By: Dr Janez Juhant
As part of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA) in Salzburg, the Dean of the Humanities Class, Boštjan Marko Turk, organised an international symposium titled Reflections on the Historical Foundations of Western Civilisation, Contemporary Challenges, and Future Directions.
EASA, founded in 1990 under the patronage of Vienna Cardinal Franz König, therefore nurtures the Christian humanist heritage. This, according to the participants of the recent symposium, has now become a vital challenge for the Church and for humanity. Can a society left to the manipulation of (self-serving) influencers still uphold these values, or is it driven by a “merciless engine of endless expansion, knowledge, and power, disconnected from the moral and religious roots of the West, toward a fateful climax?” (Žiga Turk)
Already in the 1930s, Andrej Gosar warned that society was unable to reach a humane solution to the exploitation of workers. Wars and revolutions only made such agreements more difficult. A century later, the clash of cultures, nations, and interest groups has become even more brutal, while human beings are increasingly lost in consumerist ideologies of soft, and unfortunately also hard, totalitarianism. This leaves untreated wounds, like in Slovenia, where post-communist actors are considering burying the Home Guard soldiers somewhere near Škofja Loka, to remove a sensitive topic from the public agenda, silence grieving relatives and democrats, and preserve their violent gains in society. Archbishop Zore said in Šentjošt that we must “cleanse the memory of these people … remove the spit with which the murderers justified their crime, a crime they knew was such, otherwise they would not have hidden it behind barricades in mine shafts, the blasting of karst abysses, and the imposed and threatened silence that made so many Slovenian women and families groan for decades.” The burdens of revolution cannot be borne indefinitely by the defeated, while the victors invent new lies and new faces from behind the scenes. At some point, the lies must end, the devastation of hearts must be healed, Christian values restored, and democratic order realised.
Modern wars, violence, and so forth continue to destroy us, as we are trapped in a deadlock sustained by global decision-makers, either politicians who wield actual power, or a minority that controls the world’s wealth and influences the policies of states. They deprive democrats of authority in managing domestic affairs, while ideological political patrons and oligarchs determine the fate of societies. Is it even possible to reawaken awareness in people? One participant from India believes that India still preserves its religious traditions and human potential. Birth rates represent the real strength of Asian and African countries, especially Muslim ones, because they still build on family- and faith-based values.
Stagnation and decline are also the problem of Slovenia, a country increasingly falling behind within the EU. But even in Europe and the wider world, holistic development is in doubt. If institutions do not serve the full development of the human being, they merely sustain a false system, a slow death, as described by Igor Torkar from the Goli Otok labour camp. We are living in a global camp, controlled and led by manipulators who, through subtle methods, are driving us toward the disintegration of life, humanity, and society. Man invented science and the machine, but now the machine is grabbing him by the throat and trying to destroy him (Lewis Mumford). Even artificial intelligence, as a product of human invention, is not an independent reality, but it can be misused to harm humanity. Is this our final warning to reflect on the meaning of human actions? Pope John Paul II countered the culture of death with a return to God. His encyclical Redemptor Hominis sends a clear message that salvation is found only in Christ. A spiritual and ethical turn toward meaning, values, and God is possible through constant education, in the family, in schools, and in society as a whole. Violence and the accumulation of material resources (for the few) must be addressed through dialogue and difficult processes of education, toward empathy, compassion, reciprocity, cooperation, and respect for human dignity. Until we accept that love, family, and mutual respect are the basic conditions for existence, there is little hope for Slovenians or for other nations. As Viktor Frankl says, meaning and values can only truly be established with God.