Two events shaped my life. The discovery of writing as a way to transfer words was the first; my understanding of what could be shared was limited -after all I was only four years old- but the sense of wonderment still resonates.
The second event came later when I left my native cocoon, travelled to study within the French system and discovered discussion and dissent. It was exhilarating: ideas were thrown around in the bloodied arena of debate that took no prisoners. I hailed from a culture built on dogma, social and religious, where everything was rammed down our throat and there was no room for doubt and denial.
Discovering debate was an epiphany.
René Descartes’ maxim stood out like a flashing neon sign: “Je pense donc je suis” (“I think therefore I am”). I took to thinking, questioning everything, confident in the belief that no prison can lock my thoughts, that regardless of tyranny and oppression our minds belong to no one. The idea that reason could prevail upon superstition and brute power was -and is- an irresistible idea. It forces the mind to expand, to explore and to think. It also furthers the notion that in order to fine-tune those skills education is essential.
The ultimate goal is to foster tolerance, civility and respect in order to peacefully share the planet. The title above comes from a poem by William Yeats* at the end of the First World War. Horrified by the destruction and carnage, Yeats is adamant that “the centre will not hold”. He is right. It did not hold. Another war as cruel and bloody ensued and it was only after it had ended when nations said enough. For 70 years the West has lived in peace. It found a common ground, albeit an imperfect one, and throve both economically and socially. It is now bent on destroying that same system by re imposing dogma and shouting louder than the other guy. The result: nobody hears anybody and tempers are short.
Tempers are short everywhere.
America’s society has never been so divided since the Civil War. Hate speech is a way of life –actually it is the leit motiv of social media where haters can hide behind anonymity revise history and destroy reputations. Haters are trendsetters and fake news is a-not-so-new-idea if you reread George Orwell’s “1984” as I am doing one page at a time in order to match the book with the actual daily news, which it often does.
Down in my neck of the woods, South America, every political and sociological speech is about inequality –which is undoubtedly unacceptable- and everyone is riveted on the economic issues when the mess we are diving head first is cultural “It’s not about the economy, stupid”. Economies can be redirected, thoughts once corrupted are much harder to fix. Often countries with no leadership and weak institutions, who plan only for next week afraid they will not be in power by their-sell-by-date, don’t give a rat’s ass about what happens in 20 years.
Everywhere we are steadily invaded by “newspeak”, the “1984” name for changing the narrative to suit a political agenda.Facts become not fiction but what you want them to be. The government of Argentina just lost the mid-term elections yet it declared victory and celebrated accordingly.
The thugs that stormed the Capitol last year are now being called patriots by the same party that branded them terrorists a month ago; they are afraid of alienating them and losing the next election. A woman speaking to an audience in the UK addressed a person sporting a bushy beard as “he” and was immediately stoned in the media because the said “he” was actually someone who, unbeknownst to her, was transitioning into another gender and felt insulted.
The world-renowned author J.K. Rowlings of “Harry Potter” fame was pilloried, by well almost by everyone, because she chose to call “people who menstruate” women, a sane and accurate noun that describes the participants in a very specific function. She was cancelled from all the celebratory events marking the 20 years of the unforgettable characters she created, Hermione among them who propelled Emma Watson to fame and fortune.
Miss Watson also turned on her -the ingrate filly- only to be cancelled herself by the Israelis a few days later when it became known that she had spoken in favor of the Palestinians, who also need a voice out there ‘cause they have skin in the game
Beware sweet Hermione, what goes around comes around.
Where did reason go? How did it loose its way? We know that left is not right and black is not white, nor up is down. We are born with one sex and today we may choose to live with another gender, not another sex, which is ok but not the same thing.
You may be born a blonde and chose to live as a brunette and no one should challenge your choice, but is does not change the fact that if you were to have an autopsy performed on your body, you would still be a blonde, and if you are a transgender, your original sex will surface on the table.
We are losing our dear, hard-won, exceptional centre, the place where reason dwells; that which plucked us from the battlefields and brought us to the table. The extremes are pulling us apart and quartering our social fabric: the centre cannot hold.
*“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer,
Things fall apart, the centre will not hold” (“The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats, 1920)
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