How Much Does A Platopus Cost?

Saramago ... and to Us.

Yesterday is dead José Saramago, one of the contemporary writers I most passionate people in recent years.
I am saddened by the death of a man that I appreciated through some of his books (Blindness, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, An Essay on the lucidity, the book), but I am consoled that I can still enjoy his art through his many writings that still I can read.
One of the recurring themes in the books of Saramago, is the ability, however, Man, and be selfless, to be able, even if "dipped" in a "soup" of rampant selfishness, to do something for others; and more shining example of this ability, as the atheist Saramago's extraordinary tale, it was Jesus who gave himself to the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of his fellows, those who lived with him and those that still had to be born.
" policy was his other great passion after writing. In an interview granted to El Pais de Francesc relay last year, Saramago acknowledged that perhaps the party in which a militant from the Sixties (the last training European community which preserves "the iconography of the Bolsheviks," a red flag and the hammer and sickle), was "anchored in the past." But he added: "We a legacy from which I can not break free. And you can that this historical legacy has much to do with the reality of today. But because the reality of today would be right? Feelings are important. I could not recognize any other party that is not what the Portuguese Communist: there compared to the rest of myself " (by La Repubblica on line - post Ciai of Homer).
These words made me think: not even in Italy is no longer a communist party credible they can identify with and which to stay, at least emotionally, connected (as we do not have many other things), and being, or have been Communists, almost always, is perceived as a negative even by those who, like me, or has been, Communist.
last "post" on his blog Saramago has left these words: " I think today's society needs philosophy. Philosophy as space, place, method of reflection, which may or may not have a specific goal, such as science, which advances to reach new goals. We miss reflection, we need the labor of thinking, and I think that, without ideas, not going anywhere .
Well, in Italy, good ideas seem to dwindle, and those few that have always come out very little luck.
I believe that the only chance of recovery that we as a people, but also as a human race, whether it is a growing awareness of our condition, with the consequential behavior that should result, as happened to the people, seen as indistinct, without the "Mafia bosses" (or "guilty") that power can identify and strike, Saramago said that in "An Essay on the lucidity" .
And certainly, the fate is ironic: the same day of death of the author of that novel, the Italian government renews its confidence in the police De Gennaro, who was sentenced on appeal incitement to false testimony, convinced the former as superintendent of Genoa to "adjust" his testimony on the Diaz school raid. Minister of Justice said: "He served the state."
If the state needs these "services" ...
At least the Minister of Justice of "Essay on the clarity," at some point, had a moment of "clarity" and left "caste" and his criminal administration of public affairs.