Paradoxical Expressions

The summoning of the faithful to the confessional exercise is established by the slogan, in a nodal point position, the structural point of the discourse – in this case, the religious one. When religious life, or confessionality, takes the form of an empty signifier, the nodal point runs the risk of being occupied by elements contrary to religious foundations and their moral values ​​erected throughout history. Such forces tend to destabilize collective and individual confessionality. The watchwords fill a void, helping ideologies shape and suture discourses. It is at this empty point, or nodal point, that the promises of trimming differences occur, discourses seeking to confer traces of full significance with the intention of restoring a lost plenitude.

Watchwords leave such deep marks on generations that they are capable of distorting meanings, for better or for worse. Some watchwords, full of connotations with positive polarity, end up obscuring the meanings in relation to other particularities with similar claims to universality. The expression, said to be poetic, “We are a very happy little people” diminishes the potential for confessionality, makes its audience incapable of projecting itself into society and reduces life to just the aspect of a smile on the face and an optimistic view of the chaotic picture; “We are the people of the Bible” makes those who hold superficial information from the sacred book of Christianity convinced of an exclusivist knowledge, but devoid of genuine conviction, conversion and practice; “We are the hope generation” encourages believers to take on a mission, to share their beliefs, to present new directions to society, whether for a healthy, happy, effective, successful life or for biblical promises clarified or interpreted by confessionality.

The contribution based on the “hope” of a better future reveals both positive and negative characteristics. Hence the paradoxical nature. Hope resurfaces from time to time. However, in postmodern contemporaneity, it is reborn amidst the whirlwind of watchwords whose signifiers emerge from other intentions and meanings. “Child Hope,” “The Hope conquered fear,” “The Voice of Hope,” “Family: a place of Hope” are examples of the ebb and flow around the signifier, particularities that seek to fill the void left on a planet whose inhabitants live increasingly deprived of “hope.” The greatest adversary of hope springs from materialism and its branches, whose objectives distort the original meaning of the signifier.

There is no condemnation whatsoever in the desire to acquire material goods, titles or positions. Attitudes contradict confession when the discourse of hope is empty of meaning and does not oppose excessive luxury and opulence. There are no restrictions on the good taste of those who have the means to do so. However, unnecessary spending, the dissipation of the current account promoted by that which should serve as a parameter of true hope, nullifies the discourse, making it susceptible to new meanings and to other forces that attempt to fill the space in discredit. From this conflicting context emerges authoritarianism, the power to spread fear. The hope plays destiny competing against time. Time is the greatest determining ally of authoritarian actions. (Continued in Part 6)

Ruben Dargã Holdorf, Comm.Se.D