Costa Rica, Latin America, the world; one child, one tantrum… You shout instead of shutting up, you act instead of thinking, you think instead of feeling, you shut up instead of talking, and cry when things get real. Your past defines you, your present overwhelms you and your future scares you. What will become of you? Are you going to grow up, or will you wither in your own tantrums and cries?
You use NGOs as patches and bandages. Patches that serve as illusions for a clean conscience. Your vision is blurred. Your desires and insecurities hold you back and create pleasant realities that fit your fears. A step becomes a word and a word a step, taking it and saying it are the same thing, you get caught in a never-ending cycle. But when doing needs to happen, the cycle only makes you see what you have in front of you, not what you have behind yourself, which will soon be your present again or your future problem. Your vision is clouded and so you put patches, for the problems you see are only part of a whole, and that whole is you.
You have inherited visions and problems that limit and govern you. Your behavior is defined by ancestors who are aliens in your life, but not to your reality. You search in your leaders for people responsible for what’s happening around you, but deny your part in the matter. The reflection in the mirror shows your true colors, the colors of a conformist young man who flees from the truth. If you want change, don’t demand it, do it.
In tantrums you find a shelter to avoid the world, under the excuse that no one inspires you. You yell criticizing injustices that you don’t understand. You do it to fit into a society that scares you, yet you depend on it for survival. Your heroes are not in banks or in high politics; your idols are musicians and football players who entertain you for necessity. You reject education and accept ignorance with open arms through catchy melodies. The icons you idolize are products of the same cycle you are unable to break; victims and agents of this superficial unstable world.
Costa Rica, Latin America, the world; one child, one tantrum, one reality… When will you take the first step towards your future? How much longer must we wait to see you grow into what you should have flourished years ago? Time goes on and on, but it seems that you’re immune to it. You’re stagnant and lack motivation to progress. Your reflection disgusts you, yet your laziness wins over the desire of change. When will you stop to whine and begin to act?
“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problem.”- Mahatma Gandhi
First of all, I would to thank all the people that have taken their time to read my work and send my all those kind words to me, you really don’t know how much joy they bring to my heart. Secondly, I appreciate every single one of you and I wish you to tell you that no matter what any one says, you’re special and I love you even though we’ve never met and never will. Finally, I really hope that this blog has in some way evolved and inspired you (if possible) to think about yourself and the people surrounding you and how you can help them enjoy their time on Earth. Anyway, let us return to what you probably have been waiting for these two weeks. Let’s get serious now.
Personally I have this thought, a theory I daresay, that humans need things they can long for, but also admire. We are a species that has to believe in something abstract to find some comfort in the material world. But why? What’s so relevant about these intangible thoughts and how do they really affect us?
Well the best way to explain myself is through some examples like the belief in a divine deity, the idolization of some person or place in the world and the finally, the creation of a nonexistent memory that ends up as one of your most precious treasures you’ve ever had. Somehow, things are beginning to make sense and if not, let me explain each case individually.
Gods and divine entities were created by humans for many reasons; however we’re just going to talk about one this time. These beings offer the means to realization and allow comfort to enter into one’s life through admiration of the divine. Through Gods we realize that our lives must have a greater purpose and that we belong to a greater cause than ourselves. It gives us meaning and therefore, we take away the dull feelings of helplessness and uselessness, this also includes the thoughts of being expendable and trivial. They give us something to wake up every morning, yet they are intangible, for we can never see, hear, smell or touch them. It is our belief that keep them alive, and it is them that keep us alive.
Let’s move on then to the idolization of people and places. Do you have a role model? If so, I’m sure you know all about them and what they stand for. I’m sure you also know certain details of their lives (probably even the number of nipples he has or what’s her favorite type of food). But when it comes to meeting them I wonder. Do you really want to meet them or perhaps…? The same goes to the idolization of a place, like your dream location. You have created this image in your mind that it’s perfect. You have convinced yourself that if you ever go there, you’ll be speechless by all the wonders you’ll see and experience. However, I strongly disagree with this. What you have done is create an illusion of perfection, a fog that clouds your mind and doesn’t let you see what’s real. You see what you want to see. In other words, what do you think will happen when fiction and reality meet? Which would you prefer, the intangible version of your role model or dream location, or the simple, cold and ordinary version which is the tangible one? Can you handle the destruction of the image of perfection you created? I actually believe nobody wants that.
We, then, finally reach the last example, the creation of a nonexistent memory. That sounds kind of strange, doesn’t it? What is a nonexistent memory? Well, they’re commonly knows as hypothetical case scenarios. Let’s say you’re a shy boy/girl. You have this dream of winning the talent show of your high school and so you register yourself to compete for the first price. You’re talent is singing and you’re good at it. You practice every day the song that you’ll perform. Finally the chosen day comes, you enter the stage everyone’s looking at you and are wondering who you are. What you imagine is yourself going all Susan Boyle and leaving everyone speechless with your performance. However, reality strikes and no word comes out of your mouth. The unexpected amount of people scare you and you end up leaving the theater while some tears fall from your eyes. Yes, yes, you made a fool out of yourself in front of the whole high school. But more important, you were not prepared. You put so much effort in thinking how you were going to dazzle everyone and how your performance was going to be, that you forgot the essentials: have fun. After it’s your dream! Well all of this was a hypothetical scenario my dear friends. Interesting, isn’t it? Another one would be you falling for a boy/girl and imagining you’ll fall in love and get married and buy a house and load it with a bunch of loud and messy children. One day you come to your school and find out that the boy/girl is in a relationship with a friend of yours and you satanize the person he/she is in love with.
To wrap things up, we’re a species that needs intangible desires and entities to keep us going forward. Goals and dreams that we unconsciously know are unattainable, not because they’re impossible, but rather because if we accomplish them, our reality will lose not only meaning, but magic as well. Humans must love the fiction so much that they can bear the reality of their daily lives. However, and take note of this, we cannot let the fiction meet reality, for at that moment, in that very instant, we’ll find ourselves breaking into pieces. What a complicated thing to do, don’t you think? Well truth be told, nobody said it was.
“I am searching for abstract ways of expressing reality, abstract forms that will enlighten my own mystery.” - Eric Cantona
It has come to my attention that our society is staring to experience a blooming of consciousness. For the very first time in ages, we are challenging the ideas and concepts of churches, religions, deities and God. But why is that good? Yes, we are abandoning arcane beliefs and following science as the one and only reality. Yet, isn’t that some sort of a new religion? Its prophet is every single human and its Holy Book are a number of infinite articles about every single topic. However, why do I consider this a blooming of our consciousness? The answer lies in the people who asks the questions. The skeptics.
Many of us have been conditioned to believe in something that cannot be seen or touched. To have faith in something that cannot be understood by mere humans. To put our trust into something which its existence cannot be proved. We have become beings who praised the work of a divine, yet mysterious personality, without challenging it. We turn our heads to the skies to thank some arcane power for the life we have compared to the suffering of our own neighbors. We have evolved into an inhuman creature. And we have us and us alone, to thank for that.
Nevertheless, a glimpse of hope, a ray of light, still lingers in our world. There is a kind of people who is fighting with all its might and shouting at the top of its lungs for truth and humanity. These people are demanding the reasoning of everything that has been established up until now. They want proofs that back up what is being taught all over the world. These people are breaking up the paradigms which enslave us to a limited and close minded world. A world without true freedom, a freedom without paradigms and taboos.
Skeptics have a paradoxical role in our world. They search answers for the unknown and by doing so, they are giving people reason to believe in something higher than themselves. Skeptics have an urge, an addiction perhaps, to prove that which cannot be proved. The myth and the mystery suddenly are a riddle or a puzzle to solve. In other words, skeptics who by definition cannot believe in things without proofs, reinforce the meaning of things when they actually can’t find the evidence they need. The non believers give meaning to the myth by searching for the truth behind it which ultimately, inspires and reconfirms the conviction of the believers they so much despise and criticize.
Therefore, skeptics are needed in our society. They open the eyes of those who wish to ignore what’s real, but the skeptics do it in such a way that even they can’t seem to believe what’s happening. Through their attempts to decipher life and whatever surrounds it, they are giving reasons to people for believing that indeed we live in a fucked up world, but it falls in our hands to take full responsibility of what is going on. We cannot just cross our arms and say: “Oh well, that’s that. Nothing I can do will truly change things.” A skeptic thinks the exact opposite, he shouts: “Screw that, I want something that can actually help me live on. Something from this world.” They seek the human reality behind things and will never ask for less.
To wrap things up, skeptics ask the questions no one else wants to say out loud and they shout them for everyone to hear. However, they don’t stop when they get an answer because they’ll never get that crystal clear cut answer they want. If they solve something, they’ll still find some way to make the answer invalid. Thus, they never stop asking questions. The search for humanity will never stop. The blooming has begun and it will never end. The age of consciousness is here to stay.
“You know, the interesting thing about skeptics, is that we’re always looking for proof… the question is, what on earth would we ever do if we found it?” - Anthony Hopkins, (Father Lucas) The Rite
The human race has needed since its foundation people to look up to. They need individuals who remind them that even if they live in a desolate and forsaken time, hope still exists. These messiah attributed people are often given divine and holy traits in order to create legends and give their names more power. However, little do society know that they’re just simple humans. Just like the rest of us. Yet we are in love with the idea of such mystic and mysterious characters; we prefer to buy our own projections of the normal people, our own lies, than to accept reality. We create heroes because we need the concept of having one. But why?
Every single one of us has its own daily or weekly routine, most of us live our lives and nothing “great” or “epic” occurs to us. We are borned, we live and we die. Just like an ordinary person. Average. There’s nothing wrong with that, for we play the role of the masses, of the people. We’re the ones who give strength and support to the heroes we create. Without us, there are no heroes. This brings us to the question, are heroes just one individual or the force the people behind him give him? What is a hero then?
A hero is born out of circumstances and opportunities. Those who have the chance to rise and demonstrate certain values admirable during their times are immediately immortalized as legends. Tales of their heroic adventures are passed down from generation to generation until the end of time. Any one person can then become a hero, it just depends on what his morale and the time in which he lives are. However, every hero is in need of its people to exist, for without them, there is no one to protect and guide; no one to praise and to admire him.
The reason behind giving normal people divine traits and turning them to heroes is quite simple and I must emphasize it, we need to. Truth be told, no one would listen to an average person with a standard morale and traditional values. It’s like selling a pillow in a pillow shop and saying it was the only pillow in the world. People don’t buy it. We need something more, something to remind us just how great can we become. That’s why we immortalize and corrupt (in a good way if possible?) average people, their values and their beliefs to adjust them to our needs.
Heroes are then this divine-like being, yet who is the first one to support them? Whose interests are at stake? Who creates and uses the images of such characters? These questions are often asked when talking about this species of the human race. They can be interpreted as a form of manipulation to incite the young or uneducated people to presume that the people in power create the heroes to protect their own needs. Even though is quite believable, it may also be wrong.
So what makes you a hero? Nothing really. Just be at the right place on the right time and say the right thing. That’s all. People will mystify you and question your very existence. Others are going to hate you. Nevertheless, you’ll be a symbol. A symbol to unify the people. A symbol everyone can remember. An immortal symbol, a legend. A legend created by humans talking about messiahs and ordinary people.
What do you think about? Are there heroes nowadays? I’d like to think so. The heroes of our time are the generations to come. The ones who don’t exist yet. They carry so much promise within them, just like we all did before falling victims to that which we once tried to safe. Our heroes are the faceless ones. The ones without eyes, nor ears or noses. The ones with no future or past, with no present at all. Those are the ones we should admire and worship. The ghastly heroes, for even if they don’t exist yet, they already are immortalized by our necessities. They are our saviors, with no morales or values for us to corrupt. They are what they are, what we need them to be.
What’s your definition for hero and according to you, who or what are the heroes our society need nowadays? That would be this time’s query I suppose.
“All men need something greater than themselves to look up to and worship. They must be able to touch the divine here on earth.” - Geoffrey Rus (Walsingham), Elizabeth
We are a lucky generation, at least that’s how I see it. The dawn of a revolutionary age is approaching and we’re the leaders of it, the ones who will be responsible for the decisions taken from now on. Whatever we choose to do, our children and grandchildren will inherit it from us. As young adults and teenagers we are the chosen ones for making things right. It is our duty to ourselves to save society from itself, for it has become a parasite to the world. The worst thing of all is the fact that it’s not entirely its fault. Society is a victim of series of circumstances that some groups created and thanks to globalization, it has expanded like a virus.
Our grandfathers experienced first handed the horrible things human beings are capable of through WWII. Genocide from minorities and the senseless killing between soldiers who didn’t even support either group. Young men marched on and were murdered because of their nationalities. The survivors returned to their respective homes and families. Many children lost their father to the war and strangers returned to replace them. Most men were dead inside. Therefore, these children decided to treat us, the new generation differently. Just because they had suffered the direct consequences of war and had to live through terrible circumstances, it didn’t mean we had to. They spoiled us, they gave their all to avoid us from experiencing the harshness of the real world and they succeeded. The making of the bubble was simple, creating fantasies and supporting children’s dreams hardened the shell of the bubble. Until finally, isolation was born.
As young people who haven’t really experienced the true cruelty of the world, we’re not prepared to face it. We’ve never felt pressure either. So, here are the first signs of the monster living inside of us. Every time our opinions are criticized or we are told we’re wrong, we take it as an insult and shot ourselves up. We were sold the idea that we were perfects by our parents that we cannot even comprehend the possibility that we’re not perfect. For some reason, we’re obsessed that imperfections are wrong and because we’re perfect, we’re not allowed to have any.
Another sign of the monster living inside of us, is the way we react with the world. The immediate moment after experiencing the rejection or the critic of our ideas, we act like if we don’t care. The attitude of not caring is a way to escape reality, to avoid standing up our ground, or to swallow our pride. However, we take this attitude to a whole new level. Individuality is a significant trait our society is showing. We only care for what happens to us, we believe we can do everything, we prefer to act alone. Some people might say: “But look! Through humanitarian campaigns and movements like Kony 2012, we are demonstrating our empathy for others and our desire to make a change!” Yet I can’t help but wonder, are you really interested in Kony 2012 or in socializing and by chance, you’re “helping” someone else? Did you go and search for information about the LRA? What’s the situation of Uganda right now? What is your true purpose for supporting a noble cause?
This brings us to the next topic at hand. The reason many people just shared the video was because it was well planned and gave you a simple way to help the cause. Yet many people just went that far. Society is facing a complicated problem. Students and pupils don’t have the desire to learn. Why is this happening? I’ll try to explain this in a short, but clear way. It’s difficult for teachers to break the paradigms with which they were taught and learned for their entire lives. Before, teachers were the source of information, you went to school because it was the only way for you to receive any kind of knowledge possible. Nowadays, you can become an expert in any topic you desire thanks to the internet. The task teachers must face is bringing education to this century. They must teach their pupils the desire to earn more knowledge, but not only that, they must have a critic opinion for them to decide what to believe and what not to believe.
Here comes the trick, it isn’t the fault of the professors. A lot of educational systems around the world are lacking the tools to allow progress to occur. Many would say that there are interests in between, but I’m a little skeptical about that. You see, I believe the politicians, along with many other people, have lost their vision of the future. Decisions that must be taken by someone are being overlooked because no one wants to be the president people hated. The necessities are second to the desire of the people. Therefore, if something they need is not what they want, they will start by decreasing their support to the ruling government. Furthermore, the different political parties around the world are interested only in their own agenda. They, too, expressing an attitude of not caring for the well being of the country, but only their own.
I know how this article must sound like, I’m just blaming the system and all, but what I’m really doing, is demonstrating just how huge and viral the problem is. It’s everywhere. Teenagers and young men and women are inheriting this selfish and apathetic attitude, the educational system can’t fulfill with the necessities this century requires, politics is losing its credibility and promoting individualism which strengthens the apathetic attitude of not caring from the teenagers, which is also demonstrated in their lack of interest to going to school because it’s boring and outdated, which requires a reform to its system, which cannot be accomplished because the parties can’t seem to make the country’s best interest into their own; and so the cycle goes on and on.
In other words, the virus is here. In every single one of us. If you believe someone else is going to make things right, you’re wrong. A friend of mine asked me one day how could teenagers and young people support causes and campaigns they didn’t understood, how could they care more for something happening in another continent than in their own country. Truth be told, I couldn’t come up with an answer. Something is wrong with society, something bad. It is our duty to every single person on the world that isn’t born yet, to let them inherit a world in a better state than the one in which we lived in.
So, why is society a victim of itself? Because it originated the problem and it isn’t fixing it. It’s just letting it grow bigger and bigger. It’s turning us into a parasite, a disease infecting the planet. With every passing day, the harm cuts deeper, how many generations must go to waste before we realize the damage we are doing to ourselves?
“We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.” - Native American Proverb
You are sitting on a chair drinking your coffee or tea inside a small bistro shop. You look around searching for something, but you’re not sure of what. It can be anything, yet it’s something very specific. The faces of the people passing by in the street entertain your thoughts and suddenly you forget what you were looking for. You hear a sound behind you, someone’s voice. It’s warm and friendly, yet so strange at the same time. You turn around, but it seems you can’t see clearly the voice’s face. The voice asks you if she can sit in front of you, for the rest of the chairs are taken. You think before you answer. “Should I say yes, or no?”
If you answered yes to the voice, you unconsciously accepted all the possible cases that could occur afterwards. You could like the voice’s owner, ask her out on a date, kiss, fall in love, marry, have children and grandchildren and realize how lucky you were to live the rest of your days with her. However, you could come to hate her, yet be addicted to her. She could be the worst influence in your life, but it attracts you. It gives you pleasure. It’s a drug you need in order to survive. You hate her, but you also love her.
Another case scenario would be to become best friends with the voice’s owner, a person you can always lean on when needed. You could obtain a golden friendship, the ones that transcend death and last for eternity. Or you could also just be two strangers drinking coffee or tea together because there were no empty seats.
By saying no, you reject everything the person could contribute to your life. Not only that, but you also reject the person itself. The infinite ocean in your horizon suddenly begins to turn into a narrow river. All because you began rejecting people before even meeting them.
And then you wonder, what if coffee isn’t just coffee? What if the voice isn’t just a voice? What if I’m not just a person? What would happen if I did this or said that? What if…?
Eventually, you decide to take a sip from your drink and stand up. While smiling to the voice’s owner, you say: “Don’t worry, I was just leaving, you may take my seat.”
Total loss of hope, have you ever felt that way? Felt so futile that you can’t even breath? Felt like you didn’t have a reason to wake up to every morning? Felt like you were falling into never ending darkness? Have you ever looked at yourself through the eyes of someone else you have become and realize there’s nothing inside of you worth saving? Have you ever experienced true despair, the kind that takes everything away and leaves you with nothingness? If you haven’t, wait for it ‘cause I guarantee you, eventually you’ll hit rock bottom. It’s an essential part of every human. It’s part of being alive.
Despair is one of the only things that can and will bring you to the brink of life. It’s such a powerful force that ends the lives of the unfortunate ones who couldn’t handle the ruthlessness of society and the world. Yet it can also enlighten the survivors. Only by reaching rock bottom can a person realize just how miserable and execrable his decision making actually is. Only by losing everything can a person understand his poor perception of the world. Only by falling into one’s self abysm can one see the light where there is none.
Darkness enlightens us, it helps us become something more than what we were before. For some reason, we need to experience the state of nothingness to comprehend the vastness of ourselves. By acknowledging and accepting despair we give space to our true self to show up. Those supposedly forgotten memories and sealed thoughts of which we are so ashamed and scared of are probably the most important things in our very own existence, for they define who we are. These memories and thoughts come to surface when everything else is gone and we have to deal with them. We have to fight against our own demons in order to become full fledged humans. Some people are unable to do so and they take their lives before their time; however, some overcome their demons and those are the few enlightened men and women we admire so much.
Someone once stated that we were all in the same game, but on different levels. That we are all going through the same hell, just with different demons. Whoever that person is, he/she was right. Our inner demons will always be there and we need them to survive, to learn how to live to the fullest extent of our capacity. I can’t tell you how to overcome your demons, they’re yours and yours alone. Nevertheless, I can tell you that with an open mind and open heart, adversities won’t pose such a deadly threat.
This time I ask you that when the time comes where nothingness has taken control over your life and despair is the only thing you have left, embrace the moment. Only by accepting true darkness, can we learn new ways to be ourselves.
“Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.” - Stephen King.
Despair is one of the only things that can and will bring you to the brink of life. It’s such a powerful force that ends the lives of the unfortunate ones who couldn’t handle the ruthlessness of society and the world. Yet it can also enlighten the survivors. Only by reaching rock bottom can a person realize just how miserable and execrable his decision making actually is. Only by losing everything can a person understand his poor perception of the world. Only by falling into one’s self abysm can one see the light where there is none.