"Call a spade a spade - Part 2: From banalities to barbarities
Ionce wrote another text on this very subject. The fact that I gave it the same title would have prevented me from writing the first sentence. Even so, for the sake of clarity, transparency and internal links (which are said to favour the discovery of new texts), this way I make it possible for those who come into contact with this perspective for the first time to have access to a little more context.
I am not returning to the subject because I think it is necessarily important. Nor is the guarantee of a certain number of clicks and readings to the publication that houses this writing what makes me return. I am returning to this subject because I promised it would continue, although it does not follow the direction I had indicated. I am returning because I believe that the situation is worse and, more true than all this, because it continues to irritate, indignate and amaze me, deeply and intensely.
It pains me more and more to live in a world that values the magnetism of those who enchant through their ideological mediocrity, without any respect for truth. The same world where status, often gained by who knows how, lights the way to high-profile stages. Too bad it does not illuminate in the same way the path that goes beyond a sensationalist superficiality. These stages, both physical and digital, where many pretend to listen through mobile phones raised in fists and arms stretched out, which only want to repeat in the networks contents that cannot be scrutinised by sense or sensitivity. The same world where those who speak in this way and in these contexts strive to say what others want to hear, in the way they like or tolerate it; where speakers think they know what others need to hear. In a world where messages are manipulated with the sole aim of pleasing and exciting, how can one learn to listen?
In this world where extremes are getting closer and closer the distance between people seems to be increasing. Perhaps it is because each person obsessively seeks their authenticity, at the behest of those who make it their life purpose to inspire and motivate others. What's more, those who set out on this discovery demand that others respect their finding. Often at the cost of elegance and respect. "Don't like it? Too bad. This is me, authentic."
Well, extremes and fundamentalism do not make us better people. On the contrary, those who follow that path run the serious risk of becoming beasts. When people constantly call for the discovery of such authenticity, using extremist, fundamentalist and sensationalist arguments based only on personal experience and on an intuition of magical origin, the call to become authentic beasts is clear.
The exchange of ideas is scarce. There is no interest in promoting convergence, accommodation, integration and adjustment of different perspectives. Orders prevail, which are given in the form of tutelage with the intention of simulating proximity and removing, without success, the presumption. This is how the orders of inspiration are masked.
Saying pseudo-deep platitudes costs less than serious and profound reflection. To say trivialities that please others is easy, since many of us are avid for meaning. To say banalities that will be heard, when so many are saying them, is not so easy. How can one distinguish one banality from another? Does it make sense to distinguish quality when referring to banalities? I don't know. I don't think so. It will be a question of size, of said status and stage, I mean.
But there is another way: increase the volume, giving an even more personal and even more "authentic" touch; spice it up with a good dose of conviction, for sure, even; extreme both the form and the content. There is, after all, something to be excited about. This mechanism is only possible to be applied when the sieve of sense, reflection, contradiction and the hard work of knowing what others have previously thought, said and written on a given subject is no longer required. When these spices are added to a banality, a barbarity is created. And so much barbarity is being said.
