Chapter 3: Science, Language & Education

 

Science, language and education

 

*

Since nothing is immutable and everything is in motion,

since every human being is in constant change, big or small,

then every word, every influence

is a form of education.

 

Actually,

everything is education.

 

No matter how little or how big,

we are all concerned.

 

*

* * *

*

 

Science of Life.

 

*

See higher than the highest peak.

 

The verb comprehend has two meanings:

 

1. to understand, make intelligible to oneself.

 

2. to embrace fully, include, integrate, assimilate wholly,

without exception or discrimination.

 

Thus,

in order to see the details and comprehend, to understand everything,

one must see the big picture.

 

And conversely,

one must grasp the parts in order to grasp the whole,

being aware that in order to see or understand something,

one must not only see and understand this very thing itself,

but one must also see and understand what it is not.

 

Not to see this

is to confess to seeing nothing.

 

Seeing all

is seeing everything.

 

All is said.

Everything is understood.

 

We can only understand anything

when we can see, when we can behold and embrace everything,

whole and details all at once.

 

That is why,

as with any other learning or undertaking,

the first steps on the path to awareness and understanding

are the most difficult ones.

 

Thus,

to have an overall vision is relatively difficult

because the spatiotemporal* whole

that underpins our personal and collective lives

is dynamic, multidimensional, relative and subjective,

one and multiple to infinity.

* We must also grasp the concept of space-time.

Our decisions, our words and our actions have repercussions through time AND space.

Space-time is both two things and one thing at the same time.

In this light, cause and effect relationships are, in space and in time, essential.

 

We start with a limited perception,

able to grasp only the few details that surround us.

 

As we climb the mountain,

we see more and more of the big picture,

and when we get enough distance,

we understand more and more aspects and things,

not only of what is and what is real,

but also of what is not and what is not real.

 

When at last our gaze can encompass the wonder-earth, the miracle-earth,

when we are on top of the mountain, even above it,

when we can see everything around us,

 above, below, right, left, in front, behind, before, now and beyond,

when we can also see ourselves,

only then can we really understand, comprehend, envision, see

and distinguish between the essential and the superfluous,

between illusion and reality.

 

When we finally realize that the mountain

is both insignificant and a giant’s monument;

 

When we finally realize that the slope is an illusion;

 

When we finally realize that our only obstacle

is our perception, our ignorance, our unconsciousness, our false beliefs,

then the whole is revealed.

 

Everything reveals itself.

 

Only then can we put in place, and in order,

the solutions that will make a real difference.

 

Seeing with fresh eyes,

that is what makes a real difference.

 

*

To glimpse and to see

 

Even if it may be true and precise,

not seeing the entire picture of reality

is having a partial vision of reality.

 

The more this vision is partial,

the more it tends to be biased,

the more it risks omitting the essential.

 

Thus,

seeing the parts is like having a headlamp on your head.

It’s good, but it’s not enough.

 

Seeing the whole is seeing the light itself.

 

Seeing the whole is giving birth to light,

being blessed with grace.

 

Seeing the whole

is bringing everything to light.

 

*

The science of life is original, primordial.

 

No matter what name it may be given,

humanities, philosophy, wisdom, spirituality, or whatever else,

the science of life was born with consciousness and thought,

and from the point of view of humanity,

it will die with it.

 

It was born with the mind, with consciousness,

with the first questions, the first mystical thoughts, the first rituals,

the first artistic manifestations.

 

At once spiritual, metaphysical,

protoscientific, artistic, cultural and ritualistic,

these first lights of consciousness and of the spirit

are inextricably linked to the elements, to the Earth,

to the known and the unknown, to the rational and the irrational,

to death and life, to being and nothingness,

inspired both by horror and wonder.

 

The science of life is universal.

 

It is spiritual and emotional,

political, scientific, sociological, economic and environmental.

 

It transcends human consciousness.

 

It transcends everything, all the realities of our world,

from the intimate to the universal level.

 

The science of life

is the science of being and the science of the whole.

 

If the science of life is the science of everything,

then the science of life is not only the science of science, the science of every science,

it is also crucially the study of oneself, of our own mind.

 

If the science of life is the science of everything,

then the science of life is to understand that everything is subjective and relative,

that everything goes through the prism of our psyche and our personality

even when we speak of so-called ‘hard’ science.

 

Wisdom thus offers us the necessary perspective

to enlarge our minds and increase our intelligences

so as to be able to face all present and future challenges.

 

*

To understand is to change.

To understand is to undergo metamorphosis.

 

If understanding means understanding,

then understanding is not just growing,

understanding is becoming.

 

Indeed,

when I understand what I am not,

when I become aware of a reality that I did not know existed a moment ago,

I become what I was not before.

 

To understand this, to conceive this,

is not just to see this,

it is also to become this.

 

To be is to understand.

To understand is to be.

 

To be or not to be,

that is indeed the question.

 

*

Everything is subjective

 

Since everything we see, think, say or do originates from ourselves,

then everything is subjective.

 

Subjectivity

is the emanation of our being, of our soul, of our innermost being.

 

Subjectivity

is the expression of your freedom and uniqueness,

the expression of each and every one of our freedom and uniqueness.

It is marvelous in its singularity.

 

To understand this is to understand

that what is subjective is what is human,

and that it involves us all.

 

Thus,

what is subjective is intimate

as much as what is intimate is subjective.

 

This reality is universal.

 

You exist, she exists, he exists, they exist, we exist, I exist.

The innermost exists.

 

The innermost is universal.

 

*

Inner humanity

 

Indeed,

I am me only in my own eyes.

 

To everyone else,

I am someone else.

 

And yet,

I embody what is human.

 

By embodying what is Human,

we embody the whole Humankind.

 

We all embody Humanity.

 

Humanity is in each and every one of us,

by nature and by definition.

 

It is the new scale,

the law of evolution.

 

Universal Humanism:

the death or resurrection of the human species.

 

*

Objective

 

Thus,

universal humanism

is necessarily the most accomplished and coherent form of objectivity

that humanity has at its disposal.

 

To reach the absolute,

what is relative must be included.

 

Einstein proves it in his General Theory of Relativity.

 

In the space-time continuum,

the perception of reality depends on the observer.

 

In the human sciences,

relativity includes both what is intimate and what is subjective.

 

Thus,

getting a glimpse of the absolute

is key to understanding the theories of dynamic relativity.

 

And conversely,

understanding that relativity is universal

is key to getting a glimpse of the absolute.

 

To discovering the infinite.

 

*

Such is the light that guides us.

 

*

Since comprehending something amounts to becoming it,

therefore, when we get a grasp of infinity,

do we become infinity?

 

*

Sovereignty is a humanity.

 

All that is human is by nature and by definition subjective,

conditioned by historical, social and psychological factors,

and is all the more limited and irrational

as individual and collective consciousness

is not open to the reality, multidimensional to infinity,

 of the Earth and the Universe.

 

Since subjectivity is by definition human,

to be objective is to understand all subjectivities.

 

Only the science of being can achieve this.

 

Since only being is,

only being can reach to the universal.

 

Because humans are human,

philosophy and the sciences of being, the humanities

are not only crucial and indispensable,

but humanistic and universal philosophical thought, both one and infinite,

is also our common salvation.

 

It is therefore indispensable

to make the right decisions and move in the right direction.

 

Never can we reach greater objectivity

than when the objective is the comprehension of what is subjective and unconscious

in order to take our destiny into our own hands.

 

At least at this stage of evolution,

subjectivity includes a non-negligible amount of irrationality.

 

To deny subjectivity and irrationality

is to be doomed never to know them,

and never really understand human realities.

 

*

Ultra-rationalism is irrational.

 

If mathematics and the science of numbers

are the science of the measurable, the calculable,

wisdom is the science of the incalculable, the immeasurable, the infinite.

 

Our ultra-profitable capitalist societies

can neither measure the unquantifiable nor the infinite.

 

They believe that numbers and ultra-profitable rationalism

are guarantees of objectivity.

 

Never the mathematical, statistical or other so-called hard sciences

will be able to grasp the subjective and relative, spiritual and emotional subtlety of being,

and neither will neurobiology.

 

Absolute objectivity, ‘mathematical’ objectivism

is at best a delusion,

at worst a tyrannical absolutism.

 

Because it conveys blind submission, obedience

and thus ignorance and violence,

because ignorance is the negation of knowledge and reason,

our ultra-rationalist materialistic and profitable societies

cannot open the doors

to freedom, humanism, justice or harmony.

 

Our ultra-rationalist ultra-capitalist ultra-profitable societies

can neither understand nor include the immeasurable, the indescribable,

consciousness, the mind, subjectivity, the emotional,

death, life, what’s human, what’s divine.

 

Thus,

and in the sense that it denies everything it does not understand,

hyper-rationalism is blind and therefore hyper-irrational and destructive.

 

Reason and knowledge are, of course, saving and salutary,

as we keep saying.

 

Consumerist ultra-materialism,

on the other hand, is a cosmic, ecological, impassable planetary dead end,

and capitalist ultra-rationalism,

based on numbers and the greatest possible profitability,

a deadly illusion.

 

Neither reason nor salvation

will come from the economy or from financial accounting,

which, on the contrary, seek only to silence them by all possible means.

 

As a matter of fact,

pseudo-capitalist rationalism is a dogma of the same nature as religious dogma,

at least as irrational, blind and destructive, if not more so.

 

If humanity is subjective by nature,

then subjectivity is human.

 

If subjectivity is human,

then humanity is its raison d’être, its origin and its objective.

 

Universal subjectivity carries within itself

its own solution, its own remedy:

it is universal and human.

 

In order for the subjective to ally itself with the objective,

the objective must be universal and humanistic.

 

When the subjective becomes the objective,

then subjectivity becomes objective,

because it becomes universal.

 

In other words,

when the subjective becomes universal,

then subjectivity inherent to humanity becomes objective.

 

If subjectivity is universal and humanist,

then humanism is the eye of humankind.

 

Universal humanism

is therefore what is closest to objectivity for humans on Earth.

 

It is something that everyone knows intimately, in their heart, in their inner self:

 

Humanism is the light that guides consciousness,

the light that alone can propel us to the top of the mountain

and beyond.

 

When humanism reigns,

then justice reigns.

 

Thus,

all those who exercise any public or influential position

should study the science of life and consciousness,

and meet wise men, scientists and living people.

 

We certainly need guides.

 

But we need those who have climbed the mountain.

Not a mountain of money.

But a mountain of wisdom and humanism.

 

*

Infinity

is a scientific, philosophical, metaphysical and spiritual reality.

 

Since infinity is a scientific reality

twice proven by astrophysics and quantum physics,

then infinity becomes a reality.

 

A reality dreamed of

by all the greatest philosophers, the greatest mystics, the greatest utopians,

in the depths of their being.

 

The philosophy of infinity is the philosophy of all possibilities.

 

It is the absolute opposite of fanatical and liberticidal dogma.

 

Philosophy of all possibilities,

it is the philosophy of the future.

 

Philosophy of what is real and possible,

wisdom is liberating.

 

It is a reality, a philosophy, a state of mind

of the cognitive, sensitive, spiritual, physical, social, relational, emotional fulfillment

and well-being of the self in the midst of the whole.

 

Understanding that we are insignificant

but that our consciousness in spite of and thanks to this insignificance

perceives the gigantism of the infinite

is bathing in this spirit.

 

It is perceiving in grace the world’s immensity and beauty.

 

It is therefore necessary to learn

the science of life and consciousness, the science of the whole and the infinite

in order to have a greater vision, a broader perspective,

a more fertile and solid mind,

a more accurate, precise, vast and subtle way of thinking.

 

It is enlightened intelligence that saves,

not blind stupidity.

 

It is a natural spiritual function that must be exploited at all costs.

 

If life is everything,

then everything is life.

 

If the science of life is the science of everything,

then everything is the science of life.

Nothing escapes this one.

Neither anything nor anyone does.

 

A blind and childish person would claim to know everything.

 

If it is impossible to know everything about infinity,

it is however easy to know that infinity transcends limits and differences.

 

Infinity makes us both humbler and greater.

 

Infinity offers us eternal wonder.

 

The philosophy of infinity

is cosmic, spiritual, human, simple and natural.

 

The essence of the science of life

is to see and feel, through research, discovery, truth, wisdom.

 

Its goal is human progress and the salvation of humanity,

mine as well as everybody else’s.

 

He or she who does not seek the salvation of Humanity,

who does not even wish it,

can be neither a philosopher nor a representative of the people

in any way whatsoever.

 

The wise one’s point of view

is the point of view of the Other, of all the others;

it consists in putting oneself in the position of the Other, of all the others.

 

And yet we do not always realize it,

but we are all visionaries and philosophers,

at certain times, more or less, depending on the period.

 

It is therefore a matter of teaching and studying these sciences,

which we call human or humanities

and all the more so when we want to hold a public office.

 

Their benefits would be considerable.

 

It is not because it is not talked about in the media,

it is not because it is not at all defended by this system

guided by economic profitability alone

that we have not made incredible progress in this area as well.

 

Although it dates from the beginning of the ages,

more than ever, deep thinking is modern, new and immense in spirit.

 

It is magnificent.

 

It is particularly well embodied by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Etienne Chouard, Michel Onfray, Chogyam Trungpa, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Spinoza, Noam Chomsky and many others.

 

Philosophically,

we have made leaps forward in many areas,

throughout the world.

 

Not only when you don’t look,

you are sure to find nothing,

but when you look,

more often than not,

you find.

 

Seek

and you will perhaps see the beauty of the current of thought

that is spreading throughout the world,

a current that unfortunately not everyone is yet aware that it truly exists.

 

Without the ideas of the Enlightenment of the 18th century,

it is highly unlikely that the French and American Revolutions

would have taken the forms they did and given birth to Democracies,

or even that they could have existed.

 

Similarly,

progress in the human,

philosophical, political, psychological, sociological, cognitive, educational, etc. sciences

is a latent evolution.

 

The reality of infinity is a latent revolution

of which too few of us are yet aware

for it to become effective.

 

But if you had told a common man of the year 1200

that one day his descendants could go to the polls

to choose their political leaders,

he would undoubtedly have called you an insane fool.

 

And yet,

what’s the real difference between you and him?

 

Anyone who would judge the thoughts of this book

to be unrealistic and the fruit of the mind of a lunatic

would be at least as ignorant as our poor human being

enslaved to the feudal system of the twelfth century AD.

 

Knowledge in general, the sciences of existence

are the source of everyone’s salvation.

 

It cannot be otherwise.

 

This is great news.

 

We still have a choice:

Intelligence, life, hope or chronic stupidity, despair and death.

 

Not only must harmony be studied and taught,

but it also must be given a voice and advanced.

 

Harmony is a form of life that liberates us.

 

Harmony exists by itself.

 

Forged in the midst of infinite multidimensional equilibria,

it reigns on the largest scales of the universe.

 

Since harmony is human as much as it is cosmic and infinite,

then harmony is not only profitable and beneficial,

it is saving and liberating.

 

If there is only one thing, or entity,

in which to believe…

*

* * *

* *  *  * *

* * *

*

 

Education

 

*

In each generation,

the task of the newborn,

of the human being who comes into the world,

is titanic.

 

In the space of a few years,

thousands of years of knowledge aggregated in the present,

5,400 if our point of reference is the invention of writing,

35,000 if we refer to the invention of weaving

need to be processed.

 

*

Teaching humanity

 

Carried away by the torrent of events,

all victims of History,

our collective unconsciousness, inherited from the animal age,

leads us towards a cataclysm.

 

Inherited from the most remote times of humanity,

from the first stammering of the origins,

it is not because there is neither tangible nor written memory

of this primitive age, from before the Stone Age,

that there is no memory of prehistory.

 

On the contrary,

this memory is inscribed everywhere

within the elements, within the Earth, within life,

within all human beings,

this memory that belongs both to the past, to the present and to the future,

this memory that still lives all around us

is inscribed deep within us

and is fully visible in the light of scientific discoveries.

 

It teaches us that humanity has resided at the heart of humanity

since the dawn of time at the dawn of consciousness.

 

And that wisdom has existed

since the dawn of humanity.

 

The only salvation, the only way out, the only hope

is to put wisdom, knowledge and fulfillment

at the heart of the school system.

 

*

* * *

*

 

The sciences of being

 

If the connection that can be created between a human being and the world

depends on his or her relationship with him or herself,

then the relationship to the universe, to the world,

to the Other, to our god or our divinity

necessarily depends on our relationship with ourselves.

 

As much as the world influences the human being’s innermost psyche

with a power that no one, or very few suspect,

the human being’s innermost psyche influences oneself, others and the world.

 

If the relationship of the self to the world

depends on our relationship to the world

as much as on our relationship to ourselves,

then our relationship to the other and to the world, to society, to the universe

and, if we believe in it, to the divinity,

is both one and multiple.

 

Since one never understands anything but through oneself,

then the primary foundation of education

is to give the ability to know oneself

in order to know others and the world

and to recognize that without others,

I would not even exist.

 

If one never understands anything but through oneself,

then access to knowledge, society, the world, the universe, others and the spirit

is necessarily a personal, intimate and direct relationship.

 

Thus,

there is only one real solution:

Education.

 

Harmony is impossible without education.

 

From a physical as well as metaphysical point of view,

without education to oneself, the world, the other, the universe and harmony,

there is no hope.

 

Without education, there is no hope.

 

Education is a key.

 

It is a spiritual key

because it takes into consideration an essential dimension of being:

oneself.

 

Our only salvation, our only grace, our only hope

is to put the human being and humanity at the heart of humanity’s project.

 

If the objective of education is education through oneself,

education to be able to discover the world and humanity

through self-discovery

brings serenity and hope to oneself and the world

and vice versa.

 

An education to peace, intelligence, fulfillment,

knowledge of the human being, of oneself and of the universe

is a condition for an authentic dynamic of hope.

 

In this regard,

its richness emanates from itself.

 

If hope and wisdom are riches,

and if education to oneself generates wisdom and hope,

then education is a richness in itself.

And its benefits will be immense.

 

Hope and wisdom are riches in and of themselves.

 

It is therefore not only legitimate but also vital

to implement it as soon as possible.

 

If we are all interconnected on the planet,

if we are all human beings,

then we are all part of the same species with a common destiny.

 

If our personal destiny

is intrinsically, irremediably linked

to the destiny of the human species as a whole,

it is at a global level that we must implement a particular teaching,

in all the schools of the world:

 

A teaching to the acceptance of oneself, of others and of the world,

a teaching to the discovery of oneself, of others and of the world,

a teaching that is simple to implement,

a teaching with a very high intrinsic value, for a minimal price,

to the discovery of a universe, of a planet and of being

that opens us up, and that offers us

to infinity and wonder,

the healthy and simple, almost holy joy of being alive.

 

Without any human and humanistic education,

no grace is possible,

neither for man, nor for woman, nor for child, nor for anyone.

 

A humanistic education in humanistic justice,

in the full perception, awareness and understanding

that what harms others always harms oneself

is priceless.

 

The more numerous are all those

who are victims of injustices and nuisances,

the more we are all, each and every one of us,

affected as negatively as the suffering we inflict on one another

through space and time from soul to soul,

in direct proportion to the exponentially negative systemic trend

that such a state of human degeneration,

and of a decaying bond between all human beings

necessarily engenders.

 

If an authentic education to oneself is the necessary investment

that will preserve us from future disasters and expenses,

it does not matter if we do not have the money to do so.

 

If we can see that education is an undeniable wealth,

then it is legitimate to create this money from scratch.

 

If the relationship of the self to the world

as well as the world to oneself

depends on who we are,

then education is crucial,

and the means it requires must be allocated to it.

 

Moreover,

adding courses in self-respect, respect for others,

respect for life and respect for the world

to the school curriculum for a few hours a week

would not cost much but would have such tangible benefits

that they could generate a myriad of positive dynamics

and become part of a systemic virtuous circle.

 

Because an educated and wise people

is neither violent nor quick to war,

then investing in education is an investment

in peace, serenity, well-being and prosperity.

 

Peace is free of charge, peace is freedom, peace is life,

peace is the mother of all possibilities.

 

Conversely,

war is spending tons of money

to sow violence, misery and suffering, destitution, slavery,

submission to unhealthy systemic dynamics.

 

War means losing all your rights,

war means no longer being human,

war means the death of all possibilities,

war means losing everything,

yourself and all those you love.

 

If it is crucial for each one of us,

it is crucial for humanity as a whole.

 

Therefore,

the price of education is immeasurable.

 

Its value is priceless.

 

Nothing has greater legitimacy than what can save humanity.

 

Wisdom alone will preserve us from wars and cataclysms.

 

Wisdom is as much our most accurate compass

to lead us to the most beautiful of possible worlds

as it is our ultimate and primary wealth:

ourselves.

 

In this sense,

beyond the sciences of numbers,

we must teach the sciences of being.

 

If this education is above all an education to be oneself,

to find oneself, and to find one’s place in the world,

to do what makes us alive

not only in our own eyes but also in the eyes of others and the world,

if the sciences of being

are best able to foster conscious and responsible citizens,

therefore, it is an education to self-fulfillment, self-satisfaction,

to the acceptance of a world with its pains and joys,

to truth, knowledge, intelligence, justice and harmony.

 

It is the renewal of the world.

 

To find the greatest and most beautiful and ecstatic joys

through the greatest possible self-fulfillment

within the limits imposed by respect for others, oneself and the world

is the objective of this educational model.

 

Education to oneself is an art,

a subject undoubtedly more important than any other.

 

For the uses we will make of the knowledge and powers

that the evolution of the human species will have transmitted to us

necessarily depend on education to oneself.

 

The only remedy to the nightmare of systematized inhumanity

is the consciousness of oneself, of the world and of humanity

as an organic whole

in which the whole and the parts reach a balance, a harmony.

 

To consider one’s own life

as inseparably, organically linked to the rest of humanity

requires no special effort or means.

 

All it takes is to see it.

All it takes is to know it.

All it takes is to teach it.

 

*

Every flower’s destiny is to unfold and blossom.

 

Each child, each human being carries within him or herself,

the potential of his or her own personal fulfillment.

 

To create the conditions favorable to the discovery of oneself

is to open a possible path, a possible, accomplished and fulfilled future

for each and everyone.

 

The freer and more fulfilled human beings will be,

the more the human race will have the chance and the opportunities

to reveal itself, to free itself, and to flourish.

 

*

Saving childhood

 

The phenomenon of the perpetuation of generalized blindness

inherited from the darkest times of humanity

is all the more profound and powerful

and leads us all the more inexorably to our own loss as a species

as it concerns each and every one of us, everyone’s lives,

affecting our own innermost being

with all the tear, pain and heartbreak that that can entail.

 

A society can only be balanced

if those who are part of it are balanced beings.

 

No one can find balance

without a minimum of authentic and sincere fulfillment.

 

Children are by nature fragile and vulnerable.

 

As we ourselves are searching for a meaning and a purpose,

we poorly know how to guide them, accompany them

towards their fulfillment, their blossoming, their destiny.

 

Children,

we all have been children,

 

We probably still are.

 

All of us children of humanity.

 

All of us orphans of a lost humanity,

we continue to neglect the education we give our children.

 

While it is the only renewal of humanity, our only hope,

we continue to neglect and abuse childhood.

 

We literally neglect the scope and importance

of the messages, beliefs, hopes and despairs

that we pass down to our children

as parents, schools, a society and a humanity.

 

All of us humanity’s children,

saving childhood is saving ourselves.

 

Saving childhood is saving humanity.

 

*

The teachings of universal wisdom shall save humanity

from the darkness of ignorance and the hell of its consequences.

 

We must become aware of the seeds we sow

in the mind of humanity,

in the minds of our friends, our parents, our children

 now and in the future.

 

More hope than despair, more happiness than pain,

more benevolence than evil, more openness than narrowness,

more mind than materialism, more generosity than greed,

more wisdom than insanity,

more incitement to peace than incitement to conflict

must be sown in childhood.

 

If love, solidarity and siblinghood are one and the same thing,

then love has a precise and primordial social function.

 

No calculation, no figure can quantify it.

 

No theory, no political, economic or metaphysical ideology whatsoever

can deny or ignore it,

or, even more stupidly, claim to be able to replace it.

 

Humanity lies at the heart of the human being.

 

It is therefore humanity, what’s human,

that creates the social bond.

 

This is what needs to be taught to all the children of the world.

 

It’s as simple as that.

 

All over the world, all around the Earth,

this is what we all have to learn.

 

When we all know this,

then the world will have changed.

 

When we all know this,

then humanity will be saved.

 

When this humanity disappears, the human dies with it,

and in their wake, society, civilization, the world.

 

For better or worse,

society will change.

 

Another educational system

that cannot but add to the efficiency of teaching

is within our reach, and that of future generations.

 

We have to realize this and give ourselves the means to make it happen.

 

For neglecting one’s children is neglecting oneself.

 

Helping humans to know themselves,

to find their own way, to recognize their intrinsic humaneness right from infancy

is giving a meaning, a purpose, a raison d’être back to life

giving their destiny back to humans,

giving freedom back to humanity.

 

This system must be based on the discovery of oneself, the world and others,

what makes me a boy or a girl, a man or a woman,

what makes me human, among other humans.

 

Essential to the life of our societies,

this teaching of self-discovery and discovery of the world

is, however, absent from all curricula.

 

In which schools, in which countries

is Wisdom taught?

 

Within this new system,

let us help our children to discover themselves,

to love and respect life and death,

let us help them to discover their qualities and strengths,

let us help them to live with themselves, with others and in the world.

 

To restore the balance between theoretical and practical teachings,

to nourish them with reality, creativity, task sharing and so on,

to accompany them in the discovery and understanding of the world and themselves

without crushing or stifling them, without blaming or restraining them,

such is the mission of the school system.

 

To lead them

to discover nature and culture, science, knowledge, society,

in exchange, respect, recognition and understanding,

in communication, dialogue, observation, exploration, cooperation, inspiration and creation,

such is the mission of the school system.

 

Thus, and only thus,

can the whole of humanity flourish and thrive.

 

Only thus will we be able to hinder and break

the infernal circle of repetition of all the errors of the past

that constantly affect the present and the future.

 

*

Lion cubs in a cage?

 

Aren’t our children similar to the bear cub or the lion cub

with an irrepressible natural need to play with their siblings?

 

Even though we will never prevent them from being overflowing with life,

put children in a healthy environment with wise and humane rules,

with moments for study, moments for play,

moments for sports, moments for discovery, for the arts etc.,

then these children will know how to prove themselves worthy and conciliatory

because each of them was born with both a unique and plural potential, waiting to be revealed,

that they only want to embody, cultivate, exploit.

 

We should guide them with love, awareness, wonder, dignity, compassion

and respect not only for the mental characteristics of their ages

but also for their need to move around, to be physically active,

rather than hammering them with theories

with little or no connection to reality,

sitting on a table all day long.

 

It is our role as parents and teachers, adults in general,

to help our children to reveal themselves to themselves.

 

Each one of them has a different little universe,

little, but full of magic, curiosity,

source of wonder and joy of life, source of so much becoming,

because they are excellent, sublime, wonderful, loving, endearing,

always surprising – innovative! – in the way they see the world,

however clumsy they sometimes are, so funny!!!

 

Children are eager to learn and marvel.

 

Better yet,

homo-sapiens sons and daughters,

they are programmed to learn.

 

Don’t they always ask a lot of questions, ‘Why? Why?’ Why? Why?’,

questions that often surprise us

and to which sometimes we don’t have the slightest answer?

 

Our children are programmed to learn,

and yet, in school, all over the world, most often,

we achieve the feat of putting them off learning.

 

On the scale of the species or nation,

childhood is regeneration.

 

We should therefore stop projecting

our preconceived ideas and experiences onto childhood

and stop repeating the mistakes of the past.

 

Understanding childhood is giving it a new taste for learning.

 

Understanding childhood is being able to guide it

without restraining it, without breaking it.

 

Guiding childhood is making it become what it already is:

homo-sapiens.

 

Guiding childhood towards what it is,

is leading childhood towards the fulfillment of its destiny.

 

A humane and gentle education

based on the bond to oneself, to others and to reality

is not only a right,

it is a duty,

all the more absolute and universal

as it is constitutive of tomorrow’s humanity and world.

 

Education is the future of humanity.

 

This future is not in 2050.

 

It is now.

 

Forevermore,

the future is now, right now.

 

Every day and with a kind of blind, compulsive, thoughtless insistence,

we feed our little ones with materialism,

TV, advertisements, egocentricity, vanity,

pornography, violence, deception, intrigue, lies, swindles,

greed, exacerbated narcissism, fear and barbarism…

 

All in their most extreme forms!

 

Without even dwelling on what they are taught

in the “big” business or management schools, to name but a few

(how to manipulate speeches in order to sell, in other words how to lie,

how to overly exploit natural and human resources

to make money, in other words how to best plunder…),

the incommensurability of irresponsibility towards them

will sooner or later cause our children

to turn against us, and against themselves!

 

I don’t know if there is always worse,

but when you think of all these children who come into the world

and who are destined to psychological imbalance and suffering,

to human relationships based on power and violence,

to a society that is totally disintegrated, unjust, degrading and corrupt,

the sadness that engulfs you is immense and intense.

 

*

Teaching teachers

 

Since those who teach are ignorant of universal wisdom,

how to work for the regeneration of childhood?

 

Perpetuating its own neurotic illnesses,

aggravating its own metaphysical errors,

reinforcing widespread blindness,

how a society can hope to be sustainable and in harmony with itself

when too few properly trained teachers

can have access to a positive and humanistic pedagogy?

 

We must therefore review our curricula

and invite parents, teachers, educators and trainers

to cultivate humanism and humaneness in themselves

for the greater good of the children, the nation and humanity.

 

We must be able to question who we are and what we do

in order to become aware of our educational deficiencies

in terms of universal wisdom, self-knowledge, living well and well-being,

quite simply.

 

“Know thyself”, said the philosopher.

 

As bright as the sun

bathing in an ocean of azure blue sky bathing in light,

simplicity is luminous.

 

Simplicity is solar.

Simplicity is light.

 

Like the immeasurable,

there’s one thing that never ends:

 

Learning.

 

We never stop learning.

Learning never ends.

Learning has no limits.

Learning has no boundaries.

 

Like God, and the Cosmos,

learning is infinite, learning is eternal.

 

The potential is both infinite and eternal.

 

Because seeing is seeing the light;

Because seeing is revealing what is;

Because light illuminates our path, our destiny,

seeing and knowing, seeing the light,

that is the way.

 

*

Thus,

those who never stop learning are probably the most competent ones

to guide others to the light.

 

Thus,

to foster a taste for learning is the number one priority

of school, of all educators, parents, teachers and trainers,

an unconditional prerequisite without which no learning is possible.

 

*

The pedagogy of trust.

The pedagogy of hope.

 

Even before being a teacher,

a teacher or trainer must be a pedagogue

who knows how to put him or herself in the place and on the level of others,

who knows how to open his or her mind

beyond his or her own specialty

to the comprehension of the mechanisms of the world as well as the learners’ brains

beyond his or her own specialty.

 

The teacher is above all a human being.

 

Thus,

if knowing how to put oneself in the place and on the level of others

is indispensable to teaching,

then compassion is a skill, an indispensable ingredient of effective pedagogy.

 

The positive value of pedagogy

is at least as important as the pedagogical content.

 

Unfortunately,

there is still too much of a tendency for teachers to practice pedagogy

that focuses on error and the negative.

 

Too many teachers too often say,

“That’s lame. No, Wrong, Badly said etc.”.

and this can go as far as

“That’s rubbish. You’re just a good-for-nothing. You’ll never make it…”, etc.

 

Put yourself in their shoes.

You’ve been there, in their shoes.

Who likes to be constantly belittled?

No one does.

 

This has two negative consequences:

 

A dislike for learning and knowledge

and a dedication to ignorance and all its harmful consequences.

 

Do you realize that?

 

And yet this negative pedagogy is widespread.

 

Parents and children,

can you imagine the harm it does to all of us?

 

We don’t respect,

let alone seriously take into consideration,

the rhythms, needs and cognitive abilities

of the different ages from early childhood to adulthood,

and because of this, because we don’t know what the art of transmission means,

as soon as they fail to understand,

we punish them.

 

Which is a crowning achievement,

it has to be said.

 

We punish our children because they don’t understand what we tell them,

whereas it is us, the adults, who have failed to understand them well enough

in order to explain clearly enough for them to understand.

 

Positive pedagogy,

on the contrary, focuses on encouragement.

 

Throughout the learning process,

seeking to highlight all the signs of progress

means giving learning a chance to bear fruit.

 

Have you ever had the experience

of transmitting knowledge, understanding and intelligence?

 

When this happens,

it is a victory in people’s minds.

 

When understanding is mutual,

sparks of intelligence shine in both the teacher’s and the learner’s mind, whether young or old.

 

A teacher is an eternal learner and it is because s/he is well aware of this

that s/he remains humble in the face of the infinite

that s/he will eternally have to learn.

 

Thus,

since a teacher is an eternal learner,

teaching makes one humble and encouraging

more than haughty and contemptuous.

 

Thus,

a genuine teacher has learned to no longer judge negatively,

but to appreciate what is positive.

 

It changes everything.

 

It costs nothing, not a euro, not a dime,

but it changes everything.

 

From the point of view of the schoolchild, the student, the learner,

to be encouraged, to be valued

on one’s strengths more than on one’s weaknesses,

without excess but with justice and fairness, with kindness and wisdom,

it is extraordinary.

 

It changes everything in the way you look at yourself.

 

The teaching technique is simple and humble

and yet its results can be magical.

 

Magical, and yet very real.

Magical because they are very real.

Just as our children are magical and real.

 

All it takes is for every teacher, educator, trainer and parent

to focus on what is positive, what is right,

more than what is wrong.

 

Doing this costs next to nothing,

but it’s 50% of the solution,

at least.

 

Mathematically,

the benefits of positive pedagogy are as unquantifiable and immeasurable

as the consequences and chain reactions of negative pedagogy

on the hearts and minds of those who receive it

are staggeringly abysmal.

 

Spreading this basic and simplistic pedagogy,

summarized here in two lines,

would certainly make a big difference.

 

Highlighting the positive and the potential of the child, adolescent or adult

rather than relying on the negative traits of behavior, mind, body or being,

is already a revolution.

 

Freedom is the freedom to see what choices are available to us.

When the choice is between the positive and the negative,

any sensible person would choose the positive.

 

Investing in education is investing in the future.

It is one of the remedies against the Apocalypse.

 

*

Inspiring the desire to learn

 

Fostering the desire to learn by respecting the child

so that the child respects teaching, educational institutions, knowledge, wisdom and intelligence.

 

It is already hard, frustrating, and even to some extent unnatural

for a child or teenager to sit on a chair for hours

while their bodies are overflowing with youthful energy,

if we discourage them whenever possible

and, to top it all off, hardly ever compliment them,

then don’t put any hope in that education.

 

No wonder that today, every day,

we pay a very high price for it.

 

The body is full of energy at this age,

it is not only the privilege of youth,

but it is also the time when the body is building itself,

and must, in order to build itself well, build itself in a solid, healthy way.

 

It is a natural need linked to the evolution of our species.

 

Physical activity is obviously positive and beneficial,

but it’s not just sport or competition.

 

There is good physical and concrete work to be done,

such as gardening, masonry, etc., in short, manual work.

 

We should therefore invest in equipment and/or find the right partners

so that children very quickly become familiar

with the more or less manual work of the physical world.

 

From the age when the child can create something, i.e. early,

it is good to develop this.

 

And there is nothing better

than starting very early with the simplest things.

 

Picking strawberries or raspberries,

planting trees, plants, vegetables, fruits, or flowers…

 

As early as middle school, around 11, 12 years old,

one can tackle more substantial work,

such as painting, on a wall or on canvas, or anything else,

a bit of masonry, whatever can be done.

We continue gardening.

 

At the same time,

we develop the traditional subjects

such as reading, math, geometry, physics, biology, geology, etc.,

which will help them to carry out all these practical works,

all these experiences in the real world.

 

For example,

calculating the surface area of a room to be painted

in order to know how much paint is needed to do so.

 

Learning through reading the characteristics of the plants

that we put in the ground so that they will bear fruit.

 

The other subjects are obviously not given up.

 

In primary school,

traditional subjects as well as sciences

pertaining to reality such as botany, biology, ‘naturology’, physics, etc.

will be studied at a simple level

but as observationally, playfully or experimentally as possible

rather than in a purely abstract and theoretical way

in order to find a healthy and effective balance

between theory and practice, between the abstract and the concrete,

between the unreal and the real. *



* The Montessori method has proved its usefulness

in creating this link between the abstract and the concrete.

 

How can I describe our joy at discovering, two years after writing these lines

that such schools focused on the child and his or her development

more or less similar to our vision

already exist under the name of Waldorf schools,

designed and developed by Rudolf Steiner at the beginning of the 20th century

in a way that is not only much more profound than what we present here,

but whose benefits on children are already tangible and proven

since nowadays there are in the world 1,100 Steiner-Waldorf schools,

over 2,000 Steiner-Waldorf kindergartens,

300 special education centers (curative education)

and 60 teacher training institutes in this pedagogy.

 

https://www.ecole-steiner-avignon.org/lecole-dans-le-monde/

https://www.waldorf-100.org/en/

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner


Whatever the age,

from the moment the child can speak,

we can make them discover all sciences,

as long as we adapt the pedagogy to the cognitive capacities specific to their age.

 

Each science can be seen as we see reality,

with the naked eye or through a microscope.

 

Indeed,

from the visible to the invisible,

the more powerful the microscope is,

the more we discover previously hidden realities,

like as many new sciences that at the same time surprise, amaze us

and explain the world.

 

We present the broad outlines,

the visible things first of all.

 

And as the child grows up,

the details begin to be taught,

in an increasingly precise, refined and subtle way.

 

Even the interrelational complexity of all things.

 

Who does not marvel at the miracle of a tree

that grows and gives us its fruits?

 

Who does not marvel at the miracle of life on Earth?

 

Who does not marvel at the images of the cosmos

as revealed by the Hubble and Planck telescopes, to name but a few?

 

What better way to give children the desire to learn,

to do math in order to better understand and become an astronaut,

a computer scientist, an engineer or an astrophysicist, among others?

 

What better way of making children want to learn

than saving our world?

 

*

School curricula

 

As a consequence of all that has just been said,

the Herculean and unrealistic curricula that are imposed on children

take no account of the reality of childhood,

not to mention the teachers’ reality and working conditions.

 

Weak and unrealistic in terms of the feasibility of the objectives,

not only out of sync with the talents and skills of too many students,

but also out of sync with the reality

of the world of work, society and the world at large,

what is the percentage of curricula up to the A-levels or their equivalent

that children use or remember in their adult lives?

 

Burdened by the syllabuses, the objectives,

the number of students, strangled by a lack of means,

establishments struggle to instill a hint of pedagogy within the system.

 

Thus,

teachers struggle to continue to love their job and to share it.

 

A school is not an enterprise

in which children and teachers are forced to be productive,

where performance is coerced.

 

One learns, ingests, remembers and does better

as one enjoys what one learns and learns to do.

 

Instead of constantly lowering the level of the various exams,

such as the GCSE, or the A-levels,

we would do better to lighten the curricula,

and to ensure that a reduced number of main subjects,

chosen by the student, detected and encouraged by the teaching team,

are more thorough, that more time is devoted to them,

and that secondary subjects are lighter.

 

For if the level of certain exams is relatively low,

from a very young age, the weight of the curricula is too heavy,

too heavy on our children’s shoulders.

 

*

The fundamental objectives of primary school

 

If, already by the time they enter the 6th grade,

children are beginning to know how to read, write and count well,

if they have opened a little bit to life and its various phenomena,

art, science, society and the humanities,

if they have been taught to love a few foreign languages,

if we have managed to ever so slightly sharpen their scientific curiosity,

if we have opened them up to the world and to themselves,

with the primary goal of letting them know

who they are and what they are good at,

if we have taught them to love learning,

then the elementary school mission has been fulfilled

and even beyond.

 

For then their personal characteristics would soon find paths

through which to express themselves;

their potential, their creativity, their skills, however humble,

would soon find a way and a use for their own good in the first place,

and then, with and through it, for the good of the whole community.

 

For there is nothing more precious than knowing oneself,

especially at this age when nothing is yet decided,

when destiny has yet to be written.

 

For as soon as we know ourselves,

as soon as we know what we have talents for, what we are made for,

everyone can find a place and a usefulness, be it great or small,

but always legitimate and justified, natural and fulfilling in human society.

 

If at the age of 11, after 7-8 years in the school system,

neither teachers nor parents have any idea of what the child likes to do,

nor what he or she really is, and therefore may become,

if he or she has not been helped

to germinate any awareness of what he or she is,

if he or she has not been taught or only badly

how to interact with him or herself,

if he or she does not know how to interact with others,

then we can talk about pedagogical failure.

 

Every child is a human being.

 

The needs, but also the riches are innumerable,

as great and multiple as there are human beings.

 

A better education system makes a better future possible.

 

Within or outside the school system, at school or at home,

a positive education illuminates the future of our children

as much as it illuminates the future of the world.

 

Beyond the debate on equal opportunity,

the issue here and now is humanity’s chances of survival.

 

By making a child aware

of what he or she has skills for, what he or she is made for,

what life he or she may have as an individual and a socially fulfilled person

this is how the education system, including parents and teachers,

can give our children the best possible opportunities.

 

Without this,

any debate on equal opportunity is a dead end.

 

*

Secondary school:

majors.

 

In England,

a two-stage system of progressive subject selection

is introduced from secondary school onwards, when children are 11 years old.

 

First stage:

Among 15 to 40 subjects, depending on the school,

at the age of 11, students have only five compulsory subjects:

mathematics, English, biology, physics, chemistry.

 

In general, students choose between nine and twelve of them.

 

At the age of 14, after the GCSE,

(General Certificate of Secondary Education),

they can either leave the general system

or opt for only three to six subjects.

 

Thus,

as long as students know who they are at a minimum,

they can focus on what they are best at and what suits them best.

 

Rather than spreading themselves thin by studying too many subjects,

they focus on what they are most gifted at

and what would help them fulfil their potential in their adult working lives.

 

England is a developed country with a skilled and qualified population.

 

It is therefore not necessary to study everything

in order to flourish and find one’s place in society.

 

However,

there is a downside to this positive picture of the English system:

 

Since in order not to repeat the mistakes of the past, memory is a duty,

it seems indispensable for citizens to be informed

about the history of the world.

 

In addition and for the same political and humanistic reasons,

it seems indispensable for civic education courses to be given throughout high school.

 

Since being a responsible human being

includes respect for nature and the environment,

then this civic education could include courses in ecology.

 

Finally,

because one never develops better awareness and self-control

than by studying the science of being and by practicing meditation,

then it seems indispensable for these two interconnected disciplines

to be practiced throughout the entire education period,

from the beginning of primary school to the end of secondary school.

 

*

Meditation at school

 

Since meditating is relaxing, letting go and releasing tension;

since meditating is learning to concentrate in the most natural possible way;

since meditating is learning to know oneself;

since meditating is observing oneself

and learning from one’s feelings and emotions;

since meditation is learning to control and be master of oneself;

since meditating is understanding

that we are only a grain of sand in the universe,

a grain of sand certainly,

but inevitably and inseparably connected to the great earthly and universal whole,

then it seems obvious that meditation should be practiced at school.

 

Indeed,

nothing better than meditation fulfills the school’s mission:

 

To make children responsible, respectful, self-aware citizens,

better able to concentrate and carry out what they are meant to do.

 

Of course,

this will be first and foremost a relaxing meditation,

one that aims to clear the mind and relax

much more than one that seeks to analyze the deep workings of the being,

the mysteries of the psyche, emotions and feelings.

 

Even so, in the long run,

self-knowledge necessarily involves a deep understanding of the heart and mind.

 

However,

meditation is the subject of so many fantasies and ignorance

that it seems convenient to have a better understanding

of the nature and goals of meditation practice.

 

We would therefore be honored to outline them for you:

 

First of all, let us be clear:

there is nothing mysterious, dogmatic, and even less religious

about meditation practice.

 

Many books are dedicated to this subject,

and without doubt each one is interesting in its own way.*

 

This is not surprising in the sense that meditation being about discovering oneself,

there are as many different perspectives on the subject

as there are individuals on earth.


*We cannot help but invite you

to browse through some of them

and be inspired.

In any case,

the basis of meditation practice is simple:

 

It is about emptying oneself,

or more accurately, making oneself empty

in order to discover what is beneath, beside and beyond oneself,

what is beneath, beside and beyond the thoughts that clutter our mind

and fill our ears with a constant and deafening buzzing

that prevents us from listening to silence

and therefore from listening to ourselves,

that prevents us from seeing who we are

and therefore makes us blind not only to what surrounds us,

but also to our own existence.

 

Not knowing who we are

is inexorably ensuring that we never know anything at all.

 

Thus,

meditation is all about clearing your mind,

letting go of the thoughts that come to our minds

so as to see what is beyond them and listen to silence.

 

For it is when silence is found

that the essential is revealed.

 

It is when silence is found

that we can see beyond ourselves.

 

It is when we can see beyond ourselves

that we can surpass ourselves, grow, better ourselves, enhance our skills.

 

Thus,

meditation simply consists of becoming emptiness

and contemplating, contemplating space,

contemplating space within oneself,

even reaching to the infinite.

 

Silence has so much to tell us.

 

Its words are whispers

the universe and the earth and the infinite have to say to us.

 

They are calls for peace, love and harmony.

 

Today,

these calls resound like the Earth’s cries for reconciliation and harmony.

 

Everything that gives birth to us and keeps us alive

is fertile and beneficial.

 

Listening to silence

is being filled with universal benevolence.

 

Listening to silence

is incarnating universal consciousness,

incarnating the world, the earth, the universe.

 

Listening to silence

is letting ourselves be filled with the light that dwells in each one of us.

 

Seeing the light that shines in the depths of each one of us,

finding the world’s harmony,

such is the fruit of meditation.

 

Listen to silence,

everyone can do it.

 

Children are undoubtedly even more gifted than adults at listening to silence

as their minds have not yet been deafened

by the culture of materialism, narcissism, individualism, selfishness,

careerism, jealousy, greed, competitiveness, productivism, prosaicism, consumerism, guilt and negativity.

 

To make our children more attuned to themselves,

inwardly and collectively, individually and mutually,

to make our children calmer and quieter

with a greater ability to focus,

isn’t that the dream of every teacher?

 

To make our children more attentive to themselves

is to make our children more attentive to others,

therefore less inclined to be cruel to one another.

 

Isn’t this the dream

of every supervisor and every teacher, every parent and every child?

 

*

Focus

 

The camera does not know that it is a camera.

 

Not knowing what it is, it doesn’t know how it works.

 

It cannot therefore operate itself.

 

Similarly,

a camera cannot film itself.

 

Thus, and in the same way,

it is difficult for a being to look at him or herself

because then the one who is looking and the one who is being looked at

is the same person,

hence the crucial importance of education, experience, and knowledge

to guide those who want to discover the Truth

and explore the immense world, the infinite universe of the Mind.

 

Teaching our children to know themselves

means teaching them to be masters of their own selves

and thus of their own destiny.

 

Realizing what we are made for, finding our purpose and accomplishing it,

this is the definition of fulfillment and a successful life.

 

To make human beings, the nation and humanity

masters of their destiny again

is not only the supreme goal of any self-respecting educational system,

it is also, if it exists, the divine will.

 

*

A National Curriculum Council?

 

The example of education

is symptomatic of the non-democratic, absurd and counterproductive excesses

of the system of representation and appointment of its members.

 

Out of 18 of the ministers of education in France from 1978 to 2020,

only 8 have taught in their lifetime,

most of them in favorable educational conditions

in great and renowned institutions of higher education

where there is no shortage of money,

and none in difficult classes in the middle or high schools of today’s France.

 

Lionel Jospin (May 12, 1988 to April 2, 1992),

Jack Lang (April 2, 1992 to March 29, 1993 and March 28, 2000 to May 7, 2002),

François Bayrou (March 29, 1993 to June 4, 1997),

Claude Allègre (June 4, 1997 to March 28, 2000),

Luc Ferry (May 7, 2002 to March 31, 2004),

Xavier Darcos (May 18, 2007 to May 24, 2009),

Vincent Peillon (May 16, 2012 to March 31, 2014)

Jean-Michel Blanquer (May 17, 2017 – )

 

8 out of 17 is not even 50%.

 

Over the 42 years that cover our period, from 1978 to 2020,

10 ministers of education have never taught in their lives,

and the other 8 have been in the ministry of education for just over 20 years.

 

Thus,

for about 18 years,

France has had Ministers of Education who have never taught in their lives.

 

When we apply for a job,

we are asked to have about two years of experience.

 

And yet the people of France

have had ministers of education with no experience at all.

 

Thus,

among those who decide and have decided

on the destiny of all the citizens of the nation,

some have never given a course in their lives.

 

How is this possible?

 

What’s wrong with that?

will they say.

 

And yet would they entrust their children to a surgeon

who has never performed a single surgical operation,

neither on humans nor on animals, neither dead nor alive.

 

Ministers of Education are to the souls and minds of the nation’s children

what a surgeon would do to your son’s or daughter’s body.

 

Of course,

they have their own children

but this is not enough to know how to give a structured course,

how to make it a live experience, how to teach knowledge, skills and know-how.

 

And yet,

for 18 years, the education of an entire nation’s children and youth

was entrusted to people who had never taught a course,

who had no idea how intelligence, understanding and knowledge progress

in a person or a group of people (often made up of thirty individuals)

who have yet to be given the taste and pleasure of learning.

 

How can one decide on pedagogy,

the content of curricula and syllabuses, the means to implement them, etc., etc.,

without having an inch of firsthand experience?

 

What price are we going to pay for such irresponsibility?

 

We need to improve the education system.

 

It is possible, it is positive, it is easy.

 

To give it a better direction is realistic and possible

just as it is realistic and possible to give it a bad direction.

 

In order to address these flaws

in realism and feasibility inherent in the current system,

we should consider creating a National Curriculum Council.

 

This National Council would be a democratic advance

over the existing Superior Council of Curricula (Conseil Supérieur des Programmes)

in that it would be much more representative of the primary and secondary professionals

who are not, to our knowledge, represented in the current council.*


* https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conseil_sup%C3%A9rieur_des_programmes

 

*

This new national curriculum council could be composed of two boards:

one for the humanities and one for the ‘hard’ sciences,

or, to name them differently,

one for the sciences of the mind

(immaterial sciences with psychological, social and political applications) on the one hand,

and another one for the sciences of the bodies

(material sciences with technological applications) on the other,

these two categories not being watertight.

 

They could be made up of teachers and professors

from a representative sample of France,

elected by their peers according to the principles of the majority judgment,

by sector, two per region for example, one man and one woman, elected for 3 years (? ),

one third of each board renewed by election every 1 year (?),

with regular plenary meetings.*

 

*We could also consider a first, random
selection stage,

as is recommended for national
representation.

 

The focus of this council and this new education system

would be the positive pedagogy:

 

The preparation of children

through the development of their skills and talents

for their personal fulfillment within the community,

for their life as a man or a woman in tomorrow’s world.

 

*

A common humanist pedagogical bedrock

 

Cultivating joy and wonder, intelligence and creativity,

humanity and tolerance from an early age,

on as global a scale as possible,

ensures we’re moving towards a certain liberation.

 

It is, at as low a cost as possible,

the way to resurrect the future of humanity.

 

Defining a very basic and simple pedagogical foundation,

common to the self-proclaimed humanity

would free the world from a great burden:

the burden of the future,

the burden of not knowing where we are going,

the burden of a humanity that ignores itself,

that does not know where it is going,

and that, not knowing it, is certain to go straight to disaster.

 

If we agreed on a basic pedagogy,

a pedagogy based on harmony and universal wisdom,

understanding, consciousness and intelligence,

a pedagogy that would not erase cultural particularisms

but, on the contrary, would incorporate them as sources of knowledge,

then we would be certain that tomorrow

there would be more cooperation than confrontation.

 

And then the trend could be reversed.

 

So little is needed.

 

If the universal is applied on a universal scale,

then the universal will reverberate in the best sense of the word.

 

Harmony is the only possible and imaginable miracle on this earth.

 

It will generate unexpected solutions.

It will be fruitful of immense richness.

 

See it, right here,

it is the only possible and imaginable miracle on this earth.

 

To enshrine an international treaty on a common pedagogical bedrock

based on the first principles of universal humanism

is to breathe a new spirit into the heart of humanity and human beings.

 

Cultivate

intelligence, joy, wonder, creativity, delight, humility and generosity, affection, justice and humanity.

 

That’s it.

Those words are enough.

No need to go any further.

 

No economic obstacle prevents the spirit of humanity

from being breathed into the heart of humanity.

 

The obstacle is purely mental or ideological.

 

Breathing the spirit of universal harmony into humanity

is giving birth to the Spirit of God on Earth.

 

Instantly or almost instantaneously,

the world would know where to go.

 

Seeing the light is knowing where to go.

 

We would almost instantly regain confidence.

 

The more faith we will have in ourselves,

the more faith we will have in our future,

the less we will fight each other.

 

The universal is a revolution.

 

More than a revolution,

the universal is a necessary, vital, imperative evolution.

 

As when we understood that the earth was round,

perhaps one day we will understand that this understanding,

this revelation can never be doubted again.

 

Teaching joy, wonder and wisdom to a child,

what more wonderful teaching could there be?

 

*

* * *

*

 

The Youth and Children’s Parliament

 

Whatever forms of power governance may take,

no matter how wise it may be at the outset,

none of them can be immune from corruption or the diversion of its objectives

if leaders or citizens are not trained in wisdom, humanism and universality.

 

Thus,

the young must be trained in Wisdom.

 

Wisdom is the medicine for foolishness.

 

The age of Wisdom begins in childhood.

 

Thus,

even before the age of adolescence, from the age of reason,

it seems wise that children should be able to participate in the rebirth of the Nation.

 

Nine, ten years old seems to be a proper age.

 

Without being a teenager yet,

thoughts, ideas, and feelings begin to form

and leave their imprint on the personality.

 

It is therefore essential to imbue it

with wisdom, strength and reason.

 

Even if adolescence is approaching,

at 9, 10 years old, childhood is still palpable, perceptible and real.

 

From 9 to 18 years old,

the mission to speak and work on behalf of childhood and youth would be fertile.

 

We could imagine that each year, for a whole month,

our children, from 9 to 18 years old, would represent themselves.

 

Adults would only be there to set the guidelines

and remind them of the rules of the Democratic Law

inspired by universal wisdom and humanism.

 

A Parliament by and for children,

the Youth and Children’s Parliament could propose laws related to children.

 

These proposed laws would of course be subject to approval

by the vote of the other two (adult) national legislatures.

 

Even if these laws were not ratified,

the media coverage of the event would bring children’s concerns to the forefront.

 

Whether these concerns were translated

into sensible and rational law proposals, imbued with universal wisdom and justice,

or into a childish, completely zany and unconscious delusion,

these proposals would allow us to better understand our own children.

 

This would shed light on the world.

 

To lend credibility and prestige to the Youth and Children’s Parliament

is to give ourselves the chance to renew a real contact, a real relationship, a real affiliation,

a real bond with our children, with the flesh of our flesh, with the blood of our blood,

with all that we love most in the world.

 

Of course,

we cannot let children decide on their own.

 

They still have too much to learn.

 

Children won’t vote on defense budgets, geostrategy, or monetary policies

– that goes without saying.

 

This children’s assembly will obviously not be able to vote

on the decisions made by the two adult assemblies either,

because the knowledge and experience required

to decide are too important, complex

and too far from their minds still in a state of awakening and discovery,

that too goes without saying.

 

In any case,

as in the other assemblies,

with a relative and balanced power

in accordance with how things are ordered,

the nature of what they are and what the nation is,

not only will it be in the image of the people,

but also and above all in that of the children.

 

This assembly would remind men and women

that they have all been children

and that they are children first and foremost,

even before they are men and women.

 

Not only is the children’s view of the world a pure view

but to give back to humanity the view of its childhood

is to give it back its childhood, it is to regenerate it.

 

Childhood is our only fountain of youth.

 

Let us take care of it.

 

Let us listen to our youth.

 

How better to listen to it than to give it a voice through a parliament,

with limited but real powers?

 

Rebirth will be the gift of childhood to humanity.

 

This Children’s Assembly could be the crowning

of an immense collective and national wisdom.

 

It will undoubtedly be the sign of renewal, regeneration, rebirth.

 

This would be a miracle.

 

To institute something is to make it possible.

 

Only a miracle can save us.

 

To reveal the miracle

is the only way to make the miracle come true.

 

*

Number of child parliamentarians

 

One child per department, district or administrative county

would be a wonderful idea.

 

Each one would represent its territory at a child’s level.

 

It would be a marvel.

 

In France,

that would make 101 children, including the overseas departments.

 

Notwithstanding the legitimate question of their independence,

one of France’s strengths is to have territories all over the world.

 

If there are regions with which France must come to an agreement,

it is these overseas jurisdictions.

 

To unite children is to unite grown-ups.

 

With territories on many oceans,

it is one of France’s powers to unite the world in a coherent whole.

 

This strength is beyond measure.

 

To understand each other, to exchange and trade not only goods and services,

but also, and above all, knowledge and ideas throughout the world

is to work for harmony throughout the world,

it is to work for the survival of humanity.

 

France,

through her children,

could accomplish a miracle.

 

All the more so since France is home to citizens from all over the world.

 

One child per department per year to represent youth and childhood

in a carefully instituted parliament with limited but real powers,

a Children’s Parliament represents a new path not only for France

but also for the whole world.

 

The Law is universal.

 

It cannot be otherwise.

 

The universal law is.

It is a light,

our only light.

 

It is, in the midst of darkness, our sun.

 

In metropolitan France and on the other side of the oceans,

one month a year, one child per department would sit in the children’s parliament.

 

They would sit with the awareness

that they can propose a law for approval by the grown-ups’ parliament.

 

*

Methods of appointment

 

As for adults,

there would be a random selection draw followed by elections.

 

As with adults,

a child would obviously have the right to refuse to participate in parliament.

 

The right to refuse

is essential, inalienable and natural as much as it is universal.

 

1. Random selection by department, including overseas departments

 

2. In order not to give preference to the oldest ones,

8 children will be drawn at random:

one per age group,

one 9-year-old, one 10-year-old, one 11-year-old, one 12-year-old etc.

up to a 17-year-old.

 

3. The elections will be held at the departmental level,

adults not having the right to vote.

 

Since children under 18 years of age

cannot vote in what is called universal suffrage,

only children aged 9 to 17 years of age vote by department

from among the 8 age groups from 9 to 17 years of age

to designate the person who will be responsible for representing them in parliament.

 

Chance alone will give prevalence to any particular age group.

 

Very quickly, over the years,

the age groups will all be roughly equally represented.

This is the law of averages.

 

For those who would doubt the balance of power in an assembly

that would include both young men or women of 17 years old

and children of 9 years old

where only the oldest would always impose their will on the youngest,

it should be noted that sometimes,

often even a 10-year-old child is much smarter, finer and subtler

than a 15- or 17-year-old or even an adult

who lacks complete insight and analytical intelligence.

 

Indeed,

it is less a question of age than of sound judgment.

 

Children have this capacity to see this light,

this light which for us adults,

has already very often, too often unfortunately, dimmed or even disappeared.

 

Undoubtedly,

this experience would not only put into practice everything we have said before

about the benefits of education in connection with others and the world,

but it would be an authentic school of citizenship.

 

*

Operational aspects of the project

 

From one end to the other,

the parliamentary session will be overseen

by adults, pedagogues and educators among others,

whose role, as already mentioned,

will be to ensure that everything is done in respect

for democratic rules, respect for everyone and everyone’s opinions,

and to constantly remind children

that the light, the horizon, the focus, the beacon in the night

is the common good.

 

A place will be chosen to accommodate the children,

hopefully close to nature

in order to also carry out outdoor activities adapted to their age

with all the necessary facilities nearby so that their parents can,

if they so wish, reside close to their child during this time.

 

First of all,

they will be able to meet each other and for a few days discuss priorities.

 

Once a topic has been selected for deliberation,

adult presentations on the topic will be held in order to provide instruction.

 

All points of view shall be presented.

 

An independent commission

will have to ensure that everything is done according to democratic rules

that respect the children’s freedom

so that no adult will be tempted to impose his or her will.

 

In order for the entire nation to be aware of any infraction,

in order for the independent commission not to be tempted to abuse its power,

it must be constantly under scrutiny by the people and made public.

 

Anyone illegitimately attempting to influence the political process

will be held accountable for their actions, words and decisions

or suffer the consequences.

 

When it involves children,

any abuse becomes more heinous, horrible, unhealthy and evil.

 

Punishment will be all the more severe.

 

After which, after a period of time necessary

for the exploration of the issue(s), deliberation and collective elaboration of a bill,

it will be put to a vote.

 

The children alone will cast a vote to express themselves.

 

At all times,

the independent commission will have to make sure of it.

 

Finally,

in the same way as a standard bill,

their bill will be sent to the grown-ups’ Parliament.

 

*

The children’s parliament.

The objectives.

 

They are three:

 

1. Legislative:

 

Even though their power is relatively limited,

it is nevertheless real.

 

If their legislative proposals are sensible and fair,

they could be ratified.

 

We need to trust our children and the important things they have to tell us.

 

2. Educational:

 

It is the education to a democracy’s political life

and all that that implies:

empowerment, mastery of the matters at stake, mastery of the language

and mastery of the various knowledge required for any legislative process.

 

3. A right of speech:

 

This is perhaps the primary objective of this Youth and Children’s Parliament.

 

*

We have focused on a Children’s Parliament at the national level.

 

Of course,

nothing prevents this from being done

at the local, municipal, county and regional levels,

on the contrary.

 

*

Initiation rite

 

Can you imagine the transformation of our children,

our collective transformation,

if we cared and listened to what our children have to say?

 

Our society lacks initiation rites.

Our society lacks meaning.

 

Restoring meaning to our youth and childhood

would mean restoring meaning to our existence

and giving birth to humanity.

 

*

To be born again

 

We come from a culture that has long despised childhood,

that has long considered it ignorant.

 

Unfortunately,

it is without understanding

that respecting life and respecting childhood

is respecting ourselves.

 

The day when humans no longer put unnecessary barriers

between adulthood and childhood, between understanding and teaching,

then perhaps a new humanity can hope to be born.

 

Wouldn’t it be wonderful

 to give each child, each little girl, each little boy

the chance to discover and become themselves

through exchange, discovery, experience and sharing of knowledge,

the chance to blossom and find their place in the world,

through respect and benevolence?

 

Many mothers and fathers no doubt understand.

 

Fulfillment through harmony is possible.

 

Not only is blossoming and harmony all the more possible

when they develop together,

but they are also and necessarily beneficial.

 

It is in this sense that we must rebuild our educational system:

a complete education is not only learning how to do or to know,

it is learning to be.

 

To be or not to be.

That is indeed the question.

 

Because it is education that allows it to survive

and last over time and generations,

more than being at the heart of society,

education is the heart of society,

and by extension, of all humanity.

 

Saving the planet Earth is already generating a number of callings.

 

Why not encourage them to multiply, to spread

by investing in research and education?

 

The planet and humanity are in such danger

that each one of us can become a savior of this world in great need.

 

We have reached the extreme end of such senselessness

that nothing else is possible…

 

To be or not to be.

That is still and always the question.

 

*

* * *

* *  *  * *

* * *

*

 

Reflections on Language

 

*

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

What is important is to have beautiful things in your head.

 

The important thing is to sow our minds

with beautiful and fruitful ideas that bear hope and joy.

 

Deep down, that’s all that matters.

 

I believe, no, I know, that to face our destiny,

we must put beautiful ideas in our minds,

in all our heads and in all our hearts.

 

That is our only hope.

 

Failing to reseed the minds with beautiful ideas and great, worthy thoughts

is tantamount to persevering on the dark path of perdition,

or eventual extinction…

 

It is no longer a choice.

It is no longer a choice. It is a matter of survival.

 

I’m begging you.

 

A little bit every day.

 

A little more each time, as much as possible, as soon as possible.

 

*

A mystery

 

Who remembers

his or her first words, his or her first sentences?

 

What do we know about language?

 

Our first memories

do not go as far back as our first words,

our first spoken expressions.

 

Since the first forms of language have not been written anywhere,

since we have no record of them,

we cannot remember our first words.

 

This is true at the individual level,

This is true at the species level.

 

We don’t remember our first words…

 

We date the birth of language approximately 100,000 years ago.

 

100,000 years ago,

the human species began to speak.

 

Even though we have no memory of it,

there is consensus on this date:

 

About 100,000 years ago, language was born.

 

That’s a long time ago.

 

A time immemorial.

 

Immemorial…

 

The meaning is most literal.

 

Immemorial and yet insignificant.

 

The paradox of time is not the only mystery.

The only enigma is not only physical and metaphysical,

the paradox of time is not only mathematical, besides being real and universal,

the mystery is spiritual and psychological, innermost and emotional.

 

How long did it take

for the complex and multiple, metaphorical and abstract forms of language

that we know today to form from a primitive protolanguage,

made up of simple gestures, grunts, groans, cries and moans?

 

Our language reveals what we are.

 

In this sense,

language defines what I am, what we are.

 

And yet,

language remains a mystery.

 

Regardless of the specific tongue,

language defines.

 

It is its nature, its very definition.

 

Because language defines,

language defines who I am

and how I express myself to others.

 

Language both reveals and defines who we all are:

 

It defines

what is most inner, most essential, most relational and most universal.

 

Language both reveals and defines who I am.

Language reveals and defines what you all are.

 

Such is its power.

 

From this point of view,

the power of language is infinite.

 

And yet,

language, like infinity, remains a mystery

whose most essential secrets we have not yet been able to unravel.

 

How then can we know that whose origin we have lost the traces of

and yet is undoubtedly what makes us human?

 

Language is a jigsaw puzzle full of mysteries

whose forms and contours are constantly changing

to adapt to the forms that we want, or that we can give them,

to adapt to society as well as to the individual

in their consciousness and their ignorance,

in their aspirations and their limits,

in their concepts and their specificities,

a giant jigsaw puzzle that takes on the shape that we want to give it

and that can adapt to our thoughts and feelings

if we make a little effort to do so.

 

The gift of speech is a treasure.

 

What it has to teach us is virtually infinite.

 

*

The word is creative

 

“In the beginning was the Word”

 

What a beautiful and magical phrase.

 

Speaking is an act of creation.

Speaking is creating.

 

The act of speaking necessarily implies an act of creation.

 

The act of speaking cannot be done without inspiration.

 

It is unique to each and every one of us.

 

For inspiration necessarily depends on who we are.

 

No one can be inspired by anything but himself or herself.

 

The act of speaking belongs to everyone and to no one.

 

The implications are gigantic.

 

First of all,

this human ability to speak is by nature accessible to everyone.

 

Whatever our mastery of language,

we have mastery of at least our mother tongue.

 

Language is universal.

 

In one form or another,

the gift of speech is the essence of being human.

 

*

Language:

Democratic expression at its peak

 

Language is therefore inherently humanistic and democratic

par excellence and by definition.

 

At the political level, especially at the political level,

the gift of speech is a key.

 

If speaking is both expressing one’s unique singularity

and at the same time having to adapt

to common grammatical, syntactic and semantic rules

in order to be understood,

then in an unconscious and innate way,

 language structures both beings and society.

 

Language is therefore the expression of our uniqueness,

of our specific subjectivity inscribed within the framework

of common and collective grammatical, syntactical and vocabulary rules

defined by the group and each person at the same time.

 

The linguist and the grammarian observe and describe them,

but in no way dictate them.

 

No one decides the rules of language.

 

They get set of their own accord according to common usage.

 

In this sense,

human language is the perfect example of the triumphant Democracy.

 

The word accomplishes among men

the miracle of marrying individual freedom

and rule-and-code-structured society.

 

Therefore, in the most natural way in the world,

language has achieved that feat of strength

that we are told is utopian in politics.

 

Made up of rules accepted and decided upon by everyone,

guaranteeing the individual expression of everyone,

language is the psychosociolinguistic proof that human beings

are by nature democratic beings.

 

All the more so as without dialogue or exchange, without writing or reading,

there is no solution, no progress, no advance

in any political, scientific, social or technological field whatsoever.

 

Without dialogue and exchange,

no progress is possible.

 

Without dialogue and exchange,

no democracy is possible.

 

Without dialogue and exchange,

no liberation is possible.

 

The word is liberating,

the word is saving.

 

Language thus embodies the most successful democratic and libertarian body politic

that already exists on earth.

 

Speech is therefore eminently political.

 

That is precisely why people who speak out too much

are thrown into dungeons in dictatorial regimes.

 

*

The Language of Truth

is Saving and Liberating

 

No system based on lies can be stable

and is sooner or later bound to collapse.

 

I can shout and deny with all my might

that the wall right in front doesn’t exist,

if I don’t turn around, I’m going to get the truth right in my face.

 

What is is.

 

All the lies in the world

will never be enough to make what is not be.

 

That’s impossible.

 

All the lies in the world won’t be enough to make what is not be.

 

The most compulsive of liars

are ready, unfortunately, to ransack the world

to save their own, a world they have built on lies,

a psychotic, narcissistic, blind, inconstant, aggressive, manipulative, toxic and stupid world,

a world built on lies and therefore doomed to hit the wall of reality.

 

As inevitable as the sun will one day disappear,

sooner or later the wall of reality shall arise.

 

As inevitable as billions of suns

are still destined to rise out of the darkness in the entire universe,

the moment of truth has come.

 

*

The word edifies

 

As a species,

we build ourselves the way we tell ourselves

we must build ourselves.

 

As a species,

the word, the exchange through the word

is the indispensable prerequisite for any action or common work.

 

Since communication

is the obligatory, inevitable, unavoidable prerequisite of any common project,

then it is irremediably impossible for a community, a society, a civilization

to build anything without using words and a language of truth.

 

Without truth, nothing holds.

 

I can convince myself

that I can build a house of cards with soap bubbles,

that I can save humanity by massacring it,

that I can save the world by burning and polluting it,

I can convince myself as much as I want, it will never be possible.

Never, ever.

 

Without truth,

sooner or later, all systems collapse.

 

No life, no freedom, no progress is possible

without truth.

 

Likewise,

no genuine inspiration is possible without real and awakened freedom.

 

Because it reveals what is,

the word of truth is a light.

 

In this sense,

the word is sacred.

 

In speaking as much as in listening,

let us understand it, let us respect it, let us teach it.

 

It is light.

It is all that is.

 

In this sense,

it is divine.

 

Speaking is not only living,

it is also bringing life.

 

Speaking is existing.

 

Speaking is creating.

 

Creating is existing.

 

Creation is necessarily divine and sublime.

 

*

Universel Art

 

Talking is an art

that we all have been gifted with*.

 

* Except for a few rare human beings.

 

Autistic people in particular are artists and can create

in music, painting, sculpture etc.

often great and beautiful things.

 

Why they are so often more brilliant

than the average person is another question.

 

Probably because cut off from the world, they are free?

The fact is that almost all people with language deficiencies

know how to find a way to express and define themselves through art,

in a language that is their own

that we sometimes misunderstand, that sometimes stirs us,

that touches us, that moves us inside

without always understanding why.

 

We don’t realize how special a gift language is,

and yet it is universal.

 

Human beings are programmed to speak, programmed to express themselves

so that our being and our subjectivity, our singularity,

our freedom, our creativity

 can be communicated.

 

If there is a creator,

this is what he wants, undeniably.

 

Since for as long as we can remember,

almost from birth to death, having always lived with it,

we cannot realize to what extent language is undoubtedly a ‘divine’ gift,

a skill that can make us realize

that we are all alike and unique at the same time.

 

Our every utterance is an act of creation

that reflects our self

and the subjectivity inherent in our being and our humanity.

 

The very fact that we do not remember our first words,

neither at the level of the human species nor at the level of the person

is the best proof that we lack distance from this gift,

that we still do not realize how powerful a gift the word is,

how its power is both great and terrible

depending on the use we make of it.

 

We do not yet realize that the gift of the word is a grace

that both connects and differentiates us all,

especially in the age of the Internet and globalization.

 

Speaking is an act of creation.

The act of speaking is the act of creation par excellence.

 

“In the beginning was the word.”

 

Verily,

not only in the beginning,

but also at all times, at any time,

everything is language…

 

To understand the act of speech in oneself, in others, and within the species,

is the way not only to learn to read and hear

the past, the present and even the future,

it is also the way to grasp altruism, infinity and therefore divine grace.

 

The gift of creation is a gift from the gods,

from all the gods and goddesses of the world.

 

As God is both free and creator,

and conversely, as there is no creator who is not free,

in order to create, one must be free.

 

Actually

we are all poets, but we do not know it.

 

Who am I?

Who are we?

 

Speaking is an art that we all practice…

 

We are all potential poets.

The only thing is, most of us don’t know it.

 

Speaking, or writing, expressing oneself

not to stir up hatred and war

but to explore and understand our world, to inspire beauty

is giving oneself the chance

to assert oneself, to create, to build and to find balance.

 

The gift of speech is a magnificent gift,

all the more wonderful because,

notwithstanding a few rare and unfortunate exceptions,

we are all gifted with it.

 

We must open our eyes to what the gods and goddesses offer us,

what they actually have always offered us,

and what we have never been able to see:

harmony.

 

Harmony,

a term generally applied to music and poetry

applied here to politics and society.

 

If creativity and freedom are divine characteristics in and of themselves,

then recognizing, through language, that our intrinsic creativity

is at the same time common and unique to all of us

will make us acknowledge that the respect for other people’s freedom

is the precondition for the respect for my own freedom.

 

This will be a giant leap in the right direction.

 

Since we are all gifted with the gift of speech,

then we are all intrinsically, and therefore potentially free, tolerant and connected.

 

Indeed,

unless it serves to silence and oppress others,

speaking sets us free.

 

This is popular wisdom.

 

For some to deplore it and even worry about it

is distressingly significant of how blind they are.

 

To this day, unhappily,

from the petty ruler to the most bloodthirsty tyrant,

the rich and powerful

seek by all possible and imaginable means,

even the most horrible and inhuman ones,

to stifle any voice deemed dangerous and dissenting

when it is simply the expression of a being, a society, an epoch, a temporary era

inscribed within the history and evolution of the species.

 

It is therefore even more terrible

that so many fundamentalists and terrorists

from all kinds of dogmas, from all sectarian and tyrannical groups

use and abuse lies or violence as their only language.

 

*

Like God,

language is universal.

 

Like Earth, water, fire and air, forests, oceans, mountains, plains, valleys, rivers,

language belongs to everyone and no one at the same time.

 

With very few exceptions,

we are all gifted with the gift of speech,

and therefore the gift of creation.

 

Speaking is creating.

 

That is the miracle.

 

If, in an act of creation,

a God or a Divinity created us,

He or She has given us, has offered each and every one of us

the gift of creation…

 

Whether we like it or not, whether we want it or not,

He or She made us in His or Her image:

Whether we like it or not, whether we know it or not,

we are all creators.

 

Not only has the Divinity made us in His or Her image of creator,

but moreover, since speech is the expression of oneself,

since speech can only be the expression of oneself,

therefore, the Divinity is necessarily in favor of freedom of conscience and speech,

in favor of dialogue and communication, of harmony and understanding.

 

The word is all that unites us to one another.

 

Of signs or hearts,

the word is all that unites us.

 

Thus,

speech is intrinsically democratic.

 

It is the bond, the divine bond,

a divine offering.

 

How could this be denied?

 

This is the link that unites each and every one of us.

 

Can you understand the scope of the Word?

 

Can you see its magnitude?

 

Can you measure how far it reaches?

 

How far-reaching each and every one’s word is?

 

*

The word is a revelation

Learning to master language is revealing oneself.

 

In addition to revealing oneself to oneself,

it is revealing oneself to others.

 

And conversely,

if learning to master language

means giving oneself the means to reveal oneself,

revealing oneself to oneself means mastering language.

 

Mastering language is a gift from heaven.

 

Indeed,

language does not only reveal what we are,

language reveals everything that exists.

 

Language is the reflection of what we are.

 

To master language is to master oneself.

 

To master language is to rise

to the rank of queens and kings.

 

*

The language of death,

the death of language.

 

It is a great sadness for us

that nowadays lies, violence and war become the one and only language,

the language of politics and tyranny, of ignorance and stupidity,

of cowardice and despair, of greed and indifference, of imbalance and insanity…

 

The language of hate is a language of death.

 

The language of hate and death

is the hate and death not only of language

but also of humanity,

and vice versa.

 

Hate and death of both humanity and the divinity.

 

Lies, hate and violence

are always distressing and laughable symptoms

of the ignorance and stupidity of all those who utter them.

 

Delusional narcissism and thirst for power and money are not enough.

 

They are so confused about what to say

that they can only resort to lies and violence.

 

Faced with what they do not understand, faced with intelligence,

stupidity coupled with greed and vanity always resort to lies and/or violence

as the only means of expression and self-assertion.

 

Violence always is the ‘trigger-happy’ weapon

of the pretentious ignorant, of malignant narcissists

who do not know, who cannot question their opinion, their positions.

 

Extremely arrogant and greedy by nature,

they cannot admit to being wrong.

 

Concretely,

having built their lives on predation, arrogance, pride, injustice, lies,

their standard of living and subsistence depend on it.

 

Spiritually,

they identify so much with their opinions

that they believe changing them is an admission of unbearable weakness,

a humiliation from which they will never recover.

 

*

Truth is light.

 

No more and no less.

 

Truth is Light.

 

This light must shine on the world.

 

Ignorance is a prison.

Truth is liberation.

 

The word of truth is a condition

for the triumph of wisdom, harmony and freedom.

 

*

“The truth will set you free.”

 

Like any other illusion,

a lie collapses when we see it and recognize it as such.

 

As soon as I know that what I see before me in the dark

dancing in a play of light and shadow is not a ghost or a wraith,

but a shrub swinging in the wind,

then I know.

 

There is no turning back.

I know.

 

Because I know, I am no longer afraid.

I don’t think about it anymore, all apprehension is gone,

I am freed from my illusion.

 

When illusions and especially lies disappear,

the majesty of the world and of being is finally revealed.

 

Freedom is truth as much as truth is freedom.

 

The truth is the source of all light.

The truth is the sun of the mind.

 

*

The Tree of Knowledge.

 

At the center of the Garden of Eden

sits the Tree of Knowledge.

 

Divine Garden,

the Garden of Eden is necessarily bathed in light.

 

Perhaps we do not understand the scope and meaning of the Scriptures.

 

Because humans would have tasted the Tree of Knowledge,

they would be lost, damned and expelled from the Garden of Eden?

On the contrary.

 

Knowledge liberates.

Knowledge enriches.

Knowledge elevates.

 

Knowledge is power.

 

Knowledge is the Garden.

 

Eve was right.

The serpent never wanted to deceive us.

No doubt it wanted to deliver us from darkness.

 

Knowledge liberates, knowledge enriches, knowledge elevates.

 

Knowledge enlightens.

 

Knowledge is a sun within the Spirit.

 

Ignorance is a tomb

blacker than the ugliest dungeon,

scarier than the most haunted cave.

 

How not to seek Knowledge?

How not to seek the sun of the Spirit?

 

If God exists, God is the Spirit.

 

The Spirit of God is necessarily Light.

 

If God is God,

God wants us to find the Garden of Eden again.

 

In the Garden of Eden stands the Tree of Knowledge.

 

To go to the Garden of Eden

is to go to the Kingdom of God.

 

We must finally find it again

to taste its fruits and bathe in its light.

 

Such is the divine will.

 

*

The Gates of Paradise

 

If knowledge always frees us from evil and suffering,

ignorance always and forever locks us up in violence and suffering.

 

Ignorance is to hell

what knowledge is to heaven.

 

The boundary between hell and paradise

is the boundary between ignorance and knowledge.

 

Ignorance is the darkness of soul and consciousness.

 

In the darkness one is afraid, one is lost.

In the dark, we lie in despair.

 

In the light,

everything is revealed and we come into the world.

 

Knowledge is the light of consciousness.

It is the light of the Spirit.

 

Knowledge is the light of paradise.

 

A light with an infinite range of tones, hues, colors, gleams

and spatiotemporal features.

 

*

Our only Garden of Eden is planet Earth.

 

*

* * *

* *  *  * *

* * *

*

 

Science and Conscience.

 

*

Science is great insofar as consciousness is great.

 

*

Artificial Intelligence

 

For all humankind, for all humans,

the higher the slope one climbs, the greater the mountain one climbs,

the deeper the precipice, the greater the pit.

 

Thus,

the greater the danger,

the more conscious and aware one must be.

 

There is no doubt that all progress is an asset, a force

as much as a precipice, a danger, a potential curse.

 

This was the case

with the mastery and knowledge of the nuclear dimension of matter,

it will be the case with artificial intelligence and robotics that goes with it.

 

*

All-powerfulness

 

Have you ever felt invincible behind the wheel of your vehicle?

 

Have you ever felt that sense of superiority

that comes from simply being behind the wheel

of our protective and powerful rolling steel box?

 

At least once,

vis-à-vis people who walk around on foot,

without steel armour, exposed, vulnerable, human, fragile, mortal,

or another driver of a moving steel box,

have you ever felt this sense of all-powerfulness?

 

If this has happened to all of us at least once in our lives,

the fact that just a rolling steel box

could inspire such power, such a sense of superiority,

then imagine what artificial intelligence could give the person or persons owning and controlling it.

 

We already know that artificial intelligence will eventually be so great

that humans will be overpowered.

 

Without consciousness and improperly used,

the dangers of such new powers are humongous.

 

*

Frankenstein’s monster?

 

Will intelligence without conscience

be the Frankenstein of humanity?

 

Without consciousness,

nothing human can live.

 

Without consciousness,

nothing human can survive.

 

Without consciousness,

intelligence is useless.

 

Without consciousness,

intelligence always turns against its creator.

 

If this were not true,

then we would have exterminated ourselves long ago.

 

For nearly 70 years,

humanity has had the power to self-exterminate itself.

 

And yet, it has not done so.

 

To this day,

humanity has not used nuclear weapons to start a war

whose outcome is too obvious not to impose itself on the conscience

as the inevitable and disastrous consequence

of unprecedented madness and irresponsibility.

 

This is undoubtedly proof that humanity is aware

of the danger posed by nuclear weapons.

 

Only consciousness can turn science and intelligence

into blessings and not curses.

 

Consciousness

is the salvation of intelligence.

 

Without it,

intelligence always turns against its creator.

 

Will artificial intelligence be humankind’s Frankenstein?

 

Will the intelligence we create find a reason,

however unimaginable, unpredictable or improbable it may be,

to turn against us, humanity, who are its creator?

 

Frankenstein’s creature had human feelings.

 

Even so,

it turned against its creator.

 

It found in the inconsistencies, in the very human imperfections of its creator

enough reasons to turn against him.

 

Human or not,

with artificial intelligence,

are we going to give birth to monsters against Humanity?

 

*

Sciences, powers and freedoms.

Robotization and dehumanization.

 

In a more and more total, tyrannical and worrying way,

technologies with totally historical, unprecedented totalitarian potential

of immense, unpredictable, repressive, alienating,

enslaving, dehumanizing, nightmarish and bloody consequences,

are multiplying exponentially.

 

Robotics, nanotechnology, neuroscience, genetics and computer science,

will they be used to control minds and masses?

 

Simply imagine the multiplied power of the rich and powerful

who already dominate the world with an iron fist.

 

Are the fruits of a technological convergence

reaped at great cost, no doubt subsidized by the peoples themselves,

going to be, or are they already being used

to subdue peoples and humanity,

to make us all outcasts and slaves?

 

In my youth,

I had such a horrible nightmare that I was afraid to go to sleep at night.

 

A nightmare so terrible that I woke up in a sweat,

and never wanted to go back to sleep again.

 

Never until today

have I been able to perceive its full and deep multifaceted meanings and ramifications.

 

Today,

I realize that this dream was a warning.

 

A warning of what was to come.

 

Of what we are rushing towards unprepared

if we do not try with all our might,

blind and damned that we are,

to change direction.

 

A total nightmare

where the inhuman materializes,

where what is monstrous takes on the appearance of humanity and perfection,

where inhumanity takes on the appearance of humanity,

and humanity takes on the appearance of inhumanity.

 

Very quickly now, if we persist in this terrible direction,

the inhuman will take human form to better deceive us

by interfering in our innermost intimacy,

even in our body and our cells, in our brain itself,

to better enslave us, control us and/or frighten us, persecute and torture us.

 

Robots will take human form

and humans will dehumanize themselves.

 

There is nothing more serious than that.

 

I say unto you,

since the rule of money which is called capitalism or neoliberalism

is already destroying rights and peoples, destroying life and the Earth,

science and technology are at high risk of being misused

to give birth to robotic monsters committed to serving tyranny,

be it political or economic.

 

My mind cannot imagine greater risks,

a darker and deeper pit, a more repugnant nightmare

into which humanity could sink and never return.

 

Stephen Hawking himself*,

one of the greatest astrophysicists of all times,

who, suffering from a motor neuron disease

(MND; also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease)

needed a computer to translate his thoughts from his microfacial expressions,

along with dozens of other experts on technology and artificial intelligence

warns us about the pitfalls and immense dangers of artificial intelligence.**

 

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking#Future_of_humanity

** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_on_Artificial_Intelligence

 

*

Science fiction?

 

Imagine in 2, 5, 10, 15 or 20 years

meeting someone and wondering:

 

Is the person in front of me human?

 

Who is a robot?

Who has been lobotomized?

Who has a chip, an electronic one, in their head?

 

What can I do

so that no one will ever take possession of my brain, actions and thoughts

so that I will not be persecuted, terrorized, tortured or lobotomized?

 

Is my spouse herself or himself?

What about my parents, my children?

 

Who can I still trust?

 

When we know that whoever has control over these technologies

can take possession of our mind and make us lose our soul,

what trust will then remain between human beings?

 

An icy, unforgiving world,

absolute loneliness, total emotional emptiness.

 

In a few years, or a few short decades,

this will probably be science fiction no longer.

 

Already,

it is a reality that is slowly making its way into the world.

 

Absurd and silly irony of history:

 

On the one hand,

the combined sciences of neurology, computer science, robotics and artificial intelligence

have created robots that can make autonomous decisions,

until soon they will go far beyond the limits of human beings.

 

On the other hand,

we dehumanize humanity in order to enslave it,

to control its mind, to take possession of its body

and its thoughts, its identity and its humanity.

 

The most nightmarish horror movies

are nothing compared to what these robots could do to us

if they were made to serve injustice and tyranny.

 

What we risk is atrocious and unprecedented.

 

No writer, no filmmaker has ever imagined worse.

 

It is the taking over of body and mind, of thought, of soul, of identity,

the dispossession of our inner self, of our heart, of our soul, of our mind.

 

It is the perpetual caging of this very thing that makes us who we are,

our sensibility, our sentience, our creativity, our consciousness,

our humanity.

 

It is the inhuman reality, the most monstrous inhumanity

against which nothing and no one will be able to resist…

 

Never again will the police and the army, robotized,

be able to turn against those who control them.

 

The tyrants’ perfect weapon.

 

When all notions of trust have disappeared from the face of the Earth,

where will we be able to take shelter?

 

In the light of what is already happening now,

what will then be the place of the human,

of tenderness, of compassion, of trust, love, friendship and affection

in the face of such immense power of repression, oppression and destruction,

in the face of total and totalitarian technological power

held by an ultra-minority but ultra-powerful elite?

 

What will become

of love and bliss?

 

What will become

of the joy of meeting, sharing, being together?

 

What will become

of the incredible feeling of sharing the same humanity,

fragile and brilliant all at once?

 

What will become

of the certainty of no longer having ‘un jardin secret’,

an inner world of your own, or a private life?

 

What will become

of the wonderful emotional and spiritual bond between beings?

 

What will become

of the certainty to be free?

 

What will become

of the certainty of not having a chip in the head?

 

Can there ever come a day

when the power of control and repression of humans over humans

becomes such that only a moment of freedom

would be made totally and irremediably impossible?

 

Could freedom of thought, freedom of consciousness

ever be declared illegal?

 

Could the very spirit of freedom itself

be condemned to disappear

and never be born again?

 

*

Humans, humanoids

 

The era of humanoid robots is fast approaching.

 

Already robots walk like humans, they run like big cats,

they have the strength of several men,

they can climb vertical surfaces, fly, carry weapons…

 

More and more agile and powerful robots,

much more powerful than simple human beings.

 

Imagine the power that such an army

could give to the one, to those who control it.

 

Why do you think they’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars

to develop nanotechnology, robotics, neuroscience, computer science, genetics?

 

Don’t be naive anymore:

As illusory and counterproductive as it may be,

the oligarchy has the very resolute intention

of continuing to dominate and rule over the rest of humanity,

for all eternity.

 

When all these ultra-modern, ultra-sophisticated, ultra-powerful inventions of domination,

you have no idea, will be at the disposal of some tyranny,

then it will have the power to destroy

our ability to be genuine and to genuinely think

by aiming at our brain capacity, our neuronal connections

in order to control our thoughts, and thus our actions, our decisions

so that they can get us to continue maximizing their profits

by bleeding us as well as the planet

until the twilight of times, until robotization and total dehumanization,

until the great night of the mind…

 

The fight that is taking shape has been the same since the dawn of time,

now exacerbated and inescapable as never before:

 

It is humanity’s struggle against inhumanity.

 

Inhumanity and humanity are by no means abstract concepts.

 

Humanity is everything that makes us all who we are.

 

It is our foundation, our very definition.

 

Being human is all that we have in common.

 

Humanity is our own.

Humanity is our most precious wealth.

Humanity is our only true wealth.

 

The victory of life over death

depends on the outcome of the struggle of humanity against inhumanity.

 

In order to hope to heal ourselves

from our harmful, negative, destructive and counterproductive self-conditioning,

in order to hope to heal ourselves from inhumanity within ourselves,

we must become aware that the universal

both feeds on harmony

and nourishes it.

 

*

Robotized armed forces

 

Conversely,

imbalances always generate more chaos and risk.

 

Constantly designing and producing ever more weapons,

ever more sophisticated, ever more destructive, dehumanizing and terrifying weapons

is madness, a by-product of capitalism at all costs

where everything is good for profit,

even war and death.

 

Might these weapons, these robots fall into the hands of madmen, tyrants,

and you shall see.

 

No matter how hard you pray,

the robots will listen to no prayer.

 

To protect us from the technological horrors that await us,

two things are possible.

 

The first one is both the simplest to understand and the most effective one:

 

The harmonization of the world.

 

This is the purpose of this book:

 

People and nations find harmony

and no challenge will be impossible to meet.

 

No more need to manufacture weapons by the billions,

humanity is at peace with itself.

 

Without being incompatible with the first option,

the second one is regulation by legislation.

 

Its effectiveness will be proportional to the harmonization of the world.

 

Conversely,

it will be all the weaker the more the world is divided,

for a divided world is a world in which the arms race cannot be stopped.

 

In any case,

we will have to do everything we can to control it,

to restrict mass production to as low a level as we can

and to find means of control that can guarantee

the supremacy of Humans over the machine.

 

In an ideal world

where progress is not the enemy of humanity,

we would probably invent a universal, standardized switch

that every human being would be equipped with

in order to be able to turn off the machine when it goes completely wrong

or when its owner is a madman

who wants to harm his fellow human beings.

 

*

To be free

is to be free to choose.

 

In addition,

we should limit scientific research in certain fields and fields of application.

 

As soon as they are detrimental to the general interest,

all the more so when they benefit only the arms dealers and the armies

that add fuel to the fire

in tensions between nations and peoples around the world

in order to increase their revenues, or to establish the power of tyrants,

all scientific research is vain and even evil.

 

Thus,

any investment that is disproportionate

to the real, just, democratic and legitimate benefits

must be largely curbed, regulated, restrained, limited or even prohibited.

 

Aren’t the Western countries,

with the United States at their head,

doing everything in their power to ensure

that some countries can never acquire control of nuclear energy

for war purposes?

 

Is it not the same, throughout the world, regarding human cloning?

 

Moreover,

the privatization of warfare,

be it the production of weapons or the army,

should be prohibited, banished from the surface of the globe

as much as it is humanly possible to do so,

and remain within the sphere of the state

so as to allow for as democratic a control as possible.

 

Besides,

since a government that endangers its own people

is neither worthy nor legitimate to represent its people,

everything related to violence and war

should be an exclusive prerogative of the people.

 

Consequently,

all armies and arms industries should be controlled

by as fair and representative a democracy as possible.

 

Since division, confrontation or war

throw entire populations into deadly hell,

then war is to be avoided at all costs.

 

Whatever happens,

even when it cannot be avoided,

pacifist rhetoric must permeate all speeches.

 

“Peace, peace, peace and universal harmony are our supreme goals.”

 

Better still,

harmony is our only hope.

 

Spending hundreds of billions of dollars to kill is a total aberration.

A sure sign of our self-condemnation.

 

While we could use all

these immense financial, human, logistical, and astronomical resources

to understand and resolve

the deep root causes of all our existential problems, or almost,

through understanding and consciousness,

 we spend hundreds of billions of dollars

to limitlessly worsen the fundamental problems of human beings:

 

Inequalities, lies, manipulation, division, slavery, conflict, confrontation, the most extreme imbalances

on a large scale, at all levels, in all dimensions of human life.

 

For what purpose, for what goal?

 

The desire for power over others and greed?

 

While we could use all these inordinately immense resources

to analyze and solve most of the problems of our kind and species,

to find a cure for what makes our world all too often a hell,

we prefer to perpetuate the Curse.

 

Harmony is a purpose

if not divine, at least sacred in that it benefits everyone.

 

While the combined forces

of compassion and reason,

intelligence and beauty, love, consciousness and harmony

are necessarily positive,

like damned, blind and collectively immensely stupid fools,

we are heading straight for the precipice.

 

I can already hear the thunderous voices of those who have an interest

in defending their privileges for fear of losing them:

 

“Wisdom, consciousness, reason and compassion don’t make any money!″

 

Quite the contrary,

it is not because the future and wisdom escape our reassuring calculations

that wisdom and the best of what is possible have no added value.

 

Our survival is priceless.

 

Humanity’s greatest added value is itself.

 

We must urgently invest ourselves and our resources

in order to go in this direction,

before we are completely overwhelmed by our own creations,

before our resources are exhausted, before the climate is unleashed,

and before the Earth becomes a living hell.

 

If the end, the union of humanity, is at the same time the means,

then there is nothing easier and cheaper

than to embark on this path and reach the goal.

 

All it takes is to wish for it,

and work towards it to the best of our ability

with as much hope and tolerance for others as for oneself.

 

However scientific it may be,

no research is legitimate

when its goal is the control, exploitation, enslavement and/or destruction

of the great homeland of humanity and the world.

 

The truth is,

it is no longer even a question

of whether we have the power to stop fighting each other.

It is now a vital, existential, inexorable duty.

 

*

Mind control

 

The risks we are talking about today

are no longer just the crude destructive forces

that would allow us to burn the planet thousands and thousands of times over

or make it toxic to our own species…

 

By controlling brain activity, by interfering inside our mind and heart,

they can infect the heart of the being, of all beings.

 

The torture here is no longer only physical,

it is mental, spiritual, in a sense still quite unknown to our species:

 

The depersonalization of the being,

the dehumanization of man, woman and all beings.

 

The rehumanization of humanity must begin

or we will all live a crazy, dreadful nightmare.

 

Imagine the insanity.

 

An ultra-performing robot, like an iron Hulk

that can be controlled remotely like in a video game.

 

The lust for power increased to infinity …

 

They will, they already advertise robots.

 

Are we, the peoples of the world, we, humanity,

going to let ourselves be tempted and conditioned,

conditioned into believing that they will be good for us,

that they will be useful to us,

and that it will be useful to us that they take our jobs from us

in a world where the unemployed are left behind?

 

Moreover,

some of these ‘intelligent’ machines

bought to do our cooking or housework for us

will be, already are in our own home and of course, for our well-being of course,

connected to the Internet.

 

If indeed the NSA and all the secret services of every country

that can afford to do so

are already spying on us via the Internet,

then will our robots ever be programmed to stop us

as soon as we step off the beaten path

of the single-mindedness of the rule of money

or any other form of tyranny in office?

 

Some say:

If you have nothing to blame yourself for,

then you have nothing to hide.

 

How appallingly naive.

When a country’s regime becomes totalitarian,

then we cannot be blameless,

no one is blameless.

 

The supreme crime

is having opinions that are not aligned with those of the regime.

 

Look at what happens in any autocratic country, e.g. in China,

where it is notorious that the authorities use the Internet

to control and ‘push out’ ‘citizens’ who are inconvenient to the authorities.

 

This is not science fiction,

not any longer.

 

Will we willingly let spies in the service of the rich and powerful

infiltrate our own homes?

 

*

Live connection

 

We hear about getting the Internet into our heads.

 

The theft of personal data

will be nothing compared to what could be stolen

with an Internet connection in the brain,

that goes without saying.

 

What’s more,

how many human beings are really masters of themselves?

 

How many human beings really understand

and control their own impulses, their own fantasies, their own thoughts?

 

Having access to all human knowledge,

to everything that happens on the Net,

to all the resources it contains,

 to all the distractions in real time directly in the brain

is by no means the way to make a human being more intelligent.

 

At best,

we will make him more cultured.

Or will we?

 

If being intelligent means being able to discern,

with the internet in your head,

your mind will be totally cluttered, non-stop,

to the point of losing it completely.

 

How then to distinguish between true and false?

 

How to distinguish between the ‘thinking’ of the Internet and our own?

 

How to have any discernment at all?

 

Who are you?

Who are you not?

 

Whom do all the thoughts that are coming across your mind

belong to?

 

Are they yours?

Your parents’? Your spouse’s? Your teachers’? Friends’? Society’s? Your religion’s?

 

In the age of the Internet

where humanity has access to virtually all the knowledge of all humanity acquired since the dawn of time,

we often chose to put stupid and incompetent people, tyrants in power.

 

The most erroneous and misleading theories are innumerable.

Hatred and rage are constantly pouring in.

 

Are these signs of intelligence and wisdom?

 

Already, humans are addicted to their cell phones.

 

One day we will probably try it,

but before we do, let’s gather an army of psychologists:

 

the first one who will be connected to the Internet from his or her own brain

will undoubtedly have great difficulty not to sink into madness.

 

Put yourself in his or her mind.

Twitter twiterring away in your head…

 

The only solution in such a situation

will once again lie in the greatest and most conscious wisdom:

Stay offline most of the time and get online only when it is necessary.

 

We are told about the sovereignty of nations,

but with the Internet in our minds, besides the question of mental health,

the question of the sovereignty of human beings over themselves

obviously arises as well.

 

It is in your head

that not only the NSA but also all the other population control organizations

will be.

 

*

Ready-for-the-job machine

 

It is already forecast that 60% of today’s jobs

will be done by robots in the next two, three decades.

 

We are also assured that new jobs will be created instead.

 

But how many new jobs will be created?

And how long will humanity need to adapt?

 

Moreover,

in the long run, robots will take care of themselves.

Robots will create and repair robots.

 

In an ultra-capitalist society dominated by money,

what will happen to those hundreds of millions of jobless human beings?

What will they be left with?

 

The 1% will no longer need the 99% for production

neither of basic nor luxury goods,

so they will be able to do without us.

 

Do you really think they will share with us?

 

How in such a situation could we avoid a mass uprising?

 

And if this should be the future,

then inevitably the outcome of this confrontation

will be either the marginalization or even extermination of the mass, of the 99%,

or the victory of humanity over insanity, greed and vanity.

 

The ultimate irony,

which we no longer know if we should laugh at or cry about

because it would be the height of absurdity and childish vanity,

would of course be the victory of the super-rich oligarchs armed with their robots

over the rest of humanity:

 

In a world plagued by pollution, extinction of species and repeated climatic cataclysms

brought on by their follies of grandeur and lust for power

brought to an absolutely extreme, absurd and terrible height,

whether the 1% tear each other apart and exterminate themselves

or whether they self-robotize to the point of wanting to become junk superheroes,

in the name of an illusory and childish so-called trans-humanism,

in any case, the robots, which they themselves will have wanted,

will surpass them in strength and intelligence by far.

 

Humans who will become robots

will have sounded the death knell for humanity.

 

It is high time to unite for harmony.

 

To those of you

who have had the patience and intelligence to read this humble text,

we beg you:

spread the word.

 

Make yourself the voice of reason and harmony

among peoples and among beings,

make yourself the voice of all that is precious on earth.

 

It will soon be too late.

 

Become the last heroes and heroines

of Humanity, Love and History.

 

There are not two humanities.

 

Divided,

humanity is heading straight to hell.

 

United,

humanity opens up the gates of paradise.

 

The one and only invincible force

capable of facing the unbridled powers of domination and destruction

that humanity has acquired over itself

is the union of nations, world harmonization and pacification.

 

Will science and technology serve to liberate humanity,

a humanity that has heard the voice of universal wisdom and harmony,

or will they serve to tyrannize it, to turn the world into a huge prison

and exacerbate the curse of a divided humanity in perpetual conflict?

 

To be or not to be

remains as always the question.

 

*

Manufacturing defect.

 

Moreover,

and even more so in these times of deflationary low-cost economy,

even the so-called high-tech items we buy

have malfunctions, break down, bug, fall victim to computer viruses or whatever.

 

Without even mentioning planned obsolescence,

every technology has flaws,

and no matter how sophisticated,

no machine is immune to serious malfunctions.

 

Moreover,

any machine inevitably inherits the subjectivity,

 even the irrationality of its creators,

that no mathematics or so-called exact science

can exempt or liberate from.

 

Yet,

all the opponents

 of a humane, humanist and spiritual vision of the world and of humanity,

all the supporters

of robotics and robotization of productive and security forces,

and even of the robotization of themselves and of humanity

will tell you that robotics and artificial intelligence

is the assurance of the greatest possible objectivity,

the greatest possible rationality

in a human world that is, according to them, too subjective and irrational.

 

However,

let’s not be naive,

any intellectual approach,

as scientific as it may be or be believed to be,

is by nature subjective and carries within itself something irrational.

 

The gigantic problems and titanic challenges facing humanity today,

results of more than two centuries of so-called scientific objectivity,

are the indisputable proof of the limits of this perception of reality.

 

No science can claim to be truly exact,

no calculation, no measure, no figure, no statistic or mathematics

can lead us to perfect rationality and even less to wisdom,

especially when consciousness and humanity are left aside

and do not enter any equation.

 

The only thing we can be sure of

is that everything that comes from ourselves

mirrors something of ourselves.

 

In other words,

there is always something profoundly human

in whatever we do, analyze, or project.

 

As ‘intelligent’ as they will be,

even robots will carry within themselves the irrationality and madness

that make us what we are today,

shaped as we are by our psycho-socio-historical conditionings

which we are not aware of

and which will therefore inevitably, inexorably be passed on to them.

 

It would be very unconscious and naive to think the opposite.

 

Thus,

robots, however robotic they may be, will always carry,

until the last generation,

something of the irrationality that makes us what we are today,

of the subjectivity that is inherent to us.

 

Once again,

denying this would be as much an admission of weakness and unconsciousness

as a sign of our future self-destruction.

 

Yet

it is almost paradoxically within this intrinsically human subjectivity

that, contrary to popular belief,

our salvation lies.

 

Consciousness, feeling, fondness, generosity, love, the need to be loved,

in a word, humanity is the essence of being.

 

*

A firearm in a three-year-old’s hands

 

As beautiful as our most beautiful hopes,

the world bears within itself the best of what is possible,

which is far more realistic and virtuous

than the ultra-rapacious, ultra-predatory capitalist madness.

 

We will be wise

or the era of robotics will destroy us.

 

It will destroy us either

because we will destroy ourselves

or because we will lose our souls and our humanity.

 

In order to deal with the immense powers of technology,

we must be wise.

 

It is not as if we still had a choice:

 

The use of robots for military purposes

 and the possession of robots by armed forces

must be banned throughout the world.

 

Only a peaceful Earth, united and in harmony

in the understanding of the immense interests

that such an awareness would induce

can make this evolutionary leap.

 

The circumstances of today’s world are such,

the balance of power, wealth and strength are so unequal and unbalanced,

humanity is so divided, men and nations are so competitive

that totalitarian domineering madness

 is tightening its grip on the world and minds.

 

Tyrants,

having at their disposal the means and the knowledge

 to get these new terrible weapons,

will treat themselves to them

and use them to establish their power

over any form of real, potential or imaginary opposition,

in other words, over everything and everyone.

 

We must rise up against this looming future of terror

where the human being in front of the machine

is nothing more than a defenseless prey

in front of a machine soldier who believes himself to be invincible,

or a soldier machine, without heart or soul,

endowed with unimaginable strength.

 

Drones can already be remotely piloted warplanes.

 

Monitoring, threatening, holding hostages, killing from a distance,

for revenge, for fun, to subdue and dominate, like in a video game,

becomes easy, almost playful.

 

Military robotics and the large-scale production of robots

make us run terrible risks that we don’t need.

 

If, by taking swift action,

we will undoubtedly be able to face climate change

thanks to a systemic economic, financial, monetary and ideological metamorphosis,

we will not be able to face all our systemic problems

if we add to these the horror of a humanity caught up in a race

for ultra-sophisticated, destructive, spying or informer robotic weapons

devoid of any trace of humanity,

with nation-states not only at war with each other,

but also against their own peoples, their own citizens.

 

A robot soldier, or a soldier robot,

is a potential monster.

 

To produce millions of them

is to produce millions of potential monsters.

 

A total nightmare.

Humanity’s nightmare.

 

Because the party that benefits

from a completely unbalanced balance of power in its favor

very often takes advantage of it to crush the other,

and because it will be all the more likely to take advantage of it

the more the current system

is guided by ultra-competition, inequality and excessive greed,

this scenario is all the more likely to happen in this nightmarish way.

 

Already in Japan,

museums are using humanoid robots as cultural guides.

 

Through a robotic, fixed, repetitive reading of art and culture,

their role is to show tourists around.

 

This will have the effect of considerably reducing personnel costs

since, of course, a robot does not receive any remuneration.

 

As things stand,

with the productivity gains earned by technological advances,

will hundreds of millions or even billions of people

be thrown into unemployment and misery?

 

What good is progress when all it does is exacerbate inequalities

and intensify the process of enslaving the world to money and debt?

 

*

Robocop

 

To prevent armies of millions of misused robots

from ever becoming instruments of domination,

exploitation and lobotomization of people,

everything must be done

to stem the imminent possibility of mass production of robots,

to ban their commercialization for private use

outside of any intrinsically democratic and humanistic legal framework

and above all to prohibit any military and repressive use whatsoever.

 

Indeed,

what force of protest would remain for the people

if the state police forces were above all made up of robots?

 

What hope would remain

if it was no longer possible to change society?

 

At a time when a drastic and major change of direction is needed

to resolve the ecological, economic, financial and geopolitical crises,

what hope would remain

if the police had no scruples, no shred of humanity left

to shoot in a crowd in which, by definition,

there could no longer be any kinship, be it close or distant,

between a protester and a law enforcement robocop?

 

What exit from institutional injustice and slavery remains

when there is no more hope that the police

thanks to their bond with their own people

can ever open their eyes again to the abuses of tyranny

and thus choose the side of justice, stand with their fellow citizens

against greedy, bloodthirsty and incompetent tyrants.

 

What hope remains

when no more change is possible?

 

What hope remains

when no more transformation is possible?

 

What hope remains

when no more adaptation is possible?

 

What hope remains

when no more revolution is possible?

 

What hope remains

when no more freedom is possible?

 

What hope remains

when until the end of time,

the political-economic-social structure is bound to stay the same?

 

The Earth itself makes revolutions around the sun every year.

 

This is what gives us the seasons and thus the renewal of nature.

 

One year, the harvest is bad.

The following year, it is miraculous.

 

It is because it is in perpetual renewal

that the Earth bears within itself the hope of a better future.

 

Conversely,

what hope remains

when no renewal is possible?

 

What hope remains

when some have everything

and others have nothing?

 

Thus,

in addition to everything that has been said so far,

we must already prepare for the worst.

 

To defend humanity, to defend hope, to defend humans, to defend ourselves,

we must therefore urgently orient research

to produce detectors for robotic processors,

in order to provide these instruments of self-defense

to the greatest possible number of people,

to all the populations of the world

who will sooner or later legitimately need

to disable all these new infamous and evil weapons

by jamming them, disconnecting them, crashing them harmless.

 

*

Being human

 

The faculty to be moved by what is,

to marvel at life and its infinitely fertile complexity,

at once multidimensional, multiple, simple and subtle,

is the characteristic of being human.

 

To lose this quality, this talent, this gift,

and give way instead to greed and domination

by the robotization of society and of the human being

is to sacrifice humanity, to lose that which is most human in ourselves:

the consciousness of ourselves and the world.

 

The right to be is more than a human right.

 

Not only does it proceed from nature, the cosmos and the afterlife,

but it also reveals them.

 

The right to be is a sacred right.

 

More even than a divine right,

defending life and human life is a divine mission.

 

Will we equip ourselves with robots and machines of all kinds

to reinforce tyranny, injustice, slavery, war and inhumanity?

 

To kill what is human in ourselves is to kill what is divine.

 

This is the true message, the rallying cry of all prophets:

Siddhartha, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Ezekiel, Shiva …

 

To kill what is human in ourselves is to kill what is divine.

 

It is to kill all that is bright and divine in humans.

 

This world I’m talking about is very soon,

2030, maybe a little later, 2035, 2040, 2050, maybe a little sooner.

 

Presumably, in 10, 20, 30 years,

on the entire surface of the planet,

many of us will still be alive.

 

It is in this sense essential and of unparalleled urgency

to largely control robotics research and to stem,

before it is too late,

the production of robots on a large scale.

 

It must therefore be made illegal

to commercialize robots that can harm a human being

because then the one who would control them would have power,

leverage over everyone else, over you, over me, over anyone.

 

If from the moment humanity is united,

it has triumphed over the enemy,

then humanity must unite to stop the arms race.

 

A divided humanity is a necessarily fragile humanity.

 

The union of humanity alone is invincible.

 

The universal, humane and mutually supportive union

is the one and only way to avoid horror, the apocalypse,

to put an end to the arms race,

the commercialization of destruction, death, the ephemeral,

the institutionalization of division, conflict and warlike logic.

 

This is not a utopia.

 

This is the only logical continuation, the only future,

the one and only way to avoid the collapse of everything we are,

of everything that makes us human.

 

The union of humanity

is our one and only hope.

 

*

Fountain of youth

 

To avoid death,

regeneration is essential.

 

Regeneration

is the renewal of cells

as well as thoughts.

 

Without regeneration

everything withers, body and mind alike.

 

The regeneration of the species is its descendants.

 

Our immortality is our children.

 

Humanity’s fountain of youth is its children.

 

Some people pay billions to try to find immortality

and to have life and earth for themselves alone

and thus exclude all their contemporaries, their brothers, their sisters,

but also and above all all the children and descendants of all humanity,

even their own.

 

Not only are they spending considerable wealth

on a quest with very unlikely results,

but its consequences would be extremely dangerous and undesirable.

 

How can we believe

that the immortality of the elite of a money-loving civilization

can be such a good thing that we can entrust them

with our destinies and those of our descendants?

 

Not only is their ideology in action a disaster on the whole Earth,

but they should become immortal in order to remain in power forever,

until the end of time?

 

Would they want to steal everything, leave nothing,

neither the planet, nor the living, nor humanity, nor space, nor time?

 

Would they want through immortality to take possession of Time,

annihilate the future, reduce eternity to nothing?

 

Do you realize what this means?

 

Humanity’s fountain of youth is its children.

 

Immortality would mean condemning humanity

to never renew itself again, never reproduce itself again.

 

This perpetual non-renewal of the species, of its members,

would spell the certain death of humanity and of humans.

 

One day perhaps humans might live up to 150 years old on average.

And that will be good.

 

But to desire immortality is unparalleled madness.

Nothing can justify it.

 

Some say that we will be able to upload our minds

into computer databases.

 

If that were possible,

who would want to spend eternity on a chip,

no matter how ‘computerized’ and high-tech it would be?

 

Would you?

I wouldn’t, no matter what.

 

The wackiest ideas run rampant.

 

Rest assured,

the immortality of their terrible reign

will prove to be very short.

 

Under their yoke,

humanity will kill each other.

And the human race will die out and never return.

Humanity will never be again.

 

Look at the Earth,

its state.

 

Imagine if it were to be forever.

Such selfish madness could not last.

It is impossible.

 

To gain immortality,

humanity would lose all that is high, human, dignified and divine

because it would be inherently unjust, unequal and undemocratic.

 

Do some people want to make themselves gods on Earth

by investing so much in this kind of research?

 

Once again,

let us be reassured,

no one escapes his or her condition.

 

Except perhaps something superior to humans

and to this multidimensional and dynamic earthly and cosmic reality,

no one can triumph over time,

no one can defeat death.

 

The two most highly likely outcomes of such a possibility

would be either the outright extinction of the human species

or its robotization,

which would be inhumane either way.

 

Either way,

humans would no longer exist.

 

In such an eventuality,

in the infinitesimal probability that the immortality elixir would be discovered,

the only chance for humans to survive,

the only salvation of humanity would paradoxically be

to ban immortality.

 

Indeed,

if the human species were to gain access

to any form of immortality, or near immortality,

then what would happen between mortals and immortals?

 

Who would still have the right to have children?

 

And would those who would depart from the rule

of no longer having children be sentenced

to fines, to imprisonment, or, paradox of paradoxes, to death?

 

How many human beings would then live on the earth?

 

Who would have the right to live forever,

and who would be condemned to never live?

To never come into the world?

 

Discovering immortality or even near immortality

would inevitably trigger a war on earth

between those who could live forever and ever

and those who could never live.

 

It could not be otherwise.

 

In absolute terms,

the grace of experiencing the infinite and the eternal

is acquired through wisdom

and not through greed, the urge to dominate, tyranny, selfishness, narcissism

and the most delirious delusions of grandeur.

 

We all share the same planet,

not only through space but also through time.

 

One cannot achieve immortality as a mere human being

but one can feel eternity

throughout the whole species, as a member of the species,

in wisdom, sharing and solidarity,

through space and time.

 

Can you see this?

 

Could humanity, if it were wise, if it followed wisdom,

live another 100 million years? A billion?

 

It may not be eternity,

but at least it gives us a glimpse of it…

 

Wisdom and technology could likely help us

survive climate and geological changes.

 

If we stop fighting for everything like idiots

and choose wisdom, life and humanity,

500, 600, 1,000 million years is a lot and it is possible.

 

On the scale of the solar system,

it is possible.

 

Imagine humanity in 100,000 years

if today, or tomorrow, we finally became wise.

 

Then its lifespan could lengthen

until it finds a humble and enlightened duration,

in balance between renewal, youth, a fresh outlook, a spirit of innovation,

and old age, maturity, experience and wisdom.

 

Such is the species’ immortality.

Wisdom is its secret.

 

Wisdom is beneficial and universal.

Otherwise, it is not wisdom.

 

We are all humanity’s children.

 

Our immortality is our children

and the wisdom we must find and pass on

from human to human, from generation to generation.

 

All of us children of humanity,

that is how we all gain access to some form of immortality.

 

No other form of immortality has ever existed, exists and will ever exist.

 

Achieving immortality for the human species

in the sense meant by the ‘transhumanists’,

this kind of sect whose Grail is the elixir of immortality,

is almost certain extinction.

 

Why take such a risk?

 

The money and wealth of the planet and of humanity

must be dedicated to what saves,

and not to finance research

that not only has very little chance of succeeding before a very long time

but which would also put us at unspeakable and terrible risks

unprecedented in the history of the species.

 

The riches of the Earth and of Humanity

must be used to save humanity,

not to destroy it.

 

*

Wisdom and Progress

 

Science and technology can undoubtedly help us

during crises and disasters such as the coronavirus and Fukushima.

 

They can help us cure diseases and ease suffering,

Certainly…

 

But research must be focused

on what is most beneficial and least harmful to humanity.

 

Their applications must be very closely controlled

and their numbers reduced to their proper proportions

so that they do not create problems far more immense

than those they are supposed to solve.

 

Humans bear within themselves the seeds of the biggest problem:

 

Their primitive, prehistoric, original propensity

for war and collective self-destruction.

 

Because when it is too powerful, it is too tempting,

without consciousness, without wisdom, without balance,

technology is necessarily destructive.

 

Technology will not save humanity.

 

Wisdom will save humanity.

 

It is clear as bright is the sunlight.

 

The best that technology can do is help us.

 

There is no knowledge without wisdom.

There is no wisdom without knowledge.

 

Therefore,

if wisdom gives birth to knowledge,

then the purpose of all knowledge is wisdom.

 

Wisdom must therefore prevail and have the force of law

to guide all research and modern technological applications

towards what is most balanced and constructive for humanity.

 

The positive power of wisdom

is at least as infinitely great

as the power of technology is at its most destructive,

especially when combined with the lust for power in its extreme manifestations.

 

What differentiates these two states is not a calculation or a statistic.

 

It is a matter of life or death.

 

What separates us from these two bipolar and possible futures

is therefore an act of faith.

 

Faith in the future.

Faith in the universe and the universal.

Faith in the Earth.

Faith in ourselves.

Faith in harmony.

Faith in life.

 

Humanist wisdom is life.

 

Science without conscience

is self-destruction, self-inflicted genocide,

unhappiness and madness, suicide,

suffering and despair in forms and proportions

never experienced before in the entire,

yet atrocious and terrible history of a humanity

who, stuck at a lower stage of evolution,

is still fundamentally primitive.

 

The boundary between these two possible worlds

is the boundary between living and dying.

 

The distinction is crucial,

luminous and sublime,

or sombre and terrible.

 

No one can ignore it.

No one can escape from it.

 

Within a humanity at peace and in harmony,

technology will undoubtedly free us, in time, from work servitude.

 

In a divided humanity in perpetual conflict,

technology will enslave us like never before.

 

*

* * *

*

 

Anthem and hymns

to humanity, to the Earth, and to humans.

 

In order to awaken people’s awareness of universal wisdom,

special and priority attention must be given to education.

 

Composing and instituting a hymn or an anthem

would be another form of education,

admittedly a little superficial but nevertheless useful, rapid and effective.

 

It would be a kind of invitation

to become an embodiment of the sacred rights

of Women, Men, Children and the Living,

 a free oath which would draw its strength

from its democratic, pacifist, inclusive and universal legitimacy.

 

It would be a hymn to life inspiring respect and dignity.

 

All states have an anthem…

Why not the Earth?

 

In and with humanity,

in order to give birth to humanity?

 

If there is a homeland

that can inspire us, inspire us with dignity and courage,

if there is a homeland that can inspire us to stand up,

lift our eyes to heaven and fight for,

it is surely the one that gives us life:

 

The Earth.

 

In order to awaken people’s minds

to the new, planetary and universal era,

it is time for humanity to have its own anthem,

an anthem to the Earth and to itself,

a call to union,

never performed on Earth,

a call to a new era, a call to a new world,

in which every world’s citizen

will be able to freely recognize one another.

 

Why not inscribe in the constitutions of the nation-states

and in the Charter of the United Nations given to each and everyone

the possibility of singing the Earth and Humanity

as a hymn of the heart, a hymn of the guts, a sacred hymn,

a hymn to life everywhere around the world?

 

What’s the point of singing one’s country

if it is to destroy the Earth?

 

From the point of view of God and the universe,

humankind has only one homeland:

 

The Earth.

 

Creative friends and creators, musicians,

fellow artists of all kinds, from all nations and all cultures,

create anthems to the Earth, to Humanity, to the universe,

create anthems to ceaselessly renewed Life, to certain Death,

to affection, fragility, generosity, to unspeakable beauty.

 

All hymns to Earth are hymns to love.

 

*

* * *

*