There is no doubt we are in a very new type of situation, and everybody has their own way of looking at this. Some with despair, some with fear, others with hope, I tend to lean towards the hope side. Though having reached my 86th birthday, sometimes that hope wears a wee bit thin, but it is still there.
The following is from Madrid Cuarentena City N.2
Everything Will Be Fine.
It’s the story of a man who falls from a 50-story building. To calm down as he falls into the void he keeps saying to himself:
So far so good.
So far so good.
So far so good…
But it’s not the fall that matters, it’ s the landing. As in the metaphor of the French film “La haine”, we live in a world that has been condemned to disaster. The continued destruction of the ecosystems to extract raw materials, the systematic degradation of the earth’s crust by monocultures and agro-industry, the expulsion or annihilation of species, the transformation of the oceans in dunghills, the irreversible damage to the ozone layer… has had an exponential advance in recent years. They’ve put us on a path which is more than evident a transformation, for the worse, of life on earth.
At the same time, we have generated societies that are annihilators of the different, of the enemies of risk and adventure.The perpetuation of hierarchies and authorities, slaves of an economic system that puts the flow of goods above everything else. Profit as the only ideology. In which the virtual imposes itself on reality. The simulation to the experience.
In recent weeks, campaigns were launched in places like Italy and Spain asking children to draw rainbow posters with the message “everything will be fine” or “andrá tutto bene” and then hang them on the balconies or public buildings. Unfortunately, this illusory and innocent message implies complacency with all of the above, a yearning to return to a reality that is self-destructive for people and harmful to our environment.
And all this has been accompanied by self-incrimination, considering individuals as guilty agents responsible for the transmission of a virus, when it is clear that diseases do not become pandemics because of the actions of a few people, for that a series of infrastructure conditions (such as overcrowding in large cities, for example), environmental conditions, movement conditions, etc. are needed, and of course they are and were given.
We assume, then, the orders to stay at home for our own good and that of others, in a paternalistic and patriarchal tone. But when we are forbidden to go on the streets alone, or with the people we share a house with, are we responding to medical or public order criteria?
Meanwhile, let’s clap on the balconies and hang signs… but maybe it won’t go well. It’s even possible that whatever we do won’t go well. The possibilities for the recovery of the planet are infinite, it is not so much that in this resurgence from the ashes we can continue to exist as a species. But we are not going to deny ourselves the pleasure of enjoying this journey, even if it is the last one. We are going to confront, fight, experiment, imagine… pointing out and hitting those responsible for this reality and moving away with our practices from its perpetuation.
Another world is possible, said the classic leftist slogan, another end of the world is possible, is the slogan that we have no choice but to adopt, and we do so with passion. Muchxs without hope, but with the flame in the eyes when you are so close that you can look into the abyss.
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