Present-day society?
Today I found a piece of paper among many others inside a moving box (and that’s despite having moved last August). It is a very special piece of paper… written on it is an essay that is more than twenty years old. It was written by my sister Silvia and titled "The problems of present-day society":
“– Problems? What are problems? Do they exist somewhere? Are they real concepts?
– Yes, my dear, a long, long time ago, here on our planet that you now see as so incredibly beautiful and happy, there existed a society burdened with… precisely that, problems.
– Why do you say it so sadly, mum? Were problems things, things…?
– Bad? Yes, my child, yes. I know that nowadays it is very hard to pronounce that word, because evil, wickedness, does not exist; we do not see it reflected anywhere in our lives. But at that time it was such a palpable and constant reality that it became a habit, a custom among unscrupulous people who took pleasure in it.
– Unscrupulous?
– Yes, unscrupulous: people who would not hesitate for a single moment to harm anyone else if it meant gaining some benefit for themselves, sometimes only for money.
– Money! Yes, we talked about it in class two weeks ago. I think it was a tool to obtain what was needed to live, and at first it was very beneficial. Why did it disappear, mum? When I asked, the teacher changed his expression and very seriously said: “– Let’s move on to the maths problem we still have pending.” Why?
– You see, son, it is difficult to explain why, and only a few know the truth, because it is feared that someone might want to restore the decadence and perversity of that society. As you said, money began very well as a means of exchange, but over time people came to believe it was the source of happiness. They coveted it, desired it with all their strength, and did whatever was in their power to obtain it, without stopping at any obstacle. The problem was that once they obtained a little, they could not stop; they kept going and going, wanting more and more. It was the cause of the destruction of that society.
– A simple piece of paper, mum? A simple coin, crude and unattractive metal, was able to destroy an entire social organisation, a whole harmony of people?” (continues...)
“– Yes, little one, although it was mankind itself that destroyed itself. Through their ambition, they ruined the work of millions of years. Their ambition for those papers and metals went so far that they killed other people to get them.
– What are you saying, mum? Kill?
– Yes, kill. But there are many ways of doing so. Some did it directly and cold-bloodedly: a quick death to steal just a few thousand pesetas. But there was a much worse, more cruel and merciless death, very slow and suffocating: death while alive. And I am not mistaken—there came to be people who were dead while alive. Their appearance revealed it; suffering filled their veins: they were the unemployed. People without work and therefore without economic resources, people who felt the cold in their bones, hunger on their skin, despair. And the worst of all was that not only did they themselves die slowly, but they watched their families—wives and children—die alongside them in the same agony and sadness, and that was something they could not endure. The children saw their parents’ lack and their, let’s say, conformity, because they did nothing; so they took to the streets: it was delinquency—anything rather than dying trampled, silent, tied hand and foot by society. They felt marginalised, excluded from it, and in a way they were, and they wanted revenge. There had to be some way to do it. They could not resign themselves: society’s foot would not crush them, the noose approaching them would not tighten, they would not be oppressed. They had mouths; they had to speak, and they cried out with a single voice freedom! Women did not want to be oppressed by men. The lower classes were tired of obeying. The ignorant wanted to learn; they were tired of having their ignorance thrown in their faces. Unemployment had to end. They wanted to speak. The great powers would no longer manipulate them. They knew how to speak. No one could force them to do what they did not want. They could speak. They found the method and THEY SPOKE. War broke out and everything was destroyed, but from its own ashes this world of peace and harmony was rebuilt. Everything returns to good.”Silvia L.G.
