Referencias y bocetos para Scriptor.org
Our seemingly troubled times are routinely contrasted with idyllic images of hunter-gatherer societies, which allegedly lived in a state of harmony with nature and each other. The doctrine of the noble savage—the idea that humans are peaceable by nature and corrupted by modern institutions—pops up frequently in the writing of public intellectuals like, for example, Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, who argued that "war is not an instinct but an invention."
But now that social scientists have started to count bodies in different historical periods, they have discovered that the romantic theory gets it backward: Far from causing us to become more violent, something in modernity and its cultural institutions has made us nobler. In fact, our ancestors were far more violent than we are today. Indeed, violence has been in decline over long stretches of history, and today we are probably living in the most peaceful moment of our species' time on earth.
A history of violence
In the decade of Darfur and Iraq, that statement might seem hallucinatory or even obscene. But if we consider the evidence, we find that the decline of violence is a fractal phenomenon: We can see the decline over millennia, centuries, decades, and years.
Conviene leer la argumentacion completa, porque la idea contradice la imagen violenta que los telediarios nos dan de nuestros días.
U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates, including Brazil's Mayora Tavares (L), for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy July 9, 2009.© REUTERS/Jason Reed
Con comentarios más o menos divertidos o fuera de tono (el oficial, presuntamente "objetivo": "What Is Obama Looking At?"), resulta significativo que esta fotografía -entre muchas otras, desde luego menos anecdóticas o quizá procaces o "llamativas" de la curiosidad quizá- haya dado la vuelta al mundo en la red, prensa y tv internacionales. ¿Vale todo, con tal de llamar la atención del curioso lector con imágenes de este tipo? No es de extrañar que se hable tan habitualmente de frivolidad cuando se habla de la comunicación pública.... Sabiendo lo que hay que saber acerca de lo que hacen en público los personajes públicos, lo que hace vender prensa, etc., y también lo que no parece que responda a la dignidad de los fotografiados, de los que publican la foto y de los que la hemos visto, etc, y todo esto sin necesidad de ser un mogigato o algo semejante. En fin, uno de tantos síntomas (menores, si se quiere ver así) de algunas patologías de la comunicación.
By Richard Laermer Be blunt and get straight to the point when pitching reporters
Believe it or not, several decades ago, my mother made sure I was raised to be a good Queens, N.Y., boy. I was kind of polite, always a “card,” yet capable of cracking up adults at any wedding, graduation or Bar Mitzvah you threw my way. I earned a lot of good guy pats on the head.
Unfortunately for mom, being first a reporter then a PR guy has wrung modesty right out of me. I learned quickly that the media has no respect for humility. In your quest for coverage, if there’s an angle that you know is best, and you are aiming to be the lead for a Times story, being meek and “helpful” just doesn’t cut it. You’ve got to pitch hard and not be mysterious about what you want or what placement you’re looking for.
Es una pena.
MercatorNet's focus is human dignity, so we’ve cobbled together a list of 20 public intellectuals who promote some aspect of human dignity. Defining public intellectuals is tough; spotting them is easy. They appear on TV and radio; they write in the op-ed pages of the London Telegraph, Newsweek and the New York Times. They’re smart; they’re communicators; they’re not afraid of fisticuffs; they’ve got fresh ideas; they’ve got mojo.
We’re going out on a limb here. Not every idea of everyone listed below is completely consistent with MercatorNet’s ideals. But they all see being human as something special, something worth fighting for.
After asking friends and contributors to nominate public intellectuals who support human dignity, we discovered how few of them there are. There are people aplenty who believe passionately in human dignity, but few who can articulate why -- and have the wit and charm to debate in the public square without bitterness and rancor. In the face of challenges from dehumanising isms like scientism, materialism and relativism, we badly need more of them. Perhaps more intellectuals should read MercatorNet!
No doubt we have overlooked some obvious candidates. That’s where you – our readers – come in. Send us your comments and suggestions.
Entiendo que el planteamiento de esta iniciativa es claro, y se centra en encontrar un elenco de 20 intelectuales que hayan promovido y promuevan algún aspecto de la dignidad humana. Personalmente -nobody is perfect- me gustaría ver en esa lista a Cormac McCarthy, no tan lejano de Flannery O'Connor en tantos aspectos. Tampoco estaría de más -pensando en la misma línea de activiar el pensamiento en torno a la dignidad humana- hacer referencia a personalidades ya difuntas.
Profesor de Teoría General de la Comunicación y de Escritura de guiones para cine y televisión.
El mundo académico permite observar, pensar, leer, hablar, escuchar, decir y escribir no poco sobre la comunicación pública, también como colega y consultor de otros profesionales del gremio. Los resultados, como es bien sabido, no son de un día para otro.
Profesor de Teoría General de la Comunicación y de Escritura de guiones para cine y televisión.
El mundo académico permite observar, pensar, leer, hablar, escuchar, decir y escribir no poco sobre la comunicación pública, también como colega y consultor de otros profesionales del gremio. Los resultados, como es bien sabido, no son de un día para otro.
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