Quotes from Carlo Strenger

The heroes of all myths face doubts. They feel that they have a calling but they do not know whether they can live up to their destinies. The drama of the psychological birth of the hero is facing fear, doubt, and hesitation; knowing that reaching for the stars entails the risk of failure, ridicule, even injury or death; and knowing that by not trying, you forfeit the possibility of greatness.

The world citizenship I am talking about is of a very different sort. It is based on the realization that globalization has led to the point where there is no longer a space on earth that is outside civilization and that political consciousness can no longer be restricted to one country, culture, or religion and thus needs to address the fate of humanity as a whole.

This ideology failed because it was a profoundly inauthentic prescription: it is humanly impossible to genuinely respect beliefs no matter how irrational, immoral, or absurd. The resulting culture was emotionally frozen and often did not lead to fruitful discussion between worldviews in general, and between secularism and religion in particular.

This chapter argues for civilized disdain, an alternative to political correctness that is more authentic and more attuned to what we really feel toward worldviews that we do not approve of on moral or intellectual grounds. The difference between civilized disdain and political correctness is that the former allows one to feel disdain for a person's or group's views or beliefs while maintaining respect for the human beings that hold them.

civilized disdain has turned out to be surprisingly productive in creating human bonds of lasting value. The mental discipline required for civilized disdain may be crucial for the type of world citizenship that will allow fruitful cooperation across ideological divides.

One of my most deeply held assumptions about human life is that without freedom of thought humans cannot fully evolve.

Existential psychology has shown the depth of the human need to matter, make a difference, and feel a significant purpose in this world. We all need to feel that we do something that matters within the frame of reference that defines our experiential world. The question is, what is this frame of reference?