Manifesto of Universal Humanism
A dreadful storm has contracted the heavens. Those who opened their eyes in time to the imminent cataclysm leave the continent’s coasts in a hurry and enter a fierce and extensive ocean. Those wishing to escape the clutches of perpetual darkness set sail from the shipyards of their dreams and ambitions. On the contrary, those who have not attempted to overcome their acedia have already been condemned to eternal irrelevance.
Humanity is falling apart.
As dreamers, it is our turn to depart. Are we prepared to do it? Or should we resign ourselves to staying on this lost shore while the stormy sky stalks us? We must renew our essence if we want to overcome the oceans of time.
What remedy should we apply to our constricted existence, then? How can we approach infinity if we are nothing more than humble dwellers in the cellars of heaven? What can be eternal and unlimited in us?
WE AFFIRM: our relevance is not measured by wealth, fame, or blind religion; but by imagination and love.
We live in a world of fragile spirit, overwhelmed and oppressed by many and varied pains that fight each other without rest. This sick world cannot decide which sorrow to turn to first, which to feed, which to annul and which to reject. So many are the inert distractions to which we are subjected that we have allowed our essence to be diluted.
In recent years, dangerous nationalisms have shaken the fragile stability of our fledgling democracies. Also, in our attempt to get rid of folly, we have condensed the entirety of human knowledge in the palm of our hands, but instead of learning, we move away from the very science that brings us this jewel of progress. We have never depended so much on scientific advances as in our current times, yet our society is far from scientifically literate. Furthermore, we are more connected than ever, yet our souls still feel orphaned. Horoscopes are still a fashionable conversation, and homoeopathy and mysticism continue to cloud our use of reason. More sadly still, we encourage new generations to embrace mediocrity. For some, it is better to be ignorant than to show intellectual eccentricity beyond the cages of our jobs, which indeed feed us but distract us from our true purpose as individuals.
Our new generations live subjugated by the culture of the immediate and the superficially gratifying. Reading meaningful books is today a rarity among most of our young people. In what dark corner of our history did we forget Dante’s divine love for Beatrice? Where has the cult of the classics gone? Our shelves are filled with flat, colourless novels that dictate the sloppy intellectual taste of a Western society that has lost its course. The West’s obsession with excessive Adamism constantly fights against indelible history, which some despotically want to rewrite to accommodate their insecurities and prejudices.
We have lost genuine desire.
And desire is a fundamental component of our humanity. Why conceal it? Why settle for daily life and not aspire to embark on a journey to the stars? Nowadays, showing a poetic soul is seen with indifference; worse still, it is suppressed with social reproach.
To all this, we say ENOUGH!
LET US DEPART, then! In our ship, we sail the poets, the scientists, the painters, the teachers, the musicians and the dancers, as well as the humble farmers of the world: we are a universal humanity governed by the light of the torch of desire, eager to arrive at more radiant shores. Athena and Eros guide us on the bow of the ship, carrying the fire of Prometheus, lighting our way through the gargantuan waves of Chaos. Our course is set; we follow the western light. Leaving behind the lost shore of the world, as we ride the waves, we help those who were less fortunate before us: there is room for everyone in our soaring nutshell. The journey is not easy, as the mighty waters of doubt pour over our little floating island of life, but with determination, we bail the water out, all together, regardless of our past or present condition.
Contrary to what others think, we are not immune to our weaknesses. We would have to shed our humanity and become gods, not to have the same needs as those who perished before us. However, the objective of our enterprise is clear: the storm will not bring us down.
We are not satisfied with living in a grey world without science and poetry! We are not satisfied with loving; we also desire! Let us anchor on the shores bathed in the warm light of our greatest triumphs as a species and plant the seeds of the future on its earth!
We, the new universal humanity, are wiser when we understand our shortcomings than when we try to repress them. We know we are weak before the tyranny of beauty: let us embrace it! We know that our most instinctive anger and fears are encoded in the enchanted forest of our minds: let us camp in its clearings and drench ourselves with knowledge! We understand that both our similarities and our differences are relativised with the help of knowledge. One ethnicity is not so different from another when we realise that we love, cry and fear in the same ways. There is beauty in all cultures, but we are against any imposition or censorship from those with political and social plans that do nothing more than reveal the dark insecurities of their minds and hearts.
This is not an easy trip, but the mere observation of every star gliding through the silence of the sky night after night reminds us of our mission’s honorability and the infallibility of our purpose.
Our world will be better if we care about what our children will learn: including love. That is why we understand that our new humanity will need to notice and appreciate the value of Poetic Reason. Our humanism is universal for the mere fact that we believe that we must extend it into the past and the future. This new type of humanism invites us to study the past through the eyes of the past, understanding the vicissitudes of each era. We should not feel morally superior simply because we are a democratic society today. We understand the present as the succession of events (favourable and adverse) that have made us what we are today. Even when accepting our past mistakes, we are stubbornly optimistic about the future of our species. The future universal humanity will be much like us, but they will have overcome the problems that now overwhelm us. In turn, their triumphs will be more lasting and relevant than we can imagine today. Challenges do not scare us; we internalise them and learn from them.
With these convictions, we will sail through the vast uncharted ocean for days, weeks and months. The only sign of the passage of time will be the procession of the silent constellations above our heads. At last, during a fortuitous sunrise with a flat sky, the rays of the newborn sun will brighten our faces and bathe our eyes with the amalgamation of fiery colours of the shores of our new westerly world. The first to see such a spectacle will be a child; since children, with their naive curiosity, guide each step of their new lives: so shall they lead ours. “There it is! Land ahoy!” the child will shout from the top of the mainmast.
Our mothers will hug their children, and we will dream of building a home in those new lands to make our families happy. Our ancestors fought and survived the intricate webs of fate to give us life. We found a novel essence with which we will never feel small again. By the time we arrive, there will be no room for cabalistic calculations, nor will we subordinate our human responsibilities to any divine construction.
We relish the magnetism of the distant stars. Perhaps we cannot touch them, but through our human, poetic and scientific ambitions, we will never stop observing them until we can reach them. We, the new descendants of humanity, will never forget that the universe is also within us.
May the eyes of the future stare at our species with pride despite all our faults and dilemmas. We arrive in this new world with the conviction of being privileged participants of eternity.
May our desire never falter,
Sapere Aude!
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Fishing Boats (1833).