The positive side of globalization for John Paul II: solidarity
 
The positive side of globalization for John Paul II: solidarity
The question of social background, from Karol Wojtyla to John Paul II
 
 
Perhaps one of the passages that most give us an idea of the essence of the basic approach of the illustrious universal Pole and one of the most important humanist leaders of the contemporary era is the following:
 
I dedicate my scarce free time to a job that is close to my heart, the metaphysical sense of the person, the mystery of the person. It seems to me that the current debate has to be raised at that level.
 
The evil of our times consists, in the first place, in a kind of degradation, in a pulverization of the fundamental singularity and uniqueness of each human person.
 
In the face of this disintegration posed by ideologies that exclude everything transcendent, which exclude God, we must oppose, rather than with sterile polemics, with a recovery of the inviolable mystery of the person (1)
 
This deep humanism was, is and will be, the response of Karol Wojtyla and John Paul II to the false humanisms that created mountains of corpses from the Nazi Auschwitz, through the Soviet Gulags, from the deaths of the unborn to malnutrition and forgetfulness of the poor. John Paul II thought, preached, wrote and acted according to this profound humanism that is a Christian humanism, authentically human.
 
As a philosopher, Karol Wojtyla wrote in works such as "Person and Action", "Love and Responsibility", and a significant number of articles and essays published in Analecta Huserliana and other publications, the repercussions of his basic approach.
 
Totalitarianism and individualism are systems that deny the human person and do not allow their authentic development. Before that, he proposed the personalist norm, the norm of Love, recovering in the notion of neighbor the integrality of the value of the person and, therefore, of authentic love for one's neighbor.
 
In totalitarianism and individualism, the system of neighbor reference is diminished, and therefore, the coexistence in one as in another is dehumanized, human rights are not recognized and it is about instrumentalizing the person.
 
As pontiff, John Paul II published encyclicals such as Redemptor Hominis, Solicitudo Rei Socialis, Centesimus Annus or Veritatis Splendor, a projection of the relevance and recovery of the person.
 
To apply this in some key concepts of his pontificate, let's take conflict and globalization. Conflict in the twentieth century acquired the name of "century of the death" (2) by the huge number of deaths caused by the totalitarian aspirations of coercive utopias, as well as the confrontations between blocks in the Cold War, or by the lack of control of organized crime and terrorism of the now called hot peace, which remain within the culture of death.
 
Globalization is a phenomenon in progress that, while opening opportunities, creates atrocious asymmetries as well as models of life that empty it of meaning and alienate it with materialism no longer historical, but hysterically consumerist.
 
Before these phenomena, John Paul II proposes to recover man in the son of man, in Christ Jesus, which is human fulfillment because only in him can he understand what man is; only in the one who, being God, became man so that man could be fulfilled in God and thus understand the commandment of love, love one another as I have loved you, the human being can become alter Christus, ipse Christus, in another Christ, in Christ himself.
 
This is to recognize the person in all its dignity, integrity and transcendence, accepting it as an end in itself, never mediatize, with inalienable rights, with a name and face, master of his actions, with great capacity to love and be loved, and that all the blood of Christ is worth in the supernatural plane and, in the natural plane, with an unequivocal, eminent and inviolable dignity.
 
This leads us to understand the challenge of overcoming evil with an abundance of good, hatred with forgiveness. That victory is given through the inculturation of the Gospel, a faith that becomes works, authentic love of neighbor, and a culture of life that conquers with love the culture of death.
 
Globalize solidarity, not selfishness
 
The Pope, in his role as a prophet who denounces evil, boldly betrayed the harmful effects of globalization, and also announced the path of correction, also communicated the good.
 
Globalization is defined by the pontiff as a phenomenon with novel and favorable elements, but also with harmful and serious effects such as the gulf between the north and the south, which can be understood when only seven countries account for practically 70 percent of world GDP, where there are more than a billion human beings trying to survive with a dollar a day.
 
An asymmetric abyss where a few have a lot and many have very little; was while in some places some die of obesity, in others, they die of hunger. Where there are inhuman mechanisms that seem mechanical gears of exploitation by which is subtracted what should be given to the worker and is not given.
 
Where there are mechanisms of oppression that impede social growth while maintaining conditions of poverty or indigence and in this have much to do politicians and governments, not only for authoritarian claims, but irresponsibility with the common good falling in the absence of agreements and poor government; and where there are mechanisms of discrimination by which insurmountable borders are drawn between winners and losers so that no changes are made and the conditions of social injustice are perpetuated.
 
John Paul II denounces that what should be a single world is torn in four: the first world of winners, a second of links for the first, a third underdeveloped with cheap labor and raw materials, and an ominous fourth world of the periphery abandoned, that no longer has the interest to be exploited.
 
With this, the person is not recognized in his dignity and, therefore, the human being has been exposed to various forms of humiliation and instrumentalization, being reduced to a slave of the strongest, (3) that is to say, remains subordinated to the economy.
 
But the economy is for man, not man for the economy. Therefore, what needs to be globalized is solidarity, which is not a feeling of vague compassion or superficial tenderness for the ills of so many people, near or far. On the contrary, it is the firm and persevering determination to strive for the common good, that is, for the good of every one so that we are all truly responsible for all (4).
 
This pillar must transcend because political solidarity today requires a horizon of action that, surpassing the nation or the bloc of nations, is configured as continental and world, (5) which implies rescuing the person through support fraternal among men, which has to be globalized; of the common good that is based on a community of being that bases the community on doing, with cooperation, complementarity, dialogue, participation and appreciation for healthy plurality.
 
For this, it is necessary to overcome fear. Let us remember how he began his pontificate by saying: "Do not be afraid," which he would remind us in his message to the UN:
 
We must overcome our fear of the future. But we cannot defeat it altogether if it is not together. The response to this fear is not coercion, nor repression or the imposition of a single social model on the entire world. The response to the fear that obfuscates human existence at the end of the century is the common effort to build the civilization of love, founded on universal values ​​of peace, solidarity, justice, and freedom. And the soul of the civilization of love is the culture of freedom: the freedom of individuals and nations lived in oblative solidarity, subsidiarity and responsibility, JPII, before the 50th General Assembly of the UN, 1995.
 
Letter from Karol Wojtyla to Henri de Lubac, quoted in the second one thousand years, ten people who defined a millennium, Eerdmans publishing company, Cambridge, U.K.
 
Polish politician Zbigniew Brzezinski, an expert on geopolitics and former President Carter's national security adviser, also argues that "a concrete statistical recount on the number of victims of politically motivated killings is the necessary starting point to define the legacy and political significance of this century. The enormity of this number of victims deserves to be described in terms of mega-deaths, being mega a factor of 10 to 6. Prolonged and extraordinarily devastating wars, two world wars, totalitarian attempts to create what could be described as coercive utopias in out of control, Mcmillan Publishing Company, N.Y.
 
John Paul II, Christie Fidelis Laici.
Ibid, Sollicitudo social rei.
Ibid, Christie Fidelis Laici.