Modern humanism

Humanism is a worldview, in the center of which is the idea of ​​an individual person as the highest value. At the level of practice, this is a careful attitude towards each specific person.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The origins of modern humanism date back to the Renaissance (15th-16th centuries), when in Italy, and then in In Germany, Holland, France and England, a broad and many-sided movement arose against the spiritual despotism of the church. In contrast to the demands to devote earthly life to atonement for their sins, humanists proclaimed man the crown of the universe, asserted his right to earthly happiness, to a “natural” desire for pleasure and the ability to moral self-improvement as a spiritually free person. Initially, the concept of «humanism» meant, as it is written in the Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary, «recognition of the value of a person as a person, his right to free development and manifestation of his abilities.» Of course, here the rights of an adult were meant, since initially it never occurred to anyone that a child under the flag of humanism would insist on his right to live freely as he wanted, enjoying computer games and lollipops.

Modern humanism, formulating the position “Every person has the right to strive for freedom and happiness”, has not yet fully decided on its main theses. Everything starts well:

Humanism is a democratic, ethical life position that asserts that human beings have the right and duty to determine the meaning and form of their lives. Humanism calls for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values, in the spirit of reason and free exploration, through the use of human abilities. Humanism is not theistic and does not accept a «supernatural» vision of the real world. Humanism values ​​close relationships. In the worldview of humanism, love and mutual understanding are more important than prosperity and social success.

Yes, all the words are good, but then difficult questions arise. It’s one thing to support an adult’s desire for freedom and self-development, and another to assert everyone’s right to comfort. It is one thing to care about progress, the second is to care about safety and the desire to slow down progress in its crazy run. It is one thing to support the rights of the best representatives of humanity, the most intelligent and creative people, and another thing is to take care of children, the weak and the disadvantaged. Humanism began with the first, today it confidently leans towards the second.

As modern Russian humanists write: “I would call the humanism that I consider true — if it is simplest — a careful attitude towards a person. That is, this is a sympathetic and respectful attitude towards a person as such, regardless of his differences from others, for example, from belonging to certain social groups (true or untrue believers, non-believers, the elite, parties, nationalities, gender, and everything like that). Humanism is a project of human coexistence, in which universal (more precisely, “every human”) values ​​must remain unconditionally a priority, and all others must be a respected private affair of everyone. What are “common human (“every human”) values”? — This, obviously, is life and, accordingly, the desire for the fullness of life, happiness; these are all the needs of a healthy human nature, determined by the need to maintain and continue life in offspring; this is also a “life-saving” requirement of good neighborliness, for which, of course, “a bad peace is better than a good quarrel”; this is also the freedom of the individual, inseparable from the idea of ​​the fullness of rational life (of course, as already noted, compatible in a hostel with the same freedom of any other individual), — the freedom of the individual to think in his own way (professing his own values, freedom of conscience) and his freedom to do something then to possess (property).

In accordance with modern humanistic views, human life is priceless, and the weak are especially in need of protection: children, women and the disabled. In pedagogy, these are views according to which every child has a positive core that needs only help to develop. It is believed that a child is born initially free, and this initial freedom of a child is an absolute value in itself. Humanism objects to the imposition of one or another worldview on children, believing that the child himself should determine his own path. In education, non-directiveness is welcomed; pressure, coercion and manipulation cannot be used. One of the highest values ​​in life is a comfortable, free, internally harmonious life, a variant of a “happy childhood” for an adult. In practical psychology, the humanistic approach is most pronounced in psychotherapy, which implements the principle «Do no harm!» and setting the task to save from problems, to save from mental pain. This is soft help, the creation of warm and safe conditions, the approach “Accept the person as he is. Help him along the way of his growth. To save clients from unnecessary stress and mental trauma, they are given the instructions “Take care of yourself and your loved ones, do not set too difficult tasks. You are in the center of the world, the main value.”

Bright films for children and adolescents are released on the screens, telling them that the main thing in life is joy and entertainment, and the heartfelt feelings of a particular girl are more important than duty to the Motherland. This is the development of the modern humanistic tradition.

Not everyone accepts the values ​​of the modern version of humanism. Care in relation to children (and to adults) also has its downside: those who are protected from drafts get sick more often, and those who are protected from the difficulties of life break down in these difficulties more often. Any forward movement is impossible without mistakes, but the “Do no harm” principle, which prohibits making mistakes in relation to a person, often becomes an obstacle in the development of science.

It is curious: until the XNUMXth century, surgery was not the work of doctors, but of barbers, since doctors literally observed the principle “Do no harm” and they were forbidden to damage the patient’s skin. The operation, if it was carried out according to the rules, was carried out under the guidance of a learned doctor, who sat at the pulpit and loudly read out the instructions to the «surgeon» — the barber. Since the doctor used classical Latin, the illiterate barber did not understand a word and cut the patient as he himself understood it. Most of all it was like torture. Over time, this understanding of the “Do no harm” principle was corrected, a modern surgeon has the right and obligation to damage the patient’s skin, if necessary, to save his life.

In many areas the modern development of humanism has given rise to serious problems. In jurisprudence, the absolutization of the principle of the value of life prohibits a law-abiding citizen from taking harsh measures against a criminal who attacks him and led to the actual triumph of the criminal over the victim. Disabled people who recognize themselves as an oppressed minority are now protesting against prenatal diagnosis, which allows women to abort future disabled people. Humanists demand that drug addicted mothers have money for raising children and for drugs, taking this money from those mothers who raise children themselves. When humanism protects the most problematic, weak and sick, there are more and more weak, sick and problematic in society, and they no longer have to take care of their health: doctors now have to take care of it. This problem is becoming more and more economic: today it is quite possible to keep old and sick people alive almost indefinitely, but those who work have to pay for it. And it’s not just that working people are starting to leave countries with exorbitantly high taxes, the problem is that people no longer need to be healthy. If kind people in the care of hares in the forest exterminated the wolves, the hares soon begin to get sick and die out.

Modern humanism protects the rights of minorities to the detriment of the interests of the majority. In Brussels, they stopped putting a real Christmas tree on the central square, so as not to infringe on the feelings of Muslim Arabs: they are guests in Brussels and in the minority. The dictionary of forbidden words in US schools includes the words “birthday”, which offends the Adventist worldview, and the words “mom” and “dad”, which infringe on the rights of supporters of same-sex marriage.

Humanism expands its boundaries, extending its demands to the maintenance of livestock and poultry. In the most prosperous areas of London, grocery stores are opening, where all food must comply with new ethical standards, namely the principles of humanism. An ethically raised chicken is a chicken that knows how many meters of territory it walked on, whether the chicken had friends, and what her name was (for example, Patricia) before her head was cut off. So grown chicken is thin, has tough meat, there is no comparison with a juicy broiler carcass, but neither the lack of taste nor the high price matter. The fashion for humanism dictates new values, and life changes after them. How is it changing?

Real life story: aquarium exhibition in Germany. Police officers come to the stand with goldfish — the environmental police, who care about the observance of the rights of animals (fish). We measured the volume of the aquarium, counted the number of fish, found a discrepancy. People are polite, do not fine, but offer to resolve the issue. But how?? You can’t put an extra fish in a jar, there will not be enough water for it either. In the end, the police suggested that you just need to throw the extra fish into the toilet. In the name of taking care of the fish… This is also the face of modern humanism.

Modern humanism in pedagogy protects children, but in such a way that parents are unprotected. Here are the pedagogical principles of the Sea and Sand School (Seattle), which implements the principles of humanistic education:

1. Adults They have no right to demand obedience from the child. Children should be free, and adults should treat them as equals.
2. Strictly are forbidden any punishment.
3. It does not follow ask children to do some work until they are 18 years old.
4. Parents should not requireso that the children say «thank you» and «please» to them.
5. Must not reward the child for good behavior. Reward is a hidden form of coercion.
6. A child’s progress in school is his personal business, parents should not interfere in this matter.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Note that humanistic education contains many prohibitions, it’s just that all these prohibitions are against parents. News from the States: “In Florida, Kat and Harland Barnard, parents of 17-year-old Benjamin and 12-year-old Keith, went on strike because their children do not help them with the housework. According to 45-year-old K. Barnard, she and her 56-year-old husband tried all methods to make children behave properly: educational posters, deprivation of pocket money, consultations with a psychologist. The drop that overflowed the cup of patience was the fact that Benjamin did not offer his mother to help mow the grass on the lawn, although she had just had an operation. A week ago, the parents set up a tent in front of the house and several slogans, one of which reads: «Parents are on strike.» They sleep on inflatable mattresses in a tent, eat barbecues and only come into the house to take a shower. Children live in the house, eat what they cook for themselves from frozen semi-finished products. The confrontation between fathers and children is watched by local police, teachers and social workers. Local law enforcement officers came to the Barnard house three times, but did not try to intervene. 17-year-old Ben is not very happy with the strike and the media attention. However, his sister says she understands her parents and intends to improve, ”the BBC reports.

Sweden has had an absolute ban on corporal punishment of children since 1979. Parents cannot with impunity slap a child on the head, pull his ear or raise his voice at him. Beating a child is punishable by 10 years in prison. Even from kindergarten, children are informed in detail about their rights and the need to report such incidents to the police. This is probably very humane, but children actively use it, especially since in the conflict between the interests of the child and the interests of the parent, the state takes the side of the child.

Loud publicity was the story of a teenage girl who accused her stepfather of beating and sexual harassment. 12-year-old Agneta was just angry with him for putting the kittens to sleep, and she wanted to leave them. She appealed to the police, instructing her younger three-year-old sister, what should be said. On the basis of testimony, the stepfather was detained and convicted. A mother who did not believe her daughter was deprived of the right to parental care. Agnetu was transferred to a foster family. Three months later the girl realized that she had acted incorrectly, tried to return her application and release her stepfather. But the legal machine was already spinning. In addition, no one perceived the repentance of the girl seriously, because the victims of incest very often refuse their testimony. It came to the point that the «victim» began to write to all sorts of instances, the prosecutor general in particular, where she described in detail the whole story that her stepfather was innocent, that she had come up with everything, and explained why. But the prosecutor did not intervene either.

The right to raise children in humane Sweden is denied not only to parents, but also to teachers. Until the eighth grade, students are not given grades, those who fail are not left for the second year, and, of course, no one is expelled from school. Students say «you» to the teacher and they are not required to respond to the teacher’s greetings. Teachers complain that it is hard to work in the classrooms because of the chaos, noise and aggression in the classroom.

A letter also from the States: “I now live in America, in rented apartments. I study, work and play the electric guitar — for a long time already, I picked it up for the first time back in 2008. I play for myself, there is no other group, I train at home. I have long been accustomed to the inability of Americans to change the battery on the phone and restore Windows, but recently there was a uniform atas. A couple came to me, about 40 years old, they live below. Complain, ask not to play. I explain to them that I play at the allowed time, I don’t make a loud sound, I don’t interfere with sleep, and so on. To which they answer me something like this: “Our son, hearing your game, feels infringed on his rights, because he cannot play with the same level of skill. Because of this, he experiences a moral inconvenience that he cannot correct. And so we ask you to stop infringing on our son in his rights to equality. Otherwise, we will sue you for moral damages.” “I think it’s better to move out of here…”

The greatest teacher of the 20th century, Anton Semenovich Makarenko, was primarily hounded by humanists for his activities, criticizing for a tough command approach, for military marches and discipline, but it was he who managed to turn young thieves and beggars into beautiful and honest people who not only found themselves in life but who have become leaders in life, who have become teachers and educators for others. Today Makarenko’s colonies are legally impossible, because the humanists, who feel sorry for children, have forbidden the exploitation of child labor, they have forbidden children to work. The results are sad.

There is a peculiarity in the treatment of drug addicts: at some stage, constant thoughts about drugs can be knocked down by hunger. But at the present time it is already forbidden: it is inhumane. Therefore, drug addicts continue to break in breaking.

Roizman writes about this: All without brains. In rehabilitation they are very difficult. They each have ambition, inflated self-esteem, and zero self-criticism. They, like alcoholics, can have a squirrel at any moment, it just looks different. They usually just start howling after a few days. They only think about drugs. Previously, in quarantine, we knocked down this rut ​​with hunger — on the third, on the fourth day, thoughts about drugs moved aside, because we just wanted to devour. Now everything. The humanists have won. And no one knows how to deal with it. Humanists, they are like that — they like to be kind at the expense of others.

A famous parable about a kind woman who was attached with all her heart to her two beloved chickens. And once there was a misfortune: one of the chickens became seriously ill. The woman was told that he could recover if he was fed with chicken broth. A kind woman made chicken broth from a healthy chicken and fed the sick one …

This parable seems absurd, a stretch, something wild and impossible, but it seems that in fact such stories in one form or another occur today often and everywhere. For example, my colleague told me such a story, a story about people who are very well known and close to her. So, a boy was born in that Russian family about 30 years ago. He began to walk and talk very early, at a little over a year he knew the alphabet by heart and recited poetry. In addition, he was very agile, flexible and athletic. Friends said that he was just a child prodigy. A few years later, a second boy was born. Unfortunately, he was born disabled, and the doctors said that he was unlikely to live more than a year. But the parents loved the child and decided to fight for him. They went to the best doctors in Europe and the USA, and more than 50 different doctors said that the child would not survive. Finally, they found a doctor who gave them hope. Thanks to the super-efforts of the whole family, the boy survived, now he is almost 25 years old. He does not talk, does not have self-care skills (diapers are changed every 3 hours), and is aggressive. But he is alive and loved by his parents. What happened to the firstborn? All is well, he grew up quite healthy. The parents were busy with the survival of the second child, so they could not give the first one any education. He works as a loader and likes to remember how he won running competitions in elementary grades. He had no other victories in his life. Such is our, dear, cordial humanism of the mother’s heart …

Modern Russian humanism differs from Western, but in some respects not for the better. On the one hand, many Russians are not familiar with humanism at all, since raising with a belt and fists seems to many parents to be the only correct method of education. On the other hand, Russia lives on pity, but strange. Namely, according to the statistics of Mail.ru and VCIOM, helping adults in Russia is in fifth place in terms of popularity after helping children, the elderly, animals and helping environmental problems. People feel more sorry for dogs than people, and out of a sense of pity, it is more important to support unviable children, rather than adults who could still live and work. The Russians, if they really want to give money, then only for one patient, well, that is, for one child, and preferably the patient, the patient himself, preferably mortally incurable. And if the child does not die, then no one wants to give money for the rehabilitation of the child after an illness. Unfortunately, all Russian charitable foundations are familiar with this.

Humanism is dear to all of us, but the current direction of its development seems to need to be adjusted.

… In love, in caring for a person, there are two styles, “two wings” of love — a maternal model of love associated with warm support and unconditional acceptance, and a paternal model in which a demanding attitude is realized. Humanism is a kind of ethical orientation in which a soft, maternal model of love is realized, female education, and not a balanced upbringing turns from good into danger. Humanism without a mind is a natural disaster.

Humanism is the greatest achievement of mankind, its historical mission has not yet been fulfilled, but it already requires its balance and its counterbalance. The warm solicitude of humanism best realizes itself in the frame of tough male exactingness, and the heart that knows how to feel, as a symbol of humanism, must be supplemented by a mind that knows how to count, weigh and calculate the consequences.