Watching, not seeing
We live in a polluted world and we have become accustomed to it. The level of environmental pollution is increasing day by day, especially in large cities. As we cannot leave them because we are tied to them by our obligations, we have simply adapted to this situation. Our bodies have developed antibodies and we naturally adapt to this unnatural state.
However, this process is far more complex. Pollution is not limited only to the physical environment, it also spreads to the psychological and mental realm, polluting human lives to unimaginable extents.
Defensive antibodies
Psychological impurity manifests itself in rough emotions that appear in all life situations. It seems that violence, aggression, and extreme selfishness are common in most societies. In the beginning, these emotions caused great suffering – which they still do today – but while before a person wondered how much they could endure without exploding, today we have created “antibodies” to defend ourselves and continue, as best we can, onwards. Uncertainty, fear, helplessness undoubtedly still plague us, however, antibodies have created a form of indifference that only seems so. The coldness with which we receive the greatest cruelties with which we wake up every day thanks to the media is actually a way of resisting, expressing the following attitude: “It still doesn’t concern me, maybe it will later, maybe never…”
But what to do with the corruption that unexpectedly appears in every corner, even in those places we considered familiar and safe. Indifference is once again the answer, the path of least resistance, pretending as if we haven’t seen anything, because we suspect that our protest, even if futile, could jeopardize our security. Some accept the game, justifying it; others step aside, trying not to be infected. In one way or another, antibodies make it almost normal for us to experience something we would be ashamed of according to our conscience.
The disease of thinking
The prevailing ideas at the moment We have also been attacked by various viruses. In essence, it is not common to have ideas, to think; there is, on the contrary, a scarce set of views accepted by a skillfully manipulated public opinion, and in the absence of anything else, that is what we all believe we think. Due to the illness, “antibodies” have emerged once again: these ideas – if we can even call them that – are adopted, and all those that oppose them are rejected. Deep down, this passivity is not healthy; it is only a subconscious admission that we have not learned to reason for ourselves and that even if we tried to do so, we would likely be deemed crazy.
In such a situation, we are left with two options: to succumb to mutation, becoming part of the chain of generations that are increasingly artificial and more adapted to the distorting pollution, or to reject it, seeking ways to cleanse the air, feelings, and ideas. This task is very difficult: we must resist the pollution that suffocates us and takes away our strength to open a passage. But it is worth it.
We watch, but we do not I don’t know if what troubles our world is a disorder of the senses or sensitivity. The human body is obviously well equipped with senses of touch, hearing, sight, taste, and smell in order to develop well and satisfy its needs. Therefore, I believe that the disorder lies in sensitivity, in the way we use our senses, and in our mental and conscious perception of what we observe.
Today, it is common to look but not see. Our eyes function, they look, but they pass quickly over things, without giving them meaning. We have become so accustomed to the saddest, most degrading, most terrifying, and cruelest scenes, whether directly or through film or television, that our lives, in general, are reduced to a fiction that only obliges us incidentally and momentarily.
There are scenes unfolding around us every day that should move us and prompt a reaction… but they don’t. We are indifferent to everything. Hearing shouting and crying in a neighboring house means nothing to us, seeing beggars in rags on the street means nothing, seeing someone beating and robbing someone else with impunity means nothing. others, seeing those who wander aimlessly from one place to another until they start down the slippery slope of crime… We watch, but do not see, we do not act, as if people are unreal or invisible, as if we ourselves are trapped in an impenetrable shell.
On the other hand, wars, poverty, political games, corruption, are destroying nations in unimaginable ways, while international bodies, established to avoid tragedies, send observers… those who watch, but do not see. Sterile state administrations meet now in this, now in that city, and issue long declarations with well-known condemnations and tepid threats of interventions that never materialize because economic interests are much stronger.
Is it so hard to react?
We humans do not know how to look within ourselves at all; our eyes only serve us to look outward, and this lack of observation affects both the inner and the outer. Most of us live without knowing each other at all. And so the years go by, and the plans and dreams of youth do not become reality, because we lack the courage and determination to make them so. There is a lively and active gaze that would lead us towards actions grounded in enthusiasm and will. On the contrary, most aspirations fail and die because of this particular blindness of open eyes that are incapable of noticing.
Reacting is perhaps as easy as taking and properly using what naturally belongs to us, starting by condensing all senses and sensitivity into one intelligent gaze: eyes with heart and mind.