Conservative conception of a crisis

Based on the second revised Czech edition

Vlastimil Podracký (*1940), author, publicist, and political analyst wrote apart from his fiction works: No Thanks to Heroes, Yellow Danger, The Last Man, Dark Chamber, and Sodom and Gomorrah, wrote also political essays: Careful, Tunnel, Civic revival, and Return Home. Political essays are led by conservative ideas for solution of negative phenomenons within current European civilization. 

In the difference from other similar publications, he does not criticize the present status quo but searches for root causes and proposes solutions. In his new philosophical-political analysis he stems from the idea that due to human influence the world changed so profoundly that old social theories are no longer valid; and that it is desirable to take up a position called timeless humanism, which is the only way which leads mankind to a permanently sustainable and reproducible society.

The theory of timeless humanism is a result of conservative method which originates from appreciation of fundamental change in directing of processes on the Planet including human activities. Mankind took over controls of biological processes from nature on the entire Planet and people began influencing their own fate with far reaching consequences for their own future. People do not act well; they endanger themselves and the whole biosphere. Change of paradigm is so profound and concerns the very essence of the world that old ideological systems are no longer valid as whole, and new are then only conformal and reduced. Old way of thinking originating from Kant’s statement that purpose of a man is man himself which in its extreme form results in current selfishness and mutual disjunction of people from each other and from natural principles and objects. It is necessary for humans to become purpose together with others. The others mean including other people and also other living creatures on the planet. At the same time, they all together serve timeless purpose and have timeless mission in perfecting the world. Human remains a subject which controls the world and for this, new appurtenance with other people and natural objects.

Author’s foreword:

This book is only an indication of the problem. Every word should be elaborated much more and many things proven much better than only presenting the examples I selected. But this scope would exceed the limits of a publisher, and therefore please accept this work as an introduction or a beginning.

All thinkers of these days understand that the new what has to come has to be brand new and old notwithstanding. They understand that it is not possible to surround oneself with material possessions without limits, overly exploit Earth resources, pollute water, food, and air, ravage soil and humane naturalness, fall in debt in the end, have too few children who cannot feed their parents, sick, not even themselves, and not even considering other children.

Most don’t know yet that the current economic crisis is only a tip of an iceberg of a crisis of civilization; that debt is a manifestation of inability to cover vast expenses from lowered income. It seems that there is no solution except for screaming in the streets. Often the problems are only reduced to corruption, because people are reluctant to comprehend the whole content of the crisis; after all, they had no problems until recently; somebody had to steal the money, that’s for sure! It seems that liberalism outlived itself; and that socialism has no way of capturing profits from big businesses, and therefore it resorts to populist rhetoric of irresponsible promises. There are no models in history; communism failed: it committed horrifying atrocities and eventually collapsed. Social states of Western Europe did not succeed and their residues are now living their last days on debit.

But what can be noticed for certain is that there are fewer young working people and more those who are for various reasons out of work: mostly the elderly, sick, drug addicts, people unable to work and brought up in idleness, who know nothing but lazing away. Financial loans covered up everything so far and created a setting of a prospering society, which is now falling apart and generates further unemployment in people who wish to work.

Debt is everywhere where one can see: in depleted resources, shortage of young people, profligate lifestyle which is enforced by the system, and only ultimately in financial debts of the whole structure of society. Dark sounds of tam-tams echo from distance which mind is reluctant to notify: there is no longer enough fish in some seas; the total surface of rainforests shrank to one third; desert expanded yet another ten kilometers; there are another billion people more. How is it possible that the shops are still full of food of which half gets thrown away?

That’s why the new has to be really new, because there was similar situation in history; not that there were similar consequences of crises, but never in history were the root causes so close to elimination of existence of civilization itself. Even so, in specific matters nothing under the Sun is completely new, and everything was here before.

The original book Timeless humanism – we lived and shall live was due for second edition, so I took it as an opportunity to work on it a bit more and amend it. This is how this publication arose.

Seven basic ideological constants of timeless thinking:

1. Humbleness of reason – new phase of critical rationalism

2. Naturalness

3. Responsibility for the world/belonging

4. Conservation, preventing expansion

5. Respecting the superior (cosmic) principles

6. Recognition of imperfection and uniqueness of the human essence

7. The task of people is the improvement of the world, not primarily their own benefit

First English edition was published on May 2014 (paperback, 208 pages)