Author: Corneliu Bodea
Text written for www.republica.ro
I think that enough is being written about the pandemic, the influences it has on the way we live and the changes it brings to the way we are used to working. On the other hand, I feel that with age and (I hope), the gain of wisdom, I find less and less relevant things to say and I rely more and more on silence. I say this because although I have read extremely many interesting things about the ongoing crisis, I am witnessing an avalanche of conferences and positions that are more and more full of platitudes. It is normal for this to happen when in the short term a subject is so rolled up.
If I look at my daily activity and monitor my daily thoughts, I find that about 30% refer to things related to the health and economic crisis, the rest being the same issues that I left confused before it appeared. It is a dynamic situation and it is likely that slowly the contribution of this situation in my concerns will decrease to insignificant values. I think that could mean returning to normal…
As I made my daily walk to the office, listening to podcasts as usual, I stopped about 20 feet from the crosswalk to hear correctly, fleeing the extraordinary noise made by hundreds of cars and motorcycles (probably pre-war, after the sound of the engine…). The thought escaped me during the state of emergency and the peace and quiet that reigned along Aviatorilor Boulevard. Now of course he was hiding a sad and dangerous cause, that peace, as well as the peace of the office, the time I had to think, the kid on the streets… an unfortunate cause that we didn’t necessarily need to understand that we could do things for our peace. Now the pandemic has come and thrown us all into an unreal and dystopian or utopian world, some would say, although the terms are antonyms. He came and showed us something. It is value in what it shows us, it is quality, it is substance. From this perspective, I do not want to return to normal.
I recently listened to Toby Ord say that he hears too many people saying that the situation generated by this health catastrophe is unprecedented, he considering that in reality the peace we had in terms of humanitarian crises (pandemics, wars, etc.) in the last hundred for years is unprecedented. It is true that technological evolution has fully contributed to this situation, just as it is true that technology has also brought many aggressions to its nature, life and sustainability. What would it be like to be able to detect and put aside everything that is bad in our computerized and motorized society in denial and keep what is honorable and physically and mentally healthy? Probably not easy, and the situation of health and economic crisis we are going through I think could give us a well-deserved incentive.
We discuss in this context too often about material inequality, the guaranteed minimum income, things difficult to argue philosophically or at least economically and at the same time neglect the subject of our aggression against nature, peace of mind, we do not discuss the multiple ways to add stress to life. it seems shorter and shorter in terms of sensation, even if the arithmetic contradicts us.
I continue my journey almost daily to the office and I can’t help but wonder why there is no limit to noise pollution, why we don’t have civilized and electric public transport, why we don’t discourage internal combustion engines, why we don’t support meritocracy, why we repeat mistakes and are arrogant and sometimes mitochondrial. This way I get to the office already exhausted, but full of motivation and I allow myself to chuckle from a meeting.
A book by the renowned philosopher and scientist we mentioned above shows us that the anthropogenic risks to humanity are tens of thousands of times greater than the risks of disasters with purely natural causes. That word would go: “where he remembers a lot is stupid, mama”… Sad but true, we put ourselves at risk and we don’t seem to realize it. And it’s so simple to see the perfect world… Close your eyes and imagine where you would like to be, how to be the people to accompany you, what to do there, what to hear, how to smell and you have already described one World. All that remains is to contribute to its construction. In the hope that no one has imagined a place to scream old motorcycle engines we can say that together we would design a similar world: clean, fair, full of respect, love and hope for all. Then why do we throw away the dirt, why do we cause stress and incite violence, why do we hate and deceive in our own selfish and petty interest? All these evils come from us and the technology we develop brings with it their exacerbation.
I put aside with my hand, like a curtain of beads, all the evils brought with the technological development of the approximately 10,000 generations of homo sapiens, which I greet with respect and keep with me the good things that give health and sustainability to life. , I respect the differences between people and leave them as they are, bypassing orthodox neo-liberalism and set aside arrogance. No, I don’t want to go back to normal!
