Art by Mariana Crottollini (Argentina)
When, at age 20, you realize what the world is like, you have two options: either become a revolutionary or an artist.
By Guillermo Cides
Social networks. The yellow press. The pandemic. The actions we see every day in real time. Everything is a photo of the same image: that the world is selfish. That money is an avalanche of snow so big that it is impossible to stop it even if we destroy the very world we live in. Then it will stop.
It is not only possible to destroy the ozone layer, but also ethics, emotion, empathy, health, and access to decent housing. Intelligence is destroyed, as is the social organization that has been difficult to build.
We are just in 2021, a very old year. We live in ancient times. In 1,000 years, everything we believe should be will be. Until then, we get ourselves into obscurantism, class war, and stupidity. We see previous centuries with arrogance without realizing that we ourselves live in a still medieval century, where it is more important to invest in creating oxygen on Mars than on our own planet. Where it is more important to find a solution for bone decalcification for astronauts in space than for the poor on planet Earth.
I love the universe, its meaning, and the search for its origin. Don’t get me wrong. But I love our human species even more, floating on a drop of water in space.
When, at age 20, you realize what the world is like, you have two options: either become a revolutionary or an artist. The only way for our consciousness to change in the next 1,000 years is to discover beauty. Or build it with revolutions. Only through beauty can we move forward, because the beauty of the world around us reveals our own individual beauty. And discovering our beauty makes us more intelligent, more perceptive, and more effective beings. More human.
The world is ruled by blind people who are not ready to see beauty. And more than half the planet doesn’t understand what I’m talking about.
We live in the wrong century. An ancient and medieval time, where many—perhaps you and I—miss a world that does not yet exist but that has been beautiful for centuries.
G.C.
