A Esperança e a Expectativa. Da Impotência no Antropoceno

Abstract

Given the range of threats that nowadays have a bearing over mankind and the Earth, too many times personal and institutional narratives are crossed with a salvaging or a mourning meaning that places the Earth’s fate in either the successful mobilization of public policies, more appropriate means or the enlightened awareness of a world leader. The rhetoric of power thus appears as the only guiding principle for faring in an unknown ground: one acquires more knowledge before translating it into power, that is, into a making that will benevolently affect praxis. Such narratives are nevertheless nothing more than a continuation of modern prejudices. Under the spell of an encroaching global management, one forgets how there is a class of problems for which a straightforward solution might not be available. By considering powerlessness, one goes beyond the equation between knowledge and power while granting action its proper limits.