gain profits. Companies want to bring about new customers – and enhance tourism. Money coming in does not mean a rise for those living in need.   

It is funny that many westerners bemoan how Thailand has become a new age Gomorra where prostitution flourishes and children are to leave their homes at a very early age to earn money for their families.  Nobody would do this line of work if they would have a chance to do something else – poverty leaves no other options. Investors have generated discontent by hijacking the lands from their previous owners – the people. The people have to adjust to these new rules and work for these companies as well as benefit from tourism in any way they can. This creates forms of ethically dubious activity. We should understand that while we act as tourists with no sense of reality we will keep on upholding these disturbing conditions.

When I was in Phnom Penh, the capital of Campodia, I realized how people had taken actions against businesses with strong agenda to build new houses on the banks of the river Tonlé Sap. “We are not for sale” were written on the walls of huts belonging to those living on the premises. I heard that the Chinese were investing respectable sums of money to restore the glory of this once thriving French built jewel. At that time I realized how loose business ethics can be. The good of the people means only little – if none. I bet that soon after these massive buildings have been built businessmen will flow in and hold important conferences where they decide what to take next. And tourists feel also safer thanks to the reminders (symbols) of our civilized world.   

Next time you go to a five star holiday ask yourself; who does it benefit besides my own need to feel relaxed and privileged.

   

Of the Importance of Philosophy

Philosophical thinking is something I do in my spare time as well as while working with the young. I would like to share my philosophical insights more often with others but frequently feel people lacking the inspiration or motivation to think issues concerning us all, in depth at least.  It is not a rising trend either. We are more interested in practical matters than metaphysical contemplations, which is understandable to some degree. Who would want to question their whole existence or criticize the bases of our human understanding?  It would drive us mad to doubt all beliefs about reality or to cut ourselves off from the society we live in just because we happen to underrate its significance. But why do we feel such repulsion against philosophy in the first place? Maybe it has something to do with the assumption that people no longer need philosophy to build up their dream lives. In my opinion the self-aware and world conscious individual has turned into a myth. Today’s individual is a being without a true existence. It has lost itself and become an irresolute and disorientated nomad, a lonely soul, who searches peace and fulfillment finding only war and nothingness. Our communal values have been sold to the highest bidder and replaced by the ultimate freedom of choice. We can almost decide everything there is to decide – by ourselves. This includes moral issues as well as choices made in everyday life. We are slipping into nihilism just as Nietzsche predicted 100 years ago.

I feel that we have done everything but looked back. Philosophy is much about history, and history has produced ideas and theories how we should live and converse on the reality. History also explains how we have come to this present situation. In antique people used to think that public good serves also the good of the individual. Every member of the society played their role and did what was expected of them. Politics was a mean to improve the community’s rigour and increase its lifespan.  In Aristotle’s thinking individual´s main purpose in life was to seek happiness by being virtuous and wise. Afterwards many have seen in Aristotle a speaker for our time. Without having a telos, a purpose for one´s existence, life becomes vague, immoral and pointless.    

In the renaissance period man rediscovered himself and reason was raised as a ruling principle to conduct life and to find an absolute certainty in how things were. I consider a French Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) to be one of the most intellectual thinker in the history of philosophy. He believed certainty to be an illusion; instead he chose to be a skeptic. Montaigne saw only a little point in people´s constant desire to be right in everything they say. Because of this obsession Europe was in a state of turmoil that Montaigne despised. People want to believe that certainty is something veridical; our own impression is always the right one. Maybe this is also suits as a depiction of today’s views. People are not willing to admit that they are dim and in many cases just simply wrong; the world just isn’t how we want it to be.

In 1700s marched in the mighty Enlightment. Sapere aude (use your wit; dare to be wise) worked as a command to a man to release him from a self-incurred tutelage. Liberalism was also a prodigy born out of that time. Science and criticism were ways to replace constraining religious beliefs surrounding human condition. Political philosophy also started to create theories concerning themes like liberty, law, rights and property. Reason was a tool of power as well as emancipation from false truths.

1800s was a triumph of positivist reason – until it led to a crisis agitated by few strong philosophical figures, mainly German born Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. They hailed emotions and attacked verbally against reason claiming it to be feeble. Existentialism showed individual how to look inside one´s self and find a meaning (or absurdity) from within. It has given also a lot to me; expeditions to one´s own head are more than encouraged in order to truly know who this subject behind everything is. We have to courageously believe in our own judgment but at the same time accept our high probability to be stupid. At the same time at least for me is easy to understand that life is something delicate and it ends eventually. Life is an open concept and there are no compulsions. Sometimes the extremism behind true existentialism gives me a hard time because it can make things feel indifferent.

1900s brought us wars and demise but it also introduced us a whole new subject. This unique person is an individual in every sense of the word. There are no no-limits or ethical boundaries whatsoever. Many philosophers in 1900s think that crisis of mankind is an inevitable result caused by change in our thinking and behavior. It has also lots to do with the “progress” which many see as a normal evolution of man. Once a man on the radio said that progress is natural. It naturally is easy to go behind evolution argument. I personally feel that mankind is not necessarily meant to find all the answers or break all the barriers found in nature. Maybe we have already crossed our natural constitute. We cherish our glossy and petty lives and value our achievements by using perverted and usually materialistic indicators. And our self-centered life is everything there is, according to many; so we should make the best out of it. This has led to a western world where moral ideals have died and civilizations have turned into fiction, as Leo Strauss (1899-1973) points out. Our lives are more about ourselves than others; every man for himself!

I like to believe that philosophy has lot´s to do with our pursuit of happiness. But is our telos or goal for life twisted? We like to think ourselves as someone who makes a difference but the recent difference made has been for the worse. And because people have become less critical and more easily manipulated they feel that truth can reveal itself just by looking and not by thinking. Marx insisted that philosophy should always aim to change the world, not just to depict it. That is why philosophy will be important cause is never just about speculating; it is all about acting and living up to your values (supported by philosophical consciousness). In my life I try to maintain a philosophical twist - and it means that philosophy genuinely moves me.