Updated: 09/12/2023 por Jennifer Delgado | Published: 03/04/2020
Close our eyes and open them when everything is over. As if it were a bad dream that we quickly left behind. Shake off our drowsiness to return to that normality that was taken from us too quickly for us to notice. It is a tempting idea. And all tempting ideas quickly become ideas that can be sold.
So it is not surprising that the word “hibernation” and synonyms like “pause” are gaining more and more prominence in institutional and headline discourses. Hibernation … It is said of the state of deep lethargy in which we operate at minimum to recover when the times are more favorable.
And yet we are not hibernating. Not even life is on hiatus. Behind closed doors that look out on empty streets – half peaceful and half terryfying – goes a life more intense than before. In this state of supposed paralysis, teems one of the most difficult and uncertain emotional experiences that we have faced in recent times. And we cannot ignore that.
The two most serious mistakes we can make
The words chosen to shape the narrative – official and individual – about what happens to us are important. We cannot forget that, luckily or not, repeating a word like a mantra is not enough to make it come true.
Nor should we forget that language is often designed to make lies sound true and give the appearance of solidity to the mere wind, to paraphrase George Orwell. We must not forget that the words we choose can also limit the scope of our thinking and narrow the range of the mind.
Believing that we are hibernating or that our life is on pause leads us to two tremendous mistakes. The first, going through this painful experience without learning anything, throwing overboard the confinement and suffering. The second, thinking that when everything will be over we will be back to the same point where we left it.
The password is: Reflect
Suffering in itself does not teach anything. It is not a mystical epiphany. But the way we deal with that suffering can strengthen us. We cannot avoid what is happening. But we can make sure that everything that is happening is not in vain.
Trying to distract the mind with banalities so as not to scrutinize too much the worries that grows more and more in our heads is a legitimate strategy. For a while. But it should not be the quintessential strategy. Now, more than ever, we need to reflect.
Those who are saying that these are times of action, not of reflection – as if we don’t have the capacity to do both at the same time – deny in advance the possibility of a transformative change. If we act and then think, we run the risk of acting late and wrong. To repent and fall into the slippery mud of guilt.
We can use this time to think about what we did wrong as a society and what we would like to do differently. We can use this time to put our social and individual priorities in order. We can take advantage of this time to realize the really essential things, those that we do not want or cannot live without, and those superfluous things that it would be better to get rid of.
We can take advantage of this break to make a reset and start from scratch. Dare to do things in a different way when all this is over. Slow down. Enjoy the hugs and the little things, which are really the great things in life.
Perhaps, when this virus disappears, “another – and more beneficial – ideological virus will spread and perhaps infect us: the virus of thinking of an alternative society”, as the philosopher Slavoj Zizek said, a better, less competitive and more supportive society . A society that is committed to each and every one and that gives those people who today have taken a step forward the value and recognition they deserve.
Nothing will be the same – for better or for worse
“In the past two hundred years or more, the world has been going faster and faster. But all this has been interrupted. We live in a unique moment of calm. We are living in a historic moment of slowdown, as if giant brakes stopped the wheels of society”, explained the philosopher Hartmut Rosa.
That sudden stop has left us stunned. Because the weight of the unexpected has been added to the disaster. But it can serve us. Not to pause our life, but to put it back on track.
The world we will return to will not be the same. The trauma has been too great. Many people will not be the same. They have lost loved ones without even being able to say goodbye to them. Unable to mourn their death as a family. Other people have lost their economic livelihood and with it their stability and their life plans.
We are now a society that has been left naked in the face of its vulnerability. And that marks. We must bear this in mind when the doors finally open and we’ll go down in the streets. And the time to prepare is now. So we must make sure we don’t hibernate. Do not give in to the apathy that turns off our thinking. Do not give in to the abulia that sinks us. Do not give in to the anhedonia that disconnects us.
Close our eyes and open them when everything is over. As if it were a bad dream that we quickly left behind. Shake off our drowsiness to return to that normality that was taken from us too quickly for us to notice. It is a tempting idea. And all tempting ideas quickly become ideas that can be sold.
So it is not surprising that the word “hibernation” and synonyms like “pause” are gaining more and more prominence in institutional and headline discourses. Hibernation … It is said of the state of deep lethargy in which we operate at minimum to recover when the times are more favorable.
And yet we are not hibernating. Not even life is on hiatus. Behind closed doors that look out on empty streets – half peaceful and half terryfying – goes a life more intense than before. In this state of supposed paralysis, teems one of the most difficult and uncertain emotional experiences that we have faced in recent times. And we cannot ignore that.
The two most serious mistakes we can make
The words chosen to shape the narrative – official and individual – about what happens to us are important. We cannot forget that, luckily or not, repeating a word like a mantra is not enough to make it come true.
Nor should we forget that language is often designed to make lies sound true and give the appearance of solidity to the mere wind, to paraphrase George Orwell. We must not forget that the words we choose can also limit the scope of our thinking and narrow the range of the mind.
Believing that we are hibernating or that our life is on pause leads us to two tremendous mistakes. The first, going through this painful experience without learning anything, throwing overboard the confinement and suffering. The second, thinking that when everything will be over we will be back to the same point where we left it.
The password is: Reflect
Suffering in itself does not teach anything. It is not a mystical epiphany. But the way we deal with that suffering can strengthen us. We cannot avoid what is happening. But we can make sure that everything that is happening is not in vain.
Trying to distract the mind with banalities so as not to scrutinize too much the worries that grows more and more in our heads is a legitimate strategy. For a while. But it should not be the quintessential strategy. Now, more than ever, we need to reflect.
Those who are saying that these are times of action, not of reflection – as if we don’t have the capacity to do both at the same time – deny in advance the possibility of a transformative change. If we act and then think, we run the risk of acting late and wrong. To repent and fall into the slippery mud of guilt.
We can use this time to think about what we did wrong as a society and what we would like to do differently. We can use this time to put our social and individual priorities in order. We can take advantage of this time to realize the really essential things, those that we do not want or cannot live without, and those superfluous things that it would be better to get rid of.
We can take advantage of this break to make a reset and start from scratch. Dare to do things in a different way when all this is over. Slow down. Enjoy the hugs and the little things, which are really the great things in life.
Perhaps, when this virus disappears, “another – and more beneficial – ideological virus will spread and perhaps infect us: the virus of thinking of an alternative society”, as the philosopher Slavoj Zizek said, a better, less competitive and more supportive society . A society that is committed to each and every one and that gives those people who today have taken a step forward the value and recognition they deserve.
Nothing will be the same – for better or for worse
“In the past two hundred years or more, the world has been going faster and faster. But all this has been interrupted. We live in a unique moment of calm. We are living in a historic moment of slowdown, as if giant brakes stopped the wheels of society”, explained the philosopher Hartmut Rosa.
That sudden stop has left us stunned. Because the weight of the unexpected has been added to the disaster. But it can serve us. Not to pause our life, but to put it back on track.
The world we will return to will not be the same. The trauma has been too great. Many people will not be the same. They have lost loved ones without even being able to say goodbye to them. Unable to mourn their death as a family. Other people have lost their economic livelihood and with it their stability and their life plans.
We are now a society that has been left naked in the face of its vulnerability. And that marks. We must bear this in mind when the doors finally open and we’ll go down in the streets. And the time to prepare is now. So we must make sure we don’t hibernate. Do not give in to the apathy that turns off our thinking. Do not give in to the abulia that sinks us. Do not give in to the anhedonia that disconnects us.
Instead, we need to keep fighting. For whom we love. For the world we want. With the weapons we have. And how we can. So that when that longed-for “thaw”, that return to normality occurs, we have not only kept ourselves alive, but also human.
Instead, we need to keep fighting. For whom we love. For the world we want. With the weapons we have. And how we can. So that when that longed-for “thaw”, that return to normality occurs, we have not only kept ourselves alive, but also human.
