For at least twenty years, the majority of the world’s population has lived in a state of growing anxiety in the face of the obvious inability of world leaders to agree on the immediate adoption of radical, although well-known and increased measures necessary to “save the life of the Earth” [and] stop the increase in warming of the Earth’s atmosphere beyond a point of no return. The absurdity is, in this case, linked to the fact that, among other things, few leaders within the dominant countries deny the seriousness of the situation but each of them believes they can, in the name of growth and freedom of the market, escape with less damage than their rivals.
The absurd is also present in the case of the equally obvious incapacity to stop the war in Ukraine between the United States, NATO, and the EU on the one hand, and Russia on the other. Here the absurdity consists in the fact that the warring parties do not want to stop it, but they deliberately want to continue it “until victory”?! Is it humanly conceivable that the word “peace” would be rejected with such force without the world being able to stop the massacre? How is it that the dominants have reached such a high level of power to make any other solution impossible?
The world was at this point when terrible violence, more senseless than ever exploded three days ago, prompting, following the inhumane, unacceptable murderous attacks by Hamas, the government of Israel to engage in a massive action of revenge as deadly as the attacks. At the time of writing, the Israeli army is conducting, by sea, land, and air, an operation to besiege Gaza with the stated intention of cutting off the local population (2 million inhabitants) from everything: no food, water, medicine, electricity, gas, hospitals… because the Israeli defense minister said about the Palestinians “they are animals”.
The absurdity of this situation, very dramatic, unbearable, fueled by apparently indestructible violence, is, in turn, limitless. It is based on the incapacity, which has lasted for decades, on the part of local, but also international, global leaders, to admit the existence of two peoples each having the right to live as a State in mutual respect and in peace. This incapacity has been fueled in recent years by a world that seems guided by the principle of the violence of the strongest against the weakest as the institutionalize “rational” rule of relations within the world population. Example: the treatment that “the richest” currently reserve for the “poorest”, in particular migrants, poor migrants, is considered as second-rate human species.
What can we do? Of course, we must be outraged, protest, and fight against these absurdities. I am more and more convinced that, in a long-term perspective, we must fight, from now on, for the declaration of the independence of Humanity vis-à-vis today’s dominant systems of oppression, exclusion, war, and global socio-economic and ecological injustice. As the 20th century was the era of “national” liberation-independence of colonized peoples, so the 21st century must be the era of the liberation/independence of planetary humanity in its plurality and variety. What if we started by taking to court before the International People’s Court the States that refuse to sign the treaty banning nuclear weapons, as well as, separately, the countries officially considered by the OECD to be tax havens?
It is impossible to imagine a positive future for life by accepting the structural impotence of our societies in the face of absurdity. We must believe in our ability to regenerate-transform power, politics, and the spirit of living together on an anthropological and technological level. In a few words, let us learn to speak and practice more spirit of life, love, friendship, culture, responsibility, peace, beauty, and less markets, investments, profitability, competitiveness, conquest, rivalry, and efficiency. Let us become free and independent as a responsible Humanity, namely the plurality of humans aware of collective responsibility, exercised at all levels of life.
