“All of us have something to give”

by Nicole Duprat*

We are in Switzerland in a country known for its artful watchmaking and its accuracy. It seems important to me that we all reset our watches. We should know what we want and what we do not want. We should understand what we are talking about when talking about freedom, sovereignty and dignity and about developing a common understanding of democracy.
In a world where language has become a Tower of Babel, an instrument of power and manipulation, there is, in the service of truth, an urgent need to call a spade a spade and to agree on common terms which are valid for all people – not  only in Europe but across the planet.
Freedom, sovereignty and dignity, these are three terms that are indissolubly united by the one reality and include a life in peace from generation to generation. Direct democracy is a form of government in which all individuals – i.e. the people as the sovereign – cooperate  and live together in peace and which supports the individual to act justly. It is useless to say that everyone should be free if there is no way of living in peace. Freedom without citizenship, freedom without peace is no freedom.
It has precisely to be defined, what democracy means and what it does not mean and how it works. To my knowledge Switzerland is the only country that lives direct democracy, and I greatly admire that. However, I am always a little saddened when I realise, that despite this system, characterised by plebiscites, initiatives and referendums, the voters have decided, for example, in favour of drug delivery points or pre-implantation diagnostics.
In Carl Gustav Jung‘s late work, entitled “Present and Future” I learned about the difference between mass and people. Mass is only a conglomerate of people with very different opinions, easily to be influenced by disinformation. The people, in contrast, consists of individuals and only if a number of mature personalities come together, society may be balanced, because then a carefully considered activity becomes possible.
Subsequently it has to be emphasised that all parliamentary democracies, such as France and many other countries around the world, merely serve to consolidate the power of those elected, while the voters have nothing more to say. Resolving upcoming issues cannot proceed from ideology-led party politics, which are hardly capable of performing anything other than dividing people.
I also want to make a brief comment on Greece, a country where I completed an internship during my teacher training in the French school in Athens. With Socrates, Greece has developed a democracy model, it has given birth to the century of Pericles and to the definition of mass by Pythagoras. In the current Greek situation, Alexis Tsipras did not understand the fact, that the Euro does not mean Europe. Because he was paralysed by the fear of leaving the Euro zone, the other Euro-zone member states could put pressure on him. They conjured up a disaster for the case that Greece would leave the Euro zone, and as a result, by the capitulation of Alexis Tsipras – and it was a capitulation indeed, followed by a terrible, neo-colonialist agreement, patronising Greece –this country has been turned into a colony without any sovereignty. In other words, Greece is between Scylla and Charybdis. Just as Alexis Tsipras wanted to know the people’s opinion on the European institutions, he should also have asked, whether they consented to leaving the Euro zone. The Greek crisis is not about the debt – because this is merely the propaganda to which the empire has taken recourse in order to deprive the western countries of their sovereignty.
Recently I saw a video by the French politician François Asselineau in which he revealed the founding myth of the EU-fathers. He pointed out that Robert Schumann had been closely associated as an agent of American intelligence and Walter Hallstein as solicitor had been closely related to Hitler and Mussolini and both were taken on by the Americans, in order  to destroy the nations of Europe and to bring them under subjection of the dictates of the empire. Since General de Gaulle knew about the Hallstein Plan, he had decided for a policy of the empty chair, that is to say, France had sent no representative into the EU-Commission.
I would like to emphasise that a democracy without demos (people) cannot exist, since there is no such thing as a European people or nation.
The statements of certain presidents of European member countries are based on a double lie: The first lie identifies the Euro with Europe and the second lie identifies the European Union with Europe. Both lies are hideous. The Euro zone is not the EU. There are countries that belong to the EU, however not to the Euro zone – Great Britain for instance, as well as Sweden, Poland and Hungary. And the EU is far from covering the whole of Europe, there are independent countries such as Switzerland, Norway, Serbia, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. All these countries are part of the geographical and cultural Europe, without being a member of the EU. Are they trying to make us forget that the EU is only a political and economic alliance between some countries?
Most Western societies are characterised by the theories of relativism or of American modernism. Caught in the contradiction between international law and human rights exploited a a tool, they have led to the emergence of talking chat-democracies by calling on high standing principles that allegedly justify the right to interfere in the affairs of foreign countries, to conduct so-called just wars, to fight “terrorists” and to build a global dictatorship.
The chaos in the world does not come from the souls of peoples, from races or religions but is due to the looting and violence by those in power. Let us be on our guard!
Relativism asserts that the good or the better is based on ideologies. It presents the human being as soulless, merely moved by social, cultural, psychological and biological forces that alienate him from himself.
Real democracy, however, appreciates the positive values ​​that  are reflected in the individual’s common sense and in the community spirit of the collective.
In this context I would like to quote the physician Albert Schweitzer, whom I appreciate very much: “There will come a day when the seeds of goodness will sprout and spread in the hearts of men”. This day has come, here and now. Now we have to acknowledge that the chaos and the spirit of division have gained the upper hand, because man is cut off from the ‘bonum commune’. If we rediscover Conscience in its universal dimension, it will allow the individual to reflect on his or her individual and collective responsibility, on his or her human task dwelling in his heart, and on his dignity.
Protecting this human dignity means to fight tirelessly against the inhuman globalised economic system, it means to refuse being a slave of money and  banks, being a slave of television messages and television pictures that are only there to dumn down the masses.
Michelangelo was a genius who – standing  in front of a block of marble – already  saw the envisioned artwork in front of him. He worked on the stone only to remove the superfluous material from the work of art. This can only be achieved by a hand that obeys the intelligence of reason. Of course we are not all Michelangelos talented as sculptors. But everyone can strive, at whatever place he is, to muster the intelligence of his heart and his reason, and the skills he has developed, to meet his vis-à-vis with true humaneness. The world’s future depends on this: that the one, who was spared suffering in his life, feels called up to alleviate the other’s pain. Everyone has something to give: Not a grand speech, but  some concrete fair and balanced activity with common sense.
Thank you for your attention.     •

*    Teacher from Vallabrègues, France;    Paper read at the 23rd September talks of “Mut zur Ethik” on the topic “Freedom, sovereignty and dignity of man – safeguard against despotism and war”, 4–6 September 2015
(Translation Current Concerns)