Fernando Alcoforado*
This article represents the continuation of the article whose title is Como fazer com que as utopias planetárias se realizem visando a construção de um mundo melhor (How to make planetary utopias come true with a view to building a better world) [1]. This article is the third of 12 articles that will address the 12 planetary utopias that need to be realized in order to build a better world and contribute to the achievement of happiness for human beings, individually and collectively. This article aims to present how to make the third of the utopias considered, that of the prevalence of civilization values in society, become reality over the barbarism predominant in most countries of the world
The article A difícil caminhada da humanidade rumo à civilização (Humanity’s difficult journey towards civilization) [2] demonstrates the imperative need for humanity to evolve from its stage of barbarism from Antiquity to the contemporary era to that of civilization in order to put an end to violence between human beings throughout the world that manifests itself in the escalation of social conflicts within nations and in the endless wars between nations and peoples, in the exploitation of man by man which resulted in social inequalities with slavery during the slave period, human servitude in feudalism and the spoliation of the salaried work force in capitalism and, also, the environmental devastation that resulted in climate changes and pandemics that translate into violence against the existence of human beings. Barbarism has produced and continues to produce limitless violence against humanity. Although many thinkers mistakenly attribute the current stage of humanity as civilization, barbarism is still present in the world we live in despite some civilizational advances achieved. Civilization will only prevail when a new civilized world order to be built comes to adopt the universal motto of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” as the legacy of the Enlightenment for the benefit of all humanity.
Up to the present moment, humanity has evolved from a condition of savagery to barbarism throughout human history [2]. Savagery began with the emergence of the human species when humans lived in primitive communities in trees and caves among the great wild beasts. The struggle for survival in the face of wild beasts contributed to the existence of great solidarity among human beings within the same community, thus preventing violence between them. Violence between humans may have started in the dispute between rival primitive communities for food sources when they were scarce. The main progress of this period was the formation of articulate language. As a consequence of the uncertainty regarding food sources, it seems to have been born, at that time, the anthropophagy of enemies at war, which persisted for a long time. This was a period of prehistory in which predominated the appropriation by human beings of products of nature, ready to be used as fruits, nuts and roots that served as food. Human beings fed on aquatic animals and made use of fire to cook them. They began to use unpolished stone tools from the early Stone Age. Defense against wild animals and their hunting gave rise to the first weapons – the club and the spear. The invention of the bow and arrow made it possible to hunt animals as a regular food as one of the normal and customary occupations. The bow and arrow were to the savage age what the iron sword was to barbarism in the Middle Ages and the firearm to barbarism in the contemporary era.
Barbarism appeared in antiquity with slavery, immediately after the stage of savagery [2]. The wars between primitive communities for food sources gave rise to the slavery of the defeated peoples who started to be used as a workforce by the conquering peoples. In its early days, barbarism had cattle raising and agriculture as a distinctive feature when economic production was increased through slave labor. Private property is born with the exploitation of agriculture and the consequent domination of one group over another within society. The difference between rich and poor was added to the difference between free men and slaves, and the new division of labor brought about a new division of society into classes. The difference in wealth between the different heads of families destroyed the ancient primitive communities when the common work of the land exercised by the primitive communities came to an end. Barbarism began, therefore, in Antiquity, which was characterized by the slave-owning mode of production, from 4,000 BC. until 476 AD when the fall of the Western Roman Empire occurs, evolved during the Middle Ages between 476 AD and 476 AD. until 1453 with the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire characterized by the feudal mode of production in some regions of Europe, it reached the Modern Age from 1453 until 1789 with the outbreak of the French Revolution from which the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Commercial Revolution with the maritime discoveries and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, which was characterized by the vertiginous growth of the capitalist mode of production and, finally, evolved to the Contemporary Age, which comprises from 1789 to the present day, standing out for the great advance of science and technology, major armed conflicts and the advent of economic and financial globalization.
The barbarism of the Contemporary Age, like primitive barbarism, is characterized by unbridled violence and contempt for human beings [2]. In the last five centuries, barbarism has steadily increased. Year after year, decade after decade, violence and contempt for human beings have increased, seeming to have no limit to this phenomenon. Something far worse: men and women have become accustomed to barbarism, and there is no longer any astonishment, strangeness, or horror in the face of inhuman acts. Barbarism is marked throughout the history of mankind by conflicts between empires, nations and peoples, with very few years in which no war has taken place on the planet. Death statistics demonstrate the growth of barbarism throughout human history. The Punic Wars (264-146 BC) caused the death of 1 to 2 million people, the Medieval Wars (499-449 BC) caused deaths whose estimates are very imprecise, as it is a very old conflict, the War of the Hundred Years (1337-1453) caused the deaths of 2 to 3 million people, the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) caused the deaths of 5 to 8 million people, the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) caused 3 to 7 million dead, Taiping Rebellion (1850-1846) killed 30 million people, World War I (1914-1918) killed 15 to 20 million people, Russian Civil War (1918-1921) ) caused the deaths of about 10 million people, the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) caused the deaths of about 20 million people, and World War II (1939-1945), caused the deaths of 60 to 70 million people.
From the end of World War II until 1992, 149 wars took place, in which more than 23 million people died. The estimate covering all deaths from 1914 to the present time reached a total of 187 million killed in acts of war or systematic extermination. The violence of conflict in our time is unparalleled in history. Since the 20th century, wars have been “total wars” against combatants and civilians without discrimination. More recent wars continually increase these death statistics. There are several countries that can become outbreaks of wars in the world in the 21st century, highlighting, among them, the United States, Russia, China, Syria, Israel, Iran, North Korea, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan and, more recently, Ukraine. In the contemporary era, international geopolitical chess points to the existence of 3 major players: the United States, China and Russia. At present, in addition to the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France, India, North Korea, Pakistan and Israel are holders of nuclear weapons. Expert reports accuse Israel of possessing an extensive nuclear arsenal. In turn, Iran and Syria are accused of having secret nuclear weapons programs [2].
The First and Second World Wars established a new form of eminently modern barbarism, far worse in its murderous inhumanity than the warlike practices of the “barbarian” conquerors of the late Roman Empire [2]. The Great War (1914-1918) opens the most bloodthirsty stage in world history. 1914 begins with unlimited sacrifices in an effort to eliminate the enemy. This sacrifice includes the civilian population itself. 1914 begins with the era of total war, the absence of distinctions between combatants and non-combatants. The article Barbárie e modernidade no século 20 (Barbarism and modernity in the 20th century) [3] reports that modern barbarism or “barbarism generated within so-called civilized societies” is characterized by the use of modern technical means (industrialization of homicide, mass extermination thanks to cutting-edge scientific technologies), for the impersonality of the massacre (whole populations – men and women, children and the elderly – are “eliminated”, with the least possible personal contact between the decision-maker and the victims), for the bureaucratic, administrative, effective, planned, “rational ” (in instrumental terms) of barbaric acts and the use of modern-type legitimizing ideology: biological, hygienic, scientific.
In the 20th century, the crises of capitalism always resulted in social revolutions aimed at overthrowing the capitalist system, as occurred in Russia in 1917, in China in 1949 and in Cuba in 1959, among others, with the implementation of the socialist system or in counter-revolution with the implantation of fascist dictatorships as occurred in Italy in the 1920s with Mussolini and Nazis as occurred in Germany with Hitler in the 1930s, among others [2]. The Nazi genocide against Jews, Gypsies and Communists, the use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Stalinist Goulag, the Vietnam War, the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the two Iraq wars, the Afghanistan and the civil war in Libya and Syria exemplify in a more complete way the barbarism that characterizes the world in which we live. The world, as a social, political and cultural organization, is in disintegration. The signs are evident in all parts of the planet. One of these signs is the worsening of the economic and social situation in all countries in the contemporary era, which tends to make the growth of violence uncontrollable. In recent times, inequality in income distribution has grown in central and peripheral capitalist countries. What seems to be a global phenomenon is the advance of poverty, which refers to a level of resources below which it is not possible to reach the standard of living considered minimum in a given society and time, and of extreme poverty or misery, which is the most low distribution of income/assets or deprivation. At present, 33% of the population of peripheral capitalist countries is in a state of misery.
The result of the worsening of social tensions around the world and the financial inability of national states to meet social demands in each country, due to the fiscal crisis aggravated by the global economic and financial crisis, could lead to the formation of broad mass movements that could take the form of civil war at the level of each national state [2]. This means that, in each country, we can face the relentless struggle of everyone against everyone for power, income and wealth. The legitimacy of national state structures, and therefore their ability to maintain order, will be called into question. Violence, which already shows clear signs of worsening in the contemporary era, tends to assume catastrophic dimensions in the future. It is barbarism raised to the highest degree. The term barbarism has two distinct but linked meanings: barbarian cruelty and lack of civilization. It can be said that we are currently in a moment of transition in which the previous world characterized by barbarism is making the advent of civilization imperative with the emergence of a new world. The new world can mean a new world order built rationally by humanity to overcome the current barbarism translated into violence between men, environmental catastrophe and global conflagration. At the moment, barbarism prevails in which the highest interests of humanity are not considered in every country and in the world. It is necessary to ensure that the new world order based on cooperation between nations and peoples overcomes the prevailing barbarism.
Civilization must overcome the barbarism that has characterized the history of mankind since Antiquity [2]. In this context of gloomy perspectives, it is urgent to attack the evil of barbarism at its root with the construction of a new world order to replace the dominant capitalist order that generated the attacks on Civilization in all corners of the Earth that have been registered for more than 500 years. The living forces defending Civilization need to unite across the planet to oppose the forces of Barbarism. The future of humanity depends on the outcome of this confrontation. Therefore, there needs to be a transition that can be the reform of capitalism with the construction of the Social Welfare State as built in the Scandinavian countries which, being a hybrid between what is most positive in the capitalist and socialist systems, would prepare the ground for the achievement of a high level of civilization with the construction of democratic socialism in all countries of the world. In order to reach the condition of civilized society, there must be economic and social interventions by the State to promote social justice in a capitalist system and a Social Welfare policy in the general interest of the population with interventions to promote a more equal distribution of income and a commitment to representative democracy. Scandinavia is the birthplace of the most egalitarian model of society that capitalism has ever known. The success of this model was due to the combination of a broad Welfare Social State with rigid mechanisms for regulating market forces, capable of putting the economy on a dynamic trajectory, while achieving the best indicators of social well-being among capitalist countries.
The Scandinavian model of political, economic and social development should serve as a reference as a model of society to be pursued by all the peoples of the world for the conquest of civilization because the Scandinavian countries are considered the best governed on the planet, they are the ones that present the greater political, economic and social progress and have the happiest people in the world [2]. Only in this way will society be able to reach a high level of political, economic and social development and the motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, a legacy of the Enlightenment, will be able to become a reality in the world. This motto invoked during the French Revolution, which is universal because it translates the yearnings of all human beings, needs to be assumed by humanity. In order for Civilization to prevail over Barbarism, it is necessary for the living forces that defend Civilization to unite across the planet to oppose the forces of Barbarism. The future of humanity depends on the outcome of this confrontation.
REFERENCES
1. ALCOFORADO. Fernando. Como fazer com que as utopias planetárias se realizem visando a construção de um mundo melhor. Avalaible on the website <https://www.academia.edu/104881861/COMO_FAZER_COM_QUE_AS_UTOPIAS_PLANET%C3%81RIAS_SE_REALIZEM_VISANDO_A_CONSTRU%C3%87%C3%83O_DE_UM_MUNDO_MELHOR>.
2. ALCOFORADO. Fernando. A difícil caminhada da humanidade rumo à civilização. Avalaible on the website <https://www.academia.edu/51215633/A_DIFICIL_CAMINHADA_DA_HUMANIDADE_RUMO_A_CIVILIZACAO>.
3. LOWY, Michael. Barbárie e modernidade no século 20. Published in Brazil by the newspaper “Em Tempo”- emtempo@ax.apc.org and, originally in French, in the magazine “Critique Communiste” nº 157, hiver 2000.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, college professor (Engineering, Economy and Administration) and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022), a chapter in the book Flood Handbook (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida United States, 2022) and How to protect human beings from threats to their existence and avoid the extinction of humanity (Generis Publishing, Europe, Republic of Moldova, Chișinău, 2023).
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