Material d'Humanitats | Material de Humanidades

Leo en la (¿casi?) siempre interesante bitácora de Javier Armentia que opina que el director de la Real Academia de la Lengua aviva una guerra innecesaria (valga la redundancia). Y me parece que tiene toda la razón (dicho sea con todo el respeto). Más de cien comentarios de lectores acompañan su opinión.

En fin, con tantos como hay, qué más decir:

Las matemáticas han suspendido en humanidades, las humanidades en ciencia, la ciencia en religión y la religión en historia.

– El Roto (7 de julio de 2007).

La participación situacionista en el Mayo francés

Álvaro Martínez Majado — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:00:22 +0000

[ Imatge basada en una fotografia de Damien Roué. Aquest treball es pot descarregar en PDF, maquetat; o en un fitxer editable odt, maquetat també. Gràcies a The Internet Archive: #1, #2 ]

A great mix to produce humor (term paper)

Álvaro Martínez Majado — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:00:50 +0000

There are a series of elements that in the beginning of This is the way the world ends by James Morrow, as in any other novel, give us a some information before starting to read the text of the novel itself. In the case of the suggested text it is, obviously, the title, but also the inscription, the acknowledgments, the table of contents and a poem right before starts the text of the novel.

It seems logical to start by commenting on the title: This is the way the worlds ends. Anyone that reads a title like this will think that is going to face a dramatic or apocalyptic novel, perhaps with some epic story inserted, perhaps with characters who face the adversities with stoicism. In summary: the reader when reading this title expects to find something similar to Mecansocrit del segon origen by Manuel de Pedrolo, for example.

However, immediately remains clear that the text has a great dose of humor. This breack our expectations as readers. And besides breaking our expectations, if we are experimented readers and with literary knowledge, we will receive a second surprise: James Morrow spins the title out a work by T. S. Eliot called The Hollow Men, which ends as follow:

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

This fact open the door to a multiplicity of resources now the author can use playing with our expectations:he can satirize the poem by T. S. Eliot, can do a counterpoint, can complete it, etc. In any case, it will be a strange coincidence that he used as title a verse by T. S. Eliot and there was not any type of connection between one work and another. In this case, the most obvious connection is thematic: they both talk about the war in a form or another.

After the title, the following that finds the reader is the inscription: «For my daughter Kathy». It does not provide us as readers so much information for the moment, but this as any other inscription helps us start knowing the implied author. The section called «Aknowledgements» insists in this process of formation in reader’s mind of the implied author. We can firstly think that this section does not have anything to do with the implied author but with the author itself, we can think that is a kind of objective texts, simply a list of influences. But it’s not true: the author itself makes an election, list who want to list an exclude everyone else: for example, he does not cite T. S. Eliot.

Then reader found the table of contents, where we have to stop because there are some surprising things. The dictionary of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans definite prologue as «Introduction to a work that usually reviews the merits, the value, o also to place it in the middle of a context and some determinate circumstances.» So usually prologue readers to the work itself, not to the story itself or to the plot itself. James Morrow is playing here with conventions about titles and divisions of literary works; if usually we expect some references to the work itself in the prologue, he starts the story and calls «prologue» to this beginning, turning the divisions itself in a part of a literary play. Something similar happens with the «Epilogue» section. He also plays in a similar way with another division used in literature, which is entr’acte, usually located between two acts in literary plays and here located in the middle of a novel, between book one and book two. Also we have to retain the names of this last parts I’ve mentioned, «Those who favor fire» and «For destruction ice is also great».

We have to retain this data in our minds because it is connected with the next thing that a reader receives, also another more information previous to the text itself: a poem by Robert Frost called Fire and ice. This is obviously the first definitive clue the author give us to tell us this is not a dramatic story. It’s a resource for desdramatization. And author uses two verses borrowed from this poem to entitle book one and book two.

Then starts the singular prologue o this curios story, that deals with Nostradamus and the end of the world. The action starts with the description of the main character in this prologue, which is Nostradamus, and then tells us a story about this prophet and his efforts to narrate how the world ends. To do that, the author uses sometime sarcasm (even explicitly the word «sarcasm» is used) or let his characters do; anachronisms, sought protection in the fact that the main character can foresee the future; and also uses very often irony: «My readers expect a full complement of nonsense» my be a good example of how this irony is used. And this example is also connected with the fact that Morrow often, also here, deals with religion and / or superstition.

Also in the prologue the reader can find a lot ob examples of different ways of speaking: direct speech, free direct speech, and free indirect speech are often used. Let’s see some examples:

As an example of direct speech:

‘No,’ I replied, ‘I did not think so’, he confessed.

As an example of free direct speech:

“What?”
“That was a sarcasm. The coming thing. Mirable dictu, what a reversal Bonaparte will suffer once he reaches Moscow!”

When the prologue ends, reader found the book one, entiteled Those Who Favor Fire, whose setting implies contrasted with the Prologue’s one a foreshadow. It deals with nuclear armament and where there are some references to well-known popular artists like George Paxton and references to popular trade marks of big corporations like Honda, used all this as a desdramatization strategy.

Now we know there had been a foreshadow if we observe again the table of contents we see that the next division is again setted in 16th century, while Book one is sitted in 20th century. Nevertheless Book Two is again setted in 20th century so, although there is no continuation in the proposed excerpt, we can say that the author is inserting alternatively narrations setted in 20th and in 16th century.

To sum up, all the strategies adopted by the author permit him to deal with a dramatic theme as is nuclear armament and wars from humor and irony, mixing elements of religion (often satirizing it) and history (by introducing some symbols, for example; by citing some well-known figures like Hitler) and playing with their traditions and with the tradition of literature itself. This mix of elements produces greatly the humorous effect that the author was searching.

Sources

James Morrow. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [on line] <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Morrow&oldid=205316097>. 2008.
George Paxton. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [on line] <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Paxton&oldid=221147043>. 2008.
The Hollow Men. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [on line] <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Hollow_Men&oldid=221142579>. 2008.

A more real Phoung

Álvaro Martínez Majado — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:00:55 +0000

Phuong can be considered as the representation in The Quiet American of the Vietnamese people. Of course, in the characters who belong to this set, she is the only one that is treated with a exhaustive attention. That allows, among other things, observe certain models of relationship between the women of Vietnam and some members of the North American troops in this case that are portrayed in the novel.

However, can not be considered the character of Phuong as an stereotype. The reason is that this character is shown to the reader in a way from the perspective of the narrator, Fowler; the narrator says that Pyle sees Phuong in another different way; the sister of Foung sees her in another different form and other characters with less direct contact with her, for example Granger see her in a different way to all the previous ones. In any case none of the perspectives from which every character see Fuong is discarded totally (perhaps except this last of whom only have a superficial contact with her) because does not remain clear what is the real Phuong just in case something essential and absolutely true exists in an author like Greene.

There were sexual intercourses provoked by the asymmetrical relation of force between the civil person and the members not only of the army that fought by the control of Vietnam, but also the entire team of the combatant powers. According to that Granger says about Phuong: «”Where’d he find her? You got to be careful in this town.” He added gloomily, “Thank God for penicillin.”». Vigot thinks even that she is a prostitute. Who have little direct relationship with Phuong sometimes consider her only a sexual object to serve to the one who have power in one or in another form.

In the same novel denies that Phuong was only that. “She’s got a date every night.”, Fowler tells suddenly to Granger when he insists on harassing Phuong. The sex plays an important role in the relationship between the British journalist and the Vietnamese youngster. But she is not for him only a sexual object, he is in love with her, is a sex-based love, but it is love. There is not a love in a traditional sense: «”Phuong,” (…) which means Phoenix, but nothing nowadays is fabulous and nothing rises from its ashes.», the skeptic behaviour of Fowler is transferred in some way to the area of his affective and sexual relationships. Anyway, the feeling of possession and love for Phuong worries a lot Fowler and does not want to lose her, looks permanently for a stability that knows that he is complicated that he is going to be able to find, and never he will find it if Pyle interferes:

«Hadn’t she been fond of me and hadn’t she left me for Pyle? She had attached lierself to youth and hope and seriousness and now they had failed her more than age and despair.»

In a context of social and political instability as important as is a war, Phuong seems to look for protection and have a relationship with Fowler while she has protection with him. In exchange, Phuong submits Fowler and make all he wants, as the fact that she prepares pipes of opium for him every time he wants, for example, evidences it.

Fowler sees Phuong as somebody to whom of the occidental culture and knowledge in not interesting (except banalities), but does not give this opinion in a negative way, Fowler knows that the view of world of Vietnamese people is different, that’s why he talks of “wonderful ignorance”:

«Phuong on the other hand was wonderfully ignorant: if Hitler had come into the conversation she would have interrupted to ask who he was. The explanation would be made more difficult because she had never met a German or a Pole and had only the vaguest knowledge of European geography, though about Princess Margaret of course she knew more than I.»

On the other hand Pyle, whose love for Phuong is paternalistic, is destined to free her from the frantic but temporary love of Fowler. Pyle’s approach to Phuong is very formal, very rigid and in some way out of context:

«”Peut-on avoir l’honneur?” Pyle was saying in hister-rible accent and a moment later I saw them dancing in silence at the other end of the room, Pyle holding her so far away from him that you expected him at any moment to sever contact. He was a very bad dancer, and she had been the best dancer I had ever known in her days at the Grand Monde.»

And, between these two visions of Phuong, there is the contrast with her sister Hei. Phuong goes in search of protection and acts with submission, while Hei wants for her a rich European husband and she finds decidedly and without fears. Hei has a vision of her sister halfway between an informer and somebody to protect.

The character of Phuong, therefore, is not presented very profiled and in a clear immutable form, and that deny us talk about an stereotype, but is shown us in a polyhedral way and is not indicated if one of the sides corresponds to a more real Phuong than the rest.

Sources

Los peligros de la inocencia: Graham Greene (1904-1991). Carlos Franz. Letras libres magazine [on line] <http://www.letraslibres.com/index.php?art=10101>. 2004.
The Quiet American. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Quiet_American&oldid=214810531>.

Run away of some idealistic youngsters or they will bring democracy to you

Álvaro Martínez Majado — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:00:46 +0000

Pyle is an idealistic youngster, has internalized a lot York Harding’s ideas, so much that he believed that they could be applied to the reality of Vietnam without any type of criticism nor modification. As a base to internalize those ideas, or at the same time as he internalized them, other ideas accompanied them had installed also in his mind: a too rigid and intolerant conception of a specific type of democracy that Pyle considers universally valid. It is a type of democracy that, for the idealistic Pyle, must be exported to all the world, because is what is good, and makes no difference if the use for the force is needed or not:

«Democracy was another subject of his, and he had pronounced and aggravating views on what the United States was doing for the world.»

That is another center topic: the behavior of the United States, qualified in many other areas of imperialist, is in Pyle’s mind the necessary one to extend what is good to other parts, his particular conception of democracy. This thought, as it can be evidenced, leads Pyle to internalize also an aphorism, implicitly: the end justifies the means. His internalized ideas implies this aphorism. And this allows another Pyle to appear, a more mysterious, more sinister and more cold-blooded side to Pyle.

There are some clues that the narrator has given throughout the novel to indicate this. As an idealist, firstly Pyle only wants to make good actions. But in a given moment, in the watch tower where he and Fawler take refuge to prevent an attack, occurs something surprising:

«Just as I rose the voice stopped: the silence made me jump. Pyle said sharply, “Drop your rifle.” I had just time to wonder whether the sten was unloaded-I hadn’t hothered to look-when the man threw his rifle down.»

It’s surprising that Pyle wants to arm himself, but it’s still more surprising that Pyle is going to use the weapon even to kill a human being:

Pyle exauained bis sten. “There doesn’t seem any mystery about this,” he said. “Shall I fire a burst?”
“No, let them hesitate. They’d rather take the post without firing and it gives us time. We’d better clear outfast.” “They may be waiting at the bottom.”
There is another episode in which it is sensed that Pyle can be a little cold-blooded, although he does not remain clear if it’s only unwise or he is really somebody that stands up to the fear. It is the moment when Pyle sails up to Phat Diem alone to talk with Fawler, endangering his own life:
“How on earth did you get here?” I asked. “They let me through as far as Nam Dinh to see our trachoma team, and then I hired a boat.” “Aboat?”
“Oh, some kind of a punt-I don’t know the name for it. As a matter of fact I had to buy it. It didn’t cost much.” “And you came down the river by yourself?” “It wasn’t really difficult, you know. The current was with me”. “You are crazy.”

Another moment in which the cold-bloodness of Pyle is shown is when it helps Fowler escape from the attack in the watch tower. In this case it is not longer only that he dares to use a weapon, is not either that seems cold-blooded but maybe he is not: in this case is more evident, he risks its own life to save that of Fowler, so it’s undoubtedly a cold-blooded action:

He crept round to my side and hoisted my arm over his shoulder. I wanted to whimper like the boy in the tower and then I was angry, but it was hard to express anger in a whisper. “God damn vou, ‘Pyle, leave me alone. I want to stay.” “You can’t.”
He was pulling me half on to his shoulder and the pain was intolerable. “Don’t be a bloody hero. I don’t want to go.”

All this gives us clues on the side of the more cold-blooded side of Pyle. But undoubtedly, we see the more mysterious, more sinister and more cold-blooded side to Pyle when we find out about his relations with general Thé. The reader does not know the first the facts of this relation through Pyle, but through another character, called Heng, who informs Fowler about some connections between Pyle and Thé. Related with this, Fowler respond to Heng:

“You mean you’ve established a kind of connection between Pyle and the General,” I said. “A very slender one. It’s not news anyway. Everybody here goes in for Intelligence.”

Later the suspicions that Heng introduces are confirmed, brutally. Some bombs camouflaged in bicycles exploded and as a result of that incident the linking between Thé and Pyle was evidenced. Pyle was arming Thé as Heng suspected. Fowler warned then Pyle:

“Those bicycle bombs. They were a good joke, even though one man did lose a foot. But, Pyle, you can’t trust men like The. They aren’t going to save the East from Communism. We know their kind.”

Pyle did that because he is an idealistic young, he believed York Harding, and York Harding thought that it was necessary a «third way» in Asia to obtain the Democracy: nor Communists neither Colonialists can bring democracy to Asia, only a «third way» can according to York. Pyle was idealistic and also innocent, but besides there is a more mysterious, more sinister and more cold-blooded side to Pyle than the Pyle we can see at the beginning of the story.

La dècada vermella a Alemanya

Álvaro Martínez Majado — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:00:18 +0000

Clase de Raimundo Viejo Viñas.

El professor Raimundo Viejo Viñas ha publicat al seu bloc dues entrades relacionades amb la seva classe sobre la dècada vermella a Alemanya, un dels quals conté una presentació de diapositives descarregable que inclou a mode de resum i en format d’esquema els punts que va tractar. Les dues entrades es titulen La dècada vermella: Alemanya (1967-1977) i La Dècada Vermella.

La primera de les entrades és un resum introductori de la classe. És en la segona on hi ha la presentació La dècada vermella. La República Federal d’Alemanya 1967-1977 (format ppt). per poder-la descarregar.

Fowler, Pyle, Phoung; Europe, USA, Vietnam

Álvaro Martínez Majado — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 07:00:02 +0000

Some details of the love triangle among Fowler, Pyle and Phoung can be read as an allegory of the colonialism. In fact, the whole love story can be read like this, but there are two specific moments of the novel in which this appears very clearly.

One of those moments is the conversation that Fowler and Pyle maintain in the headquarters of the French officers. The other moment is also a conversation among Fowler and Pyle, in this case they maintain it after the car in which they travel goes out of gasoline.

In this allegory, Fowler would symbolize Europe; Pyle, the United States of America and Phoung, Vietnam.

Firstly let’s see how Fowler acts. The representation of Europe in this allegory is a person with experience. The reason why he appears disappointed with regard to noble ideals as the democracy is, precisely, his experience. For example, when he and Pyle come into the watch tower, force the two Vietnamese that there are to host them and disarm them, they have the following conversation:

I said to Pyle, “Do you think they know they are fighting for Democracy? We ought to have York Harding here to explain it to them.” “You always laugh at York,” Pyle said.
“I laugh at anyone who spends so much time writing about what doesn’t exist–mental concepts.”

We see how Europe is according to this analogy: is disappointed with regard to the democracy as an ideal, in general, in part because his real behavior is not accorded with what this ideal represents; and more precisely, is skeptical on the possibility of bring the democracy (in the European sense of the term at least) to realities different to the European one. In the words of Fowler already the end of the eurocentrism and the recognition of different realities is observed: «They want enough rice, (…) they don’t want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don’t want our white skins around telling them what they want.», Fowler says. And also says:

“Oh no,” I said, “we’ve brought them up in our ideas. We’ve taught them dangerous games, and that’s why we are waiting here, hoping we don’t get our throats cut. We deserve to have them cut. I wish your friend York was here too. I wonder how he’d relish it.”

As it can be seen in the previous quote, Fowler, besides not trusting the European point of view for Vietnam, he sees nothing related with noble ideas in this war. Pyle himself (who represents the United States of America) recognizes that Fowler-Europe has more experience than he: «You’ve seen so much more of the world than I have.», says him. Europe already has a lot of experience in wars and in colonialism.

The European position represented by Fowler is cynical, skeptical with regard to the supposed values in the background of the war; he is convinced in fact that the real motivations of the war are strategic motivations, not idealistic ones.

Pyle’s position is very different. He, who represents the United States of America in the allegory, thinks that the contingent of his country fights for the democracy in Vietnam, against the communism, for freedom. Pyle thinks this is the battle that is being issued. He thinks that the occidental values that he defends can be transferred to a different reality: the reality of Vietnam.

Besides, Pyle not only is convinced that what he defends is the best for Vietnam, but he also thinks that he perceives the support of the population: «They don’t want Communism», they support the democracy even if they pay it with human lives: «In a way you could say they died for Democracy», they long for freedom in the occidental sense of the term. Pyle has learned to be idealistic reading York Harding and so believes there is a right background in that war.

In the conviction that both know what Vietnam needs, one from the cynicism that gives him the experience, another from his learned idealism, the arguments that each of them give, are startling. They are incompatible, that is why they are startling with all regard to the war and, parallelly in the allegory, they are startling with all regard to Phoung in the conversation in the headquarter of the French officers : «She’ll just have to choose between us, Thomas. That’s fair enough.»

When Fowler says that he can not marry Phuong, in the allegory that means the impossibility for Europe to commit itself with Vietnam in the same intensity in which the Americans can do it. When he stands out that Pyle can offer her more money, refers to the biggest economic power of the United States of America.

With all these data the position of Europe remains clear, but Europe also takes part in the war. It already takes part without the idealistic cloak. He knows that the best for the Vietnamese would be not to take part (he knows that the eurocentrism is false) but that is not the best for Europe’s interests. That, transferred to the allegorical Vietnam, which is Phoung, appears as follow:

“Oh, but I know you’re straight, absolutely straight, and we both have her interests at heart.” Suddenly I couldn’t bear his boyishness any more. I said, I don’t care that for her interests. You can have her interests. I only want her body. I want her in bed with me. I’d rather ruin her and sleep with her than, than . . . look after her damned interests.” He said, “Oh,” in a weak voice, in the dark.

I went on, “If it’s only her interests you care about, for God’s sake leave Phuong alone. Like any other woman she’d rather have a good . . .”

Actually, Fowler-Europe is convinced that what needs Vietnam is that neither Europe nor United States of America take part in their problems. And he thinks firmly that the position of Pyle with regard to Phoung, which is the same to say the position of United States with regard to Vietnam, is to cloak idealism and good intentions what in fact is the search of an advantage (which in any case Europe does not conceal), something that in fact is going to be very harmful to Vietnam. That is why Fowler sentences, refering at the same time Phyle’s behavior with Phoung and USA behavior with war:

«I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused.»

El Mayo francés, 1968 y los sesenta y ocho

Álvaro Martínez Majado — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:00:52 +0000

Clase de Francico Fernández Buey.

Coincidiendo con el 40 aniversario del mayo francés, están apareciendo en diferentes medios de comunicación, librerías y distribuidoras nuevas publicaciones. Vale la pena tratar de dilucidar cuáles han sido las manifestaciones político-culturales que podemos considerar novedosas y más representativas de aquel tiempo.

Para ello, existen al menos dos obstáculos:

La contestación estudiantil, el movimiento estudiantil y la contracultura (o cultura a la contra) en general afectó a varios países en distintos momentos (Francia, Alemania, España, Italia, México, Polonia, etcétera) y eso coincide en el tiempo con la Revolución Cultural China, que influyó mucho al movimiento estudiantil. Es casi imposible reducir todo eso a un mínimo común denominador. Metodológicamente es importante tratar de establecer las diferencias entre los distintos y diversos movimientos estudiantiles que tuvieron lugar.
Se ha rememorado el Mayo francés desde muchas ópticas distintas y conmemorado muchas veces. No es fácil distinguir entre lo representativo de verdad y la reconstrucción que ha tenido más ecoo ha cuajado más. A menudo se escribe desde las preocupaciones actuales de los participantes de entonces o con excesiva voluntad de vincular lo actual con lo coetáneo. Se ha vinculado el pacifismo, el ecologismo, el feminismo, etcétera, con el mayo francés y sin embargo, en seguida al enfrentarse a los documentos se ve que esa afirmación no se corresponde con la realidad. Es seguramente más adecuado decir que estas cosas en concreto tenían más que ver con las protestas estudiantiles de 1964 en Estados Unidos, particularmente en California, que con el Mayo francés.

Para entender más lo que acabó en el Mayo del 68 hay que distinguir entre causas inmediatas y lo que lo posibilitó más generalmente. Si se entiende particulaizadamente cada caso encontraremos que los motivos iniciales son bastante diferentes. Por citar algunos, en Berkeley el inicio de las protestas estuvo muy relacionado con la presión ciudadana en favor de los derechos civiles de los negros; en Berlín, tuvo un gran componente antiimpertialista; en España, y sobre todo en Barcelona, existía la aspiración de una autonomía estudiantil al margen de las asociaciones estudiantiles impuestas por el franquismo; en París, empezó como una protesta por las imposiciones autoritarias consideradas como sofocantes, impagables, etcétera por los estudiantes, que las llamaban propias de la universidad napoleónica.

Aún así se pueden intentar establecer los temas que aparecen reiteradamente, que son sustancialmente los que siguen:

Denuncia del autoritarismo dentro y fuera de la universidad: entre profesores y estudiantes, en la gestión, en la relación con la política y en términos generales. Esta orientación tuvo sus matices según los casos (en Estados Unidos de América tuvo que ver con la cuestión del racismo; en Berlín el movimiento se definió antiautoritario, crítico y alternativo; en el este de Europa, el antiautoritarismo tomó forma de protesta política contra la burocratización del que prácticamente era el partido úinico; en España se identificaba a los burócratas y a los gestores universitarios con la ignorancia y la adesión al régimen; en Francia, se hizo del «prohibido prohibir» uno de los lemas principales).
Antiimperialismo: sobre todo, la denuncia del genocidio de los Estados unidos de América en Vietnam. ya desde 1964, en Berkeley se protesta y esa protesta sigue en los años sucesivos. Fue el motivo unificador de los movimientos estudiantiles.
Antiimperialismo era entonces sobre todo antinorteamericanismo. Las reconstrucciones actuales se fijan a veces demasiado en el antisovietismo. En ninguna de las cabezas de los estudiantes estuvo la caída del comunismo (eso es una manipulación). Respecto del imperialismo del otro bloque, había una profunda división (que continuó tras la invasión de Checoslovaquia).

Hay que tener muy en cuenta el impacto que tuvo la Guerra del Vietnam. Data la invasión de la época de la administración Kennedy (asesinado en 1963), cuando empieza con envíos de personal de inteligencia a Vietnam y deviene en intervención abiertamente militar en el 1964, tras el asesinato. En todos los movimientos estudiantiles está presente la denuncia del imperialismo. En Estados Unidos de Norteamérica en seguida se vinculó un y otro movimiento, y en Lationamérica el antinorteamericanismo aún fue más claro.

La importancia de la protesta contra la guerra es un hecho reconocido por los autores (Roszak, Noam Chomsky, Marcuse en su El final de la utopía, etcétera, y también en documentos que han quedado de las asambleas de la Sorbonne, Nantierre y otras).

La importancia de las protestas contra la guerra del Vietnam tiene mucho que ver con la creación de la Fundación Bertrand Russell, el trabajo de Jean-Paul Sartre, las canciones de los Beatles, etcétera. Si se analiza el manifiesto que se redactó para pedir un juicio a los Estados Unidos pro crímenes de guerra en Vietnam, se observa que hay gente muy distinta, muchos de ellos adscritos a lo que se dio en llamar tercera vía, que entonces era un movimiento de raíz casi siempre socialista crítico con el capitalismo y también crítico con el socialismo de corte estalinista soviético.

Ninguno de ellos era pacifista en el sentido estricto en el que luego se entenderá el pacifismo desde mediados de los años ochenta tras la lucha contra las armas nucleares. Eran anticapitalistas, antiestalinistas, críticos con la burocratización, etcétera, pero a menudo partidarios de la violencia contra la violencia (o por lo menos convencidos de que era inevitable).

Quiénes iniciaron la protesta en Estados Unidos de América eran hijos de la clase media, muchos de ellos excelentes estudiantes, que mostraban su descontento con la forma en que eran tratados por la dirección de la universidad y también por el tratamiento que se daba a las minorías, entre otras cosas. la protesta nació en Berkeley como una extensión de la lucha por los derechos civiles para convertirse en la vanguardia de la defensa de lo que llamaban multiversidad.

Denuncian lo que consideran una profunda inadecuación de la universidad a la generalización de la enseñanza superio. Las jerarquías universitarias estaban muy preocupadas por lo que llamaban una «masificación», mientras que los estudiantes era inevitable por varios motivos:

El crecimiento demográfico.
la recuperación económica y la transformación tecnocientífica. También pòr la vigencia del principio de igualdad de oportunidades.

De todo eso han surgido dos conflictos de forma paralela:

Persistencia de las formas autoritarias. Lo llamaban el mandarinato. Y por extensión la clase docente era llamada «los mandarines». (Aunque no es lo mismo, por ejemplo, la crítica a la tolerancia represiva que se haca en Berlín que la crítica al autoritarismo que se hizo en Barcelona.)
Contenidos de las materias y estudios universitarios. cada vez más considerados anacrónicos por los estudiantes rebeldes y orientados a la formación para la sociedad autoritaria.

Y esto lleva a un tercer conflicto, el conflicto generacional, tan presente en la literatura rusa de los 60, 70 y 80. Estos jóvenes vieron inadecuado que sus mayores siguieran dirigiendo la universidad al menos en la forma en la que lo estaban haciendo (crítica de la gerantocracia). La forma mínima inicial dce la respuesta juvenil era oponer a lo existente otros espacios, otra manera de vestir, otra manera de vivir las relaciones sexuales, en definitiva otra manera de entender el mundo.

Para entender la pérdida del predicamento de los mayores hay que tener en cuenta la dificultad que tenían los jóvenes para encontrar espacio para disfrutar de las relaciones sexuales y, en cambio, lo fácil que era encontrar un trabajo estable o relativamente estable en una sociedad en la que el pleno empleo era casi un dogma.

«Desconfía de los que tienen más de treinta años» es un eslógan del movimiento estudiantil de los Estados Unidos. la idea cuajó también fuera de la universidad. De ahí ha nacido la cultura juvenilen todos los aspectos. De ello es reflejo el cambio en la forma de vestir de los estudiantes.

En la facultad de medicina de la Universidad de Barcelona, hacia el año 35, dos médicos explicaron qué era aquello de la píldora anticonceptiva (en aquel momento, simplemente «la píldora»). Desde luego, acudió más gente que la que acostumbraba a aparecer por las asambleas antifranquistas. Pasaron cosas parecidas en otros países.

Una de las tergiversaciones habituales viene generalmente de la frase «La imaginación al poder». Se tiende a relacionar con hippies, contracultura, etcétera. Hay diferencia entre los movimientos estudiantiles americanos y el resto. En Francia como contracultura dominaban los situacionistas, los ácratas o los maoístas. Una hipótesis es que la coincidencia en la crítica a lo que representa el mandarinato, el autoritarismo, etcétera, es lo que amalgamaba todas estas tendencias.

Final entre Alemania y Grecia según los Monty Python

Álvaro Martínez Majado — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:02:48 +0000

No me puedo resistir a enlazar el siguiente vídeo de los Monty Python. Solo a ellos se les podría ocurrir un partido de fútbol en el que se enfrentaran algunos de los filósofos griegos y alemanes más famosos de todos los tiempos. Por parte de alemania, juegan Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Schelling, Beckenbauer (su inclusión entre tanto filósofo es «una gran sorpresa»), Jaspers, Schlegel, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche y Heidegger, aunque luego entra Marx en substitución de Wittgenstein. La alineación griega la componen Platón, Epícteto, Aristóteles, Sófocles, Empédocles, Plotino, Epicúreo, Heráclito, Demócrito, Sócrates y Arquímedes, quién pronucnia su famoso «¡Eureka!» durante la contienda. ¿Y el árbitro? Confucio, con Santo Tomás de Aquino y San Agustín de Hipona como linieres.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ov2oNbkvo