The importance and the fear of being free
"Professor Savater, what is the future?" So began, without preamble, my conversation with one of the most interesting people I've ever met. Fernando Savater, 63 years old, has a Spanish passport but a Basque heart. He was born in San Sebastian at the end of the Second World War and is one of the greatest living philosophers. Since the day I met him, I like to think of him as the last of the enlightenment thinkers. He believes firmly in the worth of the human being and in our capacity for choosing, in the right of each of us to be happy. He systematically refutes all commonplaces and always manages to provide a different and unexpected way of looking at things.
I met him on a sunny morning in his house in downtown Madrid. It's full of books from top to bottom, as one might expect, but also of old manifestos and thousands of small and strange objects. Taken in all at once they seemed like the natural scenography of a rich and passionate mind.
"The future", Savater answered, "doesn't exist". "Thinking about the future is like thinking about the past: a way just like any other of avoiding the present. I don't believe in a destiny written in the stars. What happens to us depends exclusively on our will".
And yet professor, in one way or the other, all of us are worried about climate change, mortgage rates... About the future, in short.
As free beings, our nature manifests itself by acting in the present, because it's the only thing that we can actually change. A human being doesn't choose the shape of the world in which he lives, but can only respond by reacting to what happens to him. So therefore we should not worry about what will happen, but rather what we are now doing.
It's all too easy to go around saying that the world's going to end and then go out and enjoy a quite dinner with friends. If you’re convinced that there's no hope for the world, you can always throw yourself out a window. Or, you can roll up your sleeves and do something to make things better.
I don't know about you, but it would be difficult for me to give up e-mail, the Internet, Skype... And yet when I reflect on my social relationships, my true friendships, I wonder if the changes which have arrived with technology are really relevant for my life. What do you think?
We human beings are superficial by nature and it's impossible to claim otherwise. Even your question is superficial. Paul Valéry wrote that profundity is only skin deep. With today's technology we can know more people and communicate with them. But it's not such an important change, it doesn't truly change our way of interacting with others, nor does it change ourselves. The relationships that really count for each of us, such as love, we continue to share them with very restricted circle of people. You don't fall in love with everyone you meet, do you?
Not usually, no.
But at the social level, communication technology has however brought about important changes. Which at times are bizarre. I remember a story from years ago, when the soccer World Cup was being played in the United States, a young man in Pakistan committed suicide when the referee threw Maradona out of the game. Think about it: a sport invented in England, a match being played in America, an Argentine player and a Pakistani suicide!
Up until a few decades ago we were enclosed in our small communities and our actions perhaps had broader significance, relatively speaking. Today instead we are all more conscious of what is happening around us and we risk being overcome by the extraordinary quantity of actions which more than six billion people do, whether they be large or small. But fortunately we continue to worry much more about what happens to us than what happens in the world.
So how can an individual do something meaningful for others?
The best way is to do something "together" with others, because that's how one can truly change the present. We need this thing that we call politics, because it's the only way that we're able to approach the individuals who make the decisions destined to reflect on their lives.
Do you think that in this era of hyper-evolution, which is transforming society, will end up bringing benefits to the individual as well?
It is possible, but it depends on the person. The Internet, for example, is very useful for those who use it to improve their knowledge of the world, to communicate, to become more flexible. But for others, who use it only to promote themselves and who are subject to it only passively, it's a waste of time. Some technological innovations are vital one person and useless for another. A person very dear to me was diagnosed a few years ago with a tumor in her liver in a terminal phase. But he was operated on in a hospital in Madrid where they had a special laser machine that allowed her to avoid a risky operation. This technology saved her life, but it would have been of no use to me, as I don't have cancer.
And what do you think about the possibility of realizing oneself? Is it not more difficult today, with the television and the Internet that show us everyday that there's someone who as achieved things that we can never equal?
Today people have more opportunities than ever to know and learn. A child today has traveled more than an adult had fifty years ago. And moreover we have democracy, allowing us to play a more active role in what's happening around us. The idea that without all of this we would be more ignorant but also more satisfied is a concept that is all too simplistic. Those who live with fewer opportunities are less worried with their own growth, but instead of focusing on their place in the world they spend their lives obsessed with Heaven and Hell.
Though the temptation to delegate is strong...
Let me answer you in this way. As Erich Fromm explains in his book The Fear of Freedom, many of the people who lived under fascist regimes chose to give up their freedom in order not to face the responsibilities that would have derived from it. Freedom is scares us in many cases; it's true that it's easier to do without it. This is why there are still many people in Spain who miss life under Franco's fascist regime: it was so simple then to blame the regime for everything that didn't go well.
This is why education is so important is the world in which we live. For it is through education that we learn to be free. If you give a man a television without explaining how it works, he won't know what to do with it.
You've made education one of the pillars of your published works (Fernando Savater has published two very successful books entitled Ethics for a Son and Politics for a Son, Ed.). So imagine a child born today. How do you imagine him in thirty years?
First of all: where is this child born? In Haiti or in Europe? This is the first question we have to ask ourselves. The life expectancy of those born in Africa, in Asia and in South America is sadly low. Many of these children don't even have the opportunity to come into contact with someone who can nourish them, protect them and help them to set goals for themselves.
That being said, the child of whom you speak will probably be more cosmopolitan than us due to the greater ease with which he'll be able to travel. He may believe that he has the world at his feet and can choose wherever he wants to live. But he also could react to such freedom with fear, by tying himself to the past from which he comes. And in this case he'll also try to protect what he has, doing all he can to keep the rest of the world outside of his door.
You see, the education we give our children is enormously important. And it's not a matter of altruism either: we must educate our children for ourselves as well. In today's society we are all educators in one way or another, because today's children get a large part of their notions outside of the family.
Indeed, being a parent today is more difficult compared to the past.
Being a parent has always been a difficult job. In the past families were larger and there was always an adult around - a parent, a grandparent, and aunt or uncle - ready to answer a child's questions. I suspect that today the adult that's most present in the home is the television, which is a strange sort of adult indeed.
Other than that, it is the scope of family education that has changed in particular. for centuries the parents' role was above all to provide information to their children; they talked to them about life, death, ambition, history, sex. But now children find most of this information elsewhere. Thus the primary role of a parent has become that of providing their children with the ethic necessary for navigating in this sea of knowledge, teaching them to distinguish between what's true and what's false.
I have always been convinced that the most important thing that a parent can give to their child is self-confidence.
Confidence in oneself is fundamental for being autonomous, because those who are confident in their possibilities won't be scared of acting. It is an important task, which is not only up to the parents, but school education as well. But, as Goethe said, knowing one is loved gives more strength than knowing one is strong.
In Italy a sense of belonging is not very fashionable these days. And institutions are trying to bring it back. What do you think about this?
Feeling like part of a group is important in life for many reasons, such as a sense of solidarity and safety. But this sense of belonging of which you speak should be linked to rationality and not to the emotions, something that does not happen for most people. Many times we have seen people die crying "Long live the King!" or "Long live Italy!", and which belongs more to the sphere of symbol and mythology. It would be much better to feel a sense of belonging to our rights and the benefits that society gives us. But I've never heard of anyone who died crying "Long live social security!", or "Long live the short work week!".
Will you end this conversation with some advice for any parents who may be reading?
The primary goal of education is to cultivate individuals' humanity. A lion cub becomes an adult lion without the need for his parents to explain to him how to do it. But it's not like this for human beings. We need to learn fundamental values from society, such as the importance to live together and to reflect, or to realize ourselves as people. Educate your children so that they can understand, once they've become adults, their peers and persuade them of what they believe in.
