The notion of hospitality (Greek philoxenia) has been at the heart of human history and civilization for millennia. In a way, we might even say that it is what gave birth and substance to this history, enabling the expansion of human consciousness, providing the necessary opening to emerge from the mental cave and the sclerosis of the mind caused by self-enclosure and immediacy.
Hospitality is welcoming, opening up to all the possibilities contained in difference. It is the generosity and curiosity that enable us to escape from confrontation and war, while at the same time opening the door to our own solitude and confinement. It is the possibility of dialogue.
At a time when the notion of hospitality seems to be falling into disuse everywhere, and when hatred and fear of the other are once again the rule for a growing number of our contemporaries, there is an urgent need to reconsider hospitality in all its dimensions, which are both personal and social. Indeed, it could well be that, with its disappearance, our entire humanity will come to an end in the same movement.
We also need to ask ourselves what, in the very foundations of the present social organization and on a global scale, is the cause of this disappearance, the consequences of which can only be dramatic. And no doubt we’ll have to distinguish between the commodification of the world and of human relations, and its promoters and supporters of all kinds, its nationalisms of all stripes which, in their petty perspectives, have worked and continue to work so hard to bring about this destruction and to prevent a common world.
Translated by TerKo with the help of a free translation tool.
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