por Sergio Lázaro Cabarrouy
ANOTHER EVENT OF THOUGHT AND DREAMS AT THE PADRE FÉLIX VARELA INSTITUTE OF ECCLESIASTICAL STUDIES
Archdiocese of Havana, Havana, January 16, 2021: Utopias are plans or projects that can be considered good and desirable for society and dystopias are representations of supposed future realities that cause human alienation. Erick Bermejo, recently graduated with a Bachelor of Humanities from the Padre Félix Varela Institute of Ecclesiastical Studies, spoke about these ways of dreaming society, in a magisterial and entertaining conference that traversed the history of these products of modern human thought that Thomas More inaugurated in 1516. , but which had its antecedents in ancient Greece with Plato.
After the conference, the Solfa children’s choir offered a Christmas carol concert, with a Cuban and international program, which was especially tender and hopeful in the crystal clear voice of the children.
According to the usual dynamics in the “Change of Period” Conference Cycle, the artistic moment was followed by the Panel that complemented the Conference with the philosophical vision of Prof. René González, from the Fray Bartolomé de las Casas Center, the legal-political vision of the MsC . Mario A. Rivero, from Varela, and the Bioethical vision of Dr. Rolando Pagés, from the Juan Pablo II Institute of Bioethics. The three of them offered different edges and in certain contrasting points of the role of utopian-dystopian proposals in the social sciences and literature in the development of contemporary societies and their application to Cuba.
The exchange that followed was extremely rich, with a very high philosophical flight and sharp academic confrontation of visions, interpretations, reasoning and lessons from History. An authentic space for dialogue and production of thought that, not because it is elevated, ceased to be anchored in reality, with the consequent educational utility for the participants, which basically consists of obtaining theoretical and spiritual tools that can be applied in life.