Barcelona is an agora. From yesterday until Sunday, more than 200 thinkers, philosophers, theoreticians, essayists and the like will debate in its streets and squares –and in some of Palma and Valencia– topics such as the war in Ukraine, climate change, the crisis of democracy , Hispanidad, the configuration of cities… This is the new edition of the Biennal del Pensament, which is held –free of charge– in spaces such as the CCCB, the Canòdrom, the Gustavo Gili publishing house, la Modelo, Can Felipa and in many open-air squares (Reial, Virreina, Dones del 36, Diamant…). Yesterday, Marina Garcés and Svetlana Alexiévich made the Plaza Joan Coromines small.
The first act was quite a challenge: in the morning, the philosopher Marina Garcés, author of Ciudad Princesa, faced, like a Socrates without a tunic, a thousand high school students who had come from all over Catalonia to listen to her speak -and speak together with she– on the subject of promises. “When you make a promise, to whom do you make it? Think about it,” Garces said. The largest group (half, counted by show of hands) did it to a family member or a loved one; the least numerous (barely a dozen arms) formulated it to God or to his country. Garcés analyzed different types of promises, citing Kant or Nietzsche, and alerted her audience to those promises “that are imposed, the result of coercion, and that one must know how to identify”. The kids asked for the microphone to make promises out loud: succeed in basketball, never fail their grandmother, be a better person every day, build a place for the homeless to eat and sleep… They even put the philosopher in trouble When asked about keeping passionate promises: “There are times when one is not capable of keeping promises that he made about his feelings, at least with the intensity that he would like,” he admitted.
“There are words – he said later – that are a promise in themselves, like Europe, which attracts many people”. In the street below, the Iranian delivery man Arastoo – which, by the way, means Aristotle – nodded, stopping his bicycle for a moment to watch the spectacle. Interested in promises? “It’s wonderful to see so many girls and boys together, with their faces uncovered -he answers-, it’s the same as what they talk about, in my country this scene is impossible, there they kill people for being gay, realize everything that have!”.
In the afternoon, on the same stage, via video connection, the Israeli Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens, recalled that “the future is not written, not even with climate change: if we make the necessary decisions (invest 2% of world GDP in it) we will succeed in avoiding the catastrophe. Resources are not lacking, but political will”. In the same way, “war is not an inevitable part of human nature, we have built international institutions that are capable of avoiding it, and now we despise them. To abandon global institutions is to return to the jungle. Ideals, without institutions, do not change things”.
The Dutch Rutger Bregman, author of Worthy of being human, present in the square, opined that “we live in a world of global apartheid, our EU passport is our most precious possession”. Harari added: “Most crimes against humanity are committed by people convinced that they are on the good side, we need correction mechanisms, accepting the premise that we make mistakes, as science and democracy do, whose corrective mechanisms are far from correct. Catholic infallibility.
In the evening, the same square was invaded by a crowd that came to listen to the Belarusian Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich. “Years ago we read about repression, torture and the gulag in Solzhenitsyn’s books,” she said, bundled up and hooded due to a cold, “but now we are living it firsthand: dissidents are drowned by putting bags over their heads, as in ancient times. of Stalin”.
Asked about the use of nuclear energy, the author of Voices from Chernobyl was clear: “When I went to Chernobyl, there were no people left, only animals, dogs and wild boars that had settled in people’s houses. Peaceful nuclear energy also kills, we are not aware of the danger. It is irresponsible to defend it.”
Today, at the Canòdrom (Sant Andreu) there will be discussions on City and food (5pm) and Climate change and technology (6:30pm). In Plaça Joan Coromines, Andrei Kurkov and Simona Skrabec will talk about Ukraine (5:30 p.m.) and there will be a concert by Julieta Laso and Elbi Olalla (8:30 p.m.). Dancing and thinking, compatible activities.
