They say we are a resilient people.
How can a people survive so much carnage otherwise?
We survived a civil war.
We survived military invasions.
We survived political deadlock, economic collapse, and an explosion smack in the middle of our capital.
We survived a lot.
We survived…
We forgot that life is much more than just survival.
We forget a lot as a people when you think about it. Could it be a genetic thing or some kind of side effect from inhaling generator smoke?
We forgot that our capital exploded a few years ago.
We forgot that we killed each other for over a decade in what we now like to call “the war of others” in an attempt to victimize ourselves and blame “the others” as we usually do.
We forgot that our parents lost their entire life’s savings, their pensions, and their peace of mind – and for that matter, ours – in one of the filthiest Ponzi schemes ever perpetrated on an entire nation.
We forgot that more than half a million of our brothers and sisters left the country entirely after the economic collapse in 2019. The memory loss was so bad that we had to work our asses off before the start of every summer to welcome them as exotic tourists coming to visit our country, hoping they would leave behind a few Franklins as a token of appreciation.
Hell, we are trying so hard to forget that we’re in the middle of a war as I’m writing this post…
What in the dementia is happening to us?
Are we destined for this never-ending cycle of pain and oblivion?
It feels like any hope for a better future has completely evaporated.
They say a tree is resilient as it withstands the elements time and time again, rising from the ground with its ever-thickening trunk, and stretching its leafy branches up high toward the sky. Its goal, as is the case for all living organisms, is continuity – we humans prefer the term immortality. To do so, it needs to develop the most appropriate adaptive mechanisms to help it fight off its enemies and build the necessary defenses to protect itself. Living beings need to survive through tough times, and then learn from them to develop internal processes through which they can overcome these challenges when faced with them once again.
A baby turtle’s first moments in life are nothing short of a nightmare. It needs to go through a treacherous journey from its warm comfortable egg nestled under the sand to the deep dark depths of the ocean. Plenty don’t make it, and those who do have an even scarier time underwater surrounded by big hungry scary fish and birds, until they themselves turn into this giant intimidating dinosaur-like creature that can live up to a hundred years.
Resilience without adaptation and evolution is like patting a victim of rape on the back and comforting her that the worst part is over. But is it?
It is not always about finding peace in the present and being in the moment, not everything can be solved with breathing exercises and meditation; understanding the past and planning for the future are essential for our development both on the individual and societal levels. It is no coincidence that humans can grasp concepts such as the past and the future, our relationship with time truly is fascinating.
Who said we shouldn’t feel angry about our situation, sad about the loss of our loved ones, and full of wrath against the people responsible for this miserable state of events?
Societies are not too different from any regular living organism, from a single cell to the most complicated multicellular organisms – I would argue that societies are themselves living organisms. Traumas, conflicts, and internal troubles are essential to the development of a society.
Survival must always be followed by evolution.
They say we are a resilient people.
They say we are a forgetful people.
They say we are a party people.
They say we are a divided people.
Isn’t it time we decide what kind of people we are?
Leave a Reply