
24 Oct The big question? Is there anyone hearing anymore? (JEFFREY LEVETT)
“Dear Participants of the 77th UN General Assembly You have an awesome duty to remain guardians of the future and we have a solemn obligation to stand with you. Our first goal is to convince you to bring back classical philosophy! Your success will be a tremendous gift for our, present generation and all generations stretching beyond into the deep future.
As Ban Ki-moon left the UN, the Doomsday Clock according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists stood very close to midnight. When in Athens to examine the plight of migrants in search of a safe port he received a symbolic life jacket, a symbolism more pertinent than ever. It represented an SOS as pollution overwhelms the planet, poles melt, fires sweep through forests and flooding erodes the fertile Earth. He took strong views on global warming, on education, with an emphasis on civic education and embraced global citizenship and philosophy. Irina Bokova said that philosophy instills humility. Audrey Azoulay, while her successor as Secretary General of UNESCO, said philosophy is a bastion against the narrowness of views and minds, while the greater the difficulty of finding solutions to a problem, the greater the need for philosophy. With Ban Ki Moon, in the UN philosophy came as close to application as the Doomsday Clock comes close to midnight today. Even the apt words of a predecessor Dag Hammarskjold that the United Nations was created to save humanity from hell may well come true.
Today the World Philosophical Forum finds the Doomsday assessment of 100 seconds to midnight obsolete as a result of worsening developments on our planet so rapid that the existing Doomsday assessment should no longer be given annually, but monthly! As of now the World Philosophical Forum sets the alarm at 23 symbolic seconds to midnight, a time when World stops.
We know of course, how utopian this all seems, but even in utopia we have to fight to save planet earth and humanity. The big question? Is there anybody there who listens anymore? The bigger question is will there be anybody left to listen?
To the best of our knowledge, Classical philosophy which placed its seal on the cradle of civilization seems abandoned in UNESCO, has not been considered in the elaboration of the World Health Organization’s evolving committees on the origins of COVID-19 and its expertise is not present in the UN. So once again what should we expect? We can only hope for the best.”
Jeffrey Lavett
Source: https://www.meer.com/en/70792-a-message-to-the-un-general-assembly