11.04.2013

Almada, banhada por um mar de histórias

Superstition

"Two WORLD WARS in one generation, separated by an uninterrupted chain of local wars and revolutions, followed by no peace treaty for the vanquished and no respite for the victor, have ended in the anticipation of a third World War between the two remaining world powers. This moment of anticipation is like the calm that settles after all hopes have died. We no longer hope for an eventual restoration of the old world order with all its traditions, or for the reintegration of the masses of five continents who have been thrown into a chaos produced by the violence of wars and revolutions and the growing decay of all that has still been spared.

Under the most diverse conditions and disparate circumstances, we watch the development of the same phenomena-homeIessness on an unprecedented scale, rootlessness to an unprecedented depth. Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest-forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries. It is as though mankind had divided itself between those who believe in human omnipotence (who think that everything is possible if one knows how to organize masses for it) and those for whom powerlessness has become the major experience of their lives.

On the level of historical insight and political thought there prevails an ill-defined, general agreement that the essential structure of all civilizations is at the breaking point. Although it may seem better preserved in some parts of the world than in others, it can nowhere provide the guidance to the possibilities of the century, or an adequate response to its horrors. Desperate hope and desperate fear often seem closer to the center of such events than balanced judgment and measured insight. The central events of our time are not less effectively forgotten by those committed to a belief in an unavoidable doom, than by those who have given themselves up to reckless optimism.

This book has been written against a background of both reckless optimism and reckless despair. It holds that Progress and Doom are two sides of the same medal; that both are articles of superstition, not of faith."

Hannah Arendt, The origins of totalitarianism

11.01.2013

Science matters

E assim se reforma um estado

elemento da elite governante 1: &$%/$%( dos tipos que mandam nisto, só pedem trabalhos secantes destes para casa. Tenho uma deadline para amanhã e ainda não peguei no trabalho da reforma do estado.

elemento da elite governante 2: Quantas páginas tens?

elemento de elite governante 1: Não me digas nada, só tenho 20 páginas… Tou $#&%//$!

elemento da elite governante 2: Não fiques assim pá, eu ajudo-te. Manda-me o ficheiro disso. Meto-lhe uns estilos, aumento o tipo de letra e a mancha de branco e vais ver, vai parecer um tratado filosófico. O gerador de lero lero safa o resto.

elemento da elite governante 1: Pois pá, já me tinha lembrado disso, mas o problema principal não é esse. O que me preocupa mesmo é que não tive tempo de estudar o assunto. E se eles me fazem perguntas?

elemento da elite governante 2: Oh achas, tu na oral safas-te sempre. Preocupa-te mas é com o texto. Lembras-te como fazíamos na faculdade? Líamos uns artigos de opinião, mandávamos umas larachas baseadas nos dados do INE e do Banco de Portugal e metíamos isso na bibliografia. Fica um mimo.

elemento da elite governante 1: Obrigado por me animares pá. Acho que ainda safo um 10 nisto!