At first glance, this question seems meaningless. Of course, life cannot flow in a straight line, it consists of ups and downs, successes and failures. However, despite the fact that the life experience of each of us confirms this fact, we tend to perceive every crisis as unfair, with the inevitable question – why is this happening to me? We usually do not find a rational answer to this question, so we often come up with irrational ones: we were born under an unlucky star, God is punishing us, someone is seeking revenge on us, and of course, we look for causes in today’s popular conspiracy theories.
The answer to why there are crises stems from the meaning of this term itself. The word crisis comes from the Greek word krisis, which translates as decision, discussion, assessment, judgment, choice. In other words, crises exist so that we can reflect, evaluate, make a choice, and choose the action that we consider the best.
Today, in times of great crises, we often hear that nothing will ever be the same as before. We are impressed by the events, what we used to take for granted we have now lost and we have started to change our view of the world, our priorities, life values, and goals we strive for. With greater clarity, we realize the importance of some universal values such as solidarity, self-sacrifice, self-discipline, and environmental awareness. The crisis has prompted us to reflect on what is truly important in life.
Crises do not exist to destroy us, but to strengthen us as human beings, to stimulate the development of humane qualities that we have neglected or have not even awakened. Seneca wrote:
To always be happy and go through life without mental pain means not to know the other side of the nature of things. Are you a great person? How can I know if Fate does not give you the opportunity to show your virtue?
Virtue weakens without an opponent; its size and worth are only revealed when it patiently shows how much it is capable of… It is not important what one should endure in life, but how.
And Njegoš simply said: In good times. It is easy to be good, heroes are recognized in difficult times.
A comfortable life relaxes us, making us more vulnerable and less resistant to the risks of life. It creates an illusion of a secure and predictable life in which we expect each new day to be better and more successful than the previous one. But why should it be like that? In nature, there is nothing that develops linearly. Night always follows day, and day follows night. Night is not worse than day, it just has different qualities that we need to get to know and adapt to. For example, possessing a light that will safely guide us. In times of crisis, that light is the humane strength of people that we recognize in the actions of those who selflessly sacrifice themselves for others. They provoke respect and a desire for us to do something for the well-being of others.
Of course, this does not mean that we should wish for crises, it is better to prevent them. Every crisis has its cause and its consequences. The causes are not always clearly visible, some stretch back to our distant past and we no longer remember them, some are connections Not even with collective past of the city, state, the nation we belong to, and we hardly recognize them. In any case, when a crisis arises, we can no longer act on the causes. Then the only thing we can do is try to intelligently deal with its consequences. That is why it is most important to be aware that we are now creating the causes of future crises, and with today’s actions, we determine the future.
In Greek mythology, this is beautifully depicted through the actions of two Titans, the brothers Epimetheus and Prometheus. Epimetheus, the husband of the infamous Pandora, is a symbol of someone who reflects afterwards, understanding the causes only when the consequences appear. Prometheus, who gifted humans with the fire of wisdom, is a symbol of deliberate action. We will avoid crises if we reflect in advance on our own actions and the consequences they may cause.
How to choose the correct action? In his work “Oration on the Dignity of Man,” Pico della Mirandola answered this question with the words that God addresses to man:
“I did not create you as a heavenly or earthly being forest, neither mortal nor immortal so that, as a free and dignified modeler and sculptor of ourselves, you can create the form you choose. You can distort and descend towards lower beings, which are the beasts; and if you decide, you can rise renewed towards higher beings, into the divine world.
Crises in people bring out the worst, but also the best in us, we either fall towards the beasts or rise towards the gods. We alone decide that. If we truly want to make use of crisis times, this is the perfect moment to get to know ourselves better and decide in which direction we want to go.