This article is a summary of Jonas Madureira’s lecture at the Interactive Faithful Youth Conference 2020.
Friendship is an object of reflection for both Christians and pagans, and it is an issue that touches on the most diverse experiences in the world. It is possible to think of friendship long before the arrival of Christianity. Among Greek thought, Aristotle considered, in one of his works, four aspects of a virtuous life: prudence, justice, courage and temperance. And when it comes to friendship, define three types of friendships: 1. in the utilitarian sense (the friend is useful to you); 2. in the affective sense (the friend as someone who does it well); 3. virtuous sense (true friendship, which can only live virtuous people in the terms proposed above). The latter, according to him, does not depend on utility or affection and is therefore so rare. In Roman thought, Seneca, philosopher of the century. I write letters related to ethics, similar to Aristotle’s, and I also deal with friendship, emphasizing that total trust is the basis of friendship. Thus we see Greco-Roman influence and come to a concept of true friendship like that among virtuous people who trust each other.
- Christianity.
- In turn.
- Adds characteristics to the concept of friendship.
- To the point that it can be said that Aristotle and Seneca’s point of view is at the very least naive.
- The word of God.
- Jesus’ discourse on friendship.
- Has the power to make us rethorder this concept.
- Not that it is totally false.
- But at least one of its points is false.
- Flawed.
There is a conceptual difference: Jesus proposes love as the basis of friendship, but not a simple love, but a sacrificed love. “No one has a greater love than this: giving life to someone for his friends” (Jn 15:13). ). The gospel teaches us that the pagan vision of friendship cannot see man’s naive vision as virtuous. The gospel brings a more realistic vision. Christianity teaches that it is possible to love a traitor and call him a friend. In addition, friendship can be cultivated by broken and flawed people who struggle to be what Christ wants them to be.
Thus, in a world where many do not mind seeking virtues or trusting others, it remains to submit to these two types of friendship: utilitarian or emotional, we only refer to people who have the same opinion, never those who do not we like them. , or that they give us losses with their problems and pains. The decline of friendship is due to the fact that we no longer hope that it is possible for people to be virtuous, nor do we believe that sacrificial love is the foundation that can unite us with the people around us.
Now let’s look at the culture of cancellation, something very common on social media, something that lives someone who has said something that most disapprove of and receives a lot of criticism, is like a virtual lynching: putting in an evolved society, lynching is seen as something primitive, carefree and irrational, but the same logic of lynching can occur even in the day to day , when violence that is not contained unseated about someone. It may not always be through physical violence, but also through words. Only if you want to get rid of the guilt of a scapegoat, choosing a culprit for the whole situation.
The cancellation, with its “livestock culture,” tries to unite people on its own, polluting and infecting others. More terrible than the pandemic that corrodes the body is this pandemic that corrodes the soul and makes us extremely violent when we think we are defending something publicly.
Many times we do not see what is behind the culture of annulment: religious acts and affections, which reproduces a group contagion that spreads rapidly, through a small gossip of someone we do not like, for example, this logic is demonic because it does. Do not perceive the search for peace in the wrong way, unloading violence.
What is the relationship between the decline of friendship and the culture of cancellation?Since friendships are defined by utility or affinity and we understand that cancellations are justified in themselves, there is a lack of awareness that we are all broken.
Jesus is the greatest example of friendship not based on utility or affinity, giving his life for evil men, not for the balanced and virtuous, that is what amazes us, what shocks us. Jesus saves us by being broken people; he knew his friends were not virtuous. The question is not whether you have useful or pleasant friends, but whether you are aware that they are devastated like you, that they will now deny or betray you.
Finally, Jesus reveals the religious aspect of the culture of annulment when he submits to the mechanism of violence of a mob who, knowing himself innocently, chose to save the bandit by calling Jesus the enemy; Jesus, in turn, saves his friends, even if they are the true bandits.