Τύφλωση - Ή γιατί αρνούμαστε να δούμε την πραγματικότητα

by Marc Ferro, Σώτη Τριανταφύλλου (Translator)

Γιατί αρνούμαστε να δούμε την πραγματικότητα;

Σε μια εποχή όπου η πρόσβαση στην πληροφόρηση είναι πιο εύκολη από ποτέ, σε μια εποχή όπου οι ειδικοί αφθονούν και οι αναλύσεις των γεγονότων εμφανίζονται σχεδόν σε πραγματικό χρόνο, παρ’ όλα αυτά η λίστα των απρόβλεπτων κοσμοϊστορικών εξελίξεων μεγαλώνει ολοένα.

Η 11η Σεπτεμβρίου, η παγκόσμια οικονομική κρίση, η άνοδος των εξτρεμιστών ισλαμιστών: Καταστάσεις όπου ολόκληρες χώρες, πολιτικοί ηγέτες και απλοί πολίτες δεν μπόρεσαν ή δεν θέλησαν να δουν την πραγματικότητα κατάματα. Όλοι τους υπέφεραν από διάφορες μορφές τύφλωσης: έλλειψη κρίσης ή γνώσεων, άρνηση, αναξιοπιστία, ψευδαισθήσεις, δογματισμό, αναποφασιστικότητα μπροστά στις τραγωδίες και τις επερχόμενες εξελίξεις.

Θα μπορούσαμε όμως να προβλέψουμε καταστάσεις; Αντιμέτωποι με τα γυρίσματα της Ιστορίας, θα ήταν δυνατόν να οραματιστούμε το αποτέλεσμα, να κατανοήσουμε τις αιτίες ή και να αντιδράσουμε εγκαίρως;

Ο μεγάλος ιστορικός Marc Ferro διερευνά αυτά τα ερωτήματα, αποκρυπτογραφώντας τις αιτίες της ανθρώπινης τύφλωσης. Προτείνει τρόπους για να κατανοήσουμε τον τυχαίο χαρακτήρα της Ιστορίας και για να μάθουμε να βλέπουμε.

Genres: History, Philosophy

536 pages, Paperback

First published August 3, 2015

About the author

Marc Ferro (born 24 December 1924 in Paris) was a French historian. He worked on early twentieth-century European history, specialising in the history of Russia and the USSR, as well as the history of cinema.

He was Director of Studies in Social Sciences at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales. He was a co-director of the French review Annales and co-editor of the Journal of Contemporary History.

He also directed and presented television documentaries on the rise of the Nazis, Lenin and the Russian revolution, and on the representation of history in cinema.

Reviews

[Σωτήρης Αδαμαρέτσος · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ο 95χρονος σήμερα Φερώ, μέγιστος Γάλλος ιστορικός κ διανοητης γράφει το 2015 αυτό το μοναδικό στην σύλληψη του βιβλίο, για εκείνες τις ιστορικές, οικονομικές, κοινωνικές και, προσωπικές στιγμές στην Ιστορία που κανείς δεν είδε το προφανές, κανείς δεν διάβασε σωστά την πραγματικότητα, που αρνούνταν όλοι - από το τελευταίο θύμα μέχρι το μεγαλύτερο έθνος - να αντιληφθούν πως τα ίδια τα γεγονότα τους είχαν ξεπεράσει, "τυφλοί, βουβοι κ άβουλοι αντάμα" που λέει κ ο ποιητής
Από το πώς ξέσπασε ο πόλεμος το 1914 και 1939, την άρνηση της πραγματικότητας στην Ρωσία του '17 από τους αστούς, την οικονομική αρνησηκυρια των οικονομικών κρίσεων τότε κ τώρα, την ηθελημένη τυφλοτητα των κομμουνιστών και αστών της Δυσης στα εγκλήματα στην ΕΣΣΔ και την Ναζιστική Γερμανία, την εθελοτυφλια των διανοούμενων να κατανοήσουν τις αιτίες των εξεγερσεων στα καθεστώτα της δήθεν αραβικής Άνοιξης. Πως έπεσε η ΕΣΣΔ χωρίς να το φαντάζεται κάνεις. Πως οι Γάλλοι έχασαν τις απόκριες, πως αγνόησαν την Αλγερία!
Και πως αρνούμαστε να δούμε σήμερα την ισλαμική φανατική λογική της Ουμα, που έδωσε το Daesh και καθοδηγεί τον Νταρ Ελ Ισλάμ, και ακόμη πως σημερινή πολιτική ορθότητα χάριν ενός νέου πουριτανισμου εξ Αμερικής δημιουργεί μια νέα διαστρεβλωση της πραγματικότητας στην ΕΕ!
Βρείτε το και σε ηλεκτρονική έκδοση στην βιβλιοθήκη της National Librery of Greece!

[Stratos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Θα πρόσφερε περισσότερα ο συγγραφέας με πολύ λιγότερες σελίδες. Σε κάποια σημεία κουραστικό με πολύ λεπτομέρειες άνευ αξίας. Και πολύ επικεντρωμένο στην Γαλλία. λογικό βέβαια μια και ο συγγραφέας είναι Γάλλος πλην όμως το βιβλίο επιχειρεί μια παγκόσμια θεώρηση του θέματος. Εν πάση περίπτωση για τους ενδιαφερόμενους μια ακόμα καλή πηγή πληροφόρησης.

[Marc Lamot · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is rich in content and experience, filled with numerous retrospects on important episodes of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, and many critical reflections on how wrong things have constantly been estimated. But at the same time it is very muddled, not at all focused on synthesis (why do we estimate things wrong?), with a lot of repetition and in the end some loose reflections on current affairs (with sometimes very remarkable positions, for example, rather radical pro-Putin). So I have some mixed feelings about it, but it certainly is an interesting book. For a more in-depth analysis, see my review in my History-alias: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
(rating 2.5 stars)

[Sense of History]

(this is a rewrite of a review, posted 3 years ago, and a tribute to the author, who passed away last week)
The Frenchman Marc Ferro has been around for a while, - he wrote this book at the age of 90, and thus he can see far back in time, especially since he is a historian. And looking back on the 20th century and the first 15 years of the 21st century, he does so with great erudition and commitment: almost all important episodes pass by. His perspective is how we are constantly blind to certain developments in history, developments that in hindsight were reasonable easy to identify if you looked good enough. These include, for example, classics such as the rise of Nazi Germany, which inevitably led to the Second World War, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989-1990 that could have been predicted (according to Ferro only Emmanuel Todd did), the fascination of Western intellectuals for non-democratic regimes and ideologies, and so on. Ferro portrays all those wrong assessments in an unconventional way and always puts the finger on the wound.

But where does this "blindness" actually come from? One should not expect a coherent, synthetic answer from this book. Ferro remains a bit stuck in the anecdotal. And that is partly understandable, because history is very contingent, always different and so also different explanations apply. Ferro occasionally brings in some of them, but you have to put the puzzle yourself.

And then it turns out that two explanations always pop up. In the first place, ideological bluntness: ideological convictions (in all kinds of forms, from the left to the right, but also religious and non-religious, nationalist, eurocentric, etc.) are so strong that they do not make you see reality as it really is (I'm aware of the problematic character of this "as is really is"). And a second crucial factor is what Ferro calls 'resentment', a more emotional factor that includes passion and especially racism, xenophobia, but also frustration, humiliation and revenge. These also led to tunnel visions that blind you to reality and thus make it impossible to distinguish important developments from minor ones. Of course, there are other factors, such as deliberate deception, propaganda, or on a more individual level psychological suppression (a truth can be to hard to face), etc. But with the two categories earlier mentioned, we certainly have the most important ones.

The question Ferro doesn’t explicitly deal with, is whether blindness can really be avoided. Okay, of course he stipulates that you should make good discernments and analyses of present situations, and that you also have to look at it from different angles. Now, he himself in this book is extremely angry that the Western world for decades underestimated the danger of radical Islamism, a monster that it has created itself (think of the support for the mudjahedin in Afghanistan) and that has clearly been around for a long time in the Islamic (especially Arabic) world. Ferro wrote this book in early 2015, just after the attacks in Paris on Charlie Hebdo (and even before the much more dramatic attacks in the autumn) and when Islamic State (Daesh) was still in full swing. And so it is understandable that he comes back to this theme again and again, but he does this so repeatedly that it becomes a bit annoying. Not that he is wrong - obviously the danger of radical Islamism was underestimated - but what guarantees does he have that this development - in hindsight - is the most disturbing of our time? With ease I can indicate other tendencies that potentially could turn out to be more dangerous (in the future): climate change (not a word about it in this book), the rise of China (touched upon only a few times), the advancing populism in Western democracies (not a word), the obstinate belief in the market and unbridled economic growth (mentioned a few times), the migration crisis, the continuous divide between the developing and developed world, etc.

And so we return to the fundamental question: can blindness actually be avoided? As a historian, it is already quite a job to clear up the misty veil that generally hangs over the past (“a foreign country”, you know), but to a certain extent (and on certain conditions) it can. But this is peanuts compared to the impenetrable fog behind which the reality of the present is hidden: for the present is hyper-complex and so any simplifying scheme is only an rude attempt. Agreed, there are scientific tools, models and recently also Big Data, but even then it remains a venture to expose the true tendencies of the present. Only the future can show what they are (were) and only the future will be able to show how blind we were. And that we were blinded and are, unfortunately, seems to be our human fate.

Is this opening the door to fatalism? Of course not, but certainly it is a plea for modesty. When you read Ferro you get the conviction that with reasonable, transparent, empathic, and nuanced approaches much can be clarified. And, - and Ferro also cites this - just studying the past is a way of making you aware of things, it teaches us how complex the development of reality is, and therefore also how contingent. A combination of alertness, methodology and modesty, that is perhaps the most important lesson that we can get out of this book. The real answer will have to appear later (in hindsight), and even then the interpretation of that answer is never definitive. The human condition, indeed.
(rating of this book: 2.5 stars)

[Kostas Kyriakopoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Εργαλείο εξήγησης του κόσμου και της Ιστορίας ιδίως τα σημεία εκείνα που εξηγούν τα είδη της τύφλωσης που προκαλούν οι διαφορετικές αναγνώσεις της. Must read!

[Christos Koulis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Λιγο κουραστικό