stdClass Object ( [id] => 16374 [title] => The Beauty of the End [alias] => the-beauty-of-the-end [introtext] =>Naked Questions/16 - After all, what matters in life is its end, not business
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 21/02/2016
"Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. (...) The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; (…) The end of the matter; all has been heard."
Ecclesiastes 12,9-13
It's difficult to read great books. It would take meekness of mind, freedom of spirit, purity of heart, and above all poverty: not to have anything and not to defend anything. Some books and the great works of art come to us in our graves, and repeat to us 'come out'. But we do not manage to get out if we are not naked and poor in as we encounter the author who speaks to us and calls us, if we do not get rid of the shroud, leaving it 'wrapped up in a separate place'.
[fulltext] =>This emptying process is even more difficult when it comes to a biblical text. We approach it carrying the loads of many ideologies about religion developed over millennia, rich in our ideas of how God, our faith and that of others should be. And so these great texts do not sing, they fade away without touching us. They do not injure us, and they do not bless us. Qoheleth has blessed us in these four months we passed in his company week after week, but only if we have allowed him to enter up to the marrow of our soul. If we welcomed him to our house, talked and ate with him. And as we are approaching the end of our listening to his song, we find ourselves inundated by the only good consolation possible under the sun: reality in its nakedness, with its great sorrows and its potential and real joys.
Now, in taking leave of us, he gives us one last anti-comforting fresco on old age: “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth (...) before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut— when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low— they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way (...) the grasshopper drags itself along (...) the pitcher is shattered at the fountain". And then he concludes with his most cherished words that he taught us to understand and love: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 12,1-8). When you're still young, with many teeth (the 'keepers of the house', the 'grinders'), all bright and strong, and your hearing makes you capable of catching the singing of the birds, when desire to scale heights safely is alive in you, when eros (the 'grasshopper') is still strong, and the end of the race is still far ('the amphora that will break'), discover and experience the true joy of the good time you are having: “Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. ... All that comes is vanity. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.” (11,7-9). Wisdom is to look at the whole of life from the perspective of its last days, and there is no dawn in our life that could be as beautiful as the one contemplated from the sunsets of others. Qoheleth does not sing lauds of old age: even here he is the one unmasking ideologies, those that talked too well about the elderly in his time, forgetting their costs and limits. He is anti-ideological and anti-comforting here, too. But he forces us to see old age and to place it at the centre of everyone's life. Especially today, when we have an extreme and vital need for this. The first step to build a new culture of old age and death is to start to see them, to look them in the eye; to get them out from the eclipse in which they entered and have been staying for decades. We shall learn to live and to grow again if we learn to die and to grow old again.
A culture of life loves old age, because it is its climax, not its negation. The culture of death casts and curses old age, and so it saddens even the brightest years. The degree of love for life of a civilization is revealed through its way of seeing and treating old age and death. A culture that's against life despises the old and claims to love children. A culture of life loves them both, because it can still see the beauty of the child when looking at the elderly, and does not make an idol out of the child (in Biblical humanism, the son is the anti-idol). If we despise old age an entire lifetime will steam up, and we do not read into today that has passed like just one day more but also like one day less. Cultures that love life use the tree as the metaphor for life, not the candle. The tree grows with the years, it flowers, it bears fruit and it usually dies at the height of its life returning as a gift to the earth that generated and nurtured it. The candle, however, melts by burning and even when it gives light the passing of time is its enemy. An old man can be seen as a big oak tree or as a wax stub that is dying. The Bible teaches us to look at the oak trees in our forest, as it loves life too much to present it to us like a graveyard populated by a lot of more or less consummated candles.
Old age is the great but denied challenge of our time. We live, and we will live in a world that is increasingly populated by old people but, paradoxically, no other age has ever debased old age and adored and flattered youth (but not the young) as much as ours does. Old age is now viewed only from the market, which is transforming our fear of growing old and dying in its largest business, creating the illusion that there might be a good way of aging that's different from welcoming it and calling it our 'brother'. In the market there is too much of drugged health created by our fear of the natural decay of the body. There are too much of insurances invented and fed by the illusion cultivated by a sense of absolute invulnerability.
Therefore, there is an urgent and vital need for new 'charismas' to teach us again how to grow old and die because we have forgotten it in the span of a single generation. Through the millennia we had developed a whole wisdom of the last stages of life. Perhaps one of the most precious fruits of the great religions had been teaching us how to suffer, grow old and die. There used to be a balance between life and death lived in and with our family, community, religion, faith, time, space and memory, in contact with nature that taught us the rhythm of life and death - which at one point got broken, especially in the West. For us today, old age is surrounded only by ugly adjectives: the word itself has been banished from a world that no longer understands it. But without a good culture of old age and death we cannot have a good relationship with life, with birth and with children. And the less the elderly are loved the less children are loved, and so the latter are transformed into rights or goods or idols.
The Book of Ecclesiastes, after all, was not just an essay. The epilogue of the book tells us that he was also a teacher, a man who 'taught', one who donated 'knowledge to the people', someone who had heard the call to communicate his own findings to others. That's why he is a model for every teacher who lives their job as a task, to help their listeners and students to ask the right, honest, courageous, and painful questions to life, questions that never become adulators. The teacher, if he or she is a friend of Ecclesiastes, works on the questions, hoping to succeed, sometimes, to give some answers that may be provisional and partial, therefore valuable, just as the naked questions and precious "why"-s that are rarely answered.
It is not easy to close this journey in Qoheleth's company, even though he reminds us: “Better is the end of a thing than its beginning” (7,8). We are not always able to stop the journey we have started, because we are not the masters of our time and forces. That's why the first word to be pronounced when a trip is ending is: thank you. Then, if the journey has been long, beautiful, full of encounters, surprises and discoveries, this word of thanks becomes big and plural. The first thanks goes to Qoheleth, that ancient old teacher I can and I want to thank because he is still alive. Thank you, Qoheleth, because your words have had a maturing effect on my life and faith, they served as purification of my many comforting ideologies and illusions. My certainties decreased in number, but those that remain are truer.
Thanks also to Director Marco Tarquinio. Two years ago, I communicated a desire that I strongly felt to him, to start commenting on some biblical books. I felt the need to make a small contribution so that those ancient and great books come back to us to talk about the economy and social life. I wanted to bring back Adam, Abraham, Hagar, Joseph, Moses, Job to our streets, to the halls of politics, to construction sites and to schools, from where they were and are still too far apart. I asked him to let me do this for two years of time, because I knew that the journey would not be short. And although I am neither a biblical scholar nor a theologian, only a professor of the economic sciences, the director surprised me with a generous and courageous 'yes'. In these two years we have commented on four books - Genesis, Exodus, Job and Ecclesiates - sharing in a human and spiritual experience that should be ranked among the greatest in my life. Today, exactly two years after the first episode on Chapter 1 of Genesis, this first biblical journey ends - even if the desire to return to meet other biblical books in a few months is alive and strong in me. The director still wanted to leave 'page three' of the Sunday issue to me, to continue, as early as next week, searching and writing.
Finally, thanks to you, my readers. There were hundreds of letters that you wrote to me - many of them were really beautiful -, and among them there was that of Anna, a 99-year-old midwife. I received it after the first episode of 'The Midwives of Egypt': perhaps the most beautiful letter of my life, which flourished from a beautiful old age. But all the others were gifts, too, bread and water that have fed me during this journey. And I would like to thank God, for the inspiration and the joy of having been able to write. It is all about gratuitousness. The journey continues, we shall stay together.
Yes, the journey continues. And it continues with Luigino Bruni, who will continue contributing to this page of "Idee" (Ideas) sharing his valuable experience, the depth of analysis and the engaging writing characteristic of him. This is why I say our "thank you" to him. What he said to me actually regards "Avvenire", the newspaper where it is possible to combine ancient and new forms of wisdom, current issues and a vision for the future thanks to those who first envisioned it about half a century ago, to those who support it and those who keep building it. (mt)
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2016-02-20 21:00:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2016-02-20 22:00:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => Si conclude anche il commento del libro di Qohelet, con una meditazione sulla vecchiaia, che è sempre più oscurata dalla nostra cultura. E con molta gratitudine, per questi tempo di riflessione tra le pagine della Bibbia e la nostra realtà, infine in compagnia di un antico maestro: scomodo e saggio [access] => 1 [hits] => 2624 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 10768 [ordering] => 20 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2016-02-20 21:00:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16374:the-beauty-of-the-end [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/16 - After all, what matters in life is its end, not business
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 21/02/2016
"Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. (...) The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; (…) The end of the matter; all has been heard."
Ecclesiastes 12,9-13
It's difficult to read great books. It would take meekness of mind, freedom of spirit, purity of heart, and above all poverty: not to have anything and not to defend anything. Some books and the great works of art come to us in our graves, and repeat to us 'come out'. But we do not manage to get out if we are not naked and poor in as we encounter the author who speaks to us and calls us, if we do not get rid of the shroud, leaving it 'wrapped up in a separate place'.
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-odd )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16375 [title] => The civilisation of the bread given as gift [alias] => the-civilisation-of-the-bread-given-as-gift [introtext] =>Naked Questions/15 - Living and giving with gratuitousness and gratitude Nothing is wasted this way
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 14/02/2016
"Valencia. At the shore of the pond an elderly man was walking with a dog that was perhaps even older than him. I saw him approach the edge of the water and pull out old loaves of bread from a bag. Piece by piece he threw them to the fish. I stood looking at him, fascinated by the monotony of his gestures. It lasted quite long. It was only when his provisions were finished that I realised I was looking at a verse of Chapter 11 of the Book of Ecclesiastes. »Cast your bread upon the waters.« An elderly man in the autumn of '93 in a Spanish town performed that invitation literally, giving this verse its only, unique sense."
Erri de Luca, Racconto su un verso di Kohèlet (A story about a verse by Qoheleth)
“Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.” (Ecclesiastes 11,1) We are looking at one of the most beautiful and evocative verses of the Book of Ecclesiastes.
[fulltext] =>Its meaning is not simple, but its ambivalence - might also be hiding the traces of an ancient proverb about the benefits and risks of seaborne trade - should not prevent us from taking its first meaning and immediate seriously (an old and wise rule is to prefer the simplest one of the many possible interpretations of a complex text). Its meaning, in fact, opens up to us when we read the first verse together with the ones that follow: “He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. (...) In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.” (11,4; 6) The law of fruitful life is excess, magnanimity, generosity. Wheat grows and feeds us if we sow more than we should, if we go beyond the efficiency calculation, if we throw more seeds in the ground than necessary. The seed we sow should not be launched only in good soil. Stones and thorns should also receive their portion, because if I sow only within the narrow confines of my good field the sprouting grains will not be enough even for myself. 'Hundredfold' fertility requires the generosity of the sower who has to be able to waste a good part of the seed, to sublimate and transcend himself.
When Qoheleth wrote or dictated these words, bread was the essential type of food that was very difficult to get for nearly all of the population. Bread was the means for people to live and keep their children alive; without bread they suffered and died. Throwing it into the water, therefore, was a subversive, imprudent, strange and bad gesture for the observers. But Qoheleth likes paradoxes, as we all know by now, especially those that can help us expose all forms of vanity and the easy - because self-deceiving - certainties. This time, too, the best exegete of a beautiful and mysterious verse turns out to be the author himself, and if we make him 'talk' with all the words of his book, this time he tells us that the first and immediate reading of that text can be just the right one. And so, looking at the wide angle of the entire book, we discover that the key to the incipit of this penultimate chapter is still Qoheleth's argument against economic-retributive religion. Nothing is more subversive for the economic logic than bread thrown into the water.
In his society, far more than in ours, bread was a special type of good, much more than just merchandise. Very rarely was it bought or sold. It was produced in community, shared during meals, and above all, it was donated. A loaf of bread is something not to be denied to anyone, either yesterday or today, and when we do so we deny our dignity. Furthermore, it was used because it was a precious good, being a sacred offering for the sacrifices (Genesis 14,18). Outside of one's own consumption and cultic duties and those dictated by solidarity, bread could not and should not be wasted. When I was a child, if a piece of bread fell on the ground and was wasted, before giving it to the animals my mother made me kiss it. Every piece of bread regarded as a gift received becomes the bread of the Eucharist: it is good gratuitousness (eu charis), it is gratitude. It is the manna, the bread of life. We could rewrite the Bible as the history of bread, as its presence is so powerful and vital.
Certainly Qoheleth here does not want to invite us to use bread for making propitiatory sacrifices to the sea or to the waters - he was very hard on the sacrifices to Elohim in the temple of Jerusalem, too: 4,17. Neither is the bread thrown into the water is the same as the one for the poor or the temple. His is rather a challenge to the kind of theology that justified every human act on the basis of its results. It is a challenge to those who gave bread in order to be righteous, and so gain the blessing of God: “Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor” (Proverbs 22,9). But Ecclesiastes tells us to throw the bread onto the water's surface, if we want to see it back in many ways, many times, on many days. His is a wisdom of the surplus, going beyond the reasonable boundaries and convenience, both social and religious.
Those who tried to live life up and down and really, forming a family, bringing children into the world, those who created a business or a community, or those who received it as a legacy and did not want to let them die, those who have honestly followed a vocation ... they know that the most beautiful things returned to them when they were able to go beyond the register of utilitarian calculus, when they abandoned the logic of cost-benefit and, inconveniently, did what they had to do on the basis of only prudence and common sense. We have sown in the wrong season, we started sailing without good wind. Yet, at times, the fruits arrived, the dead calm of the sea did not win. At least once. We are able to have a child born only by love and we know it can make us forget all our advantage. To set off on a journey believing in a promised land as we cross deserts, to start again in old age still believing in that land, even though we have gone through deserts, and only deserts, many, too many of them. And even though we know that what we had left was our last bread, we do not keep it inside the bag, we threw it to the water. We are able to wish that heaven should exist even though we are certain that it will not be for us.
In our lives there are many acts of gratuitousness, but they are almost always partial, and they only liberate us from some dimensions of retributive logic. We are too mixed up in reciprocity to succeed in abandoning the registry of exchange many times. Is absolute gratuitousness possible, is pure love possible?
The question of 'pure love' was confronted by a certain theology a few centuries ago, when, following the debates and reactions to the Protestant Reformation, the need was born to warn against the dangers arising from extending the ability to love by pure love to man, which must remain the sole prerogative of God. Pure love is dangerous, it is subversive. But if we look at the world closely, we realize that human beings, after all, are also capable of pure love. We almost never manage to realise it, but it's part of our repertoire. And if we do not have at least one experience of pure love given and received in life, humanization is not completed in full, it stops too early in our journey under the sun. A man without pure love is too little. Our likeness to Elohim must also extend to his love. At least once, maybe just one crucial time. Even if it is the last hour, when we can also donate the last bread that we will be asked of by choosing to become the Eucharist of the earth with our body.
The Bible - and therefore life - is full of surpluses that come only when we leave the commercial horizon behind freely or out of necessity. The son who returns home after having left it behind and having lost it, a child who is born from a shrivelled womb, the ram that appears after we had held it to the knife, the few loaves of bread that multiply after we had donated and lost them, a prophet who resurrected after he had been seen dying on the cross. No contract could bring the dead son back to life, let us generate when generativity was gone, resurrect someone who was crucified. No ram can be exchanged with a kid, there is no bag where five loaves can be transformed into a meal that feeds a crowd.
The real surprises of life are only those that bloom freely from excess, those that no one could predict or guess, those that save us because they are immensely bigger than us and our conveniences. If we had a guarantee or just hope that the bread donated will multiply to become hundredfold, that bread would no longer be the good gratuitousness that's able to multiply. It would be an investment, an insurance or a bet. To build the 'civilization of the hundredfold' here on earth, or at least some of it, we need to re-learn the logic of surplus and that of the bread donated to the waters.
There are many more loaves of bread that are lost in the waters of those who return carried by the current. The extraordinary nature of the bread multiplied by the waters is the certainty of having lost it forever in the moment that it was donated. The infinite - and therefore priceless - value of bread donated that is returned many times in many days also depends on a lot of bread that remains in the seabed and never comes back to feed us. Not all of the gift given returns to us; but what seems to be waste and pain can enter another, bigger economy, one that includes at least the sea and the fish in it. The earth also lives and feeds from our tears that become its bread (Psalm 42,4).
The bread made hundredfold is the last bread that remained for us. It is not the superfluous bread, nor the philanthropy of the rich. It is the crumbs of Lazarus that can return multiplied, not the leftovers of the rich man: “Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn” (1Samuel, 2,5). Only the bread of the poor can be 'saved by the waters', and return one day to free them from their slavehood, beyond the sea.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2016-02-13 23:00:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2016-02-13 23:00:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => L’eccedenza rispetto al dovuto e al buon senso è una delle dimensioni più sorprendenti della vita sotto il sole. Qohelet, con uno splendido verso sul pane, ci dice cose importante sulla generosità e sull’amore puro, che sono azioni rare ma sempre possibili. [access] => 1 [hits] => 2650 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 9719 [ordering] => 49 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2016-02-13 23:00:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16375:the-civilisation-of-the-bread-given-as-gift [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/15 - Living and giving with gratuitousness and gratitude Nothing is wasted this way
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 14/02/2016
"Valencia. At the shore of the pond an elderly man was walking with a dog that was perhaps even older than him. I saw him approach the edge of the water and pull out old loaves of bread from a bag. Piece by piece he threw them to the fish. I stood looking at him, fascinated by the monotony of his gestures. It lasted quite long. It was only when his provisions were finished that I realised I was looking at a verse of Chapter 11 of the Book of Ecclesiastes. »Cast your bread upon the waters.« An elderly man in the autumn of '93 in a Spanish town performed that invitation literally, giving this verse its only, unique sense."
Erri de Luca, Racconto su un verso di Kohèlet (A story about a verse by Qoheleth)
“Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.” (Ecclesiastes 11,1) We are looking at one of the most beautiful and evocative verses of the Book of Ecclesiastes.
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-even )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16376 [title] => The Essential Freedom of the Cloak [alias] => the-essential-freedom-of-the-cloak [introtext] =>Naked Questions/14 - Understanding the snare of the "dead flies" and the gift of the "prophets"
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 07/02/2016
“At the foundation of a community there is always a dark, hidden spot, a collective unconscious, which has its origin in the unconscious of the founder and in his/her human need to control. If the community is destined to grow and develop, this dark spot must be purified. The crisis is the purification of this collective unconscious. The community will have to shift from the myth of the perfect founder to a more collective appropriation of the founding myth, purified from what is not essential.”
Jean Vanier, The Founding Myth
“Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honour.” (Ecclesiastes 10,1)
[fulltext] =>A few verses ago he left us off with praising the light that illuminates the face of the wise ones (8,1), and now we see Qoheleth further complicating his discourse, showing the vulnerability and fragility of wisdom. Just like a fly that falls in the bulb of the ointment is enough to spoil it, just a little folly is enough to ruin wisdom. Not only wisdom remains "far off", "deep, very deep" (7,24), but even when we experience it, and manage to be, though temporarily, wise, Qoheleth seems to tell us that wisdom succumbs to stupidity. At the beginning of his discourse he stated, “I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness” (2,13). Now, as he is approaching the end of his song, he says that folly is stronger. It takes only a little of it to corrupt everything. It is not a fruitful reading of this or other wisdom books if we match a meta-key of reading that reveals to us which verses are truer: the ones on the superiority of wisdom or those where Qoheleth claims the opposite. Instead it is more fruitful to read Qoheleth as a non-ideological, and therefore self-subversive, master of thought.
One of the basic ingredients of cultures that are not yet contaminated by ideology, or of those that have been able to resist or get rid of it, is their ability of self-subversion. Self-subversion, in the sense that the great economist Albert O. Hirschman gave to this word. It is the very rare virtue to question one's own certainties, it means not to look for the elements that confirm our ideas in the things that happen to us, but for those that deny or defy them. It is the virtue of those who believe more in the truth of life that flows by them today than in the truths that built and conquered yesterday. The self-subversive thought is useful for everyone, but it is essential for those who have embraced a faith, whether religious or secular, for those who have adhered to a great proposal promising a new land for them. The exercise of self-subversion is the best prevention against all forms of ideology. Ideology, in fact, is usually conclusive, because of its tendency to make us find at the end of the path just what we had placed there at the beginning. The birth of ideology is a process that consists of (at least) two operations. The first one begins when we still have the consciousness that reality has its own ambivalence, and that everything that happens around it is consistent with our beliefs. We still see a bigger world than that which confirms our thesis, but we start to exclude the uncomfortable and dissonant part from our analysis. The second step consists in convincing ourselves that the world is really made up of only the part that interests and confirms us: because of telling about a different world than the real one, we end up not seeing the totality of reality.
It is here that ideology becomes inexpungeable: evidence contrary to our ideas can no longer make us correct our beliefs, simply because we are no longer able to see that evidence. Like those who gradually lose the ability to see colours due to a disturbance of vision, and instead of getting a cure they become convinced that the world is black and white. It is also for this reason that the person captured by ideology appears to us as someone with good faith and a strange sincerity, which can confuse our judgments, diagnoses and therapies very much. Self-subversion is only possible in the first stage, when we can still recognize the signs of the virus that is about to get activated in the body.
A first signal of upcoming fever is the decrease of interest for different ideas, and a consequent seeking out of more and more people who think like us. Let us have no more new questions, all we want is the old and reliable answers. A second sign is the emergence of a sense of persecution. It begins to divide the world into two groups: a small one, of the friends with whom we share the same vision, and another one containing all those who do not understand us and are perceived as hostile. An imaginary enemy is created who is then sighted everywhere: in newspapers, on TV, in the neighbours, in God (if he is different from the idea that we forged of him). Even the best people, those we have always respected, begin to be questioned and relativized, if and when they say things that do not confirm our incipient ideology. This creates, day after day, a "sacred text" of which we become the evangelists and prophets.
The Book of Ecclesiastes, along with that of Job, is in itself an exercise in the self-subversion inherent to the Bible, because it constantly denies the ideas of God and religion that it actually proposes, to prevent them from turning into ideology. The Elohim-God of Qoheleth has stayed alive because Qoheleth has subverted it so many times.
Ideology - which is a sophisticated form of idolatry - is a disease of universal significance, but it is particularly common and serious when it affects religious people, because even God and other invisible inhabitants of the world are consumed and used as materials for the construction of an ideological empire. When even God becomes the same as our idea of Him, the ideology is perfect and there is no way out of it anymore. Those dead flies have spoiled the whole of the perfume. It is difficult to find authentic communities or people of faith because, in most cases, instead of faith and ideals we find variants of the many ideologies that inhabit the world.
Faith and the ideology of faith are two very different things. Faith liberates from our own dogmas and idols, it asks questions; ideology binds, consumes and enslaves us to the idol, and creates a lot of easy and false answers. No real spiritual life begins unless one day we are able to free ourselves from the ideology of the faith that we have gradually built.
The ideological phase is (almost) inevitable, especially in spiritual and charismatic communities. A building is created around the original idea that has "called us", it grows little by little: first it's a tent, then a temple which houses "the ark" of the first covenant, in the end, next to the temple we build a palace for ourselves that's bigger than the temple built for God - as Solomon-Qoheleth had done (1Kings 7,1). Ideology is the process that goes from the invisible voice to the building of the ark, then from the ark to the tent, and after that to the temple and the palace. Individual and collective self-subversion, on the rare times that it actually happens, is the work of destruction, this time intentionally, of the many buildings that have been constructed one by one around the first promise, in order to return to the first gratuitousness of the first word.
It is a journey backwards, a return home by reducing, simplifying, removing the empires of sand that we have built. Sometimes we make this return journey in the last few months or days of our life, when we see the collapse of our palace and our temple, to finally become free of everything, and masters of nothing.
The ark, the temple and the palace rise gradually in the service of the charisma and its community, and even when they start to become too large they are seen and justified as ancillary and necessary elements for the development of the community.
Over time, however, and without anyone ever taking full consciousness, ideological constructions end up stifling the gratuitousness of the original vocation. Ideology first joins the ideal and supports it, but soon it takes its place, in a process that can last a long time, sometimes a whole life, and it is almost always with no return.
It is, in fact, very difficult to be aware of the ideological secretion of the original ideal, because they assume the same forms, they are children of the same parents, they have the same traits and the same beauties, they use the same words, they say the same prayers and (in the beginning) lead to the same spiritual fruits. It is, in fact, the same gift that becomes an obsession, progressively contaminating the critical skills of individual and collective discernment as theses are also enchanted by the same spell.
But the miracle of great blessing can also happen - history tells us so. That's when at the height of the experience of an ideal community which had meanwhile become - unintentionally and perhaps inevitably – an ideological community, someone breaks free from the spell and understands, or at least intuits, the ideological transformation that's taken place.
The end of the spell on the outside and inside is manifested as a crisis, but it is actually the ridge between the old narrow horizon and the new spacious one that is about to clear out, it is the watershed between the old life and the new. But in order for this liberation from the ideology to become collective, the person (or people) who generated it must also wake up and get out of the spell. This event is even rarer because the enchanter is the first one to be enchanted by their own magic: “He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them” (10,8-9).
Sometimes, however, even the founder manages to break free from their own spell, but this in itself is not enough for the liberation of the entire community. He has to "disappear". Elijah the prophet and teacher leaves his "cloak" to Elisha, his disciple and successor, and disappears in the sky, kidnapped by the chariot of fire. That's how a great self-subversion is accomplished: the age of ideology ends and that of spiritual life begins for all.
However, when prophets do not know how to "die" by disappearing once they are "disenchanted", or when their followers do not allow them to disappear because they are still imprisoned by the spell, it may happen that the snake bites its piper: “If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer” (10,11). Prophets save their communities if they can break the spell they themselves have created, and leave us nothing but the poverty of their cloak.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2016-02-06 23:45:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2016-02-06 23:45:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => L’ideologia è tappa quasi obbligata nel cammino di ogni fede. L’auto-sovversione è un esercizio fondamentale per prevenire e curare l’ideologia, finché siamo in tempo. Qohelet è un grande esercizio di auto-sovversione presente nella Bibbia. [access] => 1 [hits] => 2715 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 10589 [ordering] => 43 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2016-02-06 23:45:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16376:the-essential-freedom-of-the-cloak [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/14 - Understanding the snare of the "dead flies" and the gift of the "prophets"
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 07/02/2016
“At the foundation of a community there is always a dark, hidden spot, a collective unconscious, which has its origin in the unconscious of the founder and in his/her human need to control. If the community is destined to grow and develop, this dark spot must be purified. The crisis is the purification of this collective unconscious. The community will have to shift from the myth of the perfect founder to a more collective appropriation of the founding myth, purified from what is not essential.”
Jean Vanier, The Founding Myth
“Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honour.” (Ecclesiastes 10,1)
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-odd )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16377 [title] => Merit's Basic Wastes [alias] => merit-s-basic-wastes [introtext] =>Naked Questions/13 - Fighting the devaluation of non-economic virtues
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 31/01/2016
"Full of merit, yet poetically / Humans dwell upon the earth."
Friedrich Hölderlin
The logic of merit has always been very powerful. We human beings have a deep need to believe that there is a logical and just relationship between our actions, talents, commitment and our results. We like to think that our salary is the result of our quality and our commitment, that the grades we get at school depend on how much we study, that we have earned our awards (the word meritum comes from mereri meaning: earn, gain).
[fulltext] =>It's natural, it's a real and existing need. The real problem is not so much or only in the idea of merit in itself, but the answers we give to the questions regarding the recognition of our merits and above all those of the others. Qoheleth knows this very well: “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all” (9,11).
People have always tried to react to this scenario that appears to us as a great display of injustice. In ancient civilizations, the main solution to injustice in the world was to imagine a God who is different from us and follows a fair policy of rewards and punishments. They took the historical fact of inequality and injustice, and gave reality a religious chrism. The apparent injustice was thus turned into an invisible and deeper kind of justice, and the world was given order by finding a religious sense in richness and in their own misfortune or that of others. So those who were rich and powerful were granted the status of 'blessed' without calling them for conversion; and those who were poor and unfortunate were sentenced twice: by the misfortunes of life and by God. The moral need to recognize merit produced an immense sense of guilt in the poorest and the most unfortunate for their own misfortunes. Other forms of religious humanism have instead reacted by imagining that the injustice under the sun would be eliminated in other lives beyond the sun, where the poor but righteous would be rewarded and the rich but wicked punished. The earth is unjust, heaven isn't. The economic-retributive logic remained, but the horizon of its application stepped out of the historical time span to eternity or at least to another life. Theories about merit necessitate a humanism of morally different individuals, where everyone has their own '"card" of actions/rewards. Holistic societies are not meritocratic.
Because of its humanistic and personalistic spirit meritocratic ideology (which makes merit the criterion to evaluate, classify and order people and organizations) is very charming, seductive and it captures many people. We find it at the centre of the culture of large corporations and multinational banks. Its symbolic technology is of a dual nature. On the one hand large enterprises build a sophisticated system of incentives designed with the aim to identify and reward merit, conceived according to the business objectives. On the other hand, the worker who finds himself in this rewarding mechanism reads his own salary and benefits as a signal of his meritability. It is a perfect contract, continuously fed by both sides because it seems mutually beneficial: the company satisfies its need for rationality and ordering reality to its own ends, and the employee meets their need to feel worthy and valued.
It is an ideology that has grown like climbing grass on the retributive tree in the garden of biblical faith, which is experiencing an incredible and growing success in the era of individualistic capitalism. As Max Weber showed us more than a century ago, in Judeo-Christian humanism there is a stream that has interpreted economic success as a sign of election and salvation. The current economic culture has radicalized and universalized that psychological-religious mechanism. It secularized and extended it from the entrepreneur to the entire economic system, production, finance and consumption. The quantity and quality of salaries and incentives (and consumption) become the new indicators of election and predestination for the 'paradise' of the deserving (meritable). The symbolic-religious dimension of money and success has thus been amplified, radicalized and generalized.
But the worm of this and all pay religious systems is discovered clearly when we leave heaven and descend to the circles of purgatory and hell.
Merit has a necessary need of demerit. It is a positional and relative reality: the world of the deserving (meritable) works if merit can be defined, ordered, organised in a hierarchical order, measured and put in a relationship with demerit. Beyond a deserving person there must be someone who is more deserving, and one who is less deserving, below them. It is a perfect caste system, where the Brahmins need the Pariahs, but cannot touch them to avoid being contaminated by their demerit. The simplest management of demerit is to present it as a necessary step towards merit, as a step of the way, a milestone of the journey. This management works very well with young people, showing them the 'Beloved Mount', telling them that they will be able to climb it only if they can 'grow', although those who propose this scenario know very well that in the house of merit there aren't enough places . And so, when they go through their first failures and the much hoped credit does not flourish according to the preset goals, the miracle takes place: the employee has been trained to interpret their own failure as demerit, and so accept their fate in a docile way. The cult is perfect: the 'believer' internalizes religion and implements it independently. And the mass production of guilt becomes the big refuse of our economy, fuelled by aggression, pride and arrogance accompanying the laudatores of meritocracy.Qoheleth tells us something very important, then: to read our life and that of others as an accounting of merits / awards, demerits / punishment is a vain and deceitful solution for the need of justice under the sun, because the mechanism of the credit cannot answer the deepest questions of justice, not even on economic justice. It is vanitas. And, above all, it has no answer for the times when misfortune appears: “For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.” (9,12). When we see an unfortunate person we cannot say anything about their life. That person can be a good or a bad, clever or foolish, their misfortune and fortune do not allow us to form a discourse on their merit. The words of our misfortunes are dumb, by themselves they are unable to speak of the morality of our past or future. The brilliant careers are interwoven with separations, depressions, diseases, events that are simply ejected by the system of incentives. The democratic randomness of the evil hour's striking undermines the merit-machine of our economy. Nothing like serious diseases or premature deaths is more estranged for our capitalist culture. There is no place for the moments and times of misfortune (they are seen as friction, sand in the gears), and even less for the time of death - too few colleagues are present at the funerals, or at the bedside of our long agonies.
But starting from the Book of Ecclesiastes we can go even further. Taking seriously the spirit of his ancient words, we can say that merit is an ambiguous word, rarely a friend of people and the poor - which is even more valid for meritocracy. The logic of the 'worker of the last hour', one of the most beautiful pages ever written, is a critique of the idea of merit that is no less radical than that of Qoheleth (or Job), and to be understood it must be read inside the arguments of the early Christians against the retributive religion of their time. Qoheleth's criticism of merit is vital if we want to understand the inherent dangers in a whole social life built on the logic of merit as it is conceived and promoted by companies. We could have imagined another capitalism that's less anchored to retributive religion, and almost certainly would have a less sick planet and more healthy social relationships; but today we must at least prevent its logic from becoming the culture of the full scope of social life. Instead, incentives and meritocracy are increasingly occupying many non-economic areas.
The reason for this extraordinary success is easy to understand. We all know that there are many kinds of merit and demerit. There are excellent workers who are bad parents, and vice versa, and we usually live together with merits and demerits of which we are aware, that are revealed only in some decisive steps, sometimes in the last days of our lives when we discover that we have lived a life with few apparent merits but deserved a good embrace of the angel of death.
The danger that lurks inside meritocratic ideology is thus very subtle, and usually invisible. Companies have the ability to present themselves as places that reward merit because they reduce the plurality of merit to only those functional to their objectives: an artist who works in an assembly line is not worthy because of his hand that can paint but because it knows how to screw bolts. The merit of the economy is then easy to reward because it is a simple merit / demerit that's too easy to see and so to measure and reward. Other merits in non-economic areas are much harder to see, and even harder to be measured. This is where the great risk is revealed: given its easy measurability, merit in companies becomes only merit that's 'seen', measured and rewarded in society at large. With two effects: quantitative and measurable merits are over-stimulated, while qualitative and non-productive ones go wasted. It increases the destruction of non-economic virtues that, however, are essential to live well (like meekness, compassion, mercy, humility...).
The great task of Christian humanism was liberation from the retributive culture that dominated the ancient world, and from assigning guilt to all the misfortunate. We must not resign ourselves to selling it off for the "lentil stew" of merit. We are worth a lot more.
Dedicated to Pier Luigi Porta, dear friend and master of thought and life.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2016-01-30 23:45:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2016-01-30 23:45:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => La meritocrazia è una ideologia imperante nella cultura economica del nostro tempo. Progressivamente sta uscendo dall’economia per invadere l’intera vita in comune. La critica di Qohelet al merito è un efficace antidoto per resistere a questo nuovo imperialismo. [access] => 1 [hits] => 2997 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 10346 [ordering] => 37 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2016-01-30 23:45:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16377:merit-s-basic-wastes [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/13 - Fighting the devaluation of non-economic virtues
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 31/01/2016
"Full of merit, yet poetically / Humans dwell upon the earth."
Friedrich Hölderlin
The logic of merit has always been very powerful. We human beings have a deep need to believe that there is a logical and just relationship between our actions, talents, commitment and our results. We like to think that our salary is the result of our quality and our commitment, that the grades we get at school depend on how much we study, that we have earned our awards (the word meritum comes from mereri meaning: earn, gain).
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-even )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16378 [title] => Wise is the one who does not make himself god [alias] => wise-is-the-one-who-does-not-make-himself-god [introtext] =>Naked Questions/12 - We need a double gratuitousness: both in giving and receiving
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 24/01/2016
"Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks."
Book of Proverbs, 1,20-21
Wisdom exists. On this earth there is nothing better than to desire and seek it. But it remains far away, because if you get too close, it disappears or is transformed into something else that's simpler and more trivial. It is something very different from what we call intelligence, talent, wisdom, competence or culture today.
[fulltext] =>These are forms of capital that we can and must manage, grow, cultivate, we own them and are responsible for them. Wisdom is something else. It is not a stock at our disposal. It interacts with our natural and moral capital, but it is different. There are people capable of wisdom who are not particularly clever, they are not learned, or little experienced. It is a gift that, like all gifts, doesn't really depend on merits. Even children can speak words of wisdom. It is a free breath of wind blowing where it wants. Like beauty, truth, holiness and happiness, it can and should be sought, but is never the simple result of a deliberate project. It is not a virtue, it is a gift. Sometimes it comes only when we lost the will to master it.
"I said, “I will be wise,”. but it was far from me. That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out?" (Ecclesiastes 7,23-24) Wisdom escapes us. Its depth is too deep, its distance too far. Yet, sometimes, it is noted, it acts, works and transforms history. And we can recognize it: «Who is like the wise And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed» (8,1).
Wisdom then has its typical brilliance; it changes one's facial features. Others who look at these people can see their shining face - like that of Moses, when he came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets of the law. Wisdom is a relationship, its splendour appears to those who recognize it in the faces of others. Under the sun we can see the signs of wisdom from its light on a human face. The witness of wisdom is the other person that sees its unique light, which is a good mirror only if it is opaque and absorbs the light that does not have to be returned to the wise one. This poverty is typical. The wise one casts a special light that gets lit inside a relationship, a light that disappears when they look, narcissistically, in a mirror other than the other person's eyes in front of them. This constitutive relatedness of wisdom is an intrinsic device of gratuitousness that prevents the wise one to appropriate his wisdom to and for himself, risking the loss of light on his face. When the wise man begins to see his own face brighter than that of others and to fall in love with its different light, wisdom disappears for lack of gratuitousness: «That water is not for me» (Bernardette Soubirous).
All wise people are always provisional wise people. They give off the light of wisdom only while they experience it. And between one experience of wisdom and another they are poor and needy as all living beings under the sun, they speak the words used by all others and they have the light of all faces. So the special light of wisdom is ephemeral, it only lives inside a specific relationship and while the experience lasts. It cannot be accumulated; we cannot keep it in a treasure chest. If wisdom is a gift-gratuitousness, there are no "professional" wise people: «do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?» (7,16).
Wisdom is far away, deep in depths. No wise person is wise forever and ever. Wisdom is an experience. If we are wise and until we can feel wisdom, and no matter how many wise and bright words we said before, we have no guarantee of continuing to utter them tomorrow, too. We can only hope so. There is no wisdom without the renewal of its miracle of generosity, here and now.
For this reason it is not true that the wise ones are always the best witnesses of the words they say. True wisdom that speaks words transforming the lives of others is not always able to transform the lives of those who say them. Wisdom always exceeds the wise one, however great and a true witness they may be. The proof of the wise ones' wisdom is not their moral life, their testimony is not the truth about their words. The splendour of their face and words is the proof of the presence of their wisdom. This is one of the great mysteries of charis-gratuitousness on earth.
Here are some suggestions. Distrust the "wise men" who show themselves as a model for those who see and follow the glow of their face, showing their life as a measure of the wisdom of their words. And distrust those who believe and say that they possess wisdom, as well as those who feel they are its owners, who think they have it always at hand, who consider it their capital they may avail of at all times. They are certainly fake wise men. The first wisdom of the wise is the awareness of themselves not being humble the source of wisdom as they say, but a source from which, sometimes without knowing the reasons, different and always new kind of water comes out. What they know is that they are like a blind man who sometimes sees and shows things. When wisdom is lit inside a relationship, the first to be surprised, grateful and amazed by the wisdom present there is the one who finds a previously unknown light in their own face, and becomes the listener of his/her own words, because they are not only his/her. Qoheleth was able to give us words of wisdom because he never thought of having reached it.
There is a third warning: it is not good to tell the wise that their face is shining with a different light, because that way we expose them to the greatest temptation. In order not to reduce the wise light on earth gratuitousness is required in the wise, but also in those who watch them and benefit from their wisdom. And if the first gratuitousness is hard, the second one is no less arduous, either. If, in fact, the great temptation of the wise is falling in love with themselves and taking possession of their own wisdom, their desire to transform the true and ephemeral light into a fake and constant light, then those who contemplate and benefit from that wisdom are always tempted to institutionalize the glow of that face, not to be content with a temporary glow, and so turn the wise one in an unchanging and unchangeable god. In the generative relationship of wisdom the ever present risk is that of idolatry.
The virtue of the wise one is then in knowing how to resist in the specific painful effort of giving the gift of a light that they can neither know nor control. Wisdom only blooms among equals, and only among the poor. The kingdom of wisdom is the realm of these poor people: those who do not make themselves god and those who do not want to worship an idol. To understand Qoheleth's vision of wisdom we have should not forget his polemic with the "apocalyptic" movements of his time, populated by visionaries who entertained enchanted crowds by their tales of revelations, of which they were the only and undisputed masters. In this world there are certainly some more knowledgeable people, some who are less so and many who are foolish. There are also some very wise people, but there is no guarantee that wisdom and its light will always activate even in the most knowledgeable people. Qoheleth loves and seeks wisdom, but warns of the wise ones when they become a status or a social category, an élite that uses the light shining on their face "for profit".
There are artificial and cold lights on people's face, artfully modified facial features and winks that convince only the flatterer type of followers of the false wise men. Those who are familiar with the life of people who have experienced wisdom know that their biggest challenge was to preserve wisdom through the passing of years. There comes a point when the temptation to take possession of the light that they give as gift to the others becomes very strong, almost invincible. And that's when, very often, the light unperceivably begins to change in its brightness and the face starts to lose the ancient traits. Gratuitousness disappears, and so do its typical fruits: freedom, joy, the presence of the poor. It is a process involving the ex-wise and their listeners, and therefore it is a trap from which it is difficult to escape, but not impossible.
Let us not forget that Qoheleth presents himself to his listeners with the name of Solomon (chapter 1), who was the wisest king, but in the last part of his life he suffered a setback. The complex, ambivalent and mysterious personal story of King Solomon is an essential background to understand Qoheleth's words on wisdom. Although wise in his youth, the aging Solomon's heart was "turned away" by his wives, and he worshiped foreign gods (1 Kings 11) - a fact that may partly explain the harsh criticism Qoheleth exerts on women: (7.26-28). Not even the wisest of all men was always wise and will be for all his life.
All of us, however, can be wise, we all have had experiences of this wisdom in life. At least once. It is not a luxury, available only for a few chosen souls, leaders of some spiritual clubs. Real wisdom is popular, it dwells inside the houses of all, in the workplaces, in the streets, in the markets. It is the light that we see lighting up in the face of a friend who, poor just like us, collects our pain and is able to tell us words of life that always console us, sometimes even save us. The light that we have seen many times in the faces of our parents, when they gave us those few different words with which we can still keep walking. And while we warm ourselves by the light of wisdom - if the light of the other person's face does not warm us then it is not the light of wisdom - we all gain an experience of the distance of the wisdom, and of the "deep depth". And so we continue to desire and seek it, with gratuitousness.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2016-01-23 22:00:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2016-01-23 23:00:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => La prima esperienza che fa chi ama la sapienza è la certezza di non possederla. La sapienza è una esperienza, una luce che si accende sul volto mentre accade dentro un rapporto. E che muore per mancanza di gratuità. [access] => 1 [hits] => 2736 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 9865 [ordering] => 38 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2016-01-23 22:00:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16378:wise-is-the-one-who-does-not-make-himself-god [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/12 - We need a double gratuitousness: both in giving and receiving
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 24/01/2016
"Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks."
Book of Proverbs, 1,20-21
Wisdom exists. On this earth there is nothing better than to desire and seek it. But it remains far away, because if you get too close, it disappears or is transformed into something else that's simpler and more trivial. It is something very different from what we call intelligence, talent, wisdom, competence or culture today.
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-odd )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16379 [title] => Bless the great disappointment [alias] => bless-the-great-disappointment [introtext] =>Naked Questions/11 - Bitter truth is better than sweet self-deceit
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 17/01/2016
"At times God
kills lovers
Because he doesn't want
to be surpassed
in love”.Alda Merini, A volte Dio (At times God; rough translation of the Italian original)
Truth is a basic need of the human heart. We have constructed theories of behaviour based on "pyramids of needs", where moral goods are found on the third and fourth "levels", treated as luxury goods that we can afford only after having got enough to eat and drink. As if beauty, love and truth were not essential goods, as if sleep was more necessary than respect, as if sex meant more than relationships or safety was more than care.
[fulltext] =>This way we are forgetting that history tells us about many wealthy people who have been left to die for the lack of a good answer to the question "why do I have to get up this morning?", and many others who have endured long years in conditions of extreme hunger and thirst - only because there was someone waiting for them at home. There are many forms this need for truth can take whether it is about ourselves, the heart and the actions of those we love or beliefs and ideals that have built and nurtured our existence. One of these is the vital urgency that arrives suddenly one day to see if we have ended up in a great self-illusion, in a "bubble of vanitas" which surrounds us, our loved ones, God and all our certainties. On that day everything else becomes relative, this truth becomes an absolute, and the best of our energies are spent to understand if we are free and true as we thought or fallen into a trap without realizing it.
This experience is neither universal nor necessary, but it is very common among those who made radical choices in their youth, believed in a great promise, followed a voice calling them to a new land. In these people, whether religious or lay, one day, for various reasons, you can insinuate doubt that the reality of yesterday was just a wind or a dream. If we asked little from life, this time does not come, but it almost always presents itself when we asked a lot from it during the most beautiful years of great enthusiasm. Sometimes the process of being tested by doubt makes us realise that the great self-deceit was only an appearance, and what seemed to be a ghost was only the shadow of a true presence. At other times, however, we end up realising that we have really been fooled for a long time, about a lot of important things.
The Book of Ecclesiastes has already told us, and continues to repeat, that this second call for the search is not at all a failure, but it is actually a very good thing. That's because a real life of disillusion is better than a life lived in illusion, bitter truth is better than sweet self-deceit. Qoheleth's wisdom is essentially a gift given to us to help free ourselves from illusions. If truth has a value in itself, then dashed illusions should be preferred to illusional certainties. Qoheleth tells us that these times of transformation of the "days of vanity" into disappointment, these instances of authentic awakening are true "blessings", among the greatest under the sun. He also knows that the acceptance of the "vanitas" and the admission to self-deceit generated by the need for illusions are especially long and difficult operations.
So, with his cyclic method, he repeated the same messages multiple times, always with new tones: “For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.” (Qoheleth 6,8; 7,15). Creative and poetic repetition is part of his style. Knowing how to stand still during the repetition of great and torch bearing words requires great gentleness and strength of the heart and mind, practices that our time has not only forgotten, but fights hard in the name of efficiency and speed: “the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit” (7,8).
The "vanitas" type of illusions are interwoven with the most beautiful truths of our life. They are nested in our talents, like the much weed growing in the midst of the first good wheat. They mature together with us, having worn masks put on the faces of the best people in our lives, nourished of our most beautiful charismas. Therefore, it takes time and perseverance to free ourselves from illusions, if we want to get to the end of the process and not stop too soon, satisfied by the first and simplest cuts carved, unable to break away from our illusional past because we are too fond of those old playthings: “Say not, »Why were the former days better than these?« For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.” (7,10)
The only possible victory over "vanitas" in this land is to be able to die and rise again while one is still alive. At least once. This death-and-resurrection can come in many ways, some are bright, others dark. Sometimes it takes the form of overcoming a serious illness - every great recovery is a battle in a nightly ford, from which we leave injured, blessed with a new name and a new, resurrected body with the stigmata of suffering. At some other times, especially regarding those who have already had a first experience of death and resurrection (and maybe having already "risen" do not plan to "die" anymore), it takes the form of the "great disappointment". What begins to die there is not a physical or moral illness to fight, but all had seemed to be beautiful, good and true in the past life.
It is the son of the promise who sets off with us, early in the morning towards Mount Moriah.
It is only rarely that these fights with the great disappointment have a good outcome. It is not easy to win in this kind of struggle, because the enemy is not outside: we have to fight with the best part of our own selves. It is relatively easy to arrive at the threshold of disappointment – and much more difficult and rare to cross it. One senses the hardness, the uncertainty and the loss of the post-illusion life, does not face fear of the unknown and the pain of disappointment, and so tends to easily regress to adolescence. To avoid the death of the past one gives up a new future (and a good present).
And so one ends up creating a conflict between the need for truth and the cost of the process of liberation from illusions. At first one stays inside the gap between illusion and delusion. But this state of tension does not last long. So, sooner or later, we have to decide whether to make the jump to try and reach the cliff beyond the gap (at the risk of falling and subsiding), or turn our back and start on the way back to the old illusions. If we return home, for a short time we still feel discomfort and pain for the lack of truth, but then almost always begin to attribute the status of truth to the old and new illusions.
The need for truth is usually active and it is stronger, it prevails, but here it operates in a twisted way. "Illusions turn into truth". We adapt to illusion, and to survive we begin, almost always unconsciously, to call unhappiness happiness, illusion truth. And so the trap becomes perfect. At other times, we do not accept disappointment and become cynical and angry with life, with the past and with fellow-accomplices of the days of our "vain life". It's but another trap, no less deep and serious.
On rare occasions, however, the operation is successful, and one day we wake up to find ourselves resurrected – humanity managed to intuit something of the unique resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, because many men and women had already risen thousands of times, and continue to do so. In the first phase of this authentic new life great loneliness is experienced. The age of illusion had been a collective, social and community experience. After crossing through the great disappointment, however, we all find ourselves alone, and every one of us has a sure feeling of being the only living being awake in a world of those who are asleep.
If you can overcome this special type of moral suffering (which is not to be taken for granted), another phase begins. You realise that in fact you are not alone, and you begin to know, one by one, others who live the same experience under the same sky. A new social life starts then, which is all different from the one lived earlier. New friends are found in unexpected and improbable places, but sometimes in the usual places, too. They are discovered in books, art, poetry, and almost always among the poor.
Finally, if the journey continues, the desire is born to go and meet the many who are still inside the bubble of illusion, to "wake them up", free them and pull them out of their cave of shadows, to have them see true reality. And we usually get very committed to this mission. Only to understand, one day, that a new idolatry has crept into this missionary spirit in which we ourselves were the idol.
One finds oneself on the edge of the gap between the rocks again, and has to decide whether to stay in this illusion-idolatry or attempt a new leap, risking a new death, and hope again in a new resurrection. Once you begin to resurrect you should not stop anymore. And, perhaps, in the end we realize, crying different tears, that the resurrected truth was already present in that first "vanitas" which we fought so hard until we killed it. And so the butterfly thanks the caterpillar, the pearl the oyster, the resurrected the abandoned. But, at the beginning and during the process, we won't be able to know this: «Better is the end of a thing than its beginning» (7,8).
Qoheleth has probably known and experienced something similar. If we know how to read between his lines, we can clearly see the long stretch of the road that goes from illusion to disappointment, and glimpse a few flashes of resurrection. If Qoheleth hadn't risen again after "vanitas" he could not give us the gift of his words. His book would not have been included in the Bible. We would not have been touched inside our disappointments, taken by the hand and accompanied in our own resurrections.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2016-01-16 23:00:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2016-01-16 23:00:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => La necessità (e la difficoltà) di staccarci dall’insoddisfazione per ciò che si è sperimentato è una tappa quasi obbligata per chi ha chiesto molto alla vita. Qohelet ci dice che questo momento non è un fallimento bensì una vera benedizione. Non è facile affrontare la delusione senza tornare alle facili illusioni ma è sempre possibile imparare a risorgere [access] => 1 [hits] => 2718 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 9902 [ordering] => 39 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2016-01-16 23:00:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16379:bless-the-great-disappointment [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/11 - Bitter truth is better than sweet self-deceit
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 17/01/2016
"At times God
kills lovers
Because he doesn't want
to be surpassed
in love”.Alda Merini, A volte Dio (At times God; rough translation of the Italian original)
Truth is a basic need of the human heart. We have constructed theories of behaviour based on "pyramids of needs", where moral goods are found on the third and fourth "levels", treated as luxury goods that we can afford only after having got enough to eat and drink. As if beauty, love and truth were not essential goods, as if sleep was more necessary than respect, as if sex meant more than relationships or safety was more than care.
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-even )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16380 [title] => The Pyramid of Victims [alias] => the-pyramid-of-victims [introtext] =>Naked Questions/10 - Accumulating goods is not bliss, happiness lies in work
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 10/01/2016
“When Providence divided the earth among a few lordly masters, it neither forgot nor abandoned those who seemed to have been left out in the partition. These last too enjoy their share of all that it produces. In what constitutes the real happiness of human life, they are in no respect inferior to those who would seem so much above them. In ease of body and peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level, and the beggar, who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for.”
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
The desecration of the law and justice have always activated the voice and the indignation of the prophets who continue to expose the corrupt and call them to conversion.
[fulltext] =>The criticism Qoheleth casts on his unequal society is different, but no less radical than the prophetic one. He doesn't really believe in the moral conversion of the powerful, but with the strength of his wisdom he dismounts the logic of their power and wealth from within, pointing out the intrinsic vanity in it as a layperson.
To restore hope to the poor who have been humiliated the fiery words of the new prophets would be needed, but a few new Qoheleths would be equally valuable, as they should be capable of revealing the nonsense and the sadness of our fake richness and false happiness.
“If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields.” (Ecclesiastes 5,8-9). Half way through into his discourse, Qoheleth takes us inside the dynamics of power and bureaucratic and hierarchical societies. His first mention is of the "oppressed poor", but instead of a moral condemnation he "loves" the poor with truth, revealing a not-so-evident reality. He tells us that those who seem strong and belonging to the rulers are actually victims of a sick and corrupt system.
The unmasking eye of Ecclesiastes can see the high pyramid of oppression, exploitation and injustice over the poor. On top of a torturer there's another one that oppresses him, and so on, until the last boss, the king, whom Qoheleth still sees as "committed to cultivated fields". Although the meaning of this verse (5,8) is doubtful because it's been corrupted by time, it is not a farfetched idea that Ecclesiastes wanted to place the king in the chain of servitude and vanity, too. Not even the greatest and richest man - as Genesis also tells us in the "Joseph Cycle" - can free himself from the dependence on the rhythms of nature, from famine and calamities, from returning to dust and to earth as all Adams: “As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came...” (5,15).
There are many things we can read from this description of injustice as a social pyramid of oppression. First of all Qoheleth offers us the opportunity to take a less severe moral look on the last taskmaster who oppresses the poor, because his act of unfair abuse is often sparked by other abuses of which he is the victim in turn. There is no moral justification for his behaviour, only an invitation to a better reading of the exploitation in question. Those that seem victim-perpetrator relationships to us are often victim-victim ones instead. The world is filled by hevel, everything is an endless Abel, the earth is full of victims: Qoheleth told us so in the opening passages of his book. Now he shows us victims where we only see executioners. Hence there are three important things to be noted: the rise of hierarchies increases the number of victims under the sky; the weight of the entire pyramid pours on the last oppressed poor; if we want to save the poor from oppression the pyramids generating victims should be demolished. Yesterday and today. Today as we look at capitalist enterprises or other hierarchical institutions, the abuse of power or exploitation itself does not appear to us as their first nature. Furthermore, the new management ideology is replacing hierarchical relationships with incentives that are presented as horizontal relations, contracts based on the free choice of all parties involved in it. In fact, if we are guided by the ancient wisdom and we try to look beyond ideological appearances, we will realise that when a wicked financial product is administered to a pensioner by an officer there is also an official of a higher order that puts pressure on and oppresses that first official for the achievement of corporate goals on which the wages and careers of both of them depend. And so on, going up the steps of the pyramid, until we reach the top and find heads of companies that, in turn, are "servants" to the market movements, geopolitics and natural phenomena. In that final product-abuse there weighs the whole chain of ill born relationships.
Not all hierarchies are characterised by abuse and harassment, but still many, and the Bible invites us to dream of a type of new land, law and justice that is not there yet. There are no organizations without exercise of authority, but you cannot exercise a non-hierarchical authority. There are only a few historical experiments of non-hierarchical authorities, and many among them have been unsuccessful. But the poor will be "oppressed" and the victims will be multiplying until we learn to translate the principle of fraternity in the governance of companies and institutions.
After this description of the morphology of power and hierarchy, Qoheleth returns to one of its major themes: the vanity of the pursuit of wealth, the smoke of avarice: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity [smoke, hevel]” (5,10). It is a phrase that we should display at the entrance of business schools, companies and banks. When money becomes an end instead of being a means, it turns into a tool that creates endless unhappiness, because its accumulation soon becomes the main purpose of life; and accumulation, by its very nature, has no end, it is an idol that always wants to eat. There is no poor more miserable than the greedy one, because the increase of his money increases his hunger. And then he continues: “When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a labourer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.” (5,11:-12). What great wisdom!
Here Qoheleth takes us inside a palace of his era in the Middle East. He shows us a rich man, and a plethora of courtiers and parasites around him that eat his wealth. It's all and only about unhappiness, of parasites and also the rich whose wealth and dreams get eaten. Outside the building there is instead a worker, a farmer or a craftsman, who lives by his labour and has sweet dreams. In these few words we find the ancient and eternal conflict between income and labour, between those who live by eating yesterday's bread and others who live from the little bread of their work. It has never been work to create great wealth. It is almost always produced by income, i.e. by income deriving from some form of privilege, abuse or advantage. And income generates parasites, unproductive consumption, from which there is no work or happiness born for anyone. The "parasitic syndrome" never fails to appear in times of moral decay, when entrepreneurs, workers, entire social categories stop generating work and new revenue streams today and invest energy to protect the profits and privileges of yesterday.
Parasitism is a disease that is not found in the economic sphere only. Those who fall into this syndrome include, for example, those communities or movements that become large and beautiful thanks to the work of the founders and the first generation, and instead of developing what they inherited by new work, risk and creativity they begin to live off of it, satiated by the past, unable to generate "children" and a future. The parasitic syndrome is still the leading cause of death of businesses and communities.
Qoheleth clearly stands on the side of labour, those who work "under the sun" to earn a living. He has already told us so (3,12-13), and now he repeats it with more poetry and force: “Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink ... for this is his lot.” (5,18) There is no other happiness than what we can see in our everyday work, enjoying the fruits it brings. Qoheleth continues his polemic against religion and economic compensation in a coherent fashion.
The blessing of God is not in wealth and possessions. However, surprising us, he also tells us that it is possible that even the rich, for a special grant of God, may share a "part" of this good happiness: “Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God.” (5,19) It's rare, but not impossible: the rich man, too, can be happy, if he works and manages to enjoy his effort.
There are millions of people, rich and poor, businessmen and housewives, who can give substance and happiness to their lives simply by working. There are those who defeat death and vanitas every day by rearranging a room, preparing a meal, repairing a car, teaching a lesson. There are certainly higher forms of happiness than these in our lives, but we cannot reach them unless we learn to find the simple happiness in the ordinary efforts of every day. We are only saved by working. Not because of a sentimental joy or self-comforting that abounds in the pens of non-workers - Qoheleth would never forgive us for that - but for the one that flourishes inside fatigue and even in tears. The Book of Ecclesiastes, however, tells us something even more beautiful: “For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart” (5,20). Work is a generator of joy because if we get engaged in a non-vain activity our heart is distracted from "thinking too much" – and wrongly – about vanities that may be real in our lives; and also because that's where Elohim is waiting for us with his joyfullness.
This humble joy is not the opium of the peoples, it is simply our good fate. If the presence of Elohim in the heart is a "response" to the good efforts, if it is the first salary of the worker, then the joy that sometimes surprises us during work can be no less than the presence of the divine on earth. This, Qoheleth, my friend, is really good news. So where is your much evidenced pessimism? Under the sun, non-vain joy is actually possible.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2016-01-09 23:00:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2016-01-09 23:00:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => La gerarchia aumenta il numero delle vittime, perché anche chi opprime è a sua volta un oppresso. La ricerca di ricchezza affama, e l’avarizia è insaziabile. Chi lavora sogna dolci sogni, e incontra Dio nel suo cuore. Dov’è allora il pessimismo di Qohelet? [access] => 1 [hits] => 3021 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 10517 [ordering] => 40 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2016-01-09 23:00:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16380:the-pyramid-of-victims [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/10 - Accumulating goods is not bliss, happiness lies in work
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 10/01/2016
“When Providence divided the earth among a few lordly masters, it neither forgot nor abandoned those who seemed to have been left out in the partition. These last too enjoy their share of all that it produces. In what constitutes the real happiness of human life, they are in no respect inferior to those who would seem so much above them. In ease of body and peace of mind, all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level, and the beggar, who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses that security which kings are fighting for.”
Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments
The desecration of the law and justice have always activated the voice and the indignation of the prophets who continue to expose the corrupt and call them to conversion.
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-odd )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16381 [title] => Faith is not a market [alias] => faith-is-not-a-market [introtext] =>Naked Questions/9 - The horizon of gratuitousness - for God not to be reduced into a fetish
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 03/01/2016
"He is born in vain, who having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realise God in this very life."
Shri Ramakrishna, Searching for God
The religious universe, since it can enable the most powerful energy of the human soul, is the place where higher and more noble feelings and actions can be found. But in that same space great dangers are lurking, too, when the healthy cells of faith go mad, poison our heart and stultify us.
[fulltext] =>History and the offer an endless review of this inevitable ambivalence. The Bible contains the remedies, too, to prevent and cure diseases arising from the religions and ideologies. Many of these remedies are preserved in the Book of Ecclesiastes, which, as a spiritual vaccine, continues to prevent and cure, if we are ready to "take it" and endure a little fever initially.
“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools... Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.” (Ecclesiastes 5,1-2) In his research Qoheleth is not limited to observing the vanity of civilian life "under the sun". In this chapter of his discourse he makes us enter the temple of Jerusalem, and sifts worship, prayers and the main religious practice of his time, sacrifices, through his wisdom. He is still in search of vanity concealed beneath things.
And so he begins with a warning: be careful, “guard your steps” when you leave your house to go to the temple because it is a place full of pitfalls and traps. Religious life requires attention, care, safekeeping: "shamar". Here we find the same word ("shamar") that Genesis used to express the command of care-safekeeping-nurturing of the earth that Elohim trusts to Adam (Genesis 2,15). We shall find this same word when Cain, as a non-answer to the question of Elohim: “Where is Abel[Hevel]?”, uttered the terrible phrase: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4,9). This care- "shamar" placed as the first word of the first discourse of Qoheleth on religious life can already tell a lot to us: the Adam (man), if he does not want to become Cain, should take care of the earth and of his brother, but he also has to take care of his relationship with God. Religion is above all a "taking care of God so that he is not turned into an idol," it is attention paid to our words, safekeeping of the places, taking care of the heart. And when this care is lacking, religions are gradually turned into idolatrous worship, or simply to stupidity, as Qoheleth likes to say.
For Qoheleth, taking care of religious life means first of all silence, listening and economy of words. In front of the religious "machinery" that led to "filling up" the temple of words and sacrifices, Qoheleth proposes to "empty" it, to clear it, to free up space inside and outside of it. Religions have been and are interwoven by the conflict-dialogue between two different cultures that are usually opposed to each other. It is the one that believed and believes that religion consists in the "production" of words, sacrifices, offerings and rituals, in a placing, adding, and taking up of the space of the encounter with the divine with artefacts. The culture to which Qoheleth belongs, however, believed and believes that the main if not the only work of the faithful is to safeguard the space of the divine, protecting it from many words, saving it from the blood of the sacrifice of victims; an art of removing, a safekeeping of a clear, unfilled space.
The first culture - necessarily - tends to transform God into the golden calf, because it needs to see, touch and hear a God that day after day becomes more and more like the human words that express him. The second religious culture is likely to live in an eternal waiting for a God who never speaks. Qoheleth is a great enemy of the calf-type religion because in order to live the presence of the true Elohim he considers the custody of an empty space much wiser than a temple too full of things. If the places of God are not emptied, it is God himself who ends up being emptied; if the number of words "about" God is not reduced then the word "of" God will be consumed. Qoheleth prefers a God who is far away to a god who is too close - "God is in heaven and you are on earth". It is better to remain in the state of waiting for God than to meet a stupid fetish every day.
Among the main causes of sacrifices in the temple there were the unkept vows. In ancient times, and even in Israel, it was very common to make vows, promises, commitments with God – on which the Bible expresses an ambivalent judgement: think of the "unholy" vow of Jephthah, which led him to sacrifice his daughter (Judges, 11). Qoheleth says, “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay” (5,5). In fact, the original meaning of those Semitic verses is now far away, also because editorial changes softening the naked criticism of the temple and the priests cannot be excluded when considering the Book of Ecclesiastes. If we wanted to try to make a more effective teaching of Qoheleth on vows and their reparative sacrifices, then we could summarize it as follows: do not make vows as they are stupid practices, but if you really want to make one then try to respect it. This way, at least, you will not feed the foolish and idolatrous trade of sacrifices.
The core of his discourse on the temple is becoming more and more clear. Vows and sacrifices were the most popular expression of the commercial and retributive religion of his time. By offering sacrifices and libations one entered in an economic relationship with the divinity. By making vows one could gain "merits" before God (which is a very ancient word that they want to prove new to us nowadays). In front of these practices Qoheleth says that the relationship between man and God is not of the mercantile type, market exchange is not worthy of him and that we should not apply the economic logic to faith, because - and here is the point - this is the religion of the idolaters and of the many forms of magic and superstition. The logic by which God is at work in history remains veiled to us; but, Qoheleth says, one thing is certain: it cannot be that which governs our affairs "under the sun", because it would be too stupid.
This argument against retribution, which is also present in Job and in a lot of the prophetic tradition and wisdom, was very valuable among the Jewish people that has always been tempted to read their experience with YHWH-Elohim through commercial categories, starting with the very structure of the Covenant.
The faith of Israel is born within the cultures of Mesopotamia, where it was normal to see religion as an exchange relationship with a sovereign-God. Religious practices, in their archaic origin, normally arise as idolatrous practices of a commercial type. Those that manage to evolve and break free from their primordial forms, gradually abandon the logic of do-ut-des with respect to the deity. Much of the effort that the people of Israel has made was generated by the process of liberation from a merchant God who gave grace and indulgences in exchange for vows, sacrifices and offerings. Without the prophets, without Job and Ecclesiastes, this process would have imploded, and the religion of Israel would remain one of the many Canaanite cults. But the temptation of an "economic" religion is inherent in every religion, and without the necessary care and attention one may end up back in the ancient idolatrous cults, turning Elohim to a King hungry for offerings and submission statements to grant protection.
So religion becomes a "double game" between the faithful and the gods again, where the sacrifices and vows become the "currency" (not only in a metaphorical sense) of this business. An economic religion that has always had (and has) many followers just because it is much too easy, is simply stupid, says Qoheleth - "the sacrifice [is] of the fools".
The believer is happy to purchase "merits" and compensate faults by simple sacrifices, and the administrators of religion draw much economic advantage and control over consciences by fuelling this vile trade. It is not a coincidence that the episode of Jesus with the merchants in the temple (John 2,14-16) is placed at the very beginning of his public life, we can understand it clearly if our point of departure is from these pages of Ecclesiastes. Christianity has had to fight a lot in its early phase to announce a religion of full gratuitousness, and whenever it stops this fight it always falls back to being an ancient idolatrous cult. We need a lot of work and a lot of care not to exit from the horizon of gratuitousness, falling back in the registers of merit and fault.
In the wide range of sacrifices in the temple, Qohelet focuses also on the so-called "unintentional sins" or inadvertencies (mistakes): “Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger (priest) that it was a mistake.” (5,6) The creation of the category of unintentional sins is great, comparable to the most sophisticated products of our finance. This way a "stock market" and a "price system" were created for not-real actions, too, that are neither intentional nor desired. The perfect market. Artificial faults are invented to be then erased by very real and expensive sacrifices. A market with a potentially infinite demand, and with it its profits, too, all managed by the "temple" and its accounting. Ecclesiastes unmasks this great "vanitas", too, and reminds us, still in unison with Job (22,23), that even mercy needs truth: it is smoke, it is false mercy to create sins "in order to" forgive them.
The existence of a "place above the sun" where relationships are not regulated by contract, by symmetrical reciprocity, by market exchange was a crucial precondition for businesses and affairs "under the sun" to make sure they remain human affairs. It was this heaven inhabited by gratuitousness that we have been allowed to imagine and achieve civil economies and good democracies. But what kind of economies, what kind of democracies will we be able to imagine in the era of meritocracy and incentives without gratuitousness?
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2016-01-03 05:44:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2016-01-03 05:44:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => Qohelet ci invita ad avere cura e attenzione per non cadere nelle insidie di cui è popolata la vita religiosa. La sua lettura è un antidoto per ogni fede, perché non resti intrappolata nell’analogia commerciale delle religioni economiche. [access] => 1 [hits] => 2651 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 10458 [ordering] => 41 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2016-01-03 05:44:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16381:faith-is-not-a-market [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/9 - The horizon of gratuitousness - for God not to be reduced into a fetish
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 03/01/2016
"He is born in vain, who having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realise God in this very life."
Shri Ramakrishna, Searching for God
The religious universe, since it can enable the most powerful energy of the human soul, is the place where higher and more noble feelings and actions can be found. But in that same space great dangers are lurking, too, when the healthy cells of faith go mad, poison our heart and stultify us.
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-even )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16382 [title] => Better two than just one [alias] => better-two-than-just-one [introtext] =>Naked Questions/8 - Life lived in isolation and its salt (and salary) are savourless
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 27/12/2015
"On the beach of the worlds / the surf is broken / ancient and new alike / carrying human desires / palpitating in the sun / invoking life. ... And we are here waiting for him. Because he is still to come. ... And no one / will be left alone in the end"
Rough translation of the excerpt from the poem by Maria Pia Giudici entitled Sulla spiaggia dei mondi (On the beach of the worlds)
Solitudes are not all the same. There are people who have become lonely in life, elderly people whose solitude continues to be inhabited by the absence-presence of those whom they have loved. Some people are lonely simply because they are poor, isolated and abandoned on the outskirts of our cities.
[fulltext] =>But there are also the different instances of loneliness of the powerful, or that of the victims of a socio-economic model that celebrates the liberation from bonds as an achievement of civilization, promising another type of happiness by replacing people with merchandise. The good instances of loneliness, which can even be blessed ('blessed solitude, sola beatitudo') are increasingly intertwined with meetings: they are the breaks in the ordinary social rhythm of life, the different dialogues that recreate and regenerate the inner space in order to meet the face of the other again. But when loneliness becomes an alternative to life in community, when I’d rather meet myself just to run away from you, if I get used to being alone because I do not know how to be with anyone, the strong words of Qoheleth return: woe to him who is alone.
“Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbour. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.” (Ecclesiastes 4: 4-6)
Qoheleth continues criticising his society. ‘Under the sun’ he sees men who rush into a competition that for Qoheleth is not the spirit of development but only the result of social envy. He saw men outscore the others in a game where everyone loses, in ‘positional races’ with no goal. He saw this in his world, and we see it even more in ours. And so his strong judgment is issued yet again: hebel, vanity, smoke, silly run of the wind. On the opposite side of this frenzy, Qoheleth sees those who reject entering the race, crossing their arms in inactivity. This is not a sign of wisdom, either. It is just as foolish as the envy-driven competition of the first scene.
After that, he shows us a wise road to take: leaving a hand free so that its palm can be filled by calmness and rest gained from 'consolation'. The two hands of the human being are not to be engaged in the same activity: if the one who leaves both hands motionless is foolish then the one who makes both of them busy with hectic work is equally insane. The fruit of labour and industriousness can be enjoyed only if we leave a gap for no-work, if one palm is empty and can accept the fruits conquered by the other. He who never works is crazy, and he who always works is crazier.
Our civilization is built around the condemnation of idleness, and has created a culture of good life based on work by establishing a fundamental link between human dignity, democracy and labour. If your arms are inactive because you do not want to or cannot work in your working age do not generate either welfare or joy. In the race that western civilization began several decades ago, however, we have forgotten the second folly-vanity according to wise Qoheleth: life is smoke and a striving after wind also because of too much work. Work is only good in its right 'time'.
In that ancient culture the experience of Egypt and Babylon were still alive, when the Jews became slaves and had to constantly work with both hands. Only the slaves and those enslaved by envy and greed are scrambling always just for work. It is difficult to say today whether the ones suffering more are the unemployed who cross their arms innocently or the overpaid managers who spend Christmas in the office because work - like all idols - has gradually eaten up their soul and friends. These are different types of suffering and both are very serious, but we do not see the second one as madness and vanitas, and we incentivize it.
It is the relationship between one and two that is the focus of this chapter of Ecclesiastes: “Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person [one, not two] who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, »For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure« This also is vanity and an unhappy business.” (4,7-8) We are reading a wonderful page, a veritable distillate of anthropology. Qoheleth reveals a deep, radical and terrible relationship between solitude and work. He presents us with a man who works too much, always ('there is no end to all his toil'), and all the riches he earns do not satisfy him ever. It is in this non-satiety that the key to this verse lies: the riches that cannot be shared does not satiate, it does not satisfy our hearts. It only feeds the striving after wind, and produces the great self-deception that wealth in itself or an increase in assets will satiate today's poverty tomorrow. And the carousel continues to turn, getting emptier and emptier.
Suddenly Ecclesiastes makes us enter into the soul of this person, showing us a quick but intense way of self-examination: 'but why all these toils for nothing? Who and what is this crazy job consuming my life good for?' If we could read the diary of the soul of our time, we would find millions of such cases of self-examination. Loneliness 'distorts incentives' and makes you work too much, because job satisfaction becomes a substitute for happiness outside of work. Work that gradually becomes everything destroys all the few remaining relationships, and so you work even more. Working time increases, I come home tired, I do not feel like going out, the 'cost' of relationships outside of work increases, tomorrow I'll go out less, and I will work more... Then one day the timely question may come: 'But why and for whom?' It is a rather dramatic question if the first time we ask it from ourselves is just before pension, but one that can be liberating if we are still in time. As long as we are alive enough to ask this question, we can still hope: the really sad day is the one when we decide not to suffer for our own unhappiness and just adapt to it. We convince ourselves to be well inside the trap into which we have fallen, and we do not ask for anything, so as not to die.
“Two are better than one (...). For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him — a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (4,9-12).
This is not a specific praise of family or friendship or even the spirituality of the community. This message is more radical. Life does not work if you're alone. When we are alone we are weak, vulnerable and miserable. More than two millennia have passed since these ancient words were written, and we have created contracts, insurances and thermal blankets to manage without the other. And so we have created the greatest collective illusion of human history: to believe that we can rise again, protect and warm ourselves on our own. But we also learned that it is not enough just to be in two in the same bed to feel warmth: there are no colder beds than those where you sleep in two, each immersed in their own solitude with no more words to say. It is not enough to be in two to escape the 'woe to him who is alone'. There are many instances of desperate loneliness masked as company, and many true companies hidden behind what seems like solitude.
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.” (4,9). Good salary can be shared. The true meaning of hard work is to have someone who is waiting for our salary. Salary without a horizon that's bigger than our ego is like salt without the dough it should flavour. The right time for a good salary is that of the home. Accumulating wealth without there being someone who should grow, live, study, be taken care of by this wealth, is nothing but a striving after wind, it is food that does not satiate our hunger, even when consumed in five-star restaurants.
Our era is losing the right time of work also because the link between work and family has been broken. When there are no children, when the horizon of work is too low, it is hard to find an answer to the naked question of Ecclesiastes. But our post-capitalist society has a growing need for people without strong ties of belonging, and so it lacks the limits on working hours, shifts, just as the rhythm of the different 'times'. This is what the ideal executives of big corporations are like. At times someone asks themselves: "why all this work, for whom is it"? It is a question that may be the beginning of a new life. The selection of new goods and services to accompany loneliness is becoming wider and more sophisticated with the sale of pseudo-relational goods. We produce people who are more and more lonely and we produce more and more goods to satisfy their insatiable loneliness. And the GDP - the indicator of our misery - grows and with it grows the unmet demand for gratuitousness.
But what will happen when this question of Ecclesiastes becomes a collective one? What new answers will we be able to give together? Will there still be good salt in the pantries of our businesses and cities? And if, looking carefully in every corner, we find even just a handful of it, will that be enough to flavour the dough? And will that salt still taste good?
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2015-12-27 05:44:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2015-12-27 05:44:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => L’umanesimo biblico è quello del ‘due o più’, dove impariamo a dire bene ‘io’ solo dopo aver appreso a pronunciare il nome dell’altro. Il salario buono è quello condiviso. La nostra economia ha bisogno di persone sole che cercano merci per saziare una solitudine insaziabile. È la casa abitata il giusto tempo del lavoro. [access] => 1 [hits] => 2513 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 9722 [ordering] => 42 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2015-12-27 05:44:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16382:better-two-than-just-one [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/8 - Life lived in isolation and its salt (and salary) are savourless
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 27/12/2015
"On the beach of the worlds / the surf is broken / ancient and new alike / carrying human desires / palpitating in the sun / invoking life. ... And we are here waiting for him. Because he is still to come. ... And no one / will be left alone in the end"
Rough translation of the excerpt from the poem by Maria Pia Giudici entitled Sulla spiaggia dei mondi (On the beach of the worlds)
Solitudes are not all the same. There are people who have become lonely in life, elderly people whose solitude continues to be inhabited by the absence-presence of those whom they have loved. Some people are lonely simply because they are poor, isolated and abandoned on the outskirts of our cities.
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-odd )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16383 [title] => The Fatigue of Waiting Is a Living Thing [alias] => the-fatigue-of-waiting-is-a-living-thing [introtext] =>Naked Questions/7 - the Consoler comes in the heart of the night of suffering
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 20/12/2015
"The security of faith is not accessible and cannot be made accessible to people today. If one takes it seriously he knows this, and should not at all be deceived. But the ability to open himself up to faith is not denied to him. He can accept it, embrace it with all his might and wait for what will happen to him, see if a new sincerity sprouts in him."
Martin Buber, Hebrew Humanism
The Book of Ecclesiastes is not a novel or a theological treatise. It is more like a spiritual and ethical diary. Its various chapters record and narrate thoughts, emotions and experiences of a traveller under the sun. Its boundless interest and strength depend on the wisdom, theological freedom and moral courage of its author who has been speaking to us for at least twenty-three centuries.
[fulltext] =>Only the greatest of books are capable of doing so. So as we are travelling through life with Qoheleth, we meet some 'diary pages' where we are totally immersed in the smoke of vanitas, as well as some others where the joy of the 'song of the times' delights and enchants us, to return immediately to meditate sadly on death and the transience of life. Like us, who today contemplate a child that's born and tomorrow accompany a friend in his last agony. The feelings are different, the tears are different, but it's the same life that flows. The pace of the times is also the rhythm of the pages of Ecclesiastes.
“Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.” (Ecclesiastes 3,16) Faced with the spectacle of injustice on earth, where evil lurks in the courts that should ensure fairness, Qoheleth tells us that “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work" (3,17). And so he adds God's 'time' to our times that are way too unbalanced and distorted. He feels pain over an unjust world, about the infinite number of Abel-like victims who inhabit the earth. But waiting for the last judgment at the end of times is not the answer Qoheleth gives to inequity, because the world 'above the sun' is too far away and inaccessible for him to offer a convincing answer to the injustice of the one under the sun. The judgment of God has to take place here, on earth. If the time of Elohim's justice really exists, it must fit within our mortal time. Because if it is not in our time, it will be just out of time and therefore not useful for improving the conditions and the justice of our lives. Qoheleth is not interested in non-human times, because if they are not human they can only be inhuman and anti-human.
Qoheleth's discourse is, therefore, a type of humanism: he asks God to be the God of the living, not the God of the dead. The God under the sun, not the God in the highest. If we do not want to turn Elohim into a useless god, we must ask him to give us answers here and now, and especially to the victims. Like Job, the greatest friend of Qoheleth. Like us, his friends today, increasing the number of the many friends he has always had for centuries (although perhaps only our time can start to really understand him).
Qoheleth, surprising us again, tells us that a first justice under the sun is found in death: “I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath [ruah], and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity [hebel]. All go to one place” (3,18-20). We all die just like all the beasts die. We are brothers and sisters in a common and universal mortality. Sister death, brother wolf, sister dove, brother worm. In this dust of everyone and everything there is a wisdom, the infinite one of Solomon: “All [animals and human beings] are from the dust, and to dust all return” (3,20).
As children we learn about death as we see animals die. In that age of life we can still sense the same breath in animals as the one that inhabits us, our parents and our friends. Those desperate cries over the death of a cat or a little bird reveal a deeper access to life that we lose as adults. Only children are able to truly love animals and suffer for their pain - and perhaps only the elderly who have the grace to become children again can get close to that first love. The Book of Ecclesiastes helps us to recover the look of childhood, to recognize our own pain in the pain of the earth. It makes us feel the first breath of creation again.
The horizon within which Qoheleth places his speech is that of the early chapters of Genesis. He knows Elohim's breath-spirit that he had injected into the nostrils of Adam the terrestrial, making him a living being (Genesis 2,7). ‘For you are dust, and to dust you shall return’ (Genesis 3,19) resonates in his verses. But that of Qoheleth is a different kind of Genesis. The earthiness of Adam does not make him the ruler of the animals and all living species: the Adam of Ecclesiastes is first of all a creature like all the others. He knew that man was and is continually re-created 'in the image and likeness of God', as something very beautiful and ‘very good’(1,26; 31). He does not deny it, cannot deny it, but he wants to tell us something else: before being different from the rest of creation we are equal to all the living, because, just like them, we are mortal and live as long as the gift of breath is alive. Only God does not die. Man is not God because he dies, and his original and perennial rebellion is denying his own mortality - this is also Genesis (ch. 3). Nature is not God because it dies. Every snake, every idol promises us and enchants us by promising to eliminate death.
Qoheleth not only reaffirms this deeply and genuinely biblical message, but he also finds an answer to his and our question about justice. The justice inscribed in the death of all the animals becomes universal. The vanitas of the great, the rich and the dishonest is not only in their death like the way victims and the poor die (he told this to us in chapter 2). There is an even more radical and profound instance of vanitas: they, too, die - just like dogs, insects and birds do. The most powerful pharaoh dies like a hedgehog or a fly. The diversity in the luxury of the tombs and pyramids is only vanity, it is ephemeral, it counts for nothing (2,16). Universal death is the first universal justice.
Faced with this cosmic destiny we understand again why the only possible and true happiness is the one we can find in life as long as that unique breath-spirit given to us is alive in us: “So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot.” (3,22). Discovering the justice of death that awaits all the living and all the same way brings Qoheleth to praise the joy of human work and the happiness of work for the second time. We grow and age well when the company of pain and death increases the joy of health and happiness to return to the ordinary business of life in us.
Therefore, Qoheleth's song is harsh and true to life, even when he despises it because he is disappointed by the evil works of people under the sun: “Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.” (4,1-3).
It is the absence of consolation of the oppressed that raises doubts in Qoheleth about the superiority of being compared to not being in this world. We must not lose even an ounce of strength and beauty of this verse from Ecclesiastes: a life lived in oppression without comforters is worse than death. His is a condemnation of the too many oppressors present and an appeal to the absent comforters.
Those who mourn may be called 'blessed' only if they are comforted. Hell is the place of the 'half-beatitudes': the poor without the Kingdom, the pure of heart who do not see God, the meek who are landless and the afflicted who are disconsolate.
And standing on the side of the oppressed made such by the oppressors (oppression is a thoroughly human construction), Qoheleth finds the strength to call out for a comforter, a 'Paraclete'. Even if he does not see it – nor does he want to invent it – there is no worse deception of an invented comforter to answer our real question about comforters. Perhaps the advent of non-artificial comforters can be called for and awaited only by putting our heart in landfills where children search for the leftovers of our opulence, in the wars of child soldiers, alongside the girls sold to the merchants of sex because of desperate poverty.
It is only from there that we can wish for it, perhaps get a glimpse of it, too. Qoheleth did not believe that the redemption of these inconsolable victims was supposed to happen in paradise. He kept the pain of the earth due to the absence of comforters here and now alive, and so he made the expectation of his advent something non-vain. If he had yielded to the temptation of apocalyptic and idolatrous consolations, the Bible would have lost all its ability of becoming what it has become. But he continued to ask questions, resisting in the absence of answers. The goodness of existential questions is measured by their resilience in times of famine of true answers and opulence of false answers.
Without renewing this resistance and this waiting, even Christmas ends up evaporating in the vanitas of the shopping malls and the sentimentality of artificial atmospheres created for profit. To see the star of Christmas in our polluted sky again we have to wait for it, by staying close to the oppressed victims of the world, and keep looking eastward in the long night with them. The most beautiful Christmas is the one expected together with Qoheleth.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2015-12-20 05:44:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2015-12-20 05:44:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => Di fronte all’ingiustizia del mondo e dei tribunali, Qohelet invoca una giustizia e la trova nel comune destino mortale, di uomini e animali. Ma la morte vista come giustizia universale non è sufficiente per spiegare l’oppressione delle vittime e le loro lacrime. E qui invoca l’avvento di un consolatore, che attendiamo insieme a Qohelet. [access] => 1 [hits] => 2538 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 9971 [ordering] => 50 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2015-12-20 05:44:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16383:the-fatigue-of-waiting-is-a-living-thing [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/7 - the Consoler comes in the heart of the night of suffering
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 20/12/2015
"The security of faith is not accessible and cannot be made accessible to people today. If one takes it seriously he knows this, and should not at all be deceived. But the ability to open himself up to faith is not denied to him. He can accept it, embrace it with all his might and wait for what will happen to him, see if a new sincerity sprouts in him."
Martin Buber, Hebrew Humanism
The Book of Ecclesiastes is not a novel or a theological treatise. It is more like a spiritual and ethical diary. Its various chapters record and narrate thoughts, emotions and experiences of a traveller under the sun. Its boundless interest and strength depend on the wisdom, theological freedom and moral courage of its author who has been speaking to us for at least twenty-three centuries.
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-even )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16384 [title] => How to Defeat Death [alias] => how-to-defeat-death [introtext] =>Naked Questions/6 - Joy should be learnt (and re-learnt) by living the life we have
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 13/12/2015
"Here is the grandest sequence of infinitive verbs of all literature. When we are under a relentless force and urgency in our actions, when good or bad things impose and overlap themselves and one is fully absorbed by the world, then there is no other way to name our actions except for an infinitive verb."
Erri de Luca, Kohèlet
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; [fulltext] => a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.” (Ecclesiastes 3,1-8) And we should stop here, in front of so much strength and beauty that come to us as a breeze after crossing the painful area of the hebel, of vanitas with Qoheleth.
We got to the heart of the Book of Ecclesiastes, and to one of the most beautiful pages of the Bible. Although the word dominating this poem by Qoheleth is time as a favourable time - in Hebrew it is ‘et: point, now, moment, kairos- it is not a philosophical reflection on time. He does not talk to the Greek philosophers of his world. His horizon is that of the Bible and that of wisdom. Continuing his research Qoheleth now discovers that 'under the sun' there is an order, a law imprinted in nature and in human actions by the creator. Having travelled through the ocean of vanity, he finally reaches land. The smoke is halted by the spectacle of the rhythm of life and human action. This order, finally, appears to him a non-vanity.
In ancient cultures, when a sage observed the rhythm of life and its seasons, human events, the laws of the trades, the causes of suffering and joy, he felt the presence of wisdom beneath things. He saw actions produce bad fruit because they were taken at the wrong time, births and deaths follow an intrinsic and non-arbitrary command. He remained enchanted by how everything had its place, amazed by the rationality of life, captured by the sense - meaning and direction - of the works and days. The law of life exists, and the harmony of the symphony of the earth can be heard only by tuning in to its own rhythms.
Reaching the bottom of his disappointment at the lack of a true sense in all labours under the sun, the song of Qoheleth has its first turning point here. That ancient wise man looks at the world and the succession of human actions and discovers a truth. He also feels that things are good and beautiful: “What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (3,9-11). He made everything beautiful 'in its time', in the right moment.
Our actions have a point at which they are beautiful, a season in which they shine. To realise this we must look at them in their time, in their right moment. When things appear ugly and not good maybe we're just out of time: we are eating fruits that are not ripe yet, we are evaluating a process that's still ongoing, we cannot wait for a vocation to be fulfilled, or we stop at Good Friday. We see a tree in its faded autumn look without waiting for the spring.
At the end of his poem on time, there is a the question: 'What gain (yitron) has the worker from his toil', and for the first time he does not respond by saying vanitas or smoke, but gives us a glimpse of a different perspective, a gain that's greater than zero, a positive difference between revenues and costs of labouring under the sun. The times mentioned in Ecclesiastes in his poem are, in fact, human times, the moments of the life and work (amal), the normal rhythm of ordinary 'affairs' under the sun. We are talking about the times of the rivers, the mating of animals and the migrations of birds. Here the good things are human things: birth, death, amassing stones, crying, building, sewing and peace. This fatigue is good: it is the labour of birth and death, is the good effort of human labour. Being born, dying, crying, working is not always beautiful: only when it is the right time for them. There are people who, like the patriarchs, die 'full of days', and there are deaths arriving in the wrong time and these are not beautiful. Work is beautiful if done in its right time. But there is also the work of slaves and servants, ancient and modern, the work that does not know its right time because the working time becomes the time of life. And so it does not generate any wise 'gain'. There are people who become beautiful if found at the right moment of their work, and others destroyed by a wrongly timed work, or a work time that never comes or has come too early and did not return anymore.
If you want to really know a person you must see them working in their right time. And when someone is not put in a position to work in the right time, he or she is prevented from expressing his or her beauty. We deprive ourselves of too much beauty by leaving young people out of our businesses, by not letting them meet work at the 'right time'. And if youth is the favourable time for work, perhaps the work of those who start late will not become as good as it could.
And it is at this point that Qoheleth inserts a most mysterious, great and much discussed sentence in his book: “Also, he (Elohim) has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (3,11). Here the Book of Ecclesiastes gives us the key to the vanitas that it has so far revealed to us. In his anthropo-theology, Elohim-God has placed principles in the world in a way that there is tension between them. Inside the Adam-man he placed olam, a mysterious and polysemic Hebrew word, which has been translated in many ways over the centuries. Olam has to do with the desire embedded in our hearts to want to own the world as a whole. Olam is the first spring of religion, science and philosophy. We see the flower blossom and we would like to know all its mystery: multiplicity explained by the individual sciences (chemistry, botany) is not enough for us. We feel a strong charm of (the notion of) one, we would like to take the whole of the blossoming in our possession. Qoheleth tells us that the entirety of times and moments are blocked away from us. The Adam does not have possession of the times of his world, he is not in control of the rhythm of life. The non-vanitas lies in recognizing it.
In the culture of his time, in the face of this barrage, the temptation of the mystery rites, magic and horoscopes was much stronger. The magicians and soothsayers have always promised to meet all the needs of olam and enter into the mystery of the times of life. And so they also promised that we would be able to control our birth and death, love and hate, tears and happiness. Today with the wizards and the soothsayers who continue to have a large and growing market, are joined by technology that promises to eliminate all barriers to satisfy our olam, handing over to us the law of birth and death, the times and the souls of the workers. Although this technology prompts Qoheleth saying: hebel, smoke, a striving after wind.
Qoheleth also combats these false solutions, and offers an unexpected way to resolve the conflict between the desire of the (entire) one and the only real chance of the fragment: “I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man” (3,12-13). Here Qoheleth seems to deny his own statement from before, when he called vanity the pursuit of happiness in wine, sensual pleasures and wealth (ch. 2). In fact the wisdom of Ecclesiastes continues to surprise us. When he is granting the truth of non-possession of the mystery of the world, when he realizes in pain that he is not the master of things whose life fascinates and seduces him and that he cannot eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the Adam can turn around, see things differently and discover the flow of life. And feel how true this gift is. Death can be defeated only by living the life we have.
After suffering for years or decades for not being able to dominate reality above and under the sun, it may happen that one day we return to our working group, turn on the computer and begin to do the usual work again, feeling that the real life we were looking for in the wrong place was just there, waiting for us to save us. In this fragment there was everything possible, but we could not learn it without pain. After tasting the pigs food, having felt that a spiritual quest remained unfulfilled because it was impossible to do so, a piece of bread can have the good taste of paradise. When we were able to keep walking while our ideologies of yesterday were evaporating, after giving up the untrue consolations forever, suddenly, a new zest for life can come. It is the joy after the experience of vanity, which is all different from the joy of the previous phase of illusions. It is a way of rejoicing that you can relearn. From hand to hand with the angels of youth new foods, embraces and works can flourish. A new name. This is the great miracle that keeps happening every day under the sun.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2015-12-13 05:44:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2015-12-13 05:44:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => Il poema dei tempi ci introduce alla prima non-vanità del libro del Qohelet. C’è una bellezza nelle cose quando sono colte e vissute nel loro tempo opportuno. L’uomo non può possedere il mistero del tempo e della vita, ma Qohelet ci dice che nel vivere, nell’amare, nel lavoro ci può essere una gioia vera, forse la sola possibile sotto il sole. [access] => 1 [hits] => 2635 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 9563 [ordering] => 36 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2015-12-13 05:44:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16384:how-to-defeat-death [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/6 - Joy should be learnt (and re-learnt) by living the life we have
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 13/12/2015
"Here is the grandest sequence of infinitive verbs of all literature. When we are under a relentless force and urgency in our actions, when good or bad things impose and overlap themselves and one is fully absorbed by the world, then there is no other way to name our actions except for an infinitive verb."
Erri de Luca, Kohèlet
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; [jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-odd )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16386 [title] => Pointing at a Sky without Idols [alias] => pointing-at-a-sky-without-idols [introtext] =>Naked Questions/5 - the passion of telling about heaven to those who cannot see it anymore
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 06/12/2015
"…Do you know what death is?...it’s a level.
A king, a magistrate, a great man,
passing this gate made once this point
of having lost everything, life and even his name:
Haven’t you realized this yet?Therefore, listen to me now… do not hesitate,
stand by me, from really close – what does it matter to you?
These tomfooleries are only run by the living:
but we are serious…we belong to death!”Antonio de Curtis-Totò, ’A livella (A level, rough translation of the original poem’s verses)
After telling us about the vanity of intellectual inquiry and the pleasures of the body, Qoheleth now puts an idea to the test, a deeply rooted one that saw and searched for non-vanity in the memory of posterity.
[fulltext] =>In a humanism without paradise, where human existence and faith were all happening 'under the sun' (the earth is the place where you meet YHWH, the "God of the living"), being remembered after death was a goal considered as non-vain, a good and wise reason to live.
But instead: “For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!” (2,16) Every day I see non-wise people remembered through the generations - and multitudes of humble sages whose memory is preserved only within the family: a reminder that our time without solidarity between generations is closing quickly. Who remembers the justice and wisdom of millions of women of past centuries, their lives lived wisely and well in the hidden but total service of their husbands and sons? The free memory of the peoples is too small to contain the whole truth and the whole wisdom of the world. So being remembered cannot be a reasonable profit for the effort spent to become wise. In the eternal memories of the peoples there are also Cain, Herod and Pilate. And the wise and the good are forgotten just like the foolish and the wicked.
It is vain then to think that the wealth accumulated by the wise will become a blessing for their children: “So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labours under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil” (2,20-21).
We have no guarantee that our efforts end up in the hands of deserving people. To live with this hope is only vanity. The tremendous and revolutionary thesis of Ecclesiastes (the only other place we find it is in the Book of Job) is to unite the righteous and the wicked in the same fate. Israel had built a consoling theology claiming that the goods that the righteous leave to their children become a blessing. Therefore, living well and getting rich is the deposit of blessing also for the children. The alliance was handed down from father to son, and was accompanied and confirmed by the bequeathed property. Qoheleth, at the end of his search of a rich and wise man, tells us that this theology is but illusion and vanity. There are righteous men who have left great legacies to foolish children who squandered all, or for whom the wealth of the parents was only a curse. There are quite a number of wise entrepreneurs who end their life knowing that they are leaving the fruit of their labour to undeserving heirs. Ecclesiastes tells us that this injustice is a form of great suffering. The riches are not a non-vain response to the vanitas in our lives and that of our children.
Qoheleth judges our illusions by placing himself at the end of life. Indeed, he tells us something more: the only wise and true perspective on life is that of those who view and judge it by placing themselves at the end of the race: “Then I said in my heart, »What happens to the fool will happen to me also.«” And so he asks himself, “»Why then have I been so very wise?« And I said in my heart that this also is vanity” (2,15) Death cancels all rewards of a life spent in wisdom. This is the most radical thesis of Qoheleth, which is at the base of his universal judgement of vanitas, smoke, wind, habel. It is an intimidating judgment, which has prevented many people from meeting the wisdom of Qoheleth. Yet his is a message of life, but it requires the ability to look death in the eye, without being content with the easy (and therefore vain) consolations. He invites us to look at our life and that of others observing it from the bedside of the dying. He tells us that the first and radical vanitas of living beings is that they all die. So the first and radical wisdom is to look at the world and our lives as mortal beings.
Qoheleth does not speak of death and life as a depressed person does. He is there, in the heart of the Bible (we shall never stop thanking the ancient sages who wanted to include it in the canon), to tell us that there is no true and wise look that can be taken at life that does not include the last look taken at it. If we can find something non-vain and non-embittered when we accompany a friend or a child in the last days of their life, then we can have a non-vain hope that the whole of life is not just smoke. Ecclesiastes tells us that no research of non-vanity under the sun can avoid this last perspective, contained in the playthings of religious and human childhood.
The extreme ethical exercise of Qoheleth is especially valuable because it is universal. He does not believe in heaven. He knows that Elohim exists, but does not think that encountering him after death is a non-vain consolation. Christianity has given us other perspectives on death and heaven. Our era, however, is populated by many men and women who, like Qoheleth, do not have the horizon of the sky (heaven), and if they have it, it seems too vague and distant to them.
Following, then, this ancient sage that is part of the same biblical Jewish and Christian humanism, can be an arduous path that leads to the ridges by beautiful landscapes, because it can give us a new language to relearn to speak of heaven to those who do not see beyond death; but it can also help a lot to those who believe in heaven, but are too focused on the last words of God and are likely to forget the penultimate words of honest people who seek the face of Elohim 'under the sun'. We must learn and tell about paradise again to people who can no longer see it because our consolatory religious ideologies have veiled it from them. Qoheleth does not populate our heaven. Instead, he empties it of idols, and his company is more useful than that of the builders of the many comforting heavens. Perhaps one day, in a landscape free of fetishes and totems we will be able to see someone on the horizon who is not just smoke. In the Bible there is so much wealth for the men and women of today - we must relearn to see it and tell about it. But the Bible is true humanism only if it is taken seriously in its entirety, not avoiding painful intersections and agreements. The resurrection was a disturbing event and one that was able to build a new world, because the empty tomb flashed in the background of the lamentations, of the suffering righteous man, Job. Of Ecclesiastes. A dark background that allowed to show a true and different light. Yesterday and today.
An endless search for meaning and non-vanity rises from the men and women of today. It is our strong cry. We are increasingly dissatisfied with the answers that science and the deluded wisdom of our times can offer us. We have not learned yet to die under a sky that has become empty. So it's becoming too painful to grow old.
The generations that came before us had developed a culture of aging and death. I saw my grandparents die, and they helped me to live. We delude ourselves to conquer death by forgetting about it, by expelling it from our cities, by not bringing our children to funerals. But if we do not find again, soon, a good relationship with the end of life, if we do not relearn to say 'sister death', depression will become the new plague of the future (and perhaps of the present, already). We will invent a thousand vaccines and cures for new viruses and bacteria, but they may not be much against death if we do not relearn to live. There is much denied fear of death behind our hedonic model of consumption: we stuff ourselves with goods and drown our troubles in pleasure to exorcise death. We have always done this, but in a culture that is not doing anything to try to call death by its name again the production of idols becomes the only mass 'answer' to death. Idolatry - not atheism - has always been the great illusion to conquer death. But until faiths were alive, cultures could recognize and fight the idols. In a world depopulated of gods there remain only fetishes, and their antibodies die in us.
Qoheleth not is offering a non-vain answer to the sense of dying. He stops at the questions, does not find answers and rebels against life: “So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity [havel, Abel] and a striving after wind.” (2,17)
But Qohelet is not alone in this absurd: to accompany him there is Job, Jeremiah, many psalmists. The Abandoned One. And many, too many, people who continue to arrive at the end of their lives with the feeling of having only accumulated wind.Now we have found a first non-vanitas of the song of vanity of the Book of Ecclesiastes: it is him, the Preacher, Quoheleth. His search was not in vain, his words have come down to us. His message lives and grows with us as we are reading it now. It is not true, Qoheleth, that nothing remains of your life and that of the true wise men. Your words have stayed alive, and continue to love us through your naked questions.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2015-12-06 05:44:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2015-12-06 05:44:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => La nostra cultura deve ritrovare un rapporto nuovo con l’invecchiamento e con la morte. Uomini e donne delle generazioni passate sapevano diventare vecchi e morire. Qohelet, con le sue domande radicali, ci aiuta a guardare la morte negli occhi, per provare a chiamarla ancora “sorella morte”. [access] => 1 [hits] => 2510 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 9459 [ordering] => 44 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2015-12-06 05:44:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16386:pointing-at-a-sky-without-idols [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/5 - the passion of telling about heaven to those who cannot see it anymore
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 06/12/2015
"…Do you know what death is?...it’s a level.
A king, a magistrate, a great man,
passing this gate made once this point
of having lost everything, life and even his name:
Haven’t you realized this yet?Therefore, listen to me now… do not hesitate,
stand by me, from really close – what does it matter to you?
These tomfooleries are only run by the living:
but we are serious…we belong to death!”Antonio de Curtis-Totò, ’A livella (A level, rough translation of the original poem’s verses)
After telling us about the vanity of intellectual inquiry and the pleasures of the body, Qoheleth now puts an idea to the test, a deeply rooted one that saw and searched for non-vanity in the memory of posterity.
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-even )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16387 [title] => The Sadness of the Second Happiness [alias] => the-sadness-of-the-second-happiness [introtext] =>Naked Questions/4 - the importance of seeing and considering the entire human condition
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 29/11/2015
"You little playful boy,
Even this your flowering time
Is like a day filled up with grace and joy
A clear, calm day that comes
As a precursor to life's festival.
Be happy, little boy;
A joyful time is this.
More I'd not tell you; but if your holiday
Seems somewhat tardy yet, let not that grieve you.”Giacomo Leopardi, Saturday Evening in the Village (Il sabato del villaggio; English translation by John Heath-Stubbs)
There is a tension between happiness and truth. As long as both are little, they go together naturally. But when truth grows and takes space, it eventually evaporates our happiness, and a kind of moral pain becomes the precious companion of the last and decisive stretch of road.
[fulltext] =>Some, faced with this new and unknown pain, prefer to remain deluded to save a bit of the old happiness; others continue the path of the fumes of the old certainties. And they meet Ecclesiastes: I said in my heart, 'Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.' But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, ‘It is mad,’ and of pleasure, ‘What use is it?’ (Ecclesiastes 2,1)
After exploring the world with the wisdom of men, having accumulated wisdom and knowledge, and found that it's all and only a wind and a striving after wind, Ecclesiastes ventures on another path of non-vanity. It is the one humanity has always ventured on to find 'something good' and true that was not just smoke and wind, or habel. It is the way of the pursuit of pleasure in the body, in wealth, in eros, in well-being: “I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom— and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.” (2,3)
These experiences are presented to us in the Book of Ecclesiastes like a research done with the 'heart still guiding him with wisdom'. Even this hedonism becomes a vital exploration: I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees... I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. ... I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines,[b] the delight of the sons of man. (2,4-8) What Qoheleth describes is very close to the life of Solomon, as we are told by the Books of Kings and the Chronicles. Even the wisest man of all looked for “something good” in the great palaces, in the paradise-like gardens, in luxury, at parties, in women ("King Solomon...had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines.") 1 Kings 11,3).
This pursuit of pleasure comes after Qoheleth has experienced the futility of the search for higher, intellectual, philosophical or theological truths. This hedonism is other than that of the one who chooses pleasure at the beginning of the journey, before having tried the higher and more spiritual joys. The hedonism that Qoheleth talks about here is of a different nature: it is the choice of those searching in the flesh and under the sun what they did not find in the spirit and above the sun. It is the joy of those who want to laugh in order not to cry more.
There exists the pleasure and joy of those who have never tried or known joys that are truer and higher than those of raw and primitive bodies, wine or the senses. We know it, we see it all. But there is also a search for pleasure of those who, disappointed by promises of greater happiness that have been revealed as vanity, turn their gaze to their heart and start to consume themselves and others to hope to find life in other “galaxies”.
We see people who lead their lives yearning for bodily pleasures and things, and maybe theirs is only a second search after the first higher ideals have turned out to be of smoke. The heart can feed from its own flesh and that of others to flee the famine of more sublime, hoped for, promised but never reached foods. So people seek to satisfy their need of an empty or silent sky by touching bodies and listening to the sounds of earthly things, “eating” the life these things contain. Often there is a lot of pain and a lot of disappointment in lives folded on themselves, content with the bitter taste of acorns because disappointed by the fruits of the tree of life that never arrived. They respond to the first hunger for life that has been revealed as a striving after wind with a radical turn, clinging to the lowest but still true consistency of the bodies and senses, of things.
It should not be surprising to us then that Qoheleth does not consider this research necessarily silly, and gives it legitimacy with his own experience: So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. (2,9)
Finding this second happiness in the Bible must then give us a look of mercy toward the many who turn their hearts to a second kind of happiness after the disappointment in the first. It is good news to discover that there are these sad kinds of happiness in biblical humanism, because we meet them every day in the streets, in our homes. They are nested in our hearts. They are the instances of happiness of so many people under the sun, they are too common to be ignored, and because they also occur right on time in the research of the higher kinds of happiness.
There comes a day when even for the wise men who have explored the higher paths of spiritual and philosophical knowledge and finally reached the necessary stage of disappointment by the revelation of the vanitas there comes a new and almost invincible need to explore the truth of bodies and property, which become the last untouched territory, from which, often, they have escaped earlier thinking that it was certainly the worst. And what had been seen and experienced as a temptation and foolishness suddenly becomes fascinating, the last promised land. A charm and attraction that is as much stronger as the commitment for the first and higher truth was more radical and sincere. The discovery of reality as imperceptible smoke and wind generates a lust for what you can touch, see and possess. It is the difficulty to pray and follow a truer God you cannot see or touch that turns YHWH in calfskin which is very concrete and gleaming.
The wise research of Qoheleth also includes these second researches, which are part of the human condition, and therefore common, everyday, familiar, sisters to us. He takes them seriously, does not discard them a priori, he wants to try - also for us. And so the human horizon expands and reaches all.
In biblical humanism there is also the way of the son between his father's house and the last pigsty. If we jump too quickly to the merciful embrace and the banquet, we no longer see the many sons consumed by the happiness of “wine” and bodies, and - not seeing them- we leave them amidst the acorn, and they never return. We spend most of our lives passing, repeatedly, from festivals of idolatrous golden calves to banquets mercy of fat cattle - and vice versa. We are all natural manufacturers of idols, almost always looking for only life and happiness. Every now and then we meet eyes and arms that welcome us and save us. Ecclesiastes is one of these gazes, one of these hugs.
Ecclesiastes, however, tells us something else, too: it explains why these crooked roads to happiness are so common on earth: And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. (2,10) The heart “finds pleasure” in the “toil” to seek these kinds of earthly and bodily happiness, because the goods and bodies are also there to delight us and love us. The knowledge of the higher and spiritual wisdom, however, mainly produces pain, a pain which Qoheleth had called “an unhappy business” (1,13). Pursuing happiness in the body and in things engenders pleasure, it gets its prize. The pursuit of knowledge exposes our illusions, it takes the veils off and makes us see our naked humanity that is poor and precarious. The search for life through the pleasures enrolled in the things themselves, however, gives a consolation that can make us stay inside delusions for long, often forever. It hasn't got the instrument in it for its rebuttal, because it lacks the pain that is always the first spring of change. This second happiness nourishes us, it satisfies a need in us. We also find it in religious experience, where next to the painful search that reveals the illusions, there are not-painful practices that feed from consuming the pleasure and the intrinsic “prize” of the same practices.
But at the end of this second search of truth in happiness under the sun, we hear, again, the terrible and beautiful words: “...all was vanity [habel] and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained [Itron] under the sun.” (2,11) Everything is habel, everything is an infinite Abel, again. The pleasures, bodies, the many goods do not defeat the habel. The rich and the poor share the same striving after wind. It is the equality of this insatiable hunger that gets us all together under the sun.
This search for pleasure does not produce 'profit', either: it does not yield anything. The reward that these pleasures know is exhausted in the very act of their consumption. Nothing remains beyond this; there is no gain that remains after they evaporate. Revenues for the pleasures of the flesh and of the goods only cover their own costs: their joy does not accumulate; it does not become capital to feed our children and our elderly. The happiness of life and the body does not accumulate by buying it - and what if it was just a gift? Buying is the verb of Cain - 'I have gotten ([kanìti], acquired, bought - the tr.) a man with the help of the Lord', said Eve when choosing the name of her son (Genesis 4,1). The first Cain struck and won over his brother by killing him. But purchases of goods and people can no longer win Abel, because Cain's children are under the sign of the habel. The second Abel has become unbeatable.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2015-11-29 05:44:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2015-11-29 05:44:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => Dopo aver esplorato la vanità della conoscenza intellettuale e avendo trovato solo “fumo”, Qohelet indaga il piacere dei corpi, dei beni, delle ricchezza, in cerca di qualcosa di buono e non vano. È la ricerca di chi inizia a cercare nei corpi e sotto il sole quanto non ha trovato nello spirito e sopra il sole. È molto comune, e Qohelet ci aiuta per guardarla con gli occhi giusti [access] => 1 [hits] => 3051 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 10004 [ordering] => 45 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2015-11-29 05:44:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16387:the-sadness-of-the-second-happiness [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/4 - the importance of seeing and considering the entire human condition
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 29/11/2015
"You little playful boy,
Even this your flowering time
Is like a day filled up with grace and joy
A clear, calm day that comes
As a precursor to life's festival.
Be happy, little boy;
A joyful time is this.
More I'd not tell you; but if your holiday
Seems somewhat tardy yet, let not that grieve you.”Giacomo Leopardi, Saturday Evening in the Village (Il sabato del villaggio; English translation by John Heath-Stubbs)
There is a tension between happiness and truth. As long as both are little, they go together naturally. But when truth grows and takes space, it eventually evaporates our happiness, and a kind of moral pain becomes the precious companion of the last and decisive stretch of road.
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-odd )
stdClass Object ( [id] => 16388 [title] => The Infinite Wisdom of the Limit [alias] => the-infinite-wisdom-of-the-limit [introtext] =>Naked Questions/3 - Beyond the vertigo of the Apocalypse and the artificial paradises
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 22/11/2015
"Only the gods live forever under the sun. As for men, their days are numbered; their achievements are a puff of wind.”
(The epic of Gilgamesh; English translation by John Gardner and John Maier).
“I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind." (Ecclesiastes 1,12-14).
[fulltext] =>Qoheleth is like Solomon, the wisest man in Israel, who, with his wisdom, has investigated and explored all "things under the sun." No one wiser than Solomon, no one better than Qoheleth has "applied their heart" - that is, all the entrails of their intelligence, wisdom and love - to get to know the world and the sons of Adam.
Wisdom is not the purpose of his research; it is the tool for research. It is the premise, the precondition for the pursuit of truth. Ecclesiastes overturns the common thesis that saw wisdom as the result of research, like the end of the road, and places it at the beginning, as the habit of the researcher who wants to know. It does not tell us how to obtain wisdom. Qoheleth's speech does not need it, because it is like the words of Solomon, pronounced in its maturity, after exercising his wisest royal function for a long time: “I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” (1,16).
That's where the eternal paradox of every sincere - anthropological, moral, religious, artistic - search for truth lies... To start looking and moving in the right direction, we need a kind of wisdom that we do not possess before starting the journey. Yet we have to start it. The people of Israel, and to varying degrees all peoples and cultures, have decided to dissolve this paradox by donating a collective wisdom to those who began their search for the truth without possessing their own wisdom individually. You can start looking for wisdom without possessing wisdom because the wisdom of the beginning can be inherited as a gift. Wisdom is heritage (patrimony), which is a gift (munus) of the fathers (patres). Those who begin their journey of faith are already inside the wisdom of the people, which like a teacher guides them towards the wisdom of the end which is essential for wisdom not be held only tradition and heritage but also a personal habit.
Ecclesiastes, however, with his pitiless analysis of the laws of life sends this wisdom inherited from tradition in crisis: Solomon, the climax and image of the wisdom of the fathers, the guarantor of the inherited wisdom with which the sons and daughters of the Adam can set off in search of the truth about the world and the things that are below (and above) the sun, pronounces habel over the wisdom of the end at the end of his research. The result of the pursuit of knowledge is nothing but vanity and a striving after wind; yet no wiser occupation than this exists under the sun. Seeking the truth without owning it, investigating knowledge remaining unsatisfied and needy of it is simply the human condition. A fate that Qoheleth calls "unhappy", an unfortunate "business" that God-Elohim wanted for men who were sick of an insatiable desire for the infinite. Wisdom, which is a gift and heritage is nothing but smoke, wind, waste, nothing, Abel. The wise ones are those who begin the search knowing that in the end they will find the same vanitas of the beginning. Wisdom is to recognize that we have been and will always be longing for a fullness that remains half, yearning for a light of a sun that never comes at noon. We reach a certainty and immediately feel it is deciduous, brief and ephemeral. It is the wind that does not satisfy. At the same time, Qoheleth-Solomon is still the wisest man of all. Wisdom therefore lies in becoming aware of this infinite need, recognizing the condition of impotence of our heart and intelligence: What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted." (1,15) Wisdom is to be able, finally, to sing the habel.
And from here, humbly and tragically, to start living giving up illusions and false consolations. Ecclesiastes asks a new maturity in human relations and in faith. It is a precious friend on the day when, after living for decades next to a person, we see that there is a mysterious dimension of their heart totally unknown to us that we will never know, either. Or when we finally understand that our faith was fantasy and ideology, and hear ourselves inside saying the tremendous and liberating: habel. To return, finally, to being poor. On the day of the adult awakening Qoheleth tells us that this need cannot be satisfied, and that those who deny this radical poverty of mind and heart and want to possess the whole mystery of the other and maybe of God are fools, idolaters or idols. The day on which the song of Qoheleth begins is not the end of faith, it may be just the beginning. For this reason the Bible wanted to keep the habel at the centre of its humanism. Faith becomes adult and spiritual life flourishes when we are able to sing "all is habel" and remain within the horizon of a non-empty sky.
We do not understand all the value of the bare words of Ecclesiastes unless we set them in their time (which is also ours). When this book was written, a new religious literature of apocalyptic nature was flourishing in Israel. It denied the condition of limitedness and need for knowledge and truth, and relied on filling the "gap" by visions and special revelations and dreams that pointed to a future fulfilment of the need for knowledge and wisdom. Ecclesiastes does not only fight the ideology of retributive theology, apocalyptic and visionary religion is also its enemy. Apocalyptic literature met the Biblical tradition, the people of Israel felt the charm of it, and it has even penetrated into some of their traditions and books. Some more radical apocalyptic texts (such as those of Enoch) did not enter into the canon; but while Qoheleth was being written, confrontation was very intense, and many Israelites were captured by the new apocalyptic faith. Thanks also to the ethical and spiritual struggle of Qoheleth, the ancient scribes left Enoch on the margin and placed Ecclesiastes at the centre of the Bible. If the apocalyptic line had prevailed we would not have just had another Hebrew Bible: the interpretation of the Christian experience itself would have been very different, as well as the canonical and apocryphal gospels, and there would be a different reading of the figure of Jesus Christ, a different story of Europe and the world, we would have different science, philosophy and life. We would have had a Bible that's less on the side of men and the poor, and would be a guardian of an easier and less true God. It would be further away from habel-Abel. We would have had less true words to try to stammer something, in this November 2015, in the 'time for crying'.
This dialogues between faith and ideology, between apocalyptic and historical humanism, continue to this day, in our societies, religions, churches, when there is much temptation for those who in front of the hardness of the art of living under the sun, instead of welcoming meekly the truth of our moral and spiritual poverty, build artificial paradises, spectacular faiths and revelations that respond to all the questions of yesterday and tomorrow, that promise to reveal all the secrets and mysteries under and above the sun. They are the ones who will not settle for a true faith that's black and white but want an imaginary one that's multi-coloured. Ecclesiastes tells us, with all the force of his painful (because not ideological) wisdom, that the only "revelations" that help to live are those that reconcile with the finiteness, fragility and precariousness of life and faith, with habel. There is no greater folly than to build illusions to answer our disillusions. It is foolishness that becomes immensely great when these constructions become collective, real empires of illusion. Men and women have always done so, they still do so, and will continue to do so. But in this invincible production of faiths and artificial paradises you will never find an ally in Ecclesiastes.
Faith - any faith - also lives of promise and of the not-yet. But there are times of crisis in which the search for paradise becomes the enemy of the research of Abel, where the expectation of the not-yet threatens to kill Abel who is already here, with his destitute, wounded, partial, imperfect and penultimate humanity. In such times - and ours is one of those - it is essential to return to Ecclesiastes if we do not want to turn faiths into collective illusions and religions in the temples of consumption of emotional experiences that are just too far from Abel.
“And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." (1,17-18)
This striving after wind cannot be satisfied, it grows with the desire of wisdom, and it does not let us die if we manage to call it by name. Sister vanitas, brother Abel. The only solidarity that saves is the one that blooms from the recognition of our mutual fragility. If fraternité is able to rise again, it will be the resurrection of an endless number of Abels.
The Book of Ecclesiastes is read during the "Feast of the Tabernacles" (Sukkot), when together with the joy of the harvest, the humble and fragile huts of the Exodus are also remembered that families build in the gardens of their houses, with simple and temporary materials. Ecclesiastes keeps the memory of the transience of life alive. But the hut is also a symbol and reminder of the crossing of the sea, when free men and women (since they had been freed from slavery of the pharaohs and their idols) began a new life in the desert. A reed hut is a good home for those who want to free themselves from the empires of comforting illusions. For those who want to continue to be on Abel's side while the hand of Cain keeps striking down on him.
Download article in pdf
[checked_out] => 0 [checked_out_time] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [catid] => 745 [created] => 2015-11-22 05:44:00 [created_by] => 64 [created_by_alias] => Luigino Bruni [state] => 1 [modified] => 2020-08-23 18:45:28 [modified_by] => 609 [modified_by_name] => Super User [publish_up] => 2015-11-22 05:44:00 [publish_down] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 [images] => {"image_intro":"","float_intro":"","image_intro_alt":"","image_intro_caption":"","image_fulltext":"","float_fulltext":"","image_fulltext_alt":"","image_fulltext_caption":""} [urls] => {"urla":false,"urlatext":"","targeta":"","urlb":false,"urlbtext":"","targetb":"","urlc":false,"urlctext":"","targetc":""} [attribs] => {"show_title":"","link_titles":"","show_tags":"","show_intro":"","info_block_position":"","show_category":"","link_category":"","show_parent_category":"","link_parent_category":"","show_author":"","link_author":"","show_create_date":"","show_modify_date":"","show_publish_date":"","show_item_navigation":"","show_icons":"","show_print_icon":"","show_email_icon":"","show_vote":"","show_hits":"","show_noauth":"","urls_position":"","alternative_readmore":"","article_layout":"","show_publishing_options":"","show_article_options":"","show_urls_images_backend":"","show_urls_images_frontend":""} [metadata] => {"robots":"","author":"","rights":"","xreference":""} [metakey] => [metadesc] => La ricerca di Qohelet ci dice la fragilità e l’indigenza della nostra conoscenza di Dio e degli uomini. Ma l’unica sapienza possibile sotto il sole è il riconoscimento del limite della nostra vita e della nostra fede, fuggendo dall’eterna tentazione di rispondere alle delusioni con le illusioni. [access] => 1 [hits] => 2731 [xreference] => [featured] => 0 [language] => en-GB [on_img_default] => [readmore] => 10299 [ordering] => 46 [category_title] => EN - Naked Questions [category_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche/le-nude-domande [category_access] => 1 [category_alias] => en-naked-questions [published] => 1 [parents_published] => 1 [lft] => 119 [author] => Luigino Bruni [author_email] => ferrucci.anto@gmail.com [parent_title] => IT - Serie bibliche [parent_id] => 773 [parent_route] => commenti-biblici/serie-bibliche [parent_alias] => serie-bibliche [rating] => 0 [rating_count] => 0 [alternative_readmore] => [layout] => [params] => Joomla\Registry\Registry Object ( [data:protected] => stdClass Object ( [article_layout] => _:default [show_title] => 1 [link_titles] => 1 [show_intro] => 1 [info_block_position] => 0 [info_block_show_title] => 1 [show_category] => 1 [link_category] => 1 [show_parent_category] => 1 [link_parent_category] => 1 [show_associations] => 0 [flags] => 1 [show_author] => 0 [link_author] => 0 [show_create_date] => 1 [show_modify_date] => 0 [show_publish_date] => 1 [show_item_navigation] => 1 [show_vote] => 0 [show_readmore] => 0 [show_readmore_title] => 0 [readmore_limit] => 100 [show_tags] => 1 [show_icons] => 1 [show_print_icon] => 1 [show_email_icon] => 1 [show_hits] => 0 [record_hits] => 1 [show_noauth] => 0 [urls_position] => 1 [captcha] => [show_publishing_options] => 1 [show_article_options] => 1 [save_history] => 1 [history_limit] => 10 [show_urls_images_frontend] => 0 [show_urls_images_backend] => 1 [targeta] => 0 [targetb] => 0 [targetc] => 0 [float_intro] => left [float_fulltext] => left [category_layout] => _:blog [show_category_heading_title_text] => 0 [show_category_title] => 0 [show_description] => 0 [show_description_image] => 0 [maxLevel] => 0 [show_empty_categories] => 0 [show_no_articles] => 1 [show_subcat_desc] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles] => 0 [show_cat_tags] => 1 [show_base_description] => 1 [maxLevelcat] => -1 [show_empty_categories_cat] => 0 [show_subcat_desc_cat] => 0 [show_cat_num_articles_cat] => 0 [num_leading_articles] => 0 [num_intro_articles] => 14 [num_columns] => 2 [num_links] => 0 [multi_column_order] => 1 [show_subcategory_content] => -1 [show_pagination_limit] => 1 [filter_field] => hide [show_headings] => 1 [list_show_date] => 0 [date_format] => [list_show_hits] => 1 [list_show_author] => 1 [list_show_votes] => 0 [list_show_ratings] => 0 [orderby_pri] => none [orderby_sec] => rdate [order_date] => published [show_pagination] => 2 [show_pagination_results] => 1 [show_featured] => show [show_feed_link] => 1 [feed_summary] => 0 [feed_show_readmore] => 0 [sef_advanced] => 1 [sef_ids] => 1 [custom_fields_enable] => 1 [show_page_heading] => 0 [layout_type] => blog [menu_text] => 1 [menu_show] => 1 [secure] => 0 [helixultimatemenulayout] => {"width":600,"menualign":"right","megamenu":0,"showtitle":1,"faicon":"","customclass":"","dropdown":"right","badge":"","badge_position":"","badge_bg_color":"","badge_text_color":"","layout":[]} [helixultimate_enable_page_title] => 1 [helixultimate_page_title_alt] => Le nude domande [helixultimate_page_subtitle] => Commenti Biblici [helixultimate_page_title_heading] => h2 [page_title] => Naked Questions [page_description] => [page_rights] => [robots] => [access-view] => 1 ) [initialized:protected] => 1 [separator] => . ) [displayDate] => 2015-11-22 05:44:00 [tags] => Joomla\CMS\Helper\TagsHelper Object ( [tagsChanged:protected] => [replaceTags:protected] => [typeAlias] => [itemTags] => Array ( ) ) [slug] => 16388:the-infinite-wisdom-of-the-limit [parent_slug] => 773:serie-bibliche [catslug] => 745:en-naked-questions [event] => stdClass Object ( [afterDisplayTitle] => [beforeDisplayContent] => [afterDisplayContent] => ) [text] =>Naked Questions/3 - Beyond the vertigo of the Apocalypse and the artificial paradises
by Luigino Bruni
published in Avvenire on 22/11/2015
"Only the gods live forever under the sun. As for men, their days are numbered; their achievements are a puff of wind.”
(The epic of Gilgamesh; English translation by John Gardner and John Maier).
“I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind." (Ecclesiastes 1,12-14).
[jcfields] => Array ( ) [type] => intro [oddeven] => item-even )