9.4. Some limits to Teilhardian optimism
Teilhard de Chardin is conscious of the fact that the
optimistic attitude that he invites humanity to have towards the future is a
paroxysm of hope against hope, because for him, there is no energy of despair
but there is energy of hope which is love and he asserts:
If progress is a myth, that is to say, if faced by the
work involved we can say: `What's the good of it all?' our efforts will flag.
With that the whole of evolution will come to a halt -- because we are
evolution.2
I Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Vision of the
Past, London, I966, p. 266.
2 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of
Man, New York, I959, p. 23I. In the footnote of this page, Teilhard de
Chardin declares that there is no such thing as the 'energy of despair'. He
invites us to be optimistic to the end founding our optimism on a paroxysm of
hope against hope. All conscious energy, according to him, is, like love, (and
because it is love), founded on hope.
We want to question this type of hope against hope and this
all-out optimism because the world community seems not to have learned from the
miseries of the first and second world wars. This is because, in this
2Ist century, we have witnessed and we keep on witnessing a number
of wars and conflicts: Irak, Afghanistan, Birmania, Darfour, Georgia and Goma
in Congo. Many innocent people have died and Iran is still menacing to develop
its nuclear bomb in order to challenge the United States of America and the
other countries considered as the most powerful countries in the world because
they own the atomic bomb.
It seems to us necessary to impose some limits to Teilhardian
optimism because nothing seems to assure us that the world is not going to be
destroyed before the panhuman convergence finds its fulfilment when it reaches
the Omega Point. The Omega Point is just a postulate which seems to be coherent
as far as Teilhardian metaphysics and Teilhardian humanism are concerned; yet,
we cannot blindly abide to this optimism because violence seems to be the
ruling principle of human relationships not only at a military level, but also
in economy and politics.
When some political and economic measures are being taken in
order to impoverish the poor and to enrich the rich, then there is violence.
When some parts of the international community, better, when some members of
the planetary village are suffering from hunger, when innocent people are being
killed every day as they try to resist to rebels in some parts of the village,
then there is violence. The evil of omission seems to characterise our
generation and this can only lead us to be afraid about the future.
We cannot hope against hope for a better future if measures
are not being taken in order to protect the weaker ones and in order to protect
the environment, our common biosphere. When the most polluter refuses to attain
a summit organised in order to see how to reduce global warming or global
pollution, how optimistic should we be?
Optimism is an attitude, a state of mind, a vision of the
world that lays emphasis on the positive opportunities while neglecting the
negative situations that occur or that may occur; yet, as presented by Teilhard
de Chardin, one needs to be a superman to abide completely, body and soul, mind
and heart to his optimism. The current state of our planet which appears as a
post-industrial jungle with all the characteristics of an animal jungle imposes
some limits to the Teilhardian postulates about the future. Nothing at all
assures us that the world is not going to be destroyed before humanity reaches
the Omega Point. We remain optimistic but to a certain extent.
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