He’s tall like a basketball player and has the energy of an athlete training not to fall asleep. is called Rob RiemenHe is 62 years old and a philosopher of life, reality, and what awaits us if we are not careful to put an end to the violent nationalism that is once again plaguing the world. He is the founder and president Nexus Institute, It is dedicated to “promoting philosophical and cultural debate and intellectual reflection” around the world.
His food for thought is the philosophy of the past or the poetry we have inherited, but the version he derives from this knowledge and this passion is extremely contemporary. This leads him today to observe the growing nationalist storm as one of the dangers that culture must address in order to reorient the world into areas more conducive to the democratic tradition.
They Concerns about the gradual destruction of humanism They appear in the four studies that make up his new book. The art of being human Newly published in Taurus, which also includes works depicting similar struggles: Nobility of soul is a forgotten idea And To combat this age. Ovid is the book’s first referencefrom his exile and exclusion; This figure serves to analyze the origin and survival of wars and to warn about current dangers, which include lying as part of a ruthless act of manipulation through social networks.
His is a message in favor of intelligence, and in fact, it is said in his work that “every book is a kind of message in a bottle”. Along the way he finds references to ancient thinkers: NietzscheHis old teachings are now like blueprints for understanding and rejecting the present.
We talked to him about these struggles to ennoble life in a hotel in Madrid; here he appears as an athlete and acts as a poet who loves the philosophy of the ancients to understand the current strife in the world.
Question: How do you see this moment for humanity?
Answer: We are seeing the rise of a very violent nationalism that could end everything, destroy everything. But we still have the ability to create a united humanity. But above all, we need a different political class. Because this political class is not capable of managing this situation. Only when we find politicians who are able to conflict with each other and engage in real politics, will we have an intellectual class that will bear the fruit of their work. All intellectuals have a great responsibility to reveal the power of ideas, and now we see useless academics quoting each other and making universities useless.
Question: There are values, you talk about them in your books, but neither politicians nor intellectuals can transcend them…
A. As for the political class, their value is power and they are only interested in power but also in money and its consequences. The only way out of this situation is to share our opinion about whether we really want to be human; This is the only way to preserve our civilization. We must combat the lies that dominate politics, where it is common to blame others for things that are not done or done. Throughout history, Jews and Muslims have been blamed, and even Mexicans have been made scapegoats. We are at a time when we need to resurrect the value of critical thinking that allows us to return to kindness in order to accept the responsibility of improving the society in which we live.
Q. What are the specific hazards?
A. We are dominated by entertainment. Of course, I have nothing against movies, I love cinema, but in the modern Western world, escapism, drug culture, the world of money have made us put aside humanism, the idea of making life better. Then we are surprised that fascism, the far right, returns with its politics full of lies. Trying to fix all of this will require some courage and hard work from everyone. For this reason, I am trying to explain that democracy is a model that requires the participation of everyone, where everyone is responsible, and where there is a critical mind that warns against the dangers we face. If this critical mind is not there, you just have to obey.
Question: You ask yourself many questions in the book; Some of these arise from others that ancient philosophers asked themselves. What questions will you ask yourself today?
A. There are some obvious ones. Who am I? What’s going on in my life? What decisions should I make? Because every decision has consequences… Spinosa says that when you say yes, you say no to many things, because everything always has consequences. How to make the right decisions? Wisdom is needed to answer everything, and human self-improvement is the search for wisdom. This search must be based on culture. It is supposed to evolve in the human psyche and now it is disappearing, so we Google it. As for education… The person being taught today is tempted to tell them that everything is fine and life is wonderful. The truth is that we should not take anything for granted and should fight for democracy through education.
The quality paradigm broke down and was replaced by the quantity paradigm. Economists are therefore the high priests who measure everything in terms of utility.”
Question: You also say that the quality paradigm is broken…
A. And quantity took its place. Economists are therefore high priests who measure everything in terms of utility. This is also a lie, life has nothing to do with numbers, but with the quality of what we experience.
S. in A. book pre, To combat this age It represents the dangers we have inherited from past times. How to combat today’s evils now?
A. This article was actually a reflection of the struggle. I wrote it in 2010, when the return of fascism was clearly visible, and it is based on texts by Albert Camus and Thomas Mann, in which they warned after the world war that the war was not over… We are now in 2023. and look at the wars in the world, look at the list of countries where fights are taking place. And democracy is under threat. There are phenomena that cause this discomfort, such as the influence of social networks, hoaxes, imposed ignorance of what reality is… We must look for a different political class to combat all this, because it cannot achieve this. managing this situation.. We need to get rid of that political class as soon as possible. If there are different politicians, it is possible for an intellectual class to emerge that will pave the way for a better future.