La démocratie, malgré ses imperfections, reste-t-elle le meilleur régime politique ?

Last Saturday's discussion repeated a subject that we have discussed before: La démocratie, malgré ses imperfections, reste-t-elle le meilleur régime politique ?  It was supposed to be a topical subject to tie in with the French Presidential Elections.  However the topic has been sidetracked to many other subjects.  As usual, lots of criticism of China and certain Islamic states. The conclusion is, predictably, the democracy is the best system in the world despite all its temporary glitches.

Brainwashing?

Amy writes:

At the end of Saturday's discussion about controlling others it was mentioned that we brainwash our children from the time of birth.  A flippant though fashionable remark not to be taken seriously.  Do we qualify the care with which we choose the food we give our children as gutwashing?  (Being French, according to my children I gave them too much salad and fruit and not enough Irish fries or English puddings.  Though now, while considering themselves as British, they feed their own children salads and fruit and I am the one who brings the pudding).  

I have tried since Saturday to make a joke by putting together the 2 metaphors of 'brainwashing' and 'throwing out the baby with the water of the bath'  Could not do it.  Would somebody cleverer?

Another idea while taking in my wet washing.  Should a mother not nurse her baby because he/she will absorb her ideas with her milk?  3 metaphors.

Amy

Islanders & God

Dear philosophers,

our conversation last Saturday centred on the subject of God.  Most of you would say, Come on! Not again! How many times have we approached the very same topic?   But the question is asked in a different way this time: How to describe God to a people on an island?  - sounds like a title for a creative writing course, that would trigger vivid imagination.  As explained by Paul, who proposed the question, it is inspired by a book he read: Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes by Daniel Everett.  The book is about an isolated tribe of Amazonian Indians (Hence the idea of an island) whose language Everett had learned in order to translate the bible for them.  At the end Everett concluded that these people had no need for a god.  In fact he lost his own faith - a proselytizer has become a proselyte himself.

Our friend Amy writes: 

I had a strange experience recently.  I watched the dvd of a film I had seen some 30 years ago, had much admired and had quoted frequently ever since: Jacques Tati's Playtime.  Well, none of these episodes of which I had such a vivid memory were in fact as I remembered them.  Slowly but surely my mind had twisted the images to make them fit my argument.

I observed the same kind of distortions at last Saturday café-philo.  The question was how to describe God to people who had no notion of him/her/it.  While I was moderately interested in the answer to such a question I was fascinated by the way it was interpreted.  The majority of comments were about religion,  conversion, domination, none of which had to do with the subject. 

I was brought up in a French protestant family in which religion was strictly confined to Sundays when my parents went to church and the children to Sunday school.  God was never mentioned during the week.  My atheism is in the image of my parents' religion: mild and tolerant.  I am always surprised by the strident atheism I keep encountering in G.B. (never in France, which does not mean it does not exist).  I can only wonder if such atheists have been force-fed religion in their childhood.

Amy

Lust for life



 Our dearest friend Céline passed away yesterday after her long and indefatigable battle with cancer.    Born in Tours, France in 1976, Céline came to London 10 years ago as a student.  After her completion of a degree in publishing at the London University of Arts, she embarked on a career in the prestigious French publishing house Hachette as a PA to the Manager Director.   Her keen intellectual interest also brought her to the Café Philo at the French Institute and she became a valuable friend to many of our café philosophers.  She had contributed many blog posts to this website and to our Forum:

Faut-il désobéir pour exister vraiment ?
La tolérance fait-elle progresser la paix?
Quelle est la question fondamentale?
La redistribution de la richesse est-elle possible?
Sommes-nous tous des philosophes?
Dilemme...
Marriage Vs Love
Le souvenir appartient-il au monde spirituel ou réel ?
L'Art, est-il la représentation de la folie?
 

Celine in Mexico 2005

 In addition to her intellectual interest, Celine enjoyed an active social life in the bustling London scene.   She appreciated West End theatres and cinemas, frequented numerous opera houses in London and in Paris.  She was a member of a Salsa dance club, as well as a rock-climbing club. A passionate animal lover, she participated in several campaigns devoted to the protection of wild life.  In her Facebook account, she listed the following animal rights groups that she was affiliated with:
Stop Sara Palin from kills polar bears, Help Teach Empathy for Animals! STOP Abuse Beatings Brutality Cruelty Fighting Suffering & Torture, Aidez les bonobos du Congo !, SAUVONS LES TORTUES MARINES DE POLYNESIE, Soutenir les femmes battues contre la violence conjugale, Contre les combats de chiens, Animal Testing is MURDER!, Help stop DOG-FIGHTING, causes.com, Turn Facebook Pink For 1 Week For Breast Cancer Awareness, STOP DANCING BEARS, Dolphin Massacre in Japan, Stop the Animal Abuse, Animals Skinned Alive! Help Stop Chinese Fur Farms!, SAVE SOUTH AFRICAS RHINO,

Celine’s cheerfulness and her optimistic outlook of life in spite of her terminal illness were an inspiration to us all.   I take this opportunity to invite you all to share your thoughts on our website.


Celine, Rest in Peace. 

French Revolution and today's world

We can see some interesting parallels between the situation today and the pre-Revolutionary France of the late 18^th century.  Join the debate at our Forum:

Conspiracy or just the natural course of event?

Do we need religion?



Man cannot live on bread alone

The question debated last Saturday (1 October) has been asked many times before. Jesus answered: “one must not live on bread alone, but on every word coming out of the mouth of God.”

We need religion like we need music, art, books, theatre, films and other creative and imaginative works. Religion is part of our spiritual world.

We need religion because religion teaches us what’s right what’s wrong and it acts like moral codes which form the basis of law and order for the maintenance of a cohesive society.

We need religion because our desire of adhering to a group of people helps us find our exclusive identity and destiny.

But we also have our doubts:

• Is religion a form of superstition as it appeals to the irrational part of our psyche?
• Is religion an impediment to the progress of science, since Creationist view conflicts with the Evolutionist theory?
• Does the concept of “sanctity of life” interfere with individual’s personal choice?
• Can different religions co-exist in harmony?
• Was religion the main source of human conflicts and genocides?
• Apart from main stream religions (e.g. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism etc) are these not also religions - the likes of Scientologist Church, Free Masonry, Mafia, Klu Klux Klan, Money Worshipping? 

Quote:
“It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living” - Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Course: History of Economic Thought

Everyone seems to be talking about the economy these days. But do they always make sense? Politicians, pundits, and business leaders, sound like they have lost the map. In a new course I will be teaching at the Mary Ward Centre this term  we will question the great thinkers of the past, from Aristotle to the Enlightenment, from the Bible and Islam to the modern economic theories of Liberalism, Socialism, and Keynesianism, and we will try to shed some light on perennial problems: What is money? Is charging interest moral? When is a price fair, and are price controls always detrimental? How much social inequality is tolerable? On these and other burning questions let’s find out what philosophers have to teach us. After all, it concerns us all, as workers, consumers, savers and citizens.

Christian

Make War, not Love...

Empire Strikes Back!

The written history of Mankind remains a litany of wars. From ancient time to modern days, Men never seem able to live in peace and harmony as if Peace was alien to human nature. The testosterone level of men dictates their desire to fight and to kill in order to relieve the boredom of living in peace. The aspiration to win and to dominate others somehow gives expression to life based on ideals – proud of being warriors, they believe that they are fighting for a “Noble Cause” - in the name of the King or Queen or in the name of their Motherland or Fatherland, or in the name of “DEMOCRACY”, they are willing to give up their own lives. Patriotism summoned when all else fails – “Democracy” Über Alles!

From this point of view, men are no different from Ants – one group of ants invading the territories of another group of ants, annexing one colony after another to build a massive Ants Empire. Might is right - smaller ants are crushed by Bigger Ants in ants warfare. No time for peace treaties in their world or a moment of reflection; when there is shortage of food or fuel, shortage of land and natural resources, including oil, gas, gold, or diamond, or money, Bigger Ants have to take drastic measures of population reduction by massacring the smaller ants and eat them.

The question is: is Mankind heading subconsciously towards another act of suicidal and cannibalistic warfare - the Armageddon, as prophesied by the Abrahamic religions?


Topic of discussion on Saturday 20/8/11: "Is it human nature to make war?"

End of Civilization...

Last Saturday (13/8/11)’s discussion approached the question “are we all looters?” The discussion touched upon the recent rioting in England but it veered off to the subject of “stealing” of Intellectual Properties. By drawing parallel between high street looting and breach of copyright law, our café philosophers, in fear of the censure of “political correctness,” conscientiously avoided the real topic: What is the cause of the riots?

Links:
- The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom ...
- The problem is the breakdown of national identity

What shaped European civilization?

The original question proposed by Ramon « what is European civilization » was intended to define the identity of European civilization. Ramon laid out what he thought was the basis of European civilization: Christianity and Democracy.

Several opinions diverged as to whether Christianity truly represents European civilization. One opinion is that southern Europe where Catholicism prevails tends to have larger number of pious churchgoers than north-western Europe, which has been increasingly embracing secularism since the 20th century.

Another opinion stated that Christianity was not the only religion that shaped European civilization. So-called European civilization is an amalgamation of many different cultural and commercially-based identities. It was this openness to absorb many different influences from outside Europe which made European civilization so advanced in the 19th and 20th century.

Michael remarked that “from a historical perspective, violence can be a motor of civilization”. Ramon disagreed by saying that the Mongol invasion of Europe in the 13th century was definitely not a “motor of civilization”. The Mongols were “Barbarians”. I wonder what Ramon thinks of the violent history of Spanish conquest of Americas, was it driven by the "motor of civilization" or by greed for gold?  Does he think that violence committed in the name of Christianity is then no longer "Barbaric"?

Several participants pointed out that the Eurocentric view was partly to blame for the ills of the 18th and 19th centuries, namely racism, slavery and colonialism. It is therefore controversial to have any delusions of the superiority of European civilization by using Christianity as a basis or standard for European identity.

What is civilization anyway? Christian explains it denotes people living in cities, who do not have to work on land to make a living, so that they can devote their time to develop ideas.

By comparing European philosophies with ideologies from other parts of the world, I noticed one distinctive feature of European (enlightened, non-religious) thinking lies in its emphasis on individual freedom, whereas in many other parts of the world, especially in the East Asia, the traditional thoughts on the mechanism of maintaining a coherent society emphasises obedience to authority (e.g. Confucianism), or passive escapism (e.g. Buddhism), or worshipping an invisible God or several gods (most other formal religions).

Looking back in history, religion has never been the exclusive motor for the advancement of civilization. Religion is often a tool used by the State to make people not to think for themselves but to follow the doctrines from the “holy scripture.” It plays primarily the role of “brain-washer“ or “mind control”. Although religion was a source of inspiration for art and music in the early stages, it can equally act as a repressive regime that hampers social and economic progress, restricts the creativity of artists and suppresses the freedom of ideas by individuals.

Instead of flagging up Christianity as the main fibre of European civilization, Ramon should quote the Renaissance of the 16th century and the Enlightenment of the 18th century as the most important achievements of European civilization. Without these two historical movements, of which the main aims were to liberate people’s mind from the repression of religion, to break away from the authoritarian voice of the Church that ruled Europe for centuries, Europe would still be living in the Dark Ages.