The silence of the Spiritist Movement in the face of social issues

Many have spoken in silence that the Spiritist Movement would need to break with respect to politics. We must remember, of course, that the silence of the Spiritist Movement is not only reflected in a political nature, but is a generalized silence before the Doctrine itself, which has recently been agitated under the studies of Kardec's original works and works that recover knowledge forgotten in time.

Of course, when it comes to politics, we will never be supporting anyone who seeks to link Spiritism to ideologies, especially when these ideologies are not guided by the ideas that we will express below.

There are several initiatives that are seeking to counteract the aforementioned silence. Only from study groups, we know of three or four that are very strong, in addition to the roles of current researchers, among which it is impossible not to highlight Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, in his exhausting work of recovering unknown information, especially those related to autonomous morality. and to rational spiritualism, as well as in the work so important that it is to resume Kardec's original works, unadulterated.

Well then: this work, which emphasizes the issue of autonomy, is unquestionably based on the power of autonomous choice that the Spirit must have. There would be no lack of citations in Kardec's work, of him and of different spirits, in this regard: the Spirit, to really change, needs to act by its own free will and reason, which is the basis for the other. There is no initiative, political or otherwise, that has succeeded in any lasting and real social change, however small, on the basis of authority alone. That is why I always see very carefully the issue of politics linked to any spiritist thought: it should, inexorably, be guided by the principle of morality, applied to relationships, from the first steps of the child on this planet.

I never tire of highlighting, and this will always be my flag, after understanding Spiritism in its essence: social transformation will only occur through the transformation of the individual, through family and school education. That's what we need to go back to ALL our efforts, inside and outside of politics, the latter being an effective way to return to society the morality guided by Rational Spiritualism, which understands and distinguishes the difference between happiness and unhappiness, which are characteristics of the soul's advances towards to the good, from emotions and pleasures, which are purely material. This is the missing understanding. Man will stop living under bridges when he understands that his progress depends on himself, and on no one else, and when others understand that charity is a moral and disinterested duty, going far beyond the alms that humiliate the parties.

Let us turn our intelligence to this purpose, dear brothers! Children continue to grow into youth and adults, full of acquired imperfections, or of those not corrected, largely purely because of bad habits of education, simply because no one is aware of the urgent need to bring the family and all public education officials to their senses. and private. Kardec saw the future with radiant eyes, because he believed that the educational model, guided by Rational Spiritualism, would continue to flourish and spread... matter.

We need to go back and understand Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Rivail, Biran, Janet and so many other free-thinkers who never wanted to bring about change by force, as they soon realized that it, in reality, only produces anger and irritation. Rivail would say, in his “Proposed Plan for the Improvement of Public Education”:

“The irritated and unpersuaded child submits only to force; nothing proves to him that she did wrong; she knows only that she did not act according to the master's will; and this will he regards, not as just and reasonable, but as a caprice and a tyranny; it believes itself to be always subject to the will. As she is commonly made to feel physical superiority rather than moral superiority, she waits impatiently to have enough strength herself to withdraw from it; hence this hostile spirit that reigns between the masters and their students.”

So it will be, because so it is, in any aspect of the Spirit. Rivail did not think of this when he wrote this work, but we know today, as he later came to know: the child is animated by the same Spirit as the adult, only a little more limited in his perceptions and capacities. It is your Spirit, therefore, and not your body, that does not submit to force. Let us remember this.

Paulo Degering Rosa Junior