The Times We Live In
Mornings are driven by a frenzy of ideas… ideas that aren't mine. Political flare-ups, technological rushes, irrelevant entertainment… everything occupies my mind, everything makes me a keen observer… everything keeps me from being an agent.
That agency which our entertained mind lets slip away every day, with the excuse that "tomorrow is the day!" – that agency is now expressed mainly through the artifice of computers, which are, in truth, the ones doing anything nowadays. Lately, it feels like we've become mere spectators of this great comedy show that is the world – and we're not even needed to laugh anymore!
I see two very opposing stances in this world, each branching into several subgroups. On one side, we have the alarmists (of doom or success) who, in these times, claim ownership of the future, of necessity, of “breaking news” – and who are pushing us to be either the first or the last to experience this new form of agency which, as optimistic as we may be, is heading toward tremendous dysfunction – on levels we are hardly prepared to comprehend. I wouldn't let myself fall into the arrogance of predicting the world 30 years from now, with technology I wouldn't have deemed possible even 5 years ago.
On the other hand, we have those who seek refuge in the human side – and who, in one last battle cry, attempt to sow their most human side, the one that makes us unique agents of good. Thus, perhaps unknowingly, a slow and unworkable path begins to emerge, one of distinction between man and machine – which, although once seemed obvious, is becoming more and more confused in the times we are living in.
Let’s give names to these two groups. On one side, we have the “Notifiers” – those who live from notification to notification, in a frenzy of supposed novelty, informing themselves of everything except how to live. On the other side, we have the “Weepers”, who live from a deep human emotion, born of the awareness of their own finitude. These two versions of our times are deeply opposed, but they describe the same phenomenon: our perception of time… Each one views time very differently. The Notifiers tend to see time as something convertible into value (money) or opportunity (to be first!). They see time as the lubricant of competition, living in a constant state of urgency. Much like an unmotivated student who can only get out of bed to work when the deadline is looming. Meanwhile, the Weepers see time in a more peaceful and drawn-out way, as something that simply reveals the various stages of life – but that will soon become static as man enters eternity. For a Weeper, the 80s were an eternity ago, a golden and idyllic time, when either they were young – or their parents were. The Weepers see time as a force of nature that gives meaning to things, both to begin and to conclude them – always leaving its mark on eternity. This view of time as not urgent, but inevitable, is a final sentiment of what we call humanity. The awareness of finitude. This finitude is its own notion of the eternal.
To be continued